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Photographing Nature
Welcome to the Photographing Nature section of my blog, where I share inspiration, techniques, and tips to help you connect with nature through your lens. Whether you’re wandering through a forest, sitting by a quiet lake, or observing wildlife in motion, nature photography offers endless opportunities to explore beauty, light, and life in its rawest form.
Whether you're just starting with a smartphone or shooting with professional gear, you'll find ideas designed to improve your photography.
Friday Image With Words: Never Take a Single Breath for Granted - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
When life feels hopeless, it is easy to believe that nothing will change. But every day does come to an end, and tomorrow can be a new beginning, especially when you find the strength to turn away from the things that trouble you and towards hope, peace, and a better direction.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Photographing Bluebells: Depth of Field and Background Choice – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
I have always struggled photographing bluebells, as I know have many other professional photographers, and my current post mountaineering accident following last years new hip status has meant that for two years running this man has not been able to get down low to do them something of the justice they deserve.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Friday Image With Words: Hope Means Hoping Even When Things Seem Hopeless - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
a quiet moment to end the week My Friday Image with the words "Hope Means Hoping Even When Things Seem Hopeless' to Encourage Your Weekend Waiting for the mist over lift. I came across these words "Hope Means Hoping Even When Things Seem Hopeless" earlier this week, and thought they matched well with the image near Pugs Hole in Wiltshire, UK. There are times when life feels like this landscape. The way ahead is there, but you cannot properly see it. The wider shape of thing
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Choosing the point of Focus – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
A few days ago I took a number of photographs of the same small clump of flowers, initially from the same angle, to share with you the effect of choosing the point of focus by selecting a different flower to focus on, and how that alters both the whole image and our mental response to it.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Friday Image With Words: Then There was Friday - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
If it's been a good week, great, pleased for you. Have you taken any of your time to drop some encouragement on the lap of those around you who may not be in such a good place?
It doesn't take very long, or too much, to change someone's day, and each day changed can lead to a life changed.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
The Secret Life of Photographs: Why Some Images Refuse to Be Taken - Why Some Photographs Deserve to Be Burned
There are times when I have become convinced that certain photographs simply do not wish to be taken.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Learn To Look Until You see - From Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
Let your eyes search the still dark areas to the left middle, the writhing water of the foreground slipping into the fast moving runnel that carries your eye back towards the sun. Within a short while the mist will be gone, and you will see other things - but for now, love the moment
Michael Blyth
2 min read
The Effect of Frost On Wood – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
A couple of weeks ago i was outside with my new puppy doing the sort of things puppy's do to profusion in the early morning. The outside table had been gently painted with a fine layer of frost, and had picked out the features of the grain to a qute remarkable degree, highlighted by the low angle of the sunshine..
Michael Blyth
4 min read
What Phase Two - 'The Action Group' - Looks Like in Practice. Photography Observation Exercises
Notice details of trees, moss on logs, or rocks, the way a wave surges back leaving a mist in the air. The light that shines through a hole in the cloud in the distance.
Instead of concentrating only on the subject, notice the space between you and it.
Notice how distance changes things.
Contrast softens.
Colours fade.
Shapes simplify - either blending, or becoming more defined.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Friday Photo Inspiration With Words By Michael Blyth - It's Mostly About The Journey
The knots in our minds are often the hardest to unravel, so very true sometimes. Anything come to mind? It takes time and sometimes there seems no route, but there probably is.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth: Why Distant Hills Turn Blue – Visual Recession in Photography
We were high in the Pyrenees, having risen early to avoid the heat as we climbed towards the col, leaving Spain behind us. In the distance stood Vignemale, the highest peak in the French Pyrenees at 3,298 metres. I found myself transfixed. Ridge after ridge dissolved gently into blue. It is an effect I have always loved.
Michael Blyth
4 min read
How to Photograph Water Movement : Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
I walked into town the other day along the banks of the River Avon, i was caught up by one of my favourite things to spend time watching - and occasionally photographing - flowing water, the way it catches light, interfering with reflections, almost but not quite repeating patterns.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Friday Photo Inspiration. Simple Photography Tips By Michael Blyth “All We Have Is Today - The Present”
Most of us were taught we have five senses. In reality, we also have senses that help us read our body, movement, and internal state. Sunrise and sunset are perfect moments to practise them, because the world slows down enough for you to feel what is usually drowned out.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
How to Photograph Snowdrops: Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
This video, with a very dour voice to start (sorry) is to inspire you to get in there and see the close-up beauty of Galanthus nivalis, and maybe take some photographs.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Friday Photo Inspiration. Simple Photography Tips By Michael Blyth “Don't Let The Bad Days Shade The Good .”
Has something happened this week that's left a deep darkness, or hurt. Search as hard as your soul will let you, for something good that happened. If you can't think of anything, than pick up your mobile, or even better a pen and paper, and write a kind note to someone else who's struggling. It will change you, as well as them.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Welcome To The Centenary Blog Post Number 100 of Simple Photography Tips By Michael Blyth - Dealing with The Perils of Morning Sunshine
Image One is the result of having the lens with nothing to stop the light bouncing around inside the lens, causing the same flare we've talked about before. But this particular morning there was something at stake - pretty cottages, a frosty field and a country scene.
Michael Blyth
4 min read
Friday Photo Inspiration. Simple Photography Tips By Michael Blyth “Live Like It's Spring.”
Yet in the verges and in the shy corners of gardens, the first celandines (Ficaria verna) had appeared. Little sparks of yellow that lift the soul. Much like the local priest arriving with hot bangers, mash and BB, and banana custard afterwards, they quietly encourage you to paddle on.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth - It's So Often In The Detail - Macro Flower Photography
Moving on to Image Two, again macro-photograph of the stamen and anthers. I've changed the angle of image with the result that these two parts are separated from the yellow flower by the green that occurs deep within.
Although the anthers are slightly out of focus, their placing on the top horizontal 'third' makes them very much the visual focus, with the stamen, completely in focus, sitting on almost dead centre.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth - Subscriber-only membership offer
I’m creating a small photography membership; not a course, and not a busy online group; but a calm, supportive space for people who want to slow down, notice more, and grow in confidence with their photography.
It values care over speed, encouragement over competition, and attention over noise.
It’s built on the belief that learning to see takes time, and that the right environment makes all the difference.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Indoor photography Tips from a kitchen worktop - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
Image Four, is just another image of the same chunk of rock, and illustrates what a huge choice of potential images can be gleaned from something you spill your coffee on, that you probably have never noticed.
Michael Blyth
5 min read
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