Vesna Armstrong Photography

Autumn, with its stunning colour palette in the nature and abundance of various fruit and wild berries, is a must do still life photography season for me. More than in any other season my mind is awash with ideas, and inspiration flows freely. As soon as they appear in supermarkets, I get a few squashes which I use for decoration on my kitchen window. I choose various colours and shapes, and they look great as an autumn statement against garden background outside the window. For my still life I chose the dark green squash with a yellow centre because I love its colour. I have a thing for red berries, particularly rose-hip, so I picked some from the car park outside my house and popped them in my antique French country enamelware pitcher. The conkers come all the way from Croatia. I brought them over from my recent visit as I needed to take a piece of Croatian nature back with me. As to postprocessing, I like to use texture layers with my still life images to achieve a painterly effect...

Saturday was a glorious autumn day; simply too good not to go somewhere where you could enjoy all the beautiful changing colours of the season. I googled "West Yorkshire autumn walks" and Swinsty caught my eye immediately. I'd already heard about it in the past and thought it was a perfect time to check it out. Not surprisingly, it was busy, but that didn't stop us from admiring beautiful and peaceful views across the water. Solid sunshine is usually not my favoured weather for photography, but the sun was not as harsh as in summer months producing softer light and more manageable contrast. I recommend this easy and very pleasant 3 mile walk to anyone. Next to Swinsty Reservoir there is another reservoir called Fewston. If you are more energetic you could walk around both reservoirs on the same day. Otherwise, Swinsty is said to be at its best in autumn and winter, and Fewston in spring and summer.