365/298: 14 December 2010: Guess the subject

Taken in another hotel room.

365/122: 21 June 2010: Toilet roll holder

Another in my occasional series of bathroom fittings from hotels around the country. this time its the loo roll holder from the Days Inn at Warwick Services. No-one can say I don’t  know how to live. Spending the night here on my way to collect Ashley from London at the end of his diploma course.

365/108: 07 June 2010: More random stuff from a hotel room

Love the contrast between the shiny chrome bar and the fluffy white towel in this shot. Took several goes to get right because the average hotel bathroom is not brightly lit once you move a way from the shaving lights. In the end I used my flash gun bounced of the ceiling to give a reasonably diffuse light source that didn’t reflect too dramatically in the chrome.

365/102: 01 June 2010: The switch

Does what it says on the can. Took this one in my room at Cottons, near Knutsford. It’s the switch on the rather fancy chromed bedside lamp. Tried it in black and white but preferred the slightly warmer colours in this version

365/83: 13 May 2010: As usual the weather was gone by the time I left the office

…which was particularly distressing because I’d travelled to Anglesey today and was quite looking forward to stopping on the way back to the hotel to do some shooting at Mynydd Parys. (Lest there be any misunderstanding the link is not to my photos)
Sadly by the time I got off site the light was the kind of gloomy grey that would have made Eyore look colourful. So I settled for another hotel room shot.
Have been reading about Minimalism recently so thought I’d give it a go. Here’s the lampshade.

365/74: 04 May 2010: I need to get out more…

..or at least get out of the hotel more. In Largs tonight, at the Brisbane House hotel, which has been done up very nicely since the last time I was here. Should really have gone into Largs and taken some photos across to Cumbrae, but the light was not great and i was a bit short of time so here’s another B&W of bathroom fittings:

Rather fancy shampoo bottles – don’t you think?

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 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 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 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.