365/275: 21 November 2010: A new degree module

Thought I’d make a start on the new module – People and Place – with a portrait of Marion.

365 Challenge Days 55-59: 15-19 April 2010: London Trip

Bit of a long break between posts this time because we’ve been away in London celebrating one of Marion’s significant birthdays. But first up a sunset shot from the 15th April. Can’t honestly say that it looked dramatically different from a lot of Solway sunsets – so much for volcanic ash.

On the 16th we spent quite a bit of time travelling to London to be met by our son – who made a very good job of being our unofficial guide to London for the weekend. In case you’re reading this – thanks Ashley

Saturday (17th) we did the sights before going to see Sister Act at the Palladium. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (got a sunburnt bald patch to prove it). Could have chosen any number of shots of London, but I preferred this one of all of us pretending it’s summer in Regents Park. Seems to catch the spirit of the day rather well:

Sunday morning (18th) we visited the rather fancy Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherds Bush. Sadly it didn’t open ‘til mid-day so we were restricted to window shopping and an excellent Mexican meal on the terrace. Lots of piccies to choose from, but thought this one of Charlie’s Angels fitted the bill:

Monday 19th and back home again – where has the warmth gone – it’s freezing. Took this view towards some of the local villages at sunset during our evening constitutional:

And that’s me back up-to-date again. Looking forward to getting into the two-hundreds – not long now.

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 Challenge – Day 1 – 20 Feb 2010

Needed something to make me press the shutter more often so have decided to have a go at the 365 challenge – a (meaningful) photo every day for a year. It sounds quite simple from this end, so I’ll have to see how it goes.
For the record, I started on Saturday 20th Feb. Was going to leave it until the end of Feb so I could start on the first day of March. In the end that felt like an excuse – so here’s my first photo – of my wife, Marion, taken at Zest Harbourside in Whitehaven while we were waiting to order lunch.

As an upbeat note to end with, lunch was excellent. If you’re in Whitehaven and in need of food I can recommend  Zest .