367-50 Week 46

Monday was a real wash out. Wet, dark and miserable. Autumn appears to have lasted exactly one week.

24/09/12

An on a wet day, what better than to try a bit of fooling about. It was pretty difficult taking this on a self-timer but thankfully I was able to get the camera to fire off 5 shots in a burst with 1 second between each. The lighting wasn't good as I was cramped for space and only had one working flashgun and no working wireless triggers, but you get the idea.

25/09/12

It's really great to see the massive changes in Belfast's public transport system. Since the introduction of the new bus lanes in the centre of Belfast. a;; traffic in and out in the mornings appears to have ground to a halt. I left my youngest daughter to school and then attempted to drive the 2 miles to the start of the motorway (I checked it on Google maps so it must be right). It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes before I hit the motorway to Antrim. Made some phone calls, sent some texts, read some e-mails. Can you tell how bored and frustrated I was?

26/09/12

Apologies for the watermark on this, but I've been working on adding watermarks to shots in Photoshop using the brush tool and got carried away. Had to go into town to do some birthday shopping for my daughter and I found myself able to sit outside drinking coffee with my camera. Took a few shots looking into Cornmarket and really liked this, especially with the man in the coat walking across the frame. I'm also getting a wee bit fixated with this type of HDR processing and am now processing 4 or 5 shots from each batch of photos this way to see how they look. Yep - I'm liking this.

27/09/12

Big up to my big son Conor. He arrived round last night and showed me the website and a video for an Australian photographer called Denis Smith who specialises in light orbs. Denis' website can be found here:

Denis Smith Photography

Denis' images are possibly the best light orbs I've seen and his locations are awesome. What I learned from Denis' video was that he shot at the full moon with very long exposures (up to 10 minutes) which then produces quite bright images even though they're shot at night time. We tried this out last night and this was our test run. This was taken around 9pm when it quite dark, with a bit of a moon out. The exposure was 4 minutes with the light orb produced in 30 seconds by swinging a bunch of LED lights around. I'm not sure if that was my orb or Conor's in the picture. This is looking like a promising technique, although it would take massive practice to get anywhere close to Denis Smith's shots.

28/09/12

I finally got see one of my guitar heroes last night, courtesy of the Ards Guitar Festival. I've been a fan of Martin Simpson for many years since coming across him on television coverage of the Cambridge folk festival. Since the passing of the great Doc Watson earlier this year, I think he is now my favourite living guitarist. He played a set that was way too short (for me anyway) and he was obviously suffering from a cold, but it was worth seeing nonetheless. This guy does things with a guitar that I don't even understand. Simply magical. As was local boy Gareth Dunlop who opened the show - I think he's now on my watch list to go and see play.

29/09/30

Roller derby last night and although this might not look like a derby shot, it is. The hard core fans of the Belfast Roller Derby team are the BRD Ultras. Last bout they came along dressed in poncho's and somberos. This time, it was ninjas. There was something so off the wall about seeing half a dozen people in the crowd dressed as japanese assassins. This is Barzo, who gamely offered to perform some spin kicks for the camera.

30/09/12

And here are my favourite Roller Derby team of all time. A nail-biting bout, tied after full time and needing an overtime jam to separate the two teams. The Belfast girls came out on top, and the excitement was amazing. A well deserved win after all the hard work they've put in this year. Dedication and drive abound, and they still find the time to hug me from time to time.

Update - Vandal Lisa (front row, far right) was rushed to hospital on Sunday after suffering a blood clot on her brain. Vandal skated like a star in the bout on Saturday night and for the smallest skater on the track, she played out of her skin. Latest news is that she's out of danger and doing well; everyone's thoughts are with Vandal and for her recovery.

367-50 Week 41

Week 41 will be along shortly so I hope you'll be patient.
I received an anonymous comment on this blog last week and have been mulling over how to respond. It went along the lines of:

"who is this silly and self-indulgent man who thinks people are interested in his pictures. They're pretty average."

I don't make a habit of publishing anonymous posts but this really pissed me off at the time that I read it. My natural reaction was something along the lines of suggesting that the person posting this hadn't even the balls to leave their name, but that would have been crass and ignorant. After due consideration, I'd offer the following slightly more measured response:

I've been called worse than silly and self indulgent in my time, although it's hard to take on a year long, shot-a-day project without coming across as a wee bit self-obsessed. When I'm trying to find things to photograph each day, I often come back to what I'm doing, seeing or experiencing that day. It can't be avoided and therefore a lot of this project is about me and what's going on in my life but then given the rationale for my 367-50 project, it was always going to be. I'd like to point out that I'm also lazy, feckless, insensitive, selfish and impulsive and also have a tendency for self-destruction. I don't actually spend time worrying if anyone is interested in my photos - although it's nice that people take the time to have a look and give me feedback on shots, and I'm flattered that some people make a point of checking the blog each week for updates. Again, this was my attempt to document a year in my life, not to gather an audience for my photography (whatever that might be). My photo's are pretty average? I'd probably take that as a compliment, although I'm tempted to wonder what or who I'm being compared to. If my anonymous poster would like to drop me a line with a link to their own pictures/photography then I'd be happy to have a look and see what I'm being measured against. I know a lot of very good photographers and I'd be well pleased to be described as being average in their company - although in that company I'd be probably well below average. Now - wasn't that much better than my original response?

Week 41 it is. 41 is a pretty big prime number. I can't even remember being 41 anymore. This week looks like being a wee bit barren, with no photoshoots lined up and a serious lack of inspirational mojo. That was what prompted me to go walkabout on Monday. God knows what the rest of the week will bring.

20/08/12

Ok - this was taken yesterday but processed today. I have gotten a day behind in posting shots. This is a  (hopefully) lightly HDR'd shot of Ballycopeland Windmill near Millisle, Co Down. I had never visited the windmill, even though I grew up about 3 miles away from it in Donaghadee. All I remember about the old windmill were ghost stories of hauntings and horrible suicides inside it. It's now a pretty nice place to visit and you even get to go inside and see the workings. Based on being inside, it's fair to assume that millers were either quite small people or they spent their lives with constant headaches from banging their heads. I'm just noticing now that the mill is slanting to the left - obviously I corrected the horizon in a bit of hurry. Whoops.

21/08/12

Street shots are maybe my favourite things when it comes to photography and particularly shots of people doing what they do. In terms of photo's I do tend towards taking them without the subject knowing they're being photographed rather than asking permission and getting something posed and maybe unnatural. Caught this while on walkabout in Belfast City Centre when I had an hour to spend and took my Lensbaby for a walk - just for the practice.

22/08/12

God, but the skies have been absolutely beautiful these last few evenings. Bright blues, fluffy clouds and then big red sunsets. Thought I'd grab a shot before it all turns grey again and starts to rain. One of those cables is my phone line - this is the the pole with everyone's phone line in our little cul de sac; 21 houses, 21 lines.

23/08/12

A warning about shooting portraits with a wide angle lens. I was outside the house trying to take a wide angle shot of the street I live in with little success. I had grabbed my back-up D60 since it still had the 10-24mm lens attached and was less than impressed with the results of my street shot. My dog, Muffin, decided to sit beside me and I happened to take a few shots of her with the same lens. It's not a great shot, but I like the distortion on her face, if it makes her look like a very sad dog. I think she's having issues at the moment - she's started randomly chewing anything made of paper (mostly work stuff, NIPA photography certificates and my car insurance documents) and has become very clingy. Maybe she is just a sad dog at the moment. Not sure how to cheer her up, apart from walks and a bot more attention.

24/08/12

I spotted this place this afternoon while picking my daughter up from a friend's house. It turned out to be a derelict nursery, boarded up and falling into serious disrepair. I only wandered in out of interest but ended up taking a load of shots of the detritus that was lying about. Cups, walkers, toys (especially duplo bricks) were all over the place. Lots of peeling paint as well. I had fun.

25/08/12

My daughter was modelling at the Retro Show at the Baby Grand this afternoon. Stars of the show were the BelleHoppers who put on a fantastic spot of 1920/1930's Charleston and Swing dancing. The fashion show (courtesy of the Rusty Zip) was OK, but I have to say that my girl was the only one who looked like she could actually model clothes. This is Jenna from the BelleHoppers, by the way.

26/08/12

Belfast Mela festival today - very big, very busy and bursting with colour. Seeing this guy on stage reminded me how long it's been since I pointed a camera at a musician - it's been way too long. Way too long. Time to track down some music photography opportunities I think.

367-50 Week 40

Week 40 on the project and after this only 12 more weeks to go! By the end of this week I'll have posted 40 weeks of shots, a total of 280 photos. I'm not sure why, but I've returned from holidays with an increased mojo for taking pictures and increased motivation for getting myself out there again. I've been hitting the e-mail hard over the last few days and have turned up some good photo opportunities. Digging pays off and the fruits of said digging will certainly turn up here over the next few months.

13/08/12

It was late on Monday evening and I hadn't taken my shot. Dinner was in the oven and I had about 20 minutes to find something. This was what I found. I shot a few frames but there was something about the texture of the statue, bricks and stones that appealed to me and it seemed to work in sepia. Later that night I sat on a beach and watched the most marvellous sheet lightning storm out over the Irish Sea from a deserted beach on the County Down Coast. I hadn't taken my camera, but it would have been glorious to have gotten a shot of the clouds lighting up from within. It was a damn nice walk and a damn nice evening though, so I'm not complaining.

14/08/12

On the spur of the moment I decided to go into Belfast and shoot the open-top bus celebration for Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan, two Irish boxers who both won bronze at the Olympic Games. I got some good shots of them but had also heard on the radio that a mural was being painted to celebrate Conlan's win near where he lived. I took a swing by the street and found this, had a chat with the very helpful man who was painting the mural with his son and took this shot, which was my own favourite of the day. I also uploaded the pics and a story to Demotix, the first real news story I've uploaded there in a long time. My story made the front page of the main Demotix website, as least for a couple of hours. That was pretty pleasing. If you want to have a gander at it, you can find it here:

Paddy Barnes/Michael Conlan Story on Demotix

14/08/12

Ok - I got sidetracked this evening whilst looking for props for a photo project with Sarah. I ended up sitting looking through a box of old family stuff - photos, documents, medals, watches etc. There was also a bag containing my late grandfather's orange lodge regalia. This is a detail shot of his sash - as you will notice, it is blue not orange, blue being the colour for temperance lodges. It was quite remarkable that my grandfather was a member of a temperance lodge, given that he was fond of alcohol and whiskey in particular. It's even more remarkable that he decided to leave this stuff to me when he died, given my own particular political and religious opinions. Either that or he had kept his sense of humour right up to his death.

15/08/12

It's rare that I come up with a title for a shot, but this is "The Mighty Atom" - you know, like some sort of 1950's comic book hero/heroine? Light painting fun in the back garden made easier by the fact that the nights are definitely getting darker. One LED torch waved around Sarah on a 30" exposure at f 11 and ISO 100 and then a blast of rear curtain flash at the end to light up Sarah herself. Some of Sarah's shots of me are better than this, but I daren't post them up here. Make me look bad.

16/08/12

This was the result of another evening's light painting exploits. This was all done after 9.30 at night, just after sunset. The main shot is a long exposure and HDR'ed shot of the round tower in Dundrum Castle with the castle being lit up by a hand-held torch. The light spheres were created in the grounds of the castle by taping led lights to a hula hoop and spinning it. The spheres were then cut and pasted into the main picture and re-sized accordingly. I need to work on the spheres a bit more to try to get some kind of glow effect from them, but for a first effort I'm pretty pleased with this.

17/08/12

A total grab shot if ever there was one. Stopped for coffee and a sticky bun (and a smoke) outside and set the camera on the table. I realised it was pointing at this man and his dog, waited for the dog to turn its head and hit the shutter button and prayed that the settings on the camera would do the job. They did.

19/08/12

I'm not sure why there are so many landscapes cropping up on the blog recently, given that the phrase most associated with this type of shot is "I don't do landscapes." I do like this shot though, taken last night and processed this morning. Maybe I just need to do some more and read around it too, get more of an idea of what to look for when setting up landscape shots.