2013 365-1

Titling this post made me think for some reason of George Lucas's debut film THX 1138. A wee bit expressionless and cold.

I stopped my picture-a-day project on my birthday in November 2012 and took 6 weeks away from the commitment of taking a shot every day and posting updates every week. It felt weird and I really didn't like it - I missed the demands, the discipline and the commitment. It was a chore sometimes but it gave more back to me that it took. So, take a 6 week break and then kick off again, this time with a year long 365 project to document 2013 in all it's ups and downs. Lets rock and roll.

01/01/13

Not a tremendous shot to start off with, but I found myself standing at the top of Victoria Square with a hangover and a camera. Tried to frame the H&W cranes through the triangular windows of the viewing gallery and sort of succeeded. Pity about the dirty glass.

2/01/13

I was tidying up the junk room in my house and came across this old telephone handset. It sparked off a few ideas for the wee men and this was maybe the pick of the bunch. I entitled it "Ralph had a tough decision to make" but when I posted it on my Facebook page i inadvertently typed "touch" instead of "tough." No one corrected me - I'll assume anyone who saw it was either too polite or thought I was being cleverer than I actually am.

03/01/13

By day three I was getting into the habit of carrying a camera with me when i went out. This was a late afternoon walk through Stormont, taken at around 4.30pm. I was trying to capture the shadow here but the dogs add something.

 04/01/13

First wire wool burn of the year at the Twelve Arches bridge near Newcastle. It's OK but there's a lot wrong with it. It's way too soft for one thing and I'd have liked to have seen more the bridge/arches. A return visit at a later date; different lens maybe and a few more attempts at it may be in order.

05/01/13

Thanks to the ever-so-inventive Debbie, I ended up shooting at the Belfry indoor skate park in Newcastle this afternoon. Two off-camera flashes working remotely from my camera and some very impressive skaters and boarders made this a really fun session. The two skaters were fantastic and I think I might have pushed them a wee bit to get the shots I wanted. Plenty of interest from the people and kids present.
This is part of me continuing to try to figure out using off-camera flash to freeze action with the ultimate aim of starting shooting roller derby with strobes. I've now got three flashes that can all be triggered and adjusted from my camera, so may visit roller derby training some time soon and start working out the practical aspects of lighting for bouts.

06/01/13

More flag protest in Belfast yesterday, two days of violence and unrest, shots fired at the police, police using baton rounds and water canons. Everyone blaming everyone else. It saddens me to see how little has changed in Northern Ireland when an issue like this crops up and how polarised this society can still be. I'll let this one speak for itself.

367-50 Week 48

Week 48 and heading inexorably towards the end of the 367 project. I have something extra special planned for next week - a bit of a photo trip to somewhere I've always wanted to visit but that will need to wait.

8/10/12

Re-visited the same spot as last week to try some test shots for a possible poster photo shoot for the next Roller Derby bout at the end of November. This was the shot I was thinking of as the backdrop, then adding in some fire-spinning (which I did and which worked reasonably well). The next trick is to develop the suggestion of a Star Wars theme by putting two skaters in front of the fire spinning with light-up light sabres and pick them out with some rear curtain flash. It's shaping up to be the most difficult and intricate shot I've ever attempted and will involve a small crew of people and some willing volunteers. I wasn't too happy about the complete arse in the block of flats overlooking this piece of waste ground deciding to shine a green laser on proceedings once I got started with the fire spinning but I've realised that my photo antics are starting to draw a little attention now and again. If that was you with the green laser - you're an arse my friend.

9/10/12

I went down to the Lagan this evening with the intention of doing some light orbs around the river. Got some good shots; don't know specifically why I chose this one to post, other than it was one of the last I took before heading home. I'm having problems making my orbs perfectly circular - this might be a matter of practice. There was also a train going across the bridge behind me - it's the streak of light above the bridge.

10/10/12

Here's a learning point. When your youngest daughter is doing a viking project and needs to make a helmet and shield, don't let her and her big brother loose on the project. I don't recall pictures of vikings with mutli-coloured/striped hats and shields. This cost me four rolls of electrical tape. The helment looked like something that an american football player would wear. Don't get me wrong - it looked spectacular. Just not like something a viking would wear. I thought sepia-toning might make the photo look more.....historical. And less like the Minnesota Vikings.

11/10/12

10.30 and no shot for the day. These were heading for the bin as I has no excuse for using them. Lovely red and green chilli peppers. At least they weren't purchased in vain.

12/10/12

I can't remember the last time I felt so desperately in need of a glass of wine. It was a long day with way too much driving between meetings in work and several long and difficult telephone calls once I'd got home. My plans of an afternoon nap and something dull on Film4 were well and truly scuppered by work. It was 7 o'clock by the time the wine got poured and I drank it like man who had been lost in the Gobi desert for a month. And then fell asleep on the settee at around 9.

13/10/12

Had a lovely autumnal walk round Castlewellan this morning. I don't think I have been there since I was about 12 years old and my parents used to take us for family picnics. Instead of walking round the lake, we walked to the Annesley Gardens and walked through these and up to the old greenhouse at the far end. This is over-grown and dilapidated - a real waste of a fantastic glass house. Spotted these drops falling off a stem while trying to get some shots through a broken window of the inside. Fired off a few - this is maybe the best but even it isn't totally sharp. A macro lens, a tripod and some patience may have made for a better shot. Unfortunately, I had none of those at the time.

14/10/12

So, a damp Sunday. What to do? Why not go the the pumpkin festival at Castleward? I'll tell you why not. Parking in muddy fields miles away from where things were happening. Having to walk too far to see too little. Trying to get the free shuttle bus back to the muddy field only to find that some coach driver had parked his bloody coach on the road, blocking the traffic and guess what - had to walk back to the car. Mind you, I do have to point out that I ate amazing pizza (goats cheese and olives) and had a decent cup of coffee. And had nice company while I stomped around complaining. Here's some people carving pumpkins for small children. Bah Humbug.

On a more positive note, I am happy to announce that I will be going on a much anticipated photo expedition next week to somewhere I've always wanted to visit, and even visit more since picking up a camera. This time next week, I'll be boring you with holiday snaps.

367-50 Week 47

The weather was definitely starting to turn. Lots of rain and few opportunities to get out and about, but it is the start of October I suppose. Lets see what we can come up with this week, dodging the showers.

1/10/12

So the mystery plants in the garden finally flowered today - at the start of October? What self-respecting flower comes out in October? I had thought that I'd killed this plant when it suddenly died back and vanished but then it put out a dozen of these remarkable pods which today began to open and produce long purple flowers this morning. Hurrah! It's not dead and I didn't kill it. At least not yet.

2/10/12

A fairground up the road? Why not? Pity the place was empty and closed down for the night half and hour after I arrived because of the lack of trade. I got a few shots - this one taken with the Lensbaby Composer with a start-shaped aperture disc. I played around with it and got some very impressionistic shots of star-shaped bokeh. I liked this one, although it is a bit if a mess compositionally.

3/10/12

Sarah and I went to this footbridge in Dundonald over the dual carriageway to Newtownards in order to ger her taking some long exposure shots of car tail lights. It seemed a shame not to try out and orb while we were there and we got some nice shots. While working at these shots, a man appeared from no-where and asked to check out what we were doing - or more exactly he knew what we were doing and wanted to have a look. Got chatting to Andy, swapped details, ended up being ten minutes later picking my other daughter up from Guides. Whoops.

4/10/12

Got bitten by the light painting bug this week without a doubt. Wanted to try this shot, thanks to some of Denis Smith's stuff (if you want to see his shots, check last week's blog post). Taken at 8.30pm with a six minute exposure and a 30 second orb.

5/10/12

Love this shot. Took my two youngest daughters down to the Titanic building to try out some light painting and on the way back to the car saw this shot as being very possible. Tramped over some waste ground, famed it up using the same settings as we had used over at the Titanic building and (more by chance) this was the second shot out of the camera. Not much post-processing on this other that cropping in lightroom. 30 second exposure seemed to work well for both the cranes and the orb. Got a really nice glow under the orb too. This would look good printed and mounted. Any takers?

6/10/12

Two flower shots in the same week! Have I gone mad? I just couldn't resist this. When I moved into this house in May under what could best be described as difficult circumstances, there was a pot on the kitchen window sill with what looked like two dried onions in it. I watered them and they put out a couple of leaves. I kept watering them through the summer and nothing happened. Then suddenly, about two weeks ago, one of them produced a shoot which turned into this. I'm a sucker for growing stuff and seeing something like this come from what looked like a lifeless lump does cheer me up. I pulled the muslin curtain behind the flower and shot it with my 60mm macro and an f-stop of 3.5.

7/10/12

Went to the Belfast Roller Derby new skater recruitment evening today to take some shots. This isn't really a new skater, it's my derby daughter Katie. Katie has been training hard over the last number of months and is about to do her minimums and move up. She was also asked to talk to the new skaters about what it's like being "fresh meat" in the derby team. It was a brief chat, but informative. Amazing to see how much more confident she is on skates now - only a matter of time before I'm shooting her in a bout for the Banshees.