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This year I will be mostly... taking a photo every day, and posting it up here for you all to see and comment on if you feel inclined (please do). It's not an original idea, I stole it off a friend and many other people are doing the same as I speak, but I thought it seemed like a great idea to get used to my new toy, my Canon Eos 500D with Tamron 18-250mm Macro lens - my first digital SLR.

A lot of sites online talk about 'project 365' where people are encouraged to take a photo every day, but while their take on it is to create a personal history of the photographer, I wanted to make it a bit more abstract, more about the world around me. So this isn't meant to be a photo diary of my life, I am striving for each photo to be 'good' because of its artistic and technical merit, not because it's personal to me. Having said that personal subject matter will inevitably creep in as inspiration, but that's allowed, the book I'm reading claim that "every picture we take is merely a self-portrait of our inner psyche"!

I had a think of a couple of ideas for themes and settled on 'moods'. Then I was hit by indecision as to what to do if I take a photo I like and want to upload as my daily snap, but it doesn't fit the theme. So I have decided that the theme is just for inspiration rather than as a criteria, the photos can be of anything. That way I get the most flexibility of what to upload, and still have a muse.

While I'll be taking photos every day, I'll only upload them every few days, so keep checking back. I'm not anticipating the photos to be groundbreaking (at least not to start with!), the whole point is to improve so I won't be great initially. But I'll still try my best which will hopefully keep it interesting. Please feel free to add whatever comments you like (hopefully constructive!) as that will help me as much as the process of actually taking a photo a day, I will endeavour to reply to them all.

For my trip reports blog see http://fidgetsadventures.blogspot.com


Monday, 31 January 2011

Saturday 29th January 2011

I had high hopes for today as I was heading out for a photography day with my knowledgable friend James. We rendezvoused in the Peak District and sauntered off down a riverside footpath, enjoying having all the time in the world to stop and snap away, without having anywhere else we needed to be. I valued having the opportunity to talk non stop about various tips and tricks and pick James' brains. Towards the end of the day we crossed some stepping stones and got some lovely photos of the streaming textured water with various hues within it, and I thought that would be my photo of the day. However just as we were approaching the road to return to our cars, James alerted me to 'something interesting' over to my left and there was a whole flock of Waxwings, which aren't particularly common in this part of the world. I've never seen one before and here were dozens! Gorgeous creatures. I fired off a couple of shots then we approached them from the road instead thinking that would be less likely to spook them and it worked. Just as I was shooting photos of them in high a tree one popped up in the hedge to my right greedily eating berries, and thankfully my camera already had the correct settings (spot metering, ISO off 100 and on to automatic, as fast a shutter speed as I could get given the light) to record the moment before it flew off.

If my capture is anywhere near as good as this one I'm overjoyed!


250mm, 1/125s, f/6.5 (auto from shutter priority), ISO 400 (auto)
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11 comments:

  1. Anonymous31 January 2011 at 10:00

    Gorgeous!

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  2. George31 January 2011 at 10:00

    Ohhhh Waxwing!!!!!! You lucky lucky person... :)

    Utterly gorgeous birds they are, saw some on Autumn Watch last year..

    You can tempt them and things like Redwings and Fieldfares into your garden with fruit.. They love apples and the likes...

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  3. Sarah Clough31 January 2011 at 10:23

    Anonymous - they are aren't they, I was so chuffed to see one. Thanks.
    George - definitely lucky. Doubt any would come to my garden, it's full of sparrows and starlings and really not a lot else, despite my efforts.

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  4. Lizzie31 January 2011 at 11:06

    Beautiful picture! :-)

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  5. Daniel Money31 January 2011 at 13:34

    Very cool. Don't really know what else to say.

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  6. Anonymous31 January 2011 at 13:37

    That is a fantastic picture!

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  7. brenda.clough31 January 2011 at 16:58

    Lovely picture, Sarah - you seem to be in the right place at the right time again.

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  8. Antwan31 January 2011 at 22:04

    I like this one a lot better than 'This one'

    Its more of a 'mood' to it, the other one looks a bit cold and evil.....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sarah Clough31 January 2011 at 22:21

    Thanks for all your lovely comments. I've looked at this photo so much now that I can't see its merits any more and am overly critical of it, so it's nice to know it looks good.

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  10. drupka13 February 2011 at 13:42

    Beautifully timed.
    There's a real sense of the soft evening light too.

    So many of the damn things!
    We were soooo lucky!

    :-D

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  11. Sarah Clough13 February 2011 at 21:48

    :-D

    Check this out too, even more local: http://steveseal.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html#7095570917203495793 (and 2nd Jan too). I met this chap and his missis at my local reservoir.

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