2013 365-27

Weather is here. Lots of it. Very hot and sticky weather. Have a few things lined up for this weekend, so hoping to get some good shots.

1/07/13

If you saw last week's post, you'll have seen one of the shots from the graduation shoot that I did with my daughter. Today was the big day (for real) and I could have posted up my photo of Sir David Attenborough who was receiving an honorary degree at the same ceremony. That's my very clever and hard-working daughter in the middle, with the dark hair and glasses.

2/07/13

It's time for Muffin the dog to appear again. Muffin has a collection of rubber chickens all of which have no heads. The average life expectancy for a rubber chicken seems to be around one month. Muffin takes this length of time to remove the heads and the squeakers. She seems happier with them that way.

3/07/13

Dinner with Sarah and Ellen at a new Indonesian restaurant called Happy Angel. The highlight of my meal (and that says a lot about the quality of the food) was my attempt at using the menu to make my own happy angel origami piece.

4/07/13

I've posted several of the roadside memorials photos that I've been taking on this blog. I came across this one on the Lagan Weir this afternoon and wonder if it is a memorial to a young man who fell from the weir into the River Lagan and drowned after an evening's drinking in the nearby Odyssey complex.

5/07/13

I came back to the Lagan Weir to take a couple of shots of the numerous padlocks which have been placed there - an homage to the whole bridges/padlocks thing that seems to go on in other european cities. I'm going to check these from time to time to see if the philistines of Belfast City Council cut them off.

6/07/13

I've gone along to spectate and photograph the annual Belfast Pride parade. This year I thought I'd do something different and actually take part with the Belfast Roller Derby squad. A fantastic day out and a real advertisement for the best that Belfast has to offer. My travelling companions gave me plenty of opportunities for great shots. I picked this one, as the ladies got painted with their rainbows before the parade began. This is Rachel and her face and eyes just look amazing.

7/07/13

Bridges skateboard park this afternoon for the 2nd annual Skateboard NI jam. It was hot with very little shade, but yielded some great action shots. No problem with shooting at high shutter speeds without lights today. Main discovery from the day was that skateboards are much more dangerous than both roller derby and BMX. I got hit three times by rogue boards; once in the chest and once on each knee. The last one to my left knee was the worst and needed icepacks, anti-inflamatories and painkillers in order to get my knee back to its original shape and size.

2013 365-26

26th week of the 365 project, so this must be the half way mark. A good week for picking up some photo projects - managed to line up around 8 shoots for over the summer, all sports-related. The weekend saw me shooting a fairly big BMX jam in Belfast and I was also going to get to do some graduation photos for my daughter who graduates from Queens University Belfast next week.

24/06/13

Glenariff waterfall. Taken with a couple of stacked ND filters which allowed me to get a 20 second exposure. I would have tried longer but my cable release was playing up. Worth getting my feet wet for this shot though - seemed to capture just the right amount of movement in the water. I'd like to go back and try this again, preferable once i fix my cable release.

25/06/13

Some, but not all, of the poor people who have to work with me on a daily/weekly basis. Their patience is often stretched. That's me on the right, in case you hadn't guessed.

26/06/13

 On the day that many schools were finishing in Belfast, this was one of the shelves in a local charity shop. I couldn't get a picture out of my head - a very disillusioned teacher dropping off a load of this kind of stuff on their way home to open a large bottle of gin. The summer holidays start here.

27/06/13

My daughter's graduation photo. We did a standard gown/leafy background shot, which I'm sure her mother will love. We did a shot in the gown with Katie holding her rabbits, which I'm sure that Katie will love. This was my shot. Katie has just completed her degree in Biological Science and has been accepted for a PHd starting in September. I'm very proud of her, of her hard work and determination and am looking forward to having a Dr Barbour in the family very soon.

28/06/13

A weekend of BMX competitions and shoots. Due to the typical Belfast Weather this was relocated indoors to the T13 urban sports park. I was using a three light set up which gave me coverage of the two largest jump boxes on the track. This guy pulled this trick about 6 times during the afternoon. I'd noticed it during the warm up and then set myself up for it during the competition, and pre-focused on the edge of the jump box. He is mainly being lit by a speedlight to the right of camera with another speedlight providing fill light from the left and slightly behind. I loved this shot the moment I saw it.

29/06/13

Another absolute cracker of a shot. This is Fids, a rider from England and a slightly more mature guy. His yellow bike was really eye-catching but this shot was a fluke. I was expecting the same kind of crucifix trick most of the other riders pulled (sort of a "look no hands" thing in mid-air) but then Fids threw this in. I believe it is called "the nothing" probably because there's nothing attached to the bike. Had a chance to talk to him after he'd seen the photo and he really liked it. That put a big smile on my face.

30/06/13

Back today to the outdoor tracks at Mary Peters Track in South Belfast. Unfortunately, I just about got my lights set up and a couple of test shots fired off before it started to rain, making the jumps unsafe. This is Bob, who I had taken some nice shots of yesterday. Nice guy who took the time to have a chat about my photos. Got a lot of positive feedback from all the guys there, so I am well chuffed. A good weekend of urban sports photography for 2nd Shooter. Hoorah!