Vesna Armstrong Photography

  "January is my favorite month,when the light is plainest, least colored. And I like the feeling of beginnings." ~ Anne Truitt ~

  "Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits." ~Samuel Butler~ Etsy Shop

Prints available in my new Etsy shop .   

  Prints available in my new Etsy shop:  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/VesnaArmstrongPhotos

Easter is my favourite time of year. However, despite keeping positive and calm in this situation of the coronavirus lockdown, I'd be lying if I said that my happiness this Easter holiday isn't tarnished. I am lucky that, apart from the freedom to go where my heart would want me to go, I am not deprived of anything. But there is a knowledge that a lot of people out there are suffering right now through being ill, not being able to see the loved ones, experiencing serious financial problems or going through one or more other difficulties. That knowledge makes me sad and has changed the mood I'd normally be in at Easter. For this year's Easter still life image I have chosen the Simnel cake I made, an egg and a small handmade decorative nest, some antique copperware and twigs of white cherry blossom I picked at the local park. There is a subdued festive feel about the image which reflects my personal inner feelings about this year's Easter, and a nostalgic mood echoi...

I had almost resigned to the fact there would be no usual Christmas still life from me this year. Time was running out, and I still had not had a remotest idea of a composition for my image. Then I saw on Pinterest this photo , and suddenly ideas started pouring into my mind. I have seen hundreds of Christmas decor photos on Pinterest this season, and none of them did anything in terms of giving me inspiration, but this beautiful, simple image unexpectedly just did the job. I had a bit of a trouble post processing this pic and spent more time than I normally would trying to achieve the look I had in mind; still not quite sure if the look is there, but I am pleased my festive still life is here after all, and just in time for Christmas. All the elements of the image are part of my this year's Christmas home decorations. The little hanging red hearts are from my beloved Zagreb. They are called Licitar hearts and are a traditional symbol of the Croatian capital. ~ Happy Chr...

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...

I've known about elderberries for a long time, but it is actually only this season that I learnt what they look like. And now I notice them everywhere. I picked some in a park while walking the dog and placed them in a little vintage bottle on the kitchen windowsill. I've become very fond of bringing nature into my home. Next year I might even decide to make elderberry gin!

Peppers are one of my favourite summer foods. As I was washing some Romano peppers before popping them in the oven to roast, I watched their striking bright red, shiny, bumpy surface. I thought I'd leave them in my vintage colander and place them on the kitchen windowsill with a couple of garlic heads for an impromptu summer still life image. There are many delicious recipes with Romano peppers on internet, but for me a simple  one that I enjoyed in my childhood is my favourite.

Time for a seasonal theme still life, and my first subject this summer is cherries. I thought of creating a cherries still life previous years and wanted to make sure it does happen this year. As I was in the process of composing an image in my mind an uncanny thing happened: I came across a cherry tree while walking my dog in the neighbourhood that I didn't know was there. I had already bought some rather expensive cherries from the local supermarket, but they were quite dark in colour. I fancied some bright red cherries as I love splashes of real red in my photos, and the cherries on this tree were just the colour I was looking for. In truth, the ones I could reach were not quite ripe yet and therefore not of the best red, but it didn't matter as I could adjust the colour in photo editing; and including various shades of red seemed to me adding more interest to the image, anyway. I kept the props simple and went for my favoured dark, rustic country cottage look. It is an iPho...

I'm not really into Valentine's Day, but I am always inspired by seasons and occasions, so here is some work I have done recently with forthcoming Valentine's Day in mind. I loved playing with my new iPhone and particularly using Snapseed and Mextures apps for post processing.

It is time for another Christmas still life; it is something I have done for about ten years now, and it is always a challenging and fun bit of work for me. This year it is not about my usual classic still life work containing several props, but a simple, close up affair of just one object. The reason for this choice is that firstly, my mind has been way too busy with all sorts of things to think up a complex composition, and secondly, I have decided to start creating more book cover-ish still life images which entails simplicity and often even minimalistic approach. This year I am very pleased to have ended up with two festive photos, one of which is the merit of my partner G. f/5.3  1/40 sec.  ISO-6400  112mm   I love Christmas lights; for me they are the most important part of decorations; anything that lights up will catch my eye, and so did this glass globe at the Home Bargains store where I work. I knew straight away I wanted to use it as the subje...

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...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been looking forward to creating a seasonal still life image with summer fruits, and here it is finally - somewhat late in the season I suspect. This time I didn't really have an idea of the composition for my image, all I knew was that it was to contain as much summer fruit as possible, and it was going to be about the abundance of summer and its explosion of vivid colours. I went out and spent a lot of money buying different fruits. It proved really hard coming up with a balanced and pleasing composition with so much fruit, and I ended up not using all of it, and not all of the kinds I bought. I didn't use the cherries (they were too dark) and the slice of melon (just couldn't fit it in). I thought yet again of the saying "the simpler the better" and how true it is. After what felt like hours of arranging and rearranging the fruit I decided to use two round dishes and arrange the fruit in two circles - berries on top...

This time of year is abundant in lovely vegetables, so I thought veg would be a great theme for a seasonal still life image right now. I wish I lived near a market or a farm from where I could buy fresh homegrown produce (and be sure it IS homegrown), but unfortunately I don't and am having to rely on supermarkets for all my food. The first vegetable I chose for my still life was celeriac and I chose it for its rough, rooty texture as I wanted my image to have a rustic feel to it; secondly, I went for an artichoke for its lovely petals-like look and purple colour around the stem; I wanted a fennel bulb for its whiteness that was going to give a tonal contrast to the set up; asparagus spears looked good in a jug adding a balance to the composition, and some cut up spring greens served to add some depth . To top it all off I scattered a few radishes around purely for a splash of red which I always seem to crave in photographs. And to emphasize a sense of country lifestyle and rustic ...

As I write this it's wet and windy out there; but I have seen colourful crocuses, primroses and daffodils cheerfully dotted around and my favourite camellia in its luscious bloom; trees are starting to bud up and days are longer and brighter; spring is finally upon us!... And it's Easter time! I love Easter! It is such an uplifting holiday.... a religious one, but for me also a celebration of the arrival of spring, the most longed for seasons of all. Every year, as part of my Easter celebrations, I endeavour to create a festive still life image. I have had these wondrous, decorative eggs for quite a few years. They were given to me by my Croatian friend's late mother, who in turn were given the eggs by a friend that painted them. I have never seen Easter eggs like these; they are unique and so skillfully and beautifully made. I have long thought of using them for my Easter still life, but somehow other ideas tended to prevail. Until this year!! The eggs are so eye ...

As usual, in between taking pictures of landscape and scenery, I have fitted in some still life work as well. To me still life is very important part of my photography; it is a must do for every month of the year; it is what gives me a true sense of creative achievement in this wonderful pursuit that photography is to me. In the current winter months I have chosen three very different themes. Winter, with its absence of flowers and colours in the nature, is a good time to do some, what I call, non-floral still life work. I simply look around the house for some objects that I could use to create a story around, while at the same time putting together a visually engaging set up in which the elements interact well with one another. This time it was my antique brown poison bottle and a reproduction of an old bill of fare I bought in the Mother Shipton's Cave Attraction gift shop in Knaresborough. This is a found still life which I saw in my friend's lovely house in Hawort...

So it's Christmas.....and again, inspired by so many beautiful things associated with the season, I have created a festive still life using a few of my favourite objects and decorations from around my home. With this image I would like to wish everyone in my life a merry and magical Christmas, and a healthy, peaceful and successful New Year. May inspiration and determination be with you to realize all your dreams and achieve everything that makes you happy!

To be truthful, I have never been into Halloween very much; well, at least not into its scary, eerie, spooky and what have you side; what I do like about Halloween is the inclusion of pumpkins, the craft of carving them and putting tea lights and candles inside them; and what really appeals to me is the exuberant presence of colourful pumpkins and squashes at this time of year; they are perfect to bring into your home as lasting decoration and symbols of the season. As part of my regular season celebrations I made this quick arrangement in the corner of my sitting room floor. I wondered how and where I can transfer it for a tabletop still life image, and then it occurred to me that all I have to do is lie down on my belly and shoot!

Time for a new still life post. This image was intended as a summer still life, but I shot it back in May when the weather was much more summery than it is now. My lavender, which I used in this image, was in its first and best bloom; the warm and sunny days made me dream of walking in long grass wearing a hat similar to the one in the photo and of lazy afternoons spent reading a good book in the garden. The writing quill from the Brontë Parsonage shop adds balance to the composition as well as allusion to the literary sisters who are my constant muses in everything creative I do. I processed the image with just a quick and subtle texture layer from Jessica Drossin 's "Wuthering Heights" texture pack. I am particularly pleased with how the colour of the background came out: the grey-green shade seems to work well with the red, pink and purple in the rest of the image.