Flaming June... we can but hope.
Flaming June... I can't believe that I am almost halfway through this bittersweet photographic experience.
Day 182. Summer's day. We took an eight mile walk this morning in what was the best weather we have had this year. I used my camera phone and if you are lucky you will see a patch of red poppies growing in the fields by the pathway.
BTW - this is six months (and one day) down the line for me and I didn't reckon I would make it this far.
BTW - this is six months (and one day) down the line for me and I didn't reckon I would make it this far.
Day 181. It's there in black and white. It's Saturday so it must be charity shop day! I found this pair of salt and pepper shakers for a nominal one pound in a charity shop and thought that they were far too cute to miss. I translated the word "love" into a variety of languages using Google translate and today's photograph was born.
Day 180. Wessex chicken. So I had a grand time in and around Dorchester and the weather was fabulous! Museums were visited, Maiden Castle was walked around, photographs by @ch1ppy_m1nton at the Dorchester county museum were admired, lunch in Potters Café was scoffed and various Thomas Hardy sites visited. It was whilst at Max Gate (Thomas Hardy's home) when I was out in the gardens that I heard noises from one of the outhouses. When I peeked in the door, there was this family of knitted chickens who were just begging to be photographed...
Day 179. Red door. Red door, say no more! I am just off for my one day break.
Day 178. It's all gone... pear shaped! I was really stuck for a photograph today. Everything I put my hand to just didn't work. so as a last resort we have a mirror, my glass pear from http://365project.org/steampowered/365/2013-06-15 and I decided to see what I would look like as a pear shape. Well, it turned me upside down so I must have become Australian.
P.S. I am going to be away from home for a couple of days but I will be posting some images via smartphone - O2 permitting (the miserable, cheeky beggars). I will be at Dorchester museum viewing some photographs by @ch1ppy_m1nton on Friday and will report back in due course!
P.S. I am going to be away from home for a couple of days but I will be posting some images via smartphone - O2 permitting (the miserable, cheeky beggars). I will be at Dorchester museum viewing some photographs by @ch1ppy_m1nton on Friday and will report back in due course!
Day 177. Start spreading the news... Tee hee! I couldn't resist it! The newspaper is a very old one (I was ten in September 1967) and we found it lining the bottom of some drawers in a bureau we acquired. It was suitably yellow and matched the spread quite nicely! I actually got the idea for the shot from a comment someone made. I'm sorry but I have forgotten who it was but she was off to NYC soon so whoever you are, thanks for the spark! NYC brought to mind the lyrics of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" and it just went from there!
Day 176. A little bit of love. SOOC This goes out to anyone and everyone who needs a little bit of love this Monday morning. I was struggling for a shot and had resorted to looking through pots around the house for something... anything... for inspiration. For some strange reason this picture hook was in a pot, amongst all of my cufflinks so I popped it onto a piece of white paper, plonked my macro lens onto the camera, reflected some light from a piece of metallicised pink paper onto the subject and took the shot. I had to sharpen it so I suppose that I shouldn't boast about it being SOOC, should I?
Day 175. The oldest swinger... I was out for a brisk walk this morning over at Bedelands Nature Reserve near Burgess Hill. I didn't find much worth photographing but I did find an abandoned farm building which was very firmly locked but it did have these fabulous hinges. I started humming Fred Wedlock's "Oldest Swinger in Town" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOqtmmwa0d0
Day 174. Tomato thief. As always at a weekend, I'm pushed for time for my photography but I was over in a neighbouring town to go to the cinema to see "Despicable Me 2" and to kill a bit of time before the doors opened I went for a wander around the charity shops. I found this little glass bird and after the film (well worth going to see BTW) I brought him home. I turned my back for a moment and the little beggar started munching my tomatoes!
Day 173. He's behind you! I wanted to make a picture of me giving myself a wedgie whilst entering and exiting a portal (portal gateways as in the game Portal and Portal 2) but couldn't quite get the right effect in Photoshop so I came up with The SWAT Squad in its place. Have a great weekend
Day 172. Story of my life. Because I am wrinkly, old and hot (and a bit of a basket case!) One shot HDR processing in DxO Optics Pro and the fancy border, blurred background and drop shadow added in Photoshop. Now... where's me cocoa, spectacles and haemorrhoid ointment got to?
Day 171. Just when you thought it was safe... So I wanted to play with my photography a bit more when all of a sudden... Ba dum.... Ba dum... Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum... oh no! It's Chores! With great reverence and respect for the 1975 film "Jaws" and that excellent poster they advertised it with http://www.mposter.com/jaws-movie-poster.html
Day 170. Ceci n'est pas une licorne! What you are looking at here is a microwave oven - honestly! Well, it was meant to be a microwave oven but when we saw this glass and crystal unicorn in a small gallery shop in Chichester over a quarter of a century ago, the idea of buying a microwave disappeared and the unicorn stepped into our lives instead. Another shot performed in front of my monitor as I have been waiting in for a delivery and couldn't spare the time to be more imaginative at this end of the day.
Day 169. Let me run, to the sun... For all of you who remember it, the title is part of the lyrics from the TV Series "White Horses" which was on TV when I was a kid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Horses for details).
I was idly wondering what to do today and just curling bits of paper when my mind saw waves and then white horses. I started humming the theme tune and before you know it there were snippings of paper absolutely everywhere and my child bride is going to kill me if I don't clear it all up. So we have a wave created from two sheets of blue paper, slit part way up and curled, horses cut from white paper and then some added spume courtesy of Photoshop. For those of you who want an irritating tune and a trip down memory lane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtCNbERKvMs
I was idly wondering what to do today and just curling bits of paper when my mind saw waves and then white horses. I started humming the theme tune and before you know it there were snippings of paper absolutely everywhere and my child bride is going to kill me if I don't clear it all up. So we have a wave created from two sheets of blue paper, slit part way up and curled, horses cut from white paper and then some added spume courtesy of Photoshop. For those of you who want an irritating tune and a trip down memory lane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtCNbERKvMs
Day 168. Shell shock. What we have here is a silver plated cat sitting in an abalone shell. One thing I must remember when I use my macro lens is that I really need to make sure I have dusted the subject of my photograph most thoroughly beforehand!
Day 167. Cockney Rhyming Slang... I found these two delightful glass, paperweights in a charity shop this morning, took one look and purchased them for today's picture. So here we have (possibly the first of many) a piece of Cockney rhyming slang. "Apples and Pears" which equals... no... not an escalator... "stairs". The steps are a shot I took of the church in Monte, Madeira back in 2011, displayed on my monitor.
Day 166. You take the high road... OK. Who knows what this is? Hands up? Yes! You in the back with a nostril full of finger... That's right lad, it's the "Lock" Ness monster.
Day 165. Beware of the kids! I was out for the day up in Feltham on business when I noticed the sign above. Question... are the dogs to keep the kids in or out?
P.S. Sad news... Only two hundred days to go and I will have finished my project!
P.S. Sad news... Only two hundred days to go and I will have finished my project!
Day 164. The sound of music. I was idling away the time trying to think of a shot this morning. Picture the scene, I was clanking my teaspoon in my coffee mug, giving it a good stir and got a nice rhythm going. Enough to start singing "doe a deer..." from the Sound of Music and just like my coffee, the photograph was instant. Bless you, Julie Andrews!
Day 163. Wheeee! I've been doing taxi driving and hand-holding duty for my Mother-in-law again today. She had to have a heart monitor attached to her in hospital. This has meant a shortage of time to get a shot but I thought that mini-Mammet and Dad having a game was a nice idea. There is no Photoshop magic here, no wires, no Blu-tack or Scotch tape. This was done in one take. Basically I held mini-Mammet above maxi-Mammet and dropped him, taking as many shots as quickly as I could!
Day 162. Arms race... I had been watching a documentary about Kalashnikov weapons this morning and I though "Just how silly is the arms race?" and today's idea was born. It doesn't take much, does it? I think I ought to dedicate this picture to @gigiz who does this sort of thing much better than I.
Day 161. Do you like piña colada? It's a dreary, windy and grey Sunday afternoon in England and my thoughts turned to escape. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to jump through the time tunnel but my little friend leapt at the chance. I caught him whistling this tune as he disappeared. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugdF4vWn3I4 I hope he sends me a postcard...
Day 160. Giraffe. I was looking around for something to photograph when I came across some balloons tied to a notice board outside the local "Giraffe" café. The balloons themselves didn't stir anything creative in me but when I turned around and saw the sunlight pouring through them, I knew that I had my shot for the day
Day 159. Are they trying to tell us something? So the summer weather has left us (hopefully temporarily) and my planned shot of... well, you will have to wait and see... didn't happen but this shop leapt out at me instead.
Day 158. Gold - D-Day. 158 / 365 Sixty nine years ago today a lot of soldiers and civilians lost their lives as Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe, took place. I used some vintage film clips but took the photograph of the background map today. It's a copy of the original invasion map for Gold beach, Arromanches-les-Bains. I did the video editing in Photoshop (Yep! You can do that with it too!). Here's to the memory of all the combatants (whichever side) and civilians who died as a result of the intransigence and spinelessness of politicians.
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Day 157. Once upon a time... it was the Chinese year of the Rat - actually, it was four or five years ago and this little fella is still hanging around my display cabinets. He better be careful! There are cats inside.
Day 156. Next to godliness? It is a task that I have been meaning to get around to for months now... cleaning my keyboard. I shudder when I think of the sheer amount of rubbish that came off the keys and the huge amount of fluff and crumbs that came out of the body. My choice of music for today is "Your Touch" by The Black Keys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKXlgISd3iA
Day 155. Sweet seventeen. I have another frenetic day ahead of me so this is another quick, off the cuff (and smartphone!) shot. It was Xarifa Mimi's seventeenth birthday yesterday. She is the most beautiful and proud cat even if she is getting very long in the tooth, getting very thin with manky fur, sleeps for most of the day and has gone stone deaf. We know that she hasn't got a lot of squeak left in her but we still love her dearly.
Day 154. The quickest of the quick. I'm off to East Grinstead Museum in just a couple of minutes. I'm due to help out with some painting there today and then to paint some murals tomorrow but as usual I am in a rush. This was taken this morning at Nymans Gardens and represents the only picture I have taken today (which is why you are getting it!). Dreadful garden joke coming up (it's too long for the tags for once) A chap walks into a garden centre and says "Do you sell potato clocks?". The assistant says "Potato clocks? What on earth are they?" and the chap replies, "I am always late for work but the boss said that I could be in at my desk by nine o'clock every day if I got a potato clock!" (it's dreadfully corny!)
Day 153. Triumph! So I went to the Knepp Castle "Floral Fringe" today and although I took some lovely pictures (the one of the sleeping dog was ace!) I really liked this one of a vintage Triumph. It is SOOC... OK, OK, my nose just got a foot longer. I "one shot" HDRd it in DxO Optics, pretended it was Fuji Velvia film and then took it into Photoshop for some extra sharpening. About the only thing that is SOOC is that I managed to shoot this on the level and vertical without any cropping. This is as the sensor saw it.