Magdalen Green.

Hi everyone,
What lovely weather we've had recently right?...and considering Dundee rarely sees any sight of the glorious sunshine, I took advantage and photographed a couple of locations that I've been wanting to revisit lately. I've been majorly inspired especially after watching a few tutorials from Mike Browne, he's a great photographer and he has definitely encouraged me to pick my camera a lot more and shoot whatever's around me, but not to get carried away and also think about the photo that I'm going to take rather than just point and shoot like most people would do and I must admit at times I can become one of those people, so it is always good to think outside the box! So as I previously mentioned I had photographed the Magdalen Green bandstand before a few years ago and I wasn't all too thrilled by the photos I had taken so I decided to go back and revisit, and I managed to achieve a lot more than I had expected.


I'm more than pleased that there was a plane travelling above the bandstand at the time I was photographing, it made for such an interesting image and I luckily happened to be at the right side for taking the shot when it appeared. I'd say it's my favourite photo from this set as I also quite like the way the clouds are situated and there's something almost fisheye looking about the shot. Anyway, I've thrown in a couple of pics from the surrounding area as there is a really cool atmosphere to the streets in this part of town. I also believe that there was been a petition of the sorts to try and bring back the life and colour in the old bandstand, I think it has had occasional repairs in the past but apparently it's really needing a good spruce up these days. Hopefully they manage to achieve their desired amount and it's a great feature to the city.
I hope you all enjoyed looking through these photos and as always let me know what you think.

Nicola. x

MAC Cosmetics Alluring Aquatic Collection.

Hey everyone,
I normally don't write these kind of posts on my blog as most of you will be aware, but as one of my other main interests is make-up artistry and I have been majorly inspired by MAC Cosmetics new Summer collection this year, I thought it would be nice to do a little review of the products. First off, I always love MAC's Summer collections, and last year they had two that I really fell in love with which were called Temperature Rising and Tropical Taboo, both absolutely gorgeous with stellar must have items! Futhermore, this year they have released their Alluring Aquatic collection in May and again I have been totally captured by all of the products and not to forget the incredible water droplet packaging this year (and yes it's real, I didn't put water droplets on the items for added effect incase you were wondering, haha!)
I bought a fair few items from this collection and I know it's a lot of money however I saved up well in advance as I was looking forward to this one. The products I picked up were a Lipglass in Water Deities, Pet Me Please lipstick (I was super excited about this one as I remember it from the Fabulous Felines collection) I also bought two Extra Dimension eyeshadows in Silver Sun and Legendary Lure, an Extra Dimension Bronzer in Aphrodite's Shell, a Nail Lacquer in Neptune and a Lip Pencil in What Comes Naturally.

Now, let's cut to the chase the must have's from this collection for me are definitely Water Deities Lipglass and Legendary Lure Eyeshadow, for one I couldn't take my eyes off of them when I opened them out of their boxes and two, they are absolutely great pigmentation and colour. I'm also mega happy with the Extra Dimension Bronzer, I've never owned any of the Extra Dimension products before and they are an incredible texture to work with. However, you're probably wondering if I really needed all of these things and the fact is I probably didn't but there are some must have items in this batch and I've thoroughly used all of the products so I know exactly how they work and out of all the things I bought the only item I could have possibly done without was the liner, it is beautiful don't get me wrong and it is still a great item but it definitely is the least used item I own from this set so I guess I could have done without it.
However, I'm in love with the rest of the products and they are an amazing purchase so if this collection is still in stock where ever you live, make sure to check it out and pick up a few pieces!
Nicola. x

Celestial.

Hey everyone,
It's been a little while since I've posted something on here however I have been concentrating on a lot of things at the moment including a couple of huge blog posts so this one has been slightly delayed which you will notice as it contains shots I photographed of the full moon from a little while ago. However, I still really wanted to get these online, and although I've taken a few photos of the moon before with a long lens and a tripod, I decided to change it up for these shots! I've focused predominately on the clouds rather than focusing on the moon itself as I quite liked the atmosphere this gave the image especially considering the kind of night that I took these photos. What this really means is that I didn't expose my settings for the moon but for the clouds instead, and sadly that does means the moon will look slightly overexposed but I wanted the clouds to be the main feature as they were really noticable and I think this gives a much different look to what could be another boring and dull photo of the moon. I hope that you all enjoy these photos as much as I do, so let me know what you think, it's always great to talk to people that share an interest for photography!
Hopefully I'll be back soon with those two posts that I've been keeping back!

Nicola. x

Seaside Cottages and Fisherman Bars.

Hi everyone,
Today I'm back with a continuation to previous post about artists, including local murals, graffiti and design, and at the moment I'm focusing on places in my local village that I'm currently interested in, I've previously talked about how I have been particularly fascinated with the seaside theme, so I decided to capture a few popular spots in Broughty Ferry. The main photos below this little paragraph are what I am specifically talking about, the classic Ship Inn bar alongside the Barometer cottage, and the last shot of The Fisherman's Tavern, both much loved little venues that are very well associated with Broughty Ferry. I'm especially attracted to the appearance of these two venues, the colours of the Fisherman's Tavern and the typical seaside look of the Ship Inn with the Barometer cottage are perfect fitting with Broughty Ferry's seaside aesthetics.

Of course, I've included another angle of the glorious Broughty Ferry Castle and beach which I photographed a couple of blog posts ago, it's such a lovely place and sometimes it's just nice to take some different angles of a location. After all you never know what treasures you may find along the way, no pun intended with the seaside theme or anything...you get what I mean! Also, I thought I'd mention if any of you follow me on Instagram you'll notice that I've been posting little sneak peaks of what photos I'm currently working on, so there's definitely more blog posts coming soon with my latest adventures, but make sure to check out/follow my Instagram page at, http://www.instagram.com/nicolasharkeyphoto for more consistent updates!
Nicola. x

The Artist.

Hey everyone,
Lately my never-ending fascination with architecture has taken a turn and I'm currently fascinated by local murals, graffiti and design, so here's a couple of my most recent shots that I've photographed around my hometown. I've always had a particular liking for this mural that you are currently looking at above, every time I venture around this area in Dundee I wish I'd brought my camera with me to snap a quick shot, so I decided to finally make it happen since I've had a little bit of spare time, and thank goodness it was fairly good weather for the occasion!
The mural itself was painted in 1982 and shows many views and historic references about Dundee including the Tay Bridge, Dundee docks and Tay whale. I believe there were talks about it being restored which I kind of hope happens as it would look even more beautiful with a bit of a repaint!
I'm going to continue with my current theme on creativity in my next post as I've already planned a feature around a few of my other favourite places in my hometown, which I have infact already photographed so once I have finished editing the shots they will be online soon.

Nicola. x

Let Bloom.

Hey everyone,
A couple of weeks ago I finally managed to capture some amazing pink and vibrant orange sunrise shots, which I've been longing for some time now as many of you will remember. These were taken quite early in the morning, I think roughly about 8am and literally after I took these photos this amazing pink sky faded within only a few minutes, something of which always half annoys me but astounds me at the same time when I realise I managed to get the best of the best! Although, the annoying part being that I could have missed such an amazing shot which has happened many of a time before as most photographers will have experienced at some point in their career.
I talked briefly about RAW format photos in my previous post and I feel like I've mastered how to work these kind of shots now so I'm excited about getting back into photographing some of my more favourite peculiar and select locations to see how they translate this way. I'm definitely thinking about getting a few of these shots printed from photobox to see the quality difference, and update some of my photo frames at the same time!

Be sure to check out my Instagram page as I always post sneak peaks of any new photography pieces I'm working on before they're uploaded to my blog, my username is @nicolasharkeyphoto
As always I'll be back soon with lots more photos for your viewing pleasure!
Nicola. x

Dreaming Of The Seaside.

Hi everyone,
I'm back with a set of photos that I've been fairly excited to get online, I enjoyed taking these shots at the time and I knew that they were going to be a lot of fun to edit.
I've never really taken photos in RAW format before, shock horror and I know someone should give me a slap on the wrist for it but I have started trying to slowly bring it in to my photography routine...although sometimes I forget to turn on the RAW option so forgive me for forgetting the last time, now it's on for good though! Anyway I did luckily remember this time around as I was predominately photographing the clouds which kept coming out too flat so this instantly reminded me to switch on the RAW option, and thank goodness I did as it really brings back all of the lost quality that JPEG seems to take away.


Back to the idea of the seaside theme, I've actually recently discovered an artist called Tracy Savage on an outing around Broughty Ferry's local gallery. I am in total awe of her unique and quirky painting style so much that I had to buy a couple of prints for my room. I posted an instagram photo of the prints, I bought 'The Grand' and 'Bridge Keepers', two beautiful paintings that caught my eye, but I do feel I may go back for one of the VW camper van pictures, such a 70's beach vibe and I love it!
On another note, I'm glad I've finally photographed Broughty Ferry Castle, who would have thought it would have taken all of this time to get around to photographing places in your hometown? haha! However, I am proud of the shots I managed to get even if it was a bit of an overcast day, I like those kind of photos as it makes the location look way more moody, which seems to be something I bring out in my landscape pictures a lot, haha!


Anyway, I've still got lots more shots to upload and I'm already thinking about what's next, I've definitely missed taking landscape photographs!
Nicola. x

Pop Cop Photography Competition!

Hey everyone,
I'm back with another one of those short updates before I post any of those exciting photos that I was talking about in my previous entry.
Last year I decided to enter Pop Cop's annual music photography competition, now I'm not really one for putting my photos into competitions and that's mostly because I don't get the time to, however since I had a good spare bit of time at the end of last year I thought it would be fun to enter a couple of my photos. Luckily enough my photograph of Purson managed to get into their honourable mentions section which is pretty awesome considering last year I only took photos of less than a handful of gigs and didn't have many shots to choose from to enter!
Below is what my photo looks like featured on their website, if you want to check out the other lucky entries for the competition, go to Pop Cop's website at www.thepopcop.co.uk

I can't wait to get back into photographing more gigs again but seeing as it's taking some time to settle into my new home, it may take a while but I'll be back soon enough!
Nicola. x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!
I know it may seem irrelevant to say so as it's already near the end of January but I've just recently got settled into my new place after moving at Christmas, and I must admit that it was pretty stressful at the time but at least I'm finally ready to get started with everything again.
Since I've entered the world of Instagram and have seen what everyone else has been getting upto it's made me very inspired and encouraged to get back into photography, lots of ideas have been floating around my head for a while so it's time to finally put them into action. Not before long I was dusting the cobwebs off my blessed camera and was strolling around my local area for inspiration, and funnily enough I realised I'd never taken photos of this cute little 16th century castle that I happen to bypass most days of the week.

Of course I've still been inspired by mid 90's and early 00's films, one of the latest on my list has been The Little Vampire ever since I watched it for the first time over the holidays, it's such an incredibly adorable film! Anyway, you're probably wondering what the significance is with my photos but the movie was predominately filmed in Scotland and the castle that I photographed reminded me of many scenes in the movie, although I'm sure there are no vampires living in this one!
The photo above was actually a quick snap that I caught when I was about to walk away, I just loved the look of the black iron gates infront of the small wooden door, I don't know what it is but every time I take a photo of gates, they always seem to add a certain creepy value to the building, although it maybe doesn't help that I turned this shot black and white, haha!

Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that for the time being, but I'll let you all know that I recently went on another jaunt and photographed the beautiful Broughty Ferry seaside in the gorgeous low winter sunshine. It was absolutely stunning and peaceful, almost like a holiday away from home! I'll try and get those photos edited as quick as possible, they're a bit different from the usual castles and creepy buildings that I tend to take photographs of, haha, so I'm looking forward to getting them online!
Nicola. x