Concept

Home»Blog

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, 31 May 2011

Sunday 29th May 2011

Osteospermum at Penzance station.

141mm, 1/400s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 200

Saturday 28th May 2011

Very pleased with this photo! It's some species of grasshopper, haven't quite identified which one as it didn't have wings and all the ones in my book do. I love his little half-smiling, half-coy expression.

[Update - Research tells me that the lack of wings is because this is a grasshopper nymph, i.e. a youngster rather than an adult, also known as a hopper. Grasshoppers go through a series of transformations known as instars, where they moult their shells, before they take their final adult form. Nymphs have fully grown limbs but their wings, colour, body size aren't developed].

70mm (approx), 1/25s, f/11 (approx), ISO 400

Friday 27th May 2011

Bosigran cliff, Cornwall.

21mm, 1/60s (auto from aperture priority), f/11, ISO 200

Thursday 26th May 2011

A little light painting with a little help from my Dad!

32mm, 30s, f/5, ISO 200

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Wednesday 25th May 2011

"If you go down to the town today..."

42mm, 1/40s (auto from aperture priority), f/4.5, ISO 200

Tuesday 24th May 2011

I had a bit of difficulty first taking an appropriate set of photos to make this, then getting the software to work, but eventually got there, full of anticipation for how it would look! I have a few ideas to develop on this to watch this space...

18mm, f/7.1, ISO 800

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Monday 23rd May 2011

And here it is at long last, sub-station number 2! This one is in Burslem. See here for a sub-station number 1 (in Tunstall) and a little history.

18mm, 1/250s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 400

Sunday 22nd May 2011

A spot of bouldering at Over Owler Tor, above Millstone in the Peak District.

18mm, 1/640s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 200

Monday, 23 May 2011

Saturday 21st May 2011

Greenbottle.

1/60s, f/11 (approx), ISO 800

Friday 20th May 2011

Friends.

25mm, 1/60s, f/6.3, ISO 800

Thursday, 19 May 2011

Thursday 19th May 2011

Another flower, but not macro this time.

77mm, 1/15s, f/7.1, ISO 800

Wednesday 18th May 2011

Sticking with the experiment on simplicity. Let me know what you think.

55mm, 6s, f/6.3, ISO 400

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Tuesday 17th May 2011

Not-forget-me. Especially when I'm this big!

70mm (approx), 0.4s, f/13, ISO 800

Monday, 16 May 2011

Monday 16th May 2011

Another flower from my garden, taken for a weekly competition.

70mm (approx), 1s, f/16, ISO 800

Sunday 15th May 2011

I always forget that I'll see Red Kites when I head down South, and I'm always awed by them. Such huge beast grazing power cables and rooftops. On my back home I almost made myself late for an engagement as I kept stopping every time I passed another batch of them (or possibly the same lot, scarpering whenever I stopped to watch). They eventually seemed to congregate over Watlington and a lady gave me a tip of a particular hill to go up and watch them so I may do next time I'm in the area.

250mm, 1/250s (auto from aperture priority), f/9, ISO 800

Saturday 14th May 2011

Lone poppy dancing in the wind.

39mm, 0.5s, f/22, ISO 200

Saturday, 14 May 2011

Friday 13th May 2011

I quite like the abstract nature of this one, and one flower stamen doesn't always look like another! This is inside the snapdragon mouth of an antirrhinum growing on the street-facing wall of an abandoned garden.

18mm, 1/25s, f/10, ISO 800

Thursday 12th May 2011

This is a slightly better study of simplicity. I think it has things going for it (e.g. the mirroring of the greens), but things detracting from it too (the angle or the branch).

84mm, 1/6s, f/8, ISO 100

Wednesday 11th May 2011

I'll freely admit this was a bit of a disaster. I've been looking at some other people's photos and thinking how I'd like to work on simplicity. However the time to do this is possibly not by taking any old photo when heading out. This is neither suggestive, artistic, nor does it have interesting light or subject, but it's still a lesson to me!

250mm, 1/200s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 800

Tuesday 10th May 2011

I went climbing this evening and for the first time in over 2 years I was more interested in climbing than photography (that's not to say I was any less interested in photos, just that my climbing enjoyment was particularly heightened) that I missed a few opportunities for action shots or landscape shots with nice light, but instead I got a quick photo of the moon.

250mm, 1/100s, f/16, ISO 800

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Monday 9th May 2011

Ahhhh... relaxation.

250mm, 0.5s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 800

Sunday 8th May 2011

This is one of the sculptures found around Stoke-on-Trent. The gear wheel and pots represent the pottery and steelmaking industries, the tree and ladder represent growth and development, and the hanging flowers are for the National Garden Festival. It is by Dennis O'Connor and was unveiled in 2005, one of three installations commissioned at that time to improve accessible art around the city.

18mm, 1/125s, f/8, ISO 200

Saturday 7th May 2011

Free umbrella, free rain, free reign.

18mm, 1/50s (auto from aperture priority), f/5, ISO 800

Friday 6th May 2011

Experimenting with lighting, albeit only a head torch. Something I need to look at more.

59mm, 0.3s (auto from aperture priority), f/5, ISO 800

Thursday 5th May 2011

Dandelion seeds. I also got a photo of a green lacewing which has beautiful shimmery translucent wings (less so in the photo), but I prefer this one.

1/80s, f/10 (approx), ISO 800

Wednesday 4th May 2011

Holy Trinity Catholic Church. There's a short story behind this photo: 4 years ago I was in Newcastle-under-Lyme having a drink with some climbing friends, and we walked from a pub on the edge of town into the centre. We passed this most amazing church, towering above me with stacked black recesses as far as the eye could see, and when I started this photo project I made a note of it as something to return to. I was passing this evening and hadn't taken a photo yet, so I went to find it. What I found was nothing like what I saw remembered, not black for starters and from across the road the perspective was less dramatic (the cider may have had something to do with the aspect too). Still, it made a satisfying photo anyway, and I haven't taken a night photo for a while.

70mm, 5s, f/6.3, ISO 800

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Phlox, in the garden.

250mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 400

Monday 2nd May 2011

I forgot to take a photo today, too caught up with coming home from Scotland. Well, I still *took* a photo - this is me after all, I'm glued to my camera - but it wasn't really a photo-a-day photo, but it'll have to do! So here we are, some unidentified tiny wee eggs found on an unidentified root, unearthed when digging the soil in my greenhouse.

1/100s, f/10 (approx), ISO 400

Friday, 6 May 2011

Sunday 1st May 2011

Rushing stream in Glen Nevis. Inspired by Joe Cornish.

77mm, 0.3s (auto from aperture priority), f/22, ISO 100

Saturday 30th April 2011

I was sitting in a cafe with my camera set up for reverse lens macro to take photos of a periodic wasp, when a little green fleck jumped onto my finger. It was such a sunny day that even with an aperture of f/9 or f/10, I got a fast enough shutter speed that the photos came out crisp even though I was hand holding the camera, and some were pleasingly in focus (focus is even harder to obtain hand held when things are magnified). This is my favourite by far because the compound eye seems to be reflecting the colour of the scales. I've identified it as a weevil, although I'm not quite sure whether it's a green nettle, acorn or vine weevil. I was amazed how much detail I could see, so fantastic to be able to see the world in miniature just by looking through a couple of pieces of glass.

18mm, 1/80s, f/10 (approx), ISO 400

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Friday 29th April 2011

This (the peak) is Liathach, also featured on Thursday, and the day before it caught fire! Lochan an lasgair and the Ling hut are in the foreground. This photo was taken from the 'Achnasheen to Torridon Highway', a walkers' footpath, which we were following for the first part of our hike up Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor, where we were to camp to get photos of the dawn light firing up the Torridon trio (Beinn Alligin, Liathach and Beinn Eighe).

25mm, 1/100s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 200

Also worthy of inclusion is this shot of the sunset, I like the way that due to the wispy cloud the sun maintained colour without being blown out.

250mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 200

Thursday 28th April 2011

This was taken from one of the classic view points in Torridon but I've never been before and perhaps neither have you so there didn't seem any harm in repeating a shot thousands have taken!

35mm, 1/15s, f/11, ISO 200

Wednesday 27th April 2011

I love this composite. I love it because I didn't have a tripod with me as I was travelling light, but it's still straight, although things aren't aligned or even, but they work because there's more bench on the right which is offset by the lady right of centre which is offset by the dark archway to the right which is offset by the darker strut top left. I think it balances and is nicely higgeldy piggeldy despite the order and symmetry of the Kirk in reality. And I love the vivid colour and tone. I wanted a nice cathedral shot since being inspired by this one that I saw in Y Caban cafe in Snowdonia, and I got it!

18mm, 0.4s, f/8, ISO 200

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Tuesday 26th April 2011

I went to Edinburgh for the first time today to do a bit of sightseeing, and to rest my weary muscles after trekking round the Cairngorms, although we still managed to walk 6 miles round the city. This is a view of Salisbury Crags from the edge of Holyrood Park.

35mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/10, ISO 200

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Monday 25th April 2011

This may look like any other little bird but it's a snow bunting! The first one I've ever seen, and I was only saying earlier on that it would be great to see one this trip. It was very obliging when I pointed a lens at it, at first lying flat thinking it was camouflaged against the snow and that I couldn't see it, but then it noticed I was creeping right towards it but still stayed put until I was just a couple of metres away.