First Autumn Photos


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 texture layer which is rather unusual for my style, but is something I have been leaning towards for quite a while. I decided to be really bold this time and leave the image very dark so as to symbolize the cosy darkness of early nights that October brings about.


I brought back home lots of conkers from Gotts Park and put them in a basket for decoration in my dining room. When G saw them he immediately suggested I do a game of conkers still life. Not my usual still life type of image, but I thought I'd give it a go; so, after watching a video of the game on youtube to make sure I get things right, I made the necessary preparation and took a few shots in my garden. Here is one of the most dramatic ones.




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