Been busy...

I've been busy over the last couple of days setting up a sales site at Fine Art America. You've got to try !!!!





We'll see how it goes, I've already got a Redbubble site too, lots of interest in my photos but only one sale ! Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at it.

Meet Basil - 68/365

Meet Basil - 68/365

Originally uploaded by MarkyD31

This is my old friend, Basildon Arking. I've known him for over 20 years now and he has just recently retired from the Military Assistance Division. 

B. Arking - MAD, as he is still officially known, sent me a telegram today to let me know he's off on a round the world jaunt and to ask if I would look after his prized pot plants for a few months. I said I would be delighted to do this for him as long as he would send me the occasional photo with an update as to how he's getting on. Knowing Basil as I do, I am sure he will have a great adventure and I'm sure he wont mind me posting a photo here now and again. Anyhoo, he said that apart from leaving from Edinburgh airport, he didn't have any plans as to which route he was going to take and would just follow his nose. I know he has built up a huge network of friends & contacts over the years in the MAD, so I'm sure he'll be fine.

So watch this space to see how Basil gets on ......!

Oops - 66/365

Oops - 66/365
Originally uploaded by MarkyD31

A few people have asked how I set up this shot so I thought I would give a little explanation.

I've seen a few shots like this before but with wine/water etc and wondered if I could give it a go. I don't really have the facilities to set up a proper shot with wine or whatever in the glass and really tip it over :-) so I got to thinking how could I emulate the shot !

A couple of head scratching hours later and a few searches on t'internet and this is what I came up with.

A stock shot of the paint on my computer monitor, the glass perched in front of the monitor (upside down, balancing on another glass) and a tight zoom into the shot so as not to show the monitor edges. I tried a shot of wine but it didn't look quite right, but I thought the paint looked better anyway.

A bit of rotation to get the angle right and some clean up work in Photoshop and you're done. The only thing I didn't get right was that there was nothing in the glass (obviously) so I tried adding some in PS but it didn't look convincing so I left it empty.

So that's it, quite simple really but this technique can produce some really good images. It's given me some ideas  for some more of my 365 project so watch out for them if you're following it !