Vesna Armstrong Photography

The day before yesterday I woke up to what looked like a fine morning and decided to take my dog Midge for a long and leisurely walk in the nearby Gotts Park. As we got there the sun came out fully and cast a glorious golden light on the still and misty landscape. No words are necessary or fitting enough to describe the autumnal beauty that unfolded before my eyes; the photos that I took describe it best. However, here is a quote that goes well with this post: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom friend of the maturing sun..." ~John Keats (1795-1821)~ "To Autumn"

I took this photo in Gotts Park, the local park where I often walk my dog. I love to watch the double row of horse chestnut trees throughout the year; they look lovely at the moment with their leaves turning beautiful autumn colours. I processed the image quite heavily in order to enhance the colours and deepen the shadows and to add a bit of a mystic and painterly feel. With its abundance of colours, forms and textures in nature autumn for me is the most inspiring season for still life photography. Colourful squashes always catch my eye and make me think of a still life image. These three I brought back from Zagreb. I arranged them simply in a straight line on the chest of drawers next to a window in my spare room, the usual place for my still life work; I added a conker in its shell to offset the pattern on the bottom of the squash on the right, and waited till the afternoon sun just started to emerge from behind the cloud to take a pic. In editing I applied a very dark textu...

It's been nearly two weeks since I got back from one of my visits to Zagreb, the beautiful city full of character I was born and raised in. I had a really good time - pleasant, eventful, filled with fun and special moments, but, I must admit, I didn't take very many photos. In fact, it was only on two days, out of two weeks I was there, that I took a considerable amount of pics, and I feel absolutely fine  about it. I'm trying to slow down and be easygoing and spontaneous about everything I do in my private life now, and my photography is no exception. I shall share selected photos from the recent trip to Zagreb in two blog posts; for this first one I have prepared some random images from around the town, most of which were taken in the historic Upper (Old) Town which continues to attract and inspire me by far more than any other part of Zagreb. "Window to Zagreb", part of the Summer Festival installations at Strossmayer Parade in the Upper (Old) Town from wh...

It's a happy day for me and my photography today as I have had a Trevillion statement confirming a significant sale: Ikea UK have licensed my photo for their art posters! It's always a special pleasure for me when one of my still life images sells as those are the images I have created from scratch. This particular one of rose-hip I shot at this time of the year back in 2010. The rose-hip branches come from the bush in the car park outside my house. Each year I cut some and bring back into my house. The client asked the Trevillion Client Account Director if I could provide a few words about the image: "Where your inspiration came from? And maybe a title (if you have something in mind)?" This is what I replied: "  I love red berries in photographs (and generally, splashes of red, for that matter) and rose-hip with its oval shape is my favourite. I am impressed by the wild and straggly look of rose-hip twigs and how each berry has its own stem. As a still...