365 Challenge Day 40 – 31 Mar 2010 – Our new living room

At last the living room is just about finished. We’ve had the chimney re-opened and a solid fuel stove installed – which meant a complete redecorate. Here’s the end product:

Can’t quite believe how much more useable the room is now we have the stove installed – and provided we manage to keep it going the house is lovely and toasty to come into on a cold day. In case anyone is wondering about the odd perspective – it’s because I used an ultra-wide lens to get everything in.

On an entirely unrelated note – I’ve just started a photography degree with the Open College of the Arts – which means I’ve started another blog here. Do feel free to pop over and have a look.

365 Challenge Day 39 – 30 March 2010 – Amp/Mixer

Saw this one in my son’s bedroom earlier in the day. The whole thing strikes me as having potential for some stock shots, so assuming I can find some time tomorrow I may be having a go at that. Quite like these repetitive patterns, and the techy feel of the thing itself. Looks like lots of little Daleks al waiting to destroy The Doctor.

365 Challenge Day 38 – 29 March 2010 – Glass ornament

Been looking to take a photo of this etched glass ornament for a couple of years and never really worked out how to do it. This attempt uses a small desk lamp just out of shot – it seems reasonably effective as a first pass. I deliberately underexposed to make the blacks darker, and then upped the contrast quite dramatically. If I can find my old laser pen I’m going to have another go and light it with that.

365 Challenge Day 37 – 28 March 2010 – Mosher the Lovebird makes a first appearance

Went for a stroll around Keswick this morning and bizarrely nothing took my fancy. Was sitting at the computer fiddling with the camera when Mosher cam and sat on my shoulder.  This is just the sort of thing that the hinged viewing screen on the camera was made for, so I popped off a couple of shots. This was the best because I moved to the window so that I was lit by sunlight and the rest of the room was in relative darkness.
Mosher seems to like sitting on my shoulder, when he isn’t trying to chew my fingers on the mouse. While it may look very cute, I can’t help but notice that the last time I saw a beak like that it was on a kestrel. That and the fact that Lovebirds like to strip bark from branches, and as he’s a bird of very little brain – my neck looks pretty much like a branch!

365 Challenge Day 36 – 27 March 2010 – Playing with Photoshop

Started out with good intentions today – while I was waiting for my youngest to complete her keyboard lesson I was going to walk along Silloth seafront and take lots of photos. Then I discovered how cold and windy it was! Fortunately you can get close to the edge in the car, so I settled for some shots of gulls from the car window. Sat in front of the fire at home, I thought I’d give one of the a working over with Photoshop and came up with this:

Got to this point fairly easily by being a bit rough with the sky in a Levels layer.
And, as it’s the weekend, I thought I’d go mad and take some more photos. Particularly liked the way the sunlight was catching my shaving kit on the window ledge.

365 Challenge Day 35 – 26 March 2010 – Ageing hippiedom strikes

Casting around for something to photograph this evening and came up with this idea. Is there a truer mark of ageing hippiedom than learning to play Stairway to Heaven on a flute?  Now, where did I leave my flares..oh here they are..next to the Grateful Dead album.

365 Challenge Day 34 – 25 March 2010 – North Wales by Daylight

An excellent day with colleagues at Trawsfynydd, marred only by the fact that i didn’t leave site until the sun had gone behind the clouds, which is a crying shame as the Trawsfynydd to Bala road has some excellent scenery. Stopped near the dam at Llyn Celyn and took this photo of what i assume to be the water extraction point from the reservoir.

Have a feeling I’ll be back to this stretch of road for some more photos during the summer months.

365 Challenge Day 33 – 24 March 2010 – North Wales in the dark

Had an excellent day with my communications colleagues. Main feature was a Myers- Briggs session with the whole team. On of the things I loved about Myer-Briggs was the disbelief when I read the description of my type – it felt like black magic that a complete stranger could describe me so effectively. Unfortunately the session had to end and then it was several hours in the car to North Wales. Fortunate then that I had a colleague for company.
Overnight at my regular Snowdonia stop-over – the Waterloo Hotel at Betws-y-Coed. So another night time shot of a hotel this evening – looking forward to the clocks going forward so that I can enjoy – and photograph – some of these places in daylight.

Particularly like the interplay of the different lighting sources in this one.

365 Challenge Day 31/32 – 22/23 March 2010 – Any port in a storm

yay!!!.. Reached my first complete month – but only just. Left it rather late Monday evening, and Tuesday was an impossible combination of travelling, meetings and hotels as a result of which I was rather limited in subject matter. On both days I thought I’d go for some semi-abstract stuff.
Monday 22nd – wood grain from a log in my new fireplace:


And Tuesday 23 March – I’ll let you guess what this is – it was taken in my hotel room. One thing this project is really beginning to do is open my eyes to the range of photos that can be found in everyday circumstances

365/30 – 21 March 2010 - A Quiet Sunday In

Got up slowly and pottered about the house most of the day. Spent the afternoon processing the 200-odd photos from the dancing of Saturday night, then had an excellent dinner and too much wine with the whole family – a rare treat these days.
This picture of my daughter slumped quietly in the armchair seems to sum things up.

365 Challenge – Day 29 – 20 March 2010 –Scottish Dancing

A new challenge today – event photography. Not something I’ve really had a go at before. the event was the 50th Anniversary Dance of the Derwent Scottish Country Dancing Society – of which my wife is a keen member. I went along to help serve the wine and to take some photos as a memento for the people there.
And an interesting challenge it proved as well. It took place in a large village hall, with the usual strip lighting, which is not good for any photography, let alone photos of dancers with twirling kilts. My flash earned it’s money. Fortunately the ceiling was reasonably low, so by bouncing the flash and getting reasonably close to the action (while managing to avoid tripping the dancers) I managed some decent shots.
Took a variety of lenses as well so that I managed some candid portraits as well as group shots. As a final twist, I went with the light on a couple of occasions and used slow shutter speeds to give a better impression of the dancing than afforded by the flash alone - like this, in fact:

365/28 – 19 March 2010 - Shiny

Happened to notice the light catching on a CD this evening so I went the whole hog, spread a few out on the table and tried to capture the rainbow effects. I have a sneaking suspicion that in thousands of years time archaeologists will dig these things up and conclude that they were ceremonial jewellery of some kind.

365 Challenge – Days 24-27 : 15-18 March 2010

Another four days on the road. First night (Monday 15) was yet another late arrival at the Park Royal, but the bathroom came up trumps with this one. Quite like shooting in hotel bathrooms (sounds like a Psycho remake) because all the white tiles make for more uniform lighting. This one shows the distortion you get with an ultra wide angle – if you’re in to photo geekery.

On the second night we moved to the rather pleasant Lowry Hotel in the middle on Manchester for a big two–day meeting. Just love city architecture, and the Lowry has some really interesting stuff quite nearby – like this bridge over the River Irwell. Wished I brought my proper tripod with me as photographing in light this low is always a challenge with just a monopod.


The first full day of the meeting finished early enough for me to get out in the evening light  and have a go at catching the spirit of the odd-shaped building in the top left of the previous photo. I shall have to find out why it was built like this:

And finally home again (18th March). As I wore a collar and tie for most of the conference I thought I’d celebrate this unusual feat with a picture of one of my ties.

So there we are. Back on blogging schedule – with the first month of the challenge in my sights.

365 Challenge – Day 23 – 14 March 2010 - It’s Mother’s Day..

.. and what better way to celebrate than a pink rose

365 Challenge – Day 22 – 13 March 2010 – A stab at black and white

A typical Saturday – spent the morning chasing around Carlisle, then decorating in the afternoon. The cloudy sky gave some particularly interesting light around sunset very golden colour, particularly on the trees across the road so I dashed out and popped of a couple of shots before it faded. Good job I moved quickly as it was gone in less than five minutes. Just for a change thought I’d have a go at a black and white conversion. Here’s the end result – I'm quite pleased with it.

A few more (colour) shots from this series can be found on the Around Cumbria page of my website.

365 Challenge – Day 21 – 12 March 2010 – Sunset over Allerby Community Gardens

The sunset looked interesting from the back window this evening, but when I got to my chosen viewpoint I realised I had been duped – it was just boring. So had a look around and came up with this alternative take – through a polytunnel in the garden centre next door.

365 Challenge – Day 20 – 11 March 2010 – A personal achievement

Have been getting up early and going for a swim whenever I can as a way of staying fit. Today – for the first time- I managed a full mile non-stop so thought I would celebrate with a photo. As I realise small children and women of nervous dispositions may see this blog I decided a self-portrait of me in wet speedos was not on the cards – so it’s just a close-up of the speedos. Not that speed was an issue – it took me nearly an hour – but what the heck – I got there in the end.


PS: to the guys in mensswimnsuitboard they're Speedo Endurance.

365 Challenge – Day 19 – 10 March 2010 - Daresbury

Another lovely day – so went for a walk at lunch time. The West Coast Mainline runs just below the offices so a train was an obvious shot. One of Mr Branson’s finest soon obliged. Not sure if this is a Pendulino or a Super Voyager – thoughts anyone?

365 Challenge – Day 18 – 09 Mar 2010 – At the hotel again

One of the frustrating things about doing this is that I travel more miles than I care to consider, but because they’re all on motorways, I can’t stop to photograph the scenery. Today was no different – home – motorway – office – hotel – and since a quick turn-around was needed at the hotel so I could catch a taxi I threw together this still life with the ingredients at hand – some ginger biscuits, a mug and spoon and the hotel guide. It will beintersting (to me at least) to count how many different photos I can take in a hotel room with the relatively meagre props available.

365 Challenge – Day 17 – 08 Mar 2010 – It’s a gorgeous day

…and sadly I’m stuck indoors working from home, surrounded by the glories of Cumbria on a beautiful morning and afternoon. Skiddaw looks absolutely stunning from the front window – even if it is, as the estate agent would say – a distant view of the fells. Here’s today’s photo just to prove it – and to be unconventional I used a telephoto for a landscape shot. Pity about the pylon, but on balance I’d prefer to have electricity and pylons, than no pylons and no electricity.

365 Challenge – Day 16 – 7 March 2010

Brave decision today – deliberately left the photo until it was dark, as I fancied having a go at star trails. Nice clear night, but very cold with it. Discovered quite rapidly that i don't really have the patience for this – and I don’t have a remote shutter gizmo either, which rather limits the length of the trail as I’m not prepared to stand there holding the shutter button down for 10 minutes. So here’s tonight’s effort – it’s Orion, and perhaps the most interesting thing about it is it does show the different colours of the stars quite nicely. It also shows just how far stars actually move in less than 3 minutes.

365 Challenge – Days 12-15 – Out and about

Not posted for a few days as I haven’t had easy access to the net – so four days in a single post today.

3rd March 2010

The first was taken on the 3rd March after a jaunt down the motorway to Berkeley, near Gloucester. My usual resting place is the Tortworth Court, and today was no different. By the time I’d checked in the choice was a photo in my room or try some low-light shots outside. As the building is rather splendid I took the latter option, as you can see here. Keeping the camera still was a bit of a challenge as I’d left my tripod at home (again), but  a handy buttress provided me with enough stability to carry it off, even with a shutter speed of 5 secs.

4th March 2010

Next morning was a very pleasant spring morning so I stopped to take a photo before setting off to work. The Tortworth is in the middle of an excellent arboretum, and one of the many unusual trees is the very first corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta'). First discovered in a local woodland, and transplanted to the site in the 1800 by the then owner, all other corkscrew hazels are derived from this one tree, and produced by grafting.

 

As it was a delightful evening I took some time out to visit St Leonards Church in Tortworth village. While this is technically more than one photo a day, I thought I’d include a shot because if you’re ever passing nearby its definitely worth a look.













5th March 2010
Back home this evening and after a couple of days shooting outside I retreated to the more familiar ground of still life with this study of some grapes in the kitchen fruit basket.


6th March 2010
Decorating today. Have had a new wood burning stove installed in attempt to fight off the ever increasing cost of bottled gas – so the room is a complete mess, and is likely to remain so for a day or two yet. This shot captures my major preoccupation today.


And  that’s the lot – back on schedule.

365/11 – Snow at last – 02 Mar 2010

Woke up to thick fog and only the second covering of snow we’ve had this winter. I say covering – while everyone else has had tones of the stuff, this half-inch is as much as we’ve managed all winter. So out with the camera to make hay while the sun shines – if that isn’t too bizarre an analogy in the circumstances.

365 Challenge – Day 10 - 01 Mar 2010 Hahoe Mask

Had this ugly little critter hanging on my wall for some years - It was originally a gift from  a Korean visitor. It’s a model of one of the masks used in the Hahoe mask dance. Apparently this one is Yangban – the Aristocrat. I thought that it would benefit from strong side lighting – courtesy of a small desk lamp - with a little bit of reflection from some white card to slightly lighten the shadows.