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

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

Sunshine On The East Coast.

Hey everyone,
I thought I would post another set of landscape photos that I have been working on recently. These shots are once again from last year, roughly around late Autumn. It's actually one of my favourite seasons of the year to photograph subjects and particularly locations with the gorgeous Autumnal colours of fallen leaves on the ground, there's no doubt that a lot of my landscape and scenery shots transpire a little more rapidly around that time.
I've actually taken photos at this location before so you may or may not recognise some of the areas. I'm not sure if it's apparent but I'm in constant awe of certain places that I have visited so sometimes I return to them a while later and photograph them again to see the changes, in both the location and even my photography. It's actually quite good to do things like that every once in a while, mainly to see the progression in your work.
The last couple of shots I added in purely for a little bit of fun. They certainly made me laugh when I bypassed them on my journey anyway, haha!

Nicola. x

Spring Begins.

It's that time of the year again...Spring!! I don't know if anyone has been feeling the same as me, but I've been so uninspired with the the winter weather, I'm so glad it's finally sunny, and a little bit warmer!
Really sorry about the lack of updates on my blog in the past month, if you would like to see more daily updates from me, please check out my Twitter, I'm constantly 'tweeting' on there all the time (I love it, eek!) http://www.twitter.com/nicolasharkey
I'm still in the middle of finishing lots of work at the moment, hence why there hasn't been much news on here, but please, keep checking back, it means the world to me, and hopefully I will have some really awesome things to tell you all soon.
Oh, and I just wanted to add, you must all go out and buy Mystery Jets third album, 'Serotonin', it's absolutely amazing! 'Dreaming Of Another World' is one of my favourite songs at the moment, it's completely beautiful!
Some of the other awesome artists I've been listening at the moment are, Josh Weller, The Maccabees, Be Your Own Pet, and Warpaint.

Onto photos, I thought I would post some of my recent landscape/urban shots that I've taken over the last month.
Hope you like them,
Nicola x