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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

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Wednesday 28th September 2011

This was a part of a wood panel making up one of the shops of Trentham village, but these panels hads more intricate spirals than on any of the other shops. I think it feels like a bit of an optical illusion, as well as the likeness to an eye.

4.6mm, 1/125s, f/2.8. (auto)

Tuesday 27th September 2011

Day two of the Indian Summer, and although there isn't a great deal of imagination in this photo I quite often see light hitting houses and windows and miss the capture, and I actually really like this.

12.7mm, 1/200s, f/5. (auto)

Monday 26th September 2011

Nice light this evening.

12.7mm, 1/200s, f/5.0. (auto)

Sunday 25th September 2011

This, to me, epitomizes Scotland, and an average day on the hill, and is a real 'mood' (as per this blog theme). On the one hand, when the cloud lowers and you're walking upwards you know you're about to get wet and are going to have to know what you're doing to avoid getting lost. On the other hand, you get to touch the clouds!

4.6mm, 1/125s, f/2.8. (auto)

Saturday 24th September 2011

I was up in the Scottish hills again and it turned out to be a reasonably nice day. The hills we were on were fairly unexceptional and most of the views were distant and not so photogenic, but there was a more dramatic situation off the back of an extra sub-summit we made a detour to take in, and the suns rays lit it up nicely.

4.6mm, 1/200s, f/7.1. (auto)

Friday 23rd September 2011

Purple lights at the Cumbrian Foodhall. Shame they weren't open - I was hungry! A slightly poor quality photo, but I didn't manage to get out in the daylight today and pictures from this camera go a little grainy if shot in low light, even if you force the ISO low.

17.3mm, 1/4s, f/5.8. (auto)

Thursday 22nd September 2011

Being restricted technically is tough (I wouldn't have started this project with a compact instead of an SLR), but it just means I have to put more effort into getting good shots. I think this thought was tumbling around in my subconscious because as I drove home from work the sun was shining and it felt like the last dregs of summer, and instead of going home I went to the Roaches instead. It was actually quite overcast there and I didn't quite get the photos I'd hoped, but it was quite beautiful and I enjoyed the unexpected peace and quiet (unusually it wasn't heaving with rock climbers). I walked along the crag then took a path I knew was there but had never been down. This gave me a lovely view across the blooming heather to Hen Cloud, with its similarly heathery top.

12.7mm, 1/10s, f/5. (auto)

Wednesday 21st September 2011

The batteries have died on the SLR I have been borrowing, so I'm down to a digital compact (Ixus 850) until the insurance company sort my claim out. This limits the range of things I can successfully photograph, and I'm rather at the mercy of the weather as this camera doesn't perform well in low light indoors. Still, I shall battle on. This is the next in my series of Stoke-on-Trent sub-stations! This one is at the top of Greenbank Road and looks like a rather ornate old barn. I included the fencing as I think it reflects the style and the slight decay.

6.1mm, 1/60s, f/3.2. (auto)

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Tuesday 20th September 2011

Part of a memorial mural on a wall in Kidsgrove.

4.6mm, 1/1000s, f/7.1. (auto)

Monday 19th September 2011

Reading town hall. I MUST have walked past this when I lived locally but now I walk around with a photographer's eyes, I notice many things that I never did before. It was quite striking, and although I got a couple of shots of the whole building, I prefer this one of the windows.

19mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800

Sunday 18th September 2011

A little apple foraging with my sister led to an unexpected haul of large hazelnuts.

20mm, 1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 800

Saturday 17th September 2011

Self portrait, dressed up for my brother's wedding in a home-made dress and shawl with newly dyed hair.

4.6mm, 1/800s, f/7.1. (auto)

Friday 16th September 2011

The sky was every changing and constantly beautiful this evening. I don't think I've done a sky shot yet, but the wide angle lens did justice to the massive spirals.

10mm, 1/800s, f/8, ISO 250

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Thursday 15th September 2011

This would usually be an example of what-not-to-do in photoshop, but sometimes wrong can be right. It was created by massively inverting the curves curve so instead of creating a gentle s or gentle inverted-s, I created an intense inverted-s, where each peak reached the top of bottom. This means that a higher colour becomes darker than one that was originally darker. This should usually be avoided, but I flipped the mouse by accident while I was moving the marker and I thought the result was interesting so I left it like that. There are aspects of it that I don't like, but the sky I really love. So I'm throwing it out there. Is it marmite? Do you love it or hate it?

20mm, 1/400s, f/10, ISO 250

I've included a more normal photo too, for Ian that I met at the colliery who was telling me some of its interesting history.

Friday, 16 September 2011

Wednesday 14th September 2011

This was interesting - trying to take get the white balance right on a pink building lit by orange lights at night. In some ways a success and some ways a failure. The colours absorbe (or reflected?) the light meaning the pink lost its pinkness - so this is accurate to how the building looked at night, but not at all the colour it looks in the day.

I've passed this building countless times in the 5 years I've lived in Stoke, and have always been curious about it. It's pink - both pale and darker - which seems modern but the paint is decaying and it looks like it's been that way forever. The tablet at the top says 'Bethel Chapel 1824', so I looked it up. It was built as a methodist chapel to seat 1000 worshippers, one of 7 (plus 2 churches) in Burslem. Burslem only had a population of 12,000 but they were enthusiastically religious. The wings contained school rooms and the preacher's house, the facade was originally brick but was later stuccoed, and left and right wings were added in 1875. It's now used as warehouse storage.

18mm, 4s, f/8, ISO 250

For the chap that stopped in his car to have a chat, I said I'd put the photo of you up and here it is! For a better example of my photography see the photos page.

Tuesday 13th September 2011

I often see photos of a couple of items on a white background in a simple arrangement such as a circle, and they look stunning. I decided to have a basic play to see if I could achieve this. I couldn't, so I just swirled a necklace into a question mark. I think I need a lighting set-up, although it's not really something I'm bothered about following up so I'll leave it to the experts!

20mm, 1/10s, f/8, ISO 200

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Monday 12th September 2011

Believe it or not this is my kitchen. It's been a very busy week and fitting in photography time has been a struggle. I just have to start taking photos and hope something happens quickly, because I haven't had time to go out and hunt for stuff. So here I stood with a shutter speed of a second or two, playing with the aperture to prevent too much light getting in, and span round in a circle while the camera spinning with me and doing its thing. I extended the shutter speed and moved the camera up and down to pick up some light trails. In photoshop I did an automatic raw edit which put a lot of contrast back into a washed out photo, and took the white balance up fairly high to put in the lovely colours. Then just sharpened it, et voilà. I quite like it!

14mm, 5s, f/11, ISO 400

Sunday 11th September 2011

For the third (I think) time this year, I forgot to take a photo today, at least one that's worth of consideration for photo-a-day, or at least taken with it in mind. Thankfully I'm a photo-addict and take photos of everything, so usually have something I've snapped. I'd rather put that in that take something outside of the required time. So here we have - a picture of a broken banjo pick, that I bought off ebay and broke as soon as I tried to fit it to my finger! Taken on my iPhone. So this definitely counts as a below par photo. Thankfully there have been perhaps a dozen of these since I started this project on the 1st of January, so I guess I'm not doing too bad.

3.9mm, 1/20s, f/5.8, ISO 80. (auto)

Saturday 10th September 2011

Fly agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria). You wouldn't want to eat this, but they're very pretty, Alice in Wonderland type stuff.

4.6mm, 1/50s, f/2.8. (auto)

Monday, 12 September 2011

Friday 9th September 2011

A decaying, yet colourful building (opposite a brand new community fire station).

18mm, 1/40s, f/8, ISO 400

Thursday 8th September 2011

Another church, this is Parish Church of St. Mark in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I like the mixture of colours and interesting lighting.

10mm, 20s, f/11, ISO 200

Wednesday 7th September 2011

Another music night at the Greyhound, unfortunately camera was still in manual focus but it's the best photo I got today. It's not a shot I'm at all happy with, it's too chaotic and jumbled, but at least the wide angle and its distortion still sort of lead you in to the person playing guitar.

10mm, 1/13s, f/13, ISO 640

Tuesday 6th September 2011

Unfortunately I haven't quite got used to the Fujifilm SLR yet and for a couple of days I didn't realise it was on manual focus. So as a result this photo is blurred, although I've corrected it a little in photoshop. This is the Minster Church of St Peter ad Vincula, in Stoke, Stoke-onTrent. I'm not religious but I do find churches appealing.

14mm, 13s, f/11, ISO 250

Monday, 5 September 2011

Monday 5th September 2011

I wasn't sure what to take today, so I stopped by the lake on the way home. This was a quite ordinary view, just as it was about to rain, but it looks passable in black and white.

10mm, 1/20s, f/7.1, ISO 250

Sunday 4th September 2011

Another 'start taking photos and see what happens' type evening. Here I animated, illuminated and evil-ed a simple bottle opener!

19mm, 0.8s, f/5.6, ISO 320

Saturday 3rd September 2011

I spent Wednesday to Sunday at a Bluegrass music festival in Gloucestershire. Most of my photo-a-days from this time are of other things as although I had an SLR with me I was carrying my smaller Ixus around and it isn't really suited to this kind of environment. However I did get this photo which I was pleased with. This is Laura Carrivick, who in this photo was playing dobro with the band "'Andsome and some". Quality musicians and lovely vocals.

17.3mm, 1/60s, f/5.8. (auto)