I’ve often thought about doing a daily or weekly photography challenge, I’ve seen other photographers undertake them and the journey looks interesting. However, I am not and have never been good at following rules so instead I’ve set myself the very gentle challenge of building a visual diary of my botanical encounters over the year. … More A year in wild flowers
I haven’t written anything for a long time so I thought I would write a quick ost about photographing the spring woods with intentional camera movement (ICM) and multiple expoures. I’m probably sharing this post a little late i the season, but hopefully’ll see another week of bluebells in the woods and hopefully any tips … More Bluebell Woods
For years now I have been adding accents of gold and silver to my work. When I worked as a glass blower we would very often use gold and silver leaf to decorate art glass, bowls and goblets and although I no longer blow glass I still adore using gold and silver to adorn my … More Gold & Silver
How I create my images of gulls in flight It’s been a while since I wrote a post about techniques, so I’m going to share one about one of my favourite techniques, intentional camera movement. I’ve been taking hand held ICM pictures of the gulls in flight over the river Stour in Blandford Forum for … More Photographing birds in flight
My first project of 2021 is a small collection of images from my beloved local woodlands in yellows, oranges, gold and blue. Some images are new, others are composed of older images to which I have layered and added textures and gold leaf. The woods I have wandered in to take these images sit on … More Woodlands in Yellow & Blue
I’ve created a second calendar this year featuring landscapes, waterscapes and flocks of birds. These imagined landscapes are created from images taken in the woods and fields local to my village home in the Winterborne Valley of north Dorset. Calendars are 210mm square. The cover is printed on 250gsm Silk paper and the pages are … More 2021 Imagined Landscapes Calendar
November finds us in another lockdown and the weather is wet and dull outside, so to cheer myself up I’ve been losing myself in photo editing. I’d taken a few images of water lilies in the last few weeks and they’ve formed the basis of this series. I love the shapes of the lily leaves, … More Water lilies
I’m frequently asked how I produce my ethereal botanical and nature photography, so I thought I would do my best to explain some of my process and why I am drawn to shoot in this style. I’m a self-taught photographer so please forgive me if I can’t find the right vocabulary at times in this … More Ethereal nature photography
The lockdown has meant spending a lot more time at home and as the sun has been shining I’ve spent the last few weeks experimenting more with wet cyanotype, lumens and anthotypes. So I thought I’d share some of the work I’ve created and a little bit about how each image is made. The chemicals … More Cameraless creativity.
I visited Ibsley near Blashford Lakes in Hampshire on Sunday with my dear friend Amanda to watch one of my favourite natural spectacles, a starling murmuration. We were treated to a breath taking display and the exhileration of small groups of birds flying just over our heads to join the large murmuration which was dancing … More Murmuration
Jo Stephen 