Concept



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


Thursday 10 February 2011

Tuesday 8th February 2011

I followed a tip off from some nice people I met yesterday and headed back to Knypersley reservoir to a waterfall in search of Kingfishers and yellow wagtails. I saw more birds on the walk in (actually a fast run) than at the waterfall itself, but I managed to get a nice photo of this little fairy glen. This is an HDR image which means it is a composite of (in this case) three different shots with different exposures, so that it exhibits a larger range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas, more akin to what our eyes see.


18mm, 1s, f/22.0, ISO 100

16 comments:

  1. Utterly fantastic.... Your best shot ever so far in my opinion... :)

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  2. Great pic Sarah this really has some depth to it.

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  3. Thanks! That's possibly because it wasn't my idea, my inspiration came from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41818739@N00/2968472711/in/photostream/

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  4. A great shot. Hope your photos of the well come out well.

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  5. Thanks! Is that Mow Cop man? I'm not sure I captured what I wanted today but it's all experimentation and incentive to go back. Did you get anything nice yourself?

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  6. It was the Mow Cop man, and my photos are here www.nivekenots.co.uk (just one of the well, but only average).

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  7. I just had a look at some of your photos, some nice captures. I like the blue tits and the rainbow of Hen Cloud. I think the Well one is fine, I didn't get what I wanted either but I'll be back, maybe climbing a tree or something!! I settled on this one instead in the meantime: http://amoodaday.blogspot.com/2011/02/saturday-12th-february-2011.html

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  8. Ooh, going further back I like even more of them, especially the heron diving and various landscapes around then.

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  9. A silly question I know, but where is the waterfall. I've been to Knypersley many times, but never seen it.

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  10. You start from the bridge on the road, and head up the track on east side of the reservoir. After a couple of minutes you reach another bridge , cross this and immediately turn right just before Warder's Tower. Follow it along the feeder stream then when the path splits take the right fork and follow this for a little while, the waterfall is then at foot level to your right.

    I hope it wasn't a local secret that I've gone and shared with the world!

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  11. Thanks for this. Is this the same path to Gawton's Well, and you just carry on further?

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  12. Yes, although heading rightwards. There's kind of a main track that goes somewhere, a little track leading off left to the well, and an in-between sized track heading off right to the waterfall, all meeting at the same point (more or less).

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  13. I have just learnt that this is a weir that was built to divert water into a moat that runs (now empty) round the Warders Tower folly: http://whiskyfish.blogspot.com/2010/07/upper-trent-and-early-nineteenth.html

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  14. Amazing, the detail and yet the flow of the water.

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  15. Ohh, really like this one. I like waterfalls a lot and I think the tree really adds to this photo.

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