Wednesday 30th March 2011

You can't beat a bit of folk at the monthly Boat Band night in Stoke.

92mm, 1/6s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.0, ISO 800

Tuesday 29th March 2011

I'm quite excited that my reverse lens macro adapter has finally arrived, a mere 34 days after it was dispatched from China. This means that I don't have to manually steady the lens to take macro shots now which makes it a lot easier (see previous attempt here for an explanation of what reverse lens macro entails). My subject today was a sea anenome that sits on my windowsill next to the sand dollar in that photo. The photo was a little rushed as a lot of my time at present is being occupied by decorating my lounge, so this photo was squeezed in at one minute to midnight with bad lighting, but it was a useful test to see what settings work best, so I can go out and use my new toy with a vengeance. The dust and dirt shows up fairly well, can't see this at all with my eye, nor the tiny holes.

About 18mm (not recorded), 1/15s, about f/20 (not recorded), ISO 400

Monday 28th March 2011

First proper go at underground photography, with my dSLR - lighting up an old mine. I'm quite pleased with this, given it was something I haven't tried before and you can't see the result until the shutter closes and it pops up on the screen.

18mm, 15s, f/7.1, ISO 400

Sunday 27th March 2011

An unknown climber on Shepherds Crag in Borrowdale, Lake District.

129mm, 1/200s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 800

Saturday 26th March 2011

This is the Millennium Stone on Derwent Water, installed to commemorate 100 years of the National Trust in the Lake District.

There are some lovely photos of this online such as this and this, but given the conditions at the time I visited (which was a quick recce on a dull day without checking tide times or realising the direction of the outlook, which happened to be into the sun) I'm happy with the result.

59mm, 1/8s, f/20, ISO 100

Friday 25th March 2011

It's typical of Stoke that you can wander through a park and come out the other side and find remnants of days gone by. I found a tunnel with a trickling stream, running underneath an abandoned railway siding with rusty freight carriages. I followed the old siding to a bridge that goes over the active section of the railway, although the bridge looked reasonably well aged.

18mm, 4s, f/10, ISO 800

Thursday 24th March 2011

This is a view of Knypersley reservoir dam (from the bridge in the centre to the right hand edge of the photo) and the wet well house (on the right). This area is becoming a popular photo spot for me now, the other photos I've taken here are 8th February, 9th February, 11th February, 12th February, 15th March and 18th March

50mm, 1/80s, f/8, ISO 200

Wednesday 23rd March 2011

On a little ride around on my motorbike today I stumbled across a museum that puts on free lunchtime concerts, and an adjacent park with aviary. I don't know what type of bird this is, some kind of finch, but it was lovely and soft and delicate, and still characterful with its bright red beak and spotted underbelly.

155mm, 1/800s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 800

Tuesday 22nd March 2011

The strange fungus-y type growth on this tree drew my eye.

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

Monday 21st March 2011

Artificial dahlias.

183mm, 2.5s, f/8, ISO 400

Sunday 20th March 2011

I just liked the way these pots were stacked. Can you spot me? This high ISO was a mistake because I didn't change it from a previous photo.

23mm, 1/1600s (auto from aperture priority), f/3.5, ISO 1600

Saturday 19th March 2011

Taken on my Kodak compact again although my DSLR will come down caves with me soon.

36mm, 1/8s, f/2.7, ISO 200. (auto)

Friday 18th March 2011

Moon rise at sunset.

55mm, 1/4s, f/22, ISO 100

Thursday 17th March 2011

Another black headed gull, devouring this morsel before any other birds got in on the act.

250mm, 1/500s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 1600

Wednesday 16th March 2011

Sitting on her throne.

70mm, 1/125s (auto from aperture priority), f/5, ISO 1600

Tuesday 15th March 2011

Knypersley Reservoir came up trumps on the wildlife front again. This one is dedicated to Simon...

250mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 800

Monday 14th March 2011

Young black headed gull still in winter plumage at Bathpool park dam.

250mm, 1/800s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 400

Sunday 13th March 2011

I used to do a lot of rock climbing, but a couple of years ago my interest waned and I no longer enjoyed it. Now my trips out are very occasional but due to the novelty value and the company of good friends I no longer see as often, I do really enjoy them again. Especially when the sun shines like this! I like this photo as it captured everything that was good about the day and hopefully will give the same impression to other people looking it at that don't have a personal attachment to it.

180mm, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 200

Saturday 12th March 2011

"Take back your mink!"

250mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 1600

Friday 11th March 2011

Old and new.

84mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 100

Thursday 10th March 2011

I previously mentioned the Harecastle Tunnels - two canal tunnels (one still in use and one collapsed) and two disused sections of one railway tunnel - all built in the 1700s and 1800s and all 2km long. Today I went to the southern portal of the canal tunnels and met two lovely gentlemen who were sprucing up the paintwork, who showed me around and gave me a little history.

The canal tunnels were built before narrowboats were powered and in the Brindley tunnel (built 1770-1777) the boatmen 'legged' the boats through the tunnel while the horses were walked over the hill. This, the parallel Telford tunnel (completed in 1827) was built with a towpath for horses. The Brindley tunnel collapsed and when boats became self powered fans were installed in this one to extract the exhaust fumes. This tunnel is rumoured to be haunted by the Kidsgrove Boggart, a woman who was decapitated with a piece of slate and dumped in the canal and who is looking for a replacement head.

18mm, 25s, f/9, ISO 100

Wednesday 9th March 2011

This wasn't actually taken with my new camera as I haven't yet bought a pelicase to protect it underground, but instead was taken with a digital compact that I acquired free thanks to my boyfriend and which performed admirably. I turned the flash off and asked my fellow cavers to illuminate the old graffiti so the effect was pretty random and just by chance highlighted the yellowest section of rock. Some of the graffiti in this old mine dated from the 1700's, although this section was more recent.

6mm, 1/8s, f/2.7, ISO 200. (auto)

Tuesday 8th March 2011

Dead now but still pretty.

250mm, 1.3s, f/11, ISO 100

Monday 7th March 2011

I went on a stroll round town snapping pictures of whatever grabbed my eye, mostly houses. On one street all houses had matching circular reinforcing supports (at least that's what I think they are), but all had been painted differently. On the last house they were in red, with alternating red bricks round the windows to match, which was fairly striking.

65mm, 1/125s, f/8, ISO 100

Sunday 6th March 2011

I had a couple of hours spare to spend in Bakewell in the sunshine today. I didn't take any photos I was entirely happy with, but I had a peaceful stroll along the river and met a lovely couple with their young daughter so I have no complaints.

I chose this picture because of the colours:

22mm, 1/13s, f/13, ISO 100

But I also can't resist putting this up purely for the caption:

"Con-duck-ting"

22mm, 1/13s, f/13, ISO 100

Saturday 5th March 2011

I was back in Sheffield this weekend and various things in the city caught my eye. Some friends directed me to the peace gardens by the city hall, then I followed features and ended up at the Lyceum Theatre taking this which I really like. I chose the crop to highlight the statue on top and eliminate the scaffolding to the left, and also to make it something different to the typical shot.

42mm, 2s, f/9, ISO 200

Friday 4th March 2011

A little bit more experimenting with water and food colouring. After looking again at this gallery and chatting to some friends I've come up with a revision on this idea that I'd like to try so watch this space.

10mm, 1/100s, f/14, ISO 400

Thursday 3rd March 2011

I've been threatening a photo like this for a while, and there are more to come - a series of photos of electricity substations in Stoke-on-Trent! That might seem a bizarre idea, but I grew up down South and down there substations are boxed in behind am unimaginative wooden fence, whereas round here they are often contained within fantastically ornate and varied buildings some of which are listed, so it seems worthwhile drawing attention to them. Once you've seen a couple you start to notice them all over the place, and I'm not the only one, this person has dedicated a website to them. This one is just up the road from my work, there is another one even closer.

18mm, 1/60s, f/14, ISO 200

Wednesday 2nd March 2011

We're getting some lovely sunsets lately with spring dawning.

18mm, 2.5s, f/16, ISO 100

Tuesday 1st March 2011

Into the third month and my enthusiasm for my 365 project hasn't waned, there's so much scope it's actually great to have this challenge to allow me to explore it all.

I hope you enjoy this Canada goose, having a stretch inbetween grazing.

141mm, 1/320s (automatic from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 400

Monday 28th February 2011

I reached this evening without having come up with a plan of what to photograph, but there are always experiments to try and I'm surprised I haven't tried this already.

183mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 1600

Sunday 27th February 2011

This is Mousetrap Zawn at Gogarth on Holyhead, Wales. Such amazing textures and colours of rock on such a grand scale, it's really eye-catching and I hope I've managed to show some of that here.

27mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 100

Saturday 26th February 2011

I spent the weekend in Wales for a friend's birthday and we all had a stonking time. There were two places I hoped to get to for pictures and I was fortuitous to get to both and to also have sun and blue skies for once. This photo was taken in the Dinorwig Slate quarries in Llanberis, one of my favourite places. The turquoise blue flooded quarry pit is called Dali's Hole because of the eerie dead trees that become visible when the water level is low (you can just see a submerged slate hut), and the photo was taken from 'The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol'.

18mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 400

Friday 25th February 2011

It was a busy day today so I didn't get out at lunchtime and had to go hunting for a post-sunset shot. I always like the colours that come out in these though.

18mm, 10s, f/11, ISO 200