Sunday 1st January 2012

At the start of 2011, I set myself the challenge of taking a photo every day, and I succeeded! I was quite strict with myself, and tried as much as possible to take each photo during that day. A couple of times the photos were taken just after midnight, and a couple of times I forgot altogether but always had a photo of something even if it was a mobile phone photo of a broken banjo pick never destined for public viewing, which I'd use instead of taking something better a day late.

I really enjoyed this project and got a lot of satisfaction from it as well as learning lots. The aim was to ensure that I kept my photography varied instead of using my new camera to take the same kind of photos again and again, and it certainly fulfilled this. I found interest in fields I would never have otherwise known about, such as insect macrophotography. I was so pleased with my photography I set up a company and have had an ehibition and produced 2012 calendars for which I've had great feedback.

Having said this, I am not going to continue the photo-a-day into a new year as it was really time intensive, and many of my other interests suffered as a result. Also towards autumn I felt that my it was hindering me rather than helping... the things I wanted to photograph required more time to prepare for and plan, and I didn't have time to concentrate on. Nevertheless, it was never boring and some evenings at home when I didn't have any ideas and thought I'd exhausted what my house has to offer I still came up with something unexpected that I was proud of, this being the example that sticks in my head. Now though I look forward to having time to built on the areas that now interest me. Rest assued that even without daily blog updates I am still very much enthused by my photography and will still be working on ideas, keep your eye on my website for updates.

I've added a 'popular' posts widget on the right hand side so that you can see a taster of what I managed to produce. Underneath that is the tag list which is useful for browsing and searching, followed by the archive.

Thanks to all my followers for their support, and anyone who has added comments. I'll leave you with a bonus photo from New Year's Day (just), of the firework celebration in Zillertal, Austria. At almost exactly the stroke of midnight fireworks erupted all the way along the valley and up the hillside, and lasted for about half an hour, brilliant!

42mm, 30s, f/22, ISO 100

Saturday 31st January 2012

Last photo of the year! This is the view from my hotel room balcony. I liked the descending strip of cloud and the various colours of the lights across the town and in the air. The church from yesterday can be seen in the centre of the left half of the photo. Click to enlarge.

18mm, 20s, f/10, ISO 200

Friday 30th December 2011

While travelling between our hotel in Schlitters and the resort at Kaltenbach on the train, we noticed that every town had a church of very similar design. Up close, they were more individual, this one (in Schlitters) sporting a full height mural. This web page gives some more information, saying it's "the parish church of Schlitters, dedicated to St. Martinus. Constructed in 1740 AD in Baroque style, the interior primarily strikes due to wall and ceiling paintings by Josef Anton Mayr". I like this photo because of the angles, and because I got all the settings and composition as I wanted it first go, just the one snap. Which is a good thing too, as it was snowing on the lens!

18mm, 30s, f/13, ISO 200

Our reason for being in the town was to enjoy some local fireworks. Apparently Austrians quite often celebrate the New Year locally on the 30th before their big celebration on the 31st, and the fireworks were pretty spectacular.

18mm, 10s, f/22, ISO 100

Saturday 17th December 2011

The Picture House pub in Stafford, a really lovely building with really colourful stained glass.

35mm, 1/8s, f/4.5, ISO 400

Wednesday 14th December 2011

Not an amazing photo, but the layers of the University Hospital of North Staffordshire reminded me oddly of the sprawling city of New Crobuzon in China Miéville's steampunk novel Perdido Street Station.

100mm, 5s, f/8, ISO 200

Sunday 11th December 2011

Stained glass in Penkhull.

119mm, 1/4s, f/5.6, ISO 400

Thursday 1st December 2011

Last month of the 365 blog! I went up to Hanchurch Woods because I had been told it was free of light pollution, and wanted to recce it as a star watching spot. Not exactly free of light polution, the orange glow is light reflecting off the clouds, but it made for a pretty photo!

18mm, 30s, f/11, ISO 200

Wednesday 23rd November 2011

This is the descender (device used to go down ropes) I use when I'm caving, just playing with lighting.

33mm, 8s, f/8, ISO 200

Tuesday 22nd November 2011

I love this photo. What's more it was one of those evenings where I haven't planned a photo and I'm clutching straws about what to take. Snapping away at some ferns lately followed by a comment from a friend obviously inspired me for this shot, and it just goes to show that the 365 project is still inspiring me to some up with unexpected goods. This is a prayer plant that I've had many years but have never got to produce more than a handful of leaves.

270mm, 1.4s, f/8, ISO 200

Friday 18th November 2011

The impressive Falcon Manor hotel in Settle, Yorkshire Dales.

20mm, 13s, f/8, ISO 200

Wednesday 16th November 2011

This is Saint Werburgh's Parish Church on High Lane, Burslem. It was built in 1953 to replace a smaller church in Hamil Road as the congregation was growing larger. I've been meaning to try this photo for a while. I noticed the statue of Jesus but it's fairly hidden away to the side and under a tree. I had an idea that if I took a photo of the church at night and illuminated the statue more than the natural light illuminated the church, it would create a nicely balanced scene. I think it mostly worked.

18mm, 25s, f/11, ISO 200

Saturday 12th November 2011

I was hoping for a shot of the fireworks in the greater context of their location (the land outside the Peak Cavern show cave in the Peak District), but that wasn't to be. A lot of my shots were over exposed because I was trying longer exposures in order to get the background to burn in, but this one just happened to fill the frame and I like it for that.

18mm, 16s, f/16, ISO 400

Wednesday 9th November 2011

Tonight I thought I'd try a photo I've been want to take for a while, and walk up to the colliery. Trouble is I got spooked by some hissing noises before I got to my photo spot, and retreated. Instead I went for a different photo that was long overdue - Burslem town hall. This is a very impressive building built between 1854 and 1857. It was superseded as town hall in 1911 by a different building behind it. The novelist Arnold Bennett often mentioned it and referred to the gold angel on top.

18mm, 15s, f/10, ISO 200

Tuesday 8th November 2011

The next estate up from mine. Stoke-on-Trent is fairly hilly so wherever you go you're not far from a 3-dimensional view. I like how the houses appear stacked on top of each other when you zoom in to something far away.

270mm, 4s, f/6.3, ISO 400

Thursday 3rd November 2011

I am told this is the old 'Home & Colonial' store in Stoke. I don't know what it is now, or why it is lit up at night, but it's quite a nice feature.

155mm, 8s, f/8, ISO 200

Monday 31st October 2011

I quite liked this abused street sign in the glow of the street lamps.

30mm, 30s, f/8, ISO 400

Wednesday 19th October 2011

This is Victoria Hall in Stoke, venue for various performances and concerts. It is VERY colourfully lit, with the lights on a scrolling cycle of various modes. This was the most garish and I was pleased I managed to capture it before it changed despite the 6 second exposure. This isn't really a hard photo to take, but I think it was worth capturing!

20mm, 6s, f/8, ISO 200

Tuesday 11th October 2011

This is The Crescent in Buxton, originally a Georgian spa developed in the 18th Century by the Duke of Devonshire using his mining profits and modelled on ones in Bath. It has been empty several years but is being restored with the help of lottery funding.

18mm, 15s, f/11, ISO 400

Saturday 8th October 2011

Wheeee, rockets!

18mm, 5s, f/8, ISO 400

Tuesday 4th October 2011

I've got an SLR again! Well, a body, still waiting for a lens. In the meantime the old one is still functional even if the elements are damaged by water scum reducing the image quality. It meant I could get the LEDs out again though.

18mm, 4s, f/7.1, ISO 200