367-50 Week 36

Here we go with week 36 - that means that there's only another 16 weeks of the 367-50 project left to run. I'm not sure if that qualifies as being "on the home straight" but I think the finishing post is in sight.

16/07/12

Had the pleasure of attending a newly-formed camera club this evening and suggested a photographic scavenger hunt to get a small group of beginners out and taking photos. It all went very well (I think) and some pretty good shots were produced. This is my attempt to find a square, one of the items on the scavenger hunt and i liked the colours and textures on this post box. And yes, I did boost the colours a contrast a little in Lightroom.

17/07/12

Boredom. What to do. Lets pick a project at random from the pile of camera mags lying about in the house. An x-ray shot of a camera sounded pretty good. This is my back-up D60 shot with my D90. I shot this against a white background and used my macro ring flash for lighting - that's the reflections you can see in the lens. Quite bit of complicated messing about in Photoshop, and several abortive attempts finally got me to this shot. It's certainly different. I was also asked if you could reproduce this effect with a person. I tried and am pleased to announce that in fact you can.

18/07/12

Doing the laundry this morning and felt the urge to try to take a nice shot of "the octopus" which holds my socks. Too much information? The blue colour came out well, and there was a nice shallow depth of field shooting at f2.8 on my 24-70 lens.

19/07/12

So, sitting at home today when someone on a Facebook photography group posted a suggestion about taking shots with the good old "nifty fifty." There was an opportunity to combine the pile of reports I was struggling to write with the little men and specifically, the little mountaineers. Shot with the 50mm set to f1.8, hence the shallow depth of field. Wasn't the best shot posted on the group by a long way, but it was good to do it. As a way of avoiding work of course.

20/07/12

The on-going battle between me and the crappy lighting at the Valley Leisure Centre has been a source of annoyance to me for some time. When shooting Roller Derby Bouts for the Belfast Banshees high shutter speed means high ISO and a lot of noise. Went along to training last evening to try out a different camera rig and set up after seeking advice from anyone who would give it. The results were pretty good, I think. Depth of field is still pretty narrow but I was able to get a shutter speed of 1/400-1/500 which worked well for action shots and didn't end up with too much noise. The above shot was processed without any noise reduction either, so I'm happy and looking forward to the Banshees next bout on the 28th July. The training was taken by the one and only Diamond Destroyher (that's not a mis-spelling) and it was so good watching her skate and teach. That's her in the middle. Her Pat Benatar impression was pretty good too - what a shimmy! More shots from the session can be found at:

BRD Training July 2012

21/07/12

Visited the Belfast Custom Bike Show and then the NEST exhibition at T13. NEST was by far and away the standout of the day for me. A massive installation of found objects by two artists that covers the entire floor of the T13 warehouse. This was the opening day, complete with a choir hidden among the crowd and a full orchestra. Breath-taking and a photography treasure trove of the highest order. The wee monkey and I were tired by the time we got in at 4pm, but by god it was worth the wait. I may return for another visit when I have more time and energy. Couldn't recommend this highly enough. Check it out here:

NEST at T13 Website

22/07/12

Wee girl vs a fry. 8am this fine Sunday morning. Housework to be done, family visiting to be done. What better way to prepare yourself than with a veggie fry? Roll on this afternoon when I will lying on the settee snoozing and watching the Open golf.

Off tonight to visit the Peace Camp installation at White Park Bay - I've seen some pics of this and it looks really interesting. Camera and tripod job I fear, and I hope I've booked a time that will get the sun going down between 9.30 and 10.30. Hope to get a shot posted tomorrow so it will be in next week's update.

Thanks for your time, as always. Feel free to share the Blog (FB share icon is up a bit on the right) and feel free to drop me a comment.

367-50 Week 32

Here we go with another week. I've been finding it harder to keep going taking a picture every day for some time now and I feel that I've lost inspiration somewhere or at least that very few of my ideas translate into half-decent pics. I'm keeping going, though, but right now it feels like I'm going through the motions. Or to be more accurate, it feels like I'm trying to run a marathon through quicksand with concrete blocks strapped to me. Backwards. And uphill.

18/06/12

So. my Monday ends up in Glengall Street in Belfast. There are few things of interest in Glengall Street although there was a lot of action at the stage door of the Opera House with a few massive trailers being unloaded. I was here for my first counselling appointment with Relate - it's in the big glass building. My stress levels were pretty high going in and being my normal 10 minutes early for any appointment, I had plenty of time to get even more anxious. The counsellor was very good; she let me talk and brought me back on track when I started to lose focus and ramble on. She asked some good questions and made some interesting and quite challenging suggestions and observations. I left with things to think about, and with much less anxiety than when I went in.

19/06/12

Another Tuesday Aikido picture. I'm wondering how many of these I've taken so far? This is my club badge, and my belt. I've never been 100% sure what the symbols on my belt translate as, but here's my interpretation. On the right side, the top three kanji are the symbols for Ai-Ki-Do; that I'm sure of. I think the bottom two are the symbols for "shodokan" - the style of Aikido I practice. On the left hand side I think the kanji are the phonetic Japanese version of my name. I stand to be corrected by anyone who can read Japanese. On a tangent, getting on the mats and practising has always been a way for me to forget about whatever else is going on and concentrate only on moving and on technique. There have been times in my life when Aikido kept me sane, that's all I'm saying. And yes, I admit that I've not been doing any serious training lately. Last summer I said that over the summer I was going to stop smoking, get fit and lose weight. I've lost weight, gotten a lot fitter but am still smoking too much. I think it's about time I got back to proper training. August/September should be interesting.

20/06/12

Another day's work in Glenarm and another chance to visit the old factory. I had put some wee men in place last week (my last visit) and wanted to see if they were still in place. They were and I took some half decent shots. However, I got sidetracked by the factory stuff - it's not the first time that has happened. The rust fascinates me - the colours and patterns make a lovely abstract image, although I realise that it's probably only me that looks at this lovingly. This is my favourite shot, but perhaps not the best technically.

21/06/12

OK, I'm well aware that my hands are not the prettiest in the world, even under the best of circumstances. Like an old friend, my pompholyx eczema returned this week after approximately 6 months. I can't say I've missed it. But, given that this is a year long project, odds were it was going to happen and when it does, it really messes me about. This was a relatively small outbreak, just affecting the index finger and thumb of my right hand but christ it is sore. Blisters followed by raw skin for a couple of weeks, and itching that would drive you mental plus tightening of the fingers, making my index finger look like a hook. Hard to work a camera, impossible to play the guitar, can't hold a pen, and so on. The worst outbreaks of this I've had involved not being to drive (couldn't hold the wheel/change gear), not being to dress myself (buttons and laces? Give me a break) and not being able to cook. Be thankful for small mercies.

22/06/12

And then the rain came down in a seven plagues of Egypt way. All day. Stuck in the house, I decided to have a crack at taking a half decent photo of my wee dog, Muffin. I set up a backdrop, speeedlites and brollies. I tried to get Muffin to sit still. To lie down. All with no success until my little assistant turned up and got Muffin to sit and look in various directions. I thought that this might be a more fitting shot. I'm not working with dogs again. Children yes, dogs no.

23/06/12

I never thought I'd see the day when I'm actually providing a cucumber update. Went in this morning to water the plants in the greenhouse to discover a load of little yellow flowers on the two cucumber plants. There does seem to be quite a lot of them - I'm suspecting they may need to be thinned out a little when the actual cucumbers start to appear. A little on-line research is needed I think. Stay tuned for further cucumber updates.

24/06/12

Big snail on the bin this morning. Totally the wrong lens for this sort of shot, but I couldn't be bothered running upstairs to get a macro lens on the camera. I'm in a moral dilemma - something has been eating the pepper plants in the greenhouse and I suspect it's either snails or slugs. There are also a couple of frogs living in the greenhouse and I was hoping that they would keep the snails and slugs under control. To nuke them or not. I'd prefer not to.

Anyhow, that's this week. I have a photo safari lined up tomorrow, to visit a couple of places I've never photographed and probably everyone else has. Next weekend is a visit to my son in Nottingham and there's a rumour of a work outing to go Karting on Thursday. Shouldn't be a problem filling the photography week.

If you've got this far, don't be shy! Hit the Facebook share button on the right or leave me a comment.