Welcome

I am Rod Wynne-Powell, and this is my way to pass on snippets either of a technical nature, or related to what I am currently doing or hope to be doing in the near future.

A third-person description follows:
Professional photographer, Lightroom and Photoshop Workflow trainer, Consultant, digital image retoucher, author, and tech-editor for Martin Evening's many 'Photoshop for Photographers' books.

For over twenty years, Rod has had a client list of large and small companies, which reads like the ‘who’s who’ of the imaging, advertising and software industries. He has a background in Commercial/Industrial Photography, was Sales Manager for a leading London-based colour laboratory and has trained many digital photographers on a one-to-one basis, in the UK and Europe.
Still a pre-release tester for Adobe in the US, for Photoshop, he is also very much involved in the taking of a wide range of photographs, as can be seen in the galleries.

See his broad range of training and creative services, available NOW. Take advantage of them and ensure an unfair advantage over your competitors…


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Thursday, 23 February 2012

Foresters Harpenden, 23rd February


The Foresters Development by Jarvis is certainly looking much closer to completion, and I arrived earlier than usual as I needed to return to base by eleven, and once again I am greeted by sunshine, and for a change the weather is pleasantly warm with just a slight breeze.

Around the back turf is going down and the gardens have much of their plants in, though there are more paths to be completed. Around the front screeding is drying. New garages in the front have tiles being hung, and others have their roofs yet to be completed but the weatherproof membrane is down and the battening is nearing completion.

Some pavers are going down at the back of one of the cottages, and many of the exterior doors are being fitted. Many of the kitchens and bathrooms are coming on apace, laminate flooring is being laid, and one staircase has some glass panelling with bold aluminium fittings up, but with its protective sheeting still in place.

As I left I also captured the newly completed re-arrangement of the service road pavements with its bright ringing of double yellow lines, and I gather there are some six weeks till completion, given favourable weather conditions.

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Caddington, Snow & Hard Frost

With sunshine streaming through the windows, it was not difficult to be persuaded out, so without even stopping for breakfast, I grabbed two cameras and set off for a walk around the village. Although I could have gone further afield by car, the roads were likely to be treacherous, the hills especially so, and with a car that now had only an automatic handbrake, avoiding skids is less easy, so a walk was preferable.

I felt that hedgerows and fields were likely to provide interest so I set off for the main road past the church, with a slight detour into the graveyard, where remembrance flowers were overladen with snow, before setting across the fields at the edge of the village. When you looked closely at the blades of grass right out in the middle of the field I was fascinated to see fine tracery of ice crystals fanning out, often with several layers, I can only believe these were created by the wind and fog overnight, and I was early enough to catch them before the sun melted them.

I returned from the field past a BT telephone cabinet, which had patches of snow and frost and  dappled sunshine which formed attractive abstract shapes.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Jarvis Foresters – Fixtures & Fittings


Visiting the Foresters Development this day was slightly less than straightforward as the approach is beset with bright orange plastic guard rails, and the end of the service road is entirely blocked off. The reason for this is down to the number of essential services that are now being brought to the site, and this has involved considerable disruption to both the road itself and much of the pavement and kerbing. Also additional drainage is being added; whilst I was there a fairly deep hole was being widened to take a large concrete sump.

I had already decided that this visit I was going to be using a wider angle lens to capture some of the kitchens and bathrooms as they took shape, and although I have covered some of the more accessible rooms, the smaller or awkward ones needed me to have a shorter focal length than 24mm. What that meant was that my concentration for this visit was more about the interiors and the fixtures and fittings than the groundworks going on.

One pressure I always face is limiting myself to parking close by and avoiding punitive parking fines, by allocating precisely an hour, including donning my PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and subsequent disrobing to drive back. There were other parts of the site I would have preferred not to have missed, but I am in the midst of a massive tech-editing job, which has an effect on time available as well. Anyone know where I can lay my hands on a forty-eight hour day?

Sunday Snow in Harpenden

Knowing that snow in this country does not stay pristine for long, I decided I would be up early to see what I could capture, I chose to drive to Harpenden first because I though snow on the roofs of the Foresters buildings would be worth having, and I thought there’d be lots of people out with sleds, but surprisingly I saw very few families out and about.

When I later took a look at Stockwood Park Golf Course, normally packed out with families on the slopes, there was absolutely no one at all, until as I was leaving, one dog walker, so obviously the locals are all late starters, reluctant to give up the warmth of their homes for the chill winter air!

Wilstone Wildlife on a Wintry Wednesday

Wednesday found me down at the Tring reservoirs in milky sunshine and a bitingly cold wind, little was stirring at Marsworth, Startops End or Tringford, so I set off for Wilstone. The water level was very low at Startops, but the others were less badly affected. At Wilstone the reeds were high and dry, but I spotted a wader, a Lapwing, shortly after arriving at the edge of the reeds.

Soon after my arrival I was joined by several flocks of Greylags, and a lesser number of groups of Mallards came flying in. They chose to fly in with the sun behind them which was a shame, but occasionally I was luckier.

I also spotted a Grey Wagtail just at the edge a bit further along, and beyond it were some Mallards that were skittering on the ice which had formed for around three feet close to the water’s edge.

I stayed around for a while, but the biting wind soon got to me and the overall activity dwindled, so I set off to Westcott to help Lizzy get some time to herself as Joshua was not quite his cheerful self, and both had not had the best of nights.