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 31 October 2019

A Marsworth Reservoir Visit

I have been helping Author Martin Evening, tech-editing his latest edition in the series of ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ books, and unfortunately we have a far shorter lead time in which to have it ready to be supplied to the Printers. As we near the deadline, Martin is working hard to complete possibly the longest Chapter, and on this day, there were no more Chapters ready for me to read and check, so because I really needed a break, I took the opportunity to collect my EOS R camera and Sigma Sports 60-600mm lens, load the kit into the car, and head for Marsworth Reservoir.
Arriving at the Parking area on the main road, there was no sign of the Water Bailliff’s car, or any other angler’s in their Private Car Park, and I later learned he was up in London at the time. I set up my EOS R and the 60-600mm Sigma Sports lens which by default has the 1.4 Converter attached, which on this occasion I should have swapped for the 2x, as most of my subjects were well offshore this late afternoon. However, having crossed the road, and was halfway along the bank path by the hide, before I realised my lack of foresight.
I spotted one of my favourite aquatic birds, a young Grebe, and it proved to be an impressive angler, despite its catch being mainly toddlers, in the time I was watching this one bird, it was successful every other dive, and when it dived it was only submerged for no longer than my  count of ten each occasion. An observation I made was that on most times it made a catch, at one stage it would momentarily loose its prey and either drink or simply wash its catch before it tossed it down its gullet. It did not seem an arbitrary action, it was noticeably consistent, perhaps it was ascertaining that its food was both dead,band clean.
That youngster intrigued me so much that most of the first page of the Gallery is devoted to this one subject. The last two images on that page was my observation of a cross-species relationship between a Greylag and Canada Goose, the faithful Canada Goose stayed close the entire time I was watching — I had not spotted this behaviour in the past, so I was interested and must question my Avian Guru, Chris Gomersall, whether this is normal.
The narrow neck of the Marsworth Lake which for years has been a favoured spot for kingfishers due to its comparatively good access for long reconnaissance trips between the main lake and its source, has been deserted for this season, as every one of my trips to this spot this year has caught nary a sighting of this wonderful little bird, much to my personal disappointment. Initially, some early season gales felled a large tree, blocking this passage partially; but more recently, the situation has deteriorated further with even more fallen trees and bushes, leaving no clear flight path for these beautiful birds.

In their place is what now more closely resembles a small pond, which due to the resultant lack of water movement has acquired a surface covering of algae, and seemingly favoured now by maturing cygnets, who feature on the second gallery page as they very lazily moved around what has now become a pond. I cannot believe that this surface mat is truly beneficial for the new incumbents of this stretch of water, that also now lacks the amount of health-giving sunshine it once enjoyed. I used to meet several photographers in this small secluded area, and if any of them read this, it would be wonderful if we could get together to persuade the Canal and River Trust to provide the means for us to help them tidy this section of the lake to all our mutual benefit — the birds, the fish, a healthy flow to the water, and photographers. It is after all, to all our benefits.

Monday 28 October 2019

Brogborough Lake - Scenic Therapy

Most of the last week has been very dull, and often raining or threatening to do so, but for most of the time it proved no real disadvantage as it gave me the opportunity to not suffer any frustration over being held indoors, since the time was gainfully used by my reading the Chapters of Martin Evening’s next book in the ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ series for which I have had the privilege of helping the Author with tech-editing since he wrote his very first edition.
There has been a very short lead time on this occasion, since Martin has been very busy on other projects, so started into the revisions well into the allotted time to bring it up to date, and Adobe have not been resting on their laurels, as they have been adding several new features, adding to the burden of revision.
As the sun finally shone, and I had caught up, I needed to get my fix of taking photos, so that I keep my eyes active and my shutter finger exercised adding to the experience of working with my EOS R. There was little time left in the day, so my choice of venue was the nearby lake at Brogborough, and with no wind, I knew there was little need of a long lens, so I chose the 90mm Tamron Macro f/2.8, and the Canon 85mm f/1.4, and was able to use both to advantage in the short time before the sunset over the far hills.
Soon after arriving I heard the unmistakable sound of a hang glider’s engine, quite close by, but almost immediately it flew lower and remained hidden for the next fifteen minutes, before reappearing as a mere speck in the distance. The only chance by then of capturing it was with my 60-600mm Tamron with its 2x Converter! And certainly not handheld, as were these images. The light upon my car as I returned tempted me to grab a shot of it, before leaving for home, after my welcome breather.

Monday 14 October 2019

25th Anniversary Concert – Aylesbury Concert Band

My younger daughter plays saxophone in the Aylesbury Concert Band, and I do my level best to join her for several reasons, I love listening to live music, I obviously enjoy the opportunity to join my daughter and share a part of her life involved in Music, and naturally it affords me the chance to keep in touch with my family, oh, and perhaps I forgot to mention, I love taking the opportunity to indulge in picture taking.
On this occasion which marks the 25th Anniversary of the Band, which was held at Trinity Church in Walton Street,, Aylesbury, I must apologise that I would have loved to be more informative in the narrative for the event’s images, but in the interests of ensuring the gallery of images makes it to the Web on the Monday evening, I am afraid that the pictures will largely have to tell their own story. Certainly it was a celebration of some of the past Band members and leaders, though one apology was read out from one such who for family reasons was unable to make it.
Fortunately for me, two of my grandchildren were able to make it as were my ex-wife and her husband, who had the joy of looking after them, whilst their father stayed at home doing maintenance work on their house uninterrupted.
On occasions such as this, I become a one-man roadie, as well as photographer and family member, the latter being far from a chore, it keeps my creative juices flowing as taking pictures and maintaining my expertise is an essential part of keeping the ‘little grey cells’ active. It keeps my eye in, a prerequisite for anyone determined to stay fresh and attuned to the capture of the many moments that occur. One point in this series of images is that the opportunity arose when processing the images for the gallery, for me to render one image in monochrome simply because of the nature of the lighting. On another occasion, the highly articulate display from one of the Conductors caught my eye, and in a quiet moment my daughter likewise caught my eye with the slightest of smiles.
Listening and foot-tapping to music, coupled with the joys of recording meaningful but mysterious moments in the lives of others’ lives is one of the pleasures of being a photographer — I may never know what transpired in some of the moments I witness, such as what was taking place between two of the Conductors, but should they see the image I captured they might well have a wry smile! What circumstances arose that triggered some of the smiles I captured I may never learn, but for such moments, I saw and recorded a meaningful moment in someone else’ s life, and those moments were fleeting, but I felt I was privileged to have seen it without ever knowing its meaning. It reminds of a black and while film I saw as a youngster, with a title that has remained with me ever since — ‘I am a Camera’.
0n this occasion as I mentioned at the start, there is little in the way of a description of the event, the taking of these pictures is simply to keep my sanity in a world that seems to be falling apart at the seams but I keep constantly reminding myself there is beauty and good humour to be found, and all I can do is hope that sanity ultimately prevails. I also hope that my words and pictures give others pleasure, it is rewarding to know that the blog’s hits have never gone below 350 per week for at least the last year, so someone is showing some interest! Surely they are not all robots.
In case anyone is interested only one camera, the EOS R was used throughout, and three different lenses from 24m to 300mm

Thursday 10 October 2019

Bumble Bee Rescue

This item has been delayed by a couple of days, but was an episode which I felt I did my bit for humanity.
It began by my spotting an almost comatose bumble bee by the locked front door; obviously it had been considering a way to reach the outside world, but had been thwarted by the lack of sustenance in the house. I have no idea how long it had been there, but certainly, long enough to try to conserve its energy, with a hope it might eventually be able to return to the wide open expanses to which it had been accustomed.
It was in luck, because I had its best interests at heart, I hastily went to the kitchen for a jam jar and some stiff card to construct an ambulance for its passage to the Outside World. Having transported it to the next stage of that passage, by placing it carefully on my front hedge in the carefully crafted emergency rescue plan of giving it an eventually higher platform for its flight, I returned to the kitchen to prepare some restorative medicine in the form of a dessert spoon with a teaspoon of sugar and a few drops of water.
However, the bee had not waited for me to complete my plans for its takeoff, it had simply decided terra firma was preferable, so I carefully placed the elixir alongside his weakened body, and hoped he would find his survival instinct would kick in and he would try to take a drought from my spoon. Initially, he lacked trust in this giant despite being wounded not at all by my transporting him back to his world, thus far. I moved the spoon and it’s life-giving elixir closer.
I forgot to mention that I had wasted no time in grabbing my EOS R, attaching the 24 to 70mm with its macro facility, before coming outside to record my hopefully successful rescue this vital member of our joint ecosystem deserved.
So, though the full story of its initial start on the road to recovery had been the top of the hedge, at least my arrival to witness his new start point was early enough to show his lethargy, despite my ministrations with the sugar solution offering, it still distrusted my motives, until presumably it sniffed the recognisable aroma of the sugar, and decided I was not as evil as it had previously presumed.

Soon I could see that it had begun to suck up this welcome nectar, but it tarried very briefly before moving away and for the first time since my rescue attempt had started, it unfurled its wings and gave a slight burst, which for me was heartwarming, and a few moments later I was thrilled to see it take to the air, no last circuit to say thank you, just off into the distance, thankful to be back in its own territory — airborne once more.

Wednesday 2 October 2019

Tringford Reservoir — Between Two Downpours!

I took a look at my nearest lake to see whether it’s birds had returned, but was disappointed; there was not a single bird on the lake that I could see as I scanned the entire far shores I could see from the junction of the two possible directions. Also, there were not too many anglers either.
I had a brief chat with one, to elicit what natural activity he had observed, but came to the same conclusion. So my destination was to be the more distant one — the Lake at Tringford, where I would be able to discuss motor racing with its Water Bailiff, Bob.
I took a non-motorway route to drive down to avoid any possible delays, and found just one lone angler whom I had not met before and learned Bob would be a while, so after a while I headed back to the car and set up my camera with my long lens on the Benbo, to see what I could capture, as I had spotted a couple of young Grebe reasonably close, but despite my not being too slow, they had decided I was a possible threat and put a good distance between us, and never came any closer for my entire time there. I also got shots of some young cygnets, and a gull.
I took some shots, but was soon overtaken by the forecast heavy rain, and retired with assembled camera, tripod and long lens to the refuge of my car. There followed quite a battering of heavy rain upon my roof which lasted probably fifteen minutes before subsiding. I got out of my now steamed up car, and there now followed light drizzle for respite, before a second onslaught which though heavier, lasted less long and final stopped completely, allowing me to continue shooting. The angler meantime had decided to come ashore to avoid any possibility of a lightning strike, and we had a further chat, and he mentioned he had let Bob know I was at the lake.
Although I did get my fix of a few photos, it was not destined to be particularly interesting, so it was not long before I was once again on the road, and since there was only a minimal delay on the M1, that was the. route I took to return to create the small single page entry on the blog. The images were completed by the early afternoon of the following day, and the narrative finished after a scheduled visit to the local Hair Salon, which was undoubtedly overdue!