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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


Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Monday 18th April 2011

More reverse lens, of this obliging little fellow. He was less than a cm long, maybe 5mm. I think it might be a robber fly, although my book in insect identification is in the post! With my reverse lens at its closest I could get him to fill the frame but he was too dark, so I had to move back a bit in order to fire the flash. I have photos with more of its body and wings in, but I like the character of this one, where it looks like he's peering over the top of the blade of grass at me (maybe he was!) and it's most reminiscent of this amazing photo which I aspire to.


150mm (approx), 1/10s, f/11, ISO 200

The following photo was taken without the lens reversed for comparison, at its closest focussing distance at full zoom. It also gives a better idea of scale...


250mm (approx), 1/400s, f/6.3, ISO 800
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6 comments:

  1. drupka19 April 2011 at 22:44

    Very well focussed and lit (especially given the flash is hand held!)

    Reckon you should check out 'A1yson' and 'Moonrhino' on Flickr - they are both contacts of mine and are both doing a (or did, in the latter's case) a lot of insect macros that will, at least, be of interest.

    :-)

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  2. Steve Seal21 April 2011 at 17:47

    Sarah
    Your welcome anytime to a walk around text when back......07708324048

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah Clough21 April 2011 at 18:05

    That's brilliant, thanks. I'll get in touch when I'm back!

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  4. Daniel Money26 April 2011 at 11:27

    This one's cool. I agree with the character thing, it's what makes it IMO.

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  5. Sarah Clough10 May 2011 at 11:00

    Thanks

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  6. Sarah Clough10 May 2011 at 14:35

    James - the flash is attached to the camera. If you're thinking of the one you gave me it lives in my cave photography kit. Although as it turns out, some caving lights (not mine mind) produce more light than it!

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