2013 365-28

God help me but the heat this week has killed me. Thankfully I got to spend a few days away camping with the wee monkey at the start of the week. That's what the first few shots are off. There's a couple of night-time shots taken in my old home town of Donaghadee as well, which was kind of fun.

8/07/13

Had a go at creating a back-lit portrait using the sun and a speedlight as fill. Needs more work but it does have promise.

9/07/13

Spent a relaxing half hour today cooling our feet in a fountain at Glenarm Castle, until Sarah decided she would start splashing water everywhere. As punishment I made her lie down and I took a photo that made it look as if the fountain was coming out of her mouth.

10/07/13

Old sundial in Glenarm Castle walled garden.

11/07/13

To mark the impending 12th of July tomorrow I hung my brightest, orangest t-shirt out on the line. Irony.

12/07/13

Donaghadee harbour and lighthouse, taken at around 10.30 pm just after the sun had gone down. Lightly HDR'd to bring out the colours.

13/07/13

 Night panorama of Donaghadee. Again a wee touch of HDR to enhance the colours in the town. Liked the reflections of the lights in the water and was lucky to catch two people walking on the beach.

14/07/13

walking through Storment estate this afternoon in search of an elusive cricket match to photograph. The remains of a picnic set out like this on one of the tables.

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.

Dawn and Dusk

The plan for this Saturday was to get out and shoot sunrise and sunset shots. Therefore, it was up at 6am to get to Keel Point near Newcastle (Co Down). This involved a fair old walk from the car park to the part of the beach I was aiming for, in the dark and and cold. Reached the beach just after 7am and had time get set up. A big learning point was setting the camera's white balance. My first few shots were very "blue" in tone and setting the white balance to "cloudy" was crucial in bringing out the orange/red/yellow colours of the sky. Thanks to Debbie for that tip!

The tide was going out and from a previous visit to the beach I had noticed lines of wooden posts running out into the sea and had planned to use these as a focal point for some of the shots.

I've just re-read this post and realise that the two shots (above and below) need to be spaced out a little as I don't think they look right sitting so close together. Hence this inane but brief paragraph.

All in all, very happy with how these turned out. After being focused on the sunrise, I then had the wit to have a look around me and the beautiful scenery of the Mournes at that time of the morning.

So, sunrise worked well. After an enormous veggie fry and a spot of lying about, it was out again at 3pm to try to catch the sunset. The plan was to head up into the Mournes and shoot sunset somewhere like Spelga Dam. Sadly, the weather decided not to play ball and the clouds and lack of light defeated me. However, I did have my backpack full of filters and other gear from this morning and wasn't going home empty handed. This was taken at a little bridge near Rocky Mountain with two ND filters and an exposure of 1 minute. Came out very Zen in the end, with some nice detail in the rocks and that nice milky quality to the water. I think this is the first time I've managed this effect - quite pleased even if I didn't get the sunset.

367-50 Week 24

Bienvenue, Ola, Hoz Geldinitz and so on. Welcome to week 24 - yes that's WEEK 24 of my dinky little photoblog.  God only knows what's coming up this week. Nothing planned in advance and no known photoshoots in the works, except for a camera club outing on Wednesday night.

23/04/12

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM+ for short) was invented in 1938 and by 1942 was being used by Britain and the USA as an IQ screener for all new soldiers. Welcome to the 2012 version which now includes a very test of ability as well as the good old visual matrices. But why take a photo of this? I'm doing a training session next Wednesday on a new batch of psychometric tests being given out to all post-primary schools and this is one of the tests in the box. It's incredibly dull stuff and I can't think of any way to liven it up except to throw in a few pics. Jokes about psychometric tests are thin on the ground. Mind you, if anyone knows one - leave me a comment on the blog or e-mail me at michaelbarbour902@btinternet.com. Best joke that can be used next week will win a pint at my earliest convenience. *Update* See joke at bottom of blog - all my own work.

24/04/12

Spent all day in Larne, assessed two nursery children (observations and psychometrics and interviews with staff and parents) and got to drive half way home with the roof down. Then went to take the kids aikido class when we graded two of the newest students. The went home and went out for a run - one hour with no stops. I'll not tell you how far I covered but it wasn't as much as the target of 7 miles for the marathon relay leg. My picture - me after my run. I forgot to take my camera out with me today.

25/04/12

I'm on a wee bit of a roll here in terms of strange things I've encountered in the offices of various solicitors. Today was a real gobsmacker. An innocent question - "where's the bathroom" actually lead me to a door behind which was .....a bathroom. Complete with corner bath and shower cubicle which you can't see in this shot. I felt like cancelling the interview I had scheduled and taking a bath.

26/04/12

Comber Greenway, between the Sandown and Beersbridge Roads. North Road bridge in the distance. It's cold and wet. Weather's miserable. Running a little and feeling like shit.

27/04/12

Dirty and grainy shot of the same walkway at sunset. This is at the end, heading into the Holywood Arches. It's not pretty. This and the previous shot were both taken and processed using the Camera Awesome app on the iphone 4.

28/04/12

This is the almost finished backwall gallery for the City of Belfast Photographic Society exhibition with most of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed prints on display. Unfortunately I had to leave before it was finished with the highly commended and commended prints still to be hung. I'm pleased to have four there so far, with a few more to come. I'm also very proud of my 9 year old daughter, who has two first placed prints in the novice/beginner/general section and four pictures up there - damn! She has the same amount as me.

29/04/12

I planted three forest flame bushes in pots in the front garden last year - they've all been out in flower for some time and all have different coloured flowers. These are the white variety - the other two are red/pink and variagated pink/white. They've done really well but I suppose they need to be planted in the ground at some stage.

Cheers for stopping by and having a look at the blog. Don't be shy and drop me a message on the blog - feedback gratefully accepted.

*Update*
Just remembered the joke about the man who goes to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist takes out the Rorschach Ink Blots and shows the man the first one, asking what he can see. The man says "I see a gorgeous naked lady and she's looking at me in a very inviting way." The psychiatrist shows the man the next ink blot and the man says "I see two people making mad passionate love."
The psychiatrist says "I think I can see the problem - you're obsessed with sex."
The man says "me? You're the one showing all these dirty pictures!"