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.

Here is just a quick and brief post before a two week break I am going to take from posting as I go for a visit to my native Zagreb to see my Mum, family and friends. I love taking photos of the inside of windows; there is something irresistible about the mood and drama the interplay of shadows and highlights creates. I have recently stayed at Ponden Hall , my favourite place with Brontë connections, and am still reminiscing with fondness about it. On the morning of check out, after breakfast and a lovely chat with my friends Julie and Steve, who run Ponden Hall as B&B, I took a few shots of this beautiful old mullioned window. This is just a corner of a massive table at which Julie serves her most delicious breakfast to guests. I love gazing out of the window while enjoying the food. On this particular morning there were many delightful signs of autumn in the garden outside; leaves changing colours, gorgeous tall and bushy fuchsia with its pretty pink ballerina like flowers...

September is one of my favourite months. The harsh summer temperatures and light become much gentler. It's the month when a lot of lovely fruit becomes ripe and ready for harvest; when a lot of summer flowers are still going strong and besides a multitude of all sorts of gorgeous red berries turn up on trees and bushes - rowan, hawthorn, hips...I still need to learn some of the names. It is the month when I love to pay my annual visit to Ponden Hall and go for walks on Stanbury moor which bears many fascinating Brontë landmarks. Last Friday it was the only full day of my stay at Ponden, so it was the day I planned the longest and remotest walk up on the moor. Unlucky for me, it rained heavily all day, and I had to put up with the fact that no such walk would happen. Instead, I walked the three miles to Haworth making a note of all the nice photos I might be able to take on my way back if it stopped raining. My day was not spoilt by rain by any means (the weather cannot possibly s...

" Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone." (Charlotte Brontë on her sister Emily) This year sees the third successive bicentenary birthday in the famous Victorian literary family, the Brontës - that of Emily Jane Brontë. As a big Brontëphile, to mark this special birthday I have created my personal tribute to Emily, just as I did for her brother Branwell last year, and her sister Charlotte the year before.  Emily was the fifth of the six children born to Maria and Patrick Brontë. She is the author of "Wuthering Heights", one of the most famous and loved romantic novels in the history of literature, as well as the author of some of the finest poetry ever written. She also had a great talent for drawing and painting and was a gifted piano player. Of the four Brontë siblings who lived to adulthood Emily is the one we know the least about. She grew up to be a quiet and private person who didn't seek friendship or co...

The house in which John Brown, Patrick Brontë's sexton and Branwell's close friend lived. It is situated next to The Old School Room in Church Street, just yards away from the Brontë Parsonage.  Top of Church Street with the Parsonage wall on the left. View from Parson's Field behind the Parsonage towards West Lane and Worth valley. Image taken in Parson's Field behind Brontë Parsonage Top of Church Street with the Parsonage on the left and The Old School Room on the right. The two women are the same as in the previous photo.  Local pussycat who likes being round the Parsonage at dusk, just like I do. St Michael And All Angels, Haworth Church Church Street, Haworth The Brontë Parsonage garden. Brontë Parsonage, photo taken from the same vantage point as the previous photo.

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...