2013 365-23

Jesus, but summer seems to arrived in Belfast. Scorching hot weather all week and a trip to Donegal with the lads at the weekend? Yes please.

3/06/13

Taken and processed on my iphone 4. This scooter has been sitting in the street all week. Kinda spooky. Why? What happened to it's owner? Why has no-one stolen it (given that this is East Belfast)?

4/06/13

Bright sunshine isn't always the best weather for photos. Luckily I got my hands on a couple of sets of wee men from a tiny (and very weird) model shop near where I was working today. This is titled "Bob didn't know if it was the drink or the heat, but he knew he had to get Anges home."

5/06/13

"Jim's neighbours were a wee bit precious about their bins." I have on occasion taken the wrong bin, with far from hilarious results.

6/06/13

Travelling down the Ards peninsula this evening, armed with only my little Sony Nex-3 camera which I was getting re-acquainted with prior to heading off to Donegal. Had to stop and take this shot as the sun went down at Kircubbin pier and a few kids jumped into the water off the pier. The wee Sony coped well with the shot, although I did nearly cry when I realised that I didn't have my big camera with me. Thanks also to Maxie, another togger who'd stopped to take the same shot and ended up talking with me for so long, I was well late for dinner. It was great yakking about photography to someone whose eyes didn't glaze over when you mentioned white balance and ISO.

7/06/13

Colin, enjoying himself in Donegal. This was taken after he'd done his usual mugging for the camera and actually just relaxed. The sun was setting and the light was just as golden as I've ever seen.

8/06/13

Martin's mussels. I'm not sure I'd have taken this shot if I hadn't had a few pints and a wee whiskey, but I climbed up on a chair and zoomed my 18-55mm lens all the way out. This was the rather fetching  result.

9/06/13

When this is the sight that greets you when you walk out of the door, it doesn't half put a spring in your step and a bit of lead in your pencil. Taken before Alec went swimming and lost a tooth, but that's another story entirely. Donegal and the beach were not to blame.

367-50 Week 3

Into week three and taking a shot each day has started to become a habit. I'm more tuned into opportunities for shots (I think) and spend a lot more time thinking about potential pictures.

On Monday, I set myself a challenge. I had subscribed to Trey Ratcliff on Facebook as I'm a big fan of his HDR stuff. My challenge was to produce an HDR shot of the house as quickly as possible. Three shots taken on the tripod, imported via Lightroom and then into Photmatix Pro. I was quite pleased with the result and in total this took 25 mins start to finish.

28/11/11

On Tuesday I was standing outside my office in Ballymena having a smoke and started playing with a iphone app called Camera+ for taking and processing photos. Apparently Annie Liebowitz has declared that the iphone 4 is now the leading camera for snapshots. This was my first attempt using the app and is a shot of the side of County Hall with an effect called "So Emo"

29/11/11

I was sitting in the dining room working on the laptop when I happened to look out the window and saw the little birdbox at the bottom of the garden catching the late afternoon sun. I garbbed my camera, a pair of stepladders and ran down to try to get the shot.

30/11/11

Thursday was spent in Larne. Those of you who know me will know that this is not one of my favourite places. It was a long day, spent in two schools with two very difficult cases. On the way home I pulled over in a layby to see if I could get shots of the traffic. I was tempted to paraphrase Dr Samuel Johnson - "The noblest thing a Larne man ever sees is the high road to Belfast."

1/12/11

I think Friday evening qualifies as my first ever commericial photo shoot. Trish and I were invited to Katch 27 in Kircubbin with the deal being we take photos and get our dinner in return. This was a great deal, made even better by the production of a bottle of wine as well. Leigh and Davy were great hosts and it was interesting to spend some time in a "real" kitchen to see what goes on. The food was great, with the dessert being the highlight for me.

2/12/11

Saturday morning took me back to Kircubbin, to get some exterior shots of Katch 27, but also to have a wee prowl around the area. Spent some time in Greyabbey and got some nice shots of the old abbey, as well as spotting a red squirrel jumping over the headstones. I also fancied trying to get close to the tower in the shot below - I'd always driven past this but never got round to trying to get up to it. After much driving around up lanes and dirt tracks, I got there.

3/12/11

And finally today - stinking hangover; unable to do much except drink tea and smoke. Trish informed me that she did not want me to come to TESCO with her as apparently I'm a "difficult" shopping partner. Had to get one wee men shot in, so here's Sadie and Agnes planning their next trip.

4/12/11

See y'all next week!