What? March already?
Hell's teeth that means that Christmas is only nine months away. Time to P...A...N...I...C!
OK. Now I will shut up and get on with the pictures.
OK. Now I will shut up and get on with the pictures.
March 31st. Just another fill in shot from the Great London meet up the other day. This immense wheel of Parmesan cheese was about the only thing that wasn't moving too fast for me to photograph.
March 30th. Serious Fruit and veg. I saw this chap manning an organic fruit and vegetable stand at the Borough Market yesterday and just knew that he needed his photograph taken. The wrinkled face, the furrowed brow, the flyaway hair, the scraggly beard - just perfect. What was so exciting was the attention he was paying to the young lady. She was asking him questions about the produce and he was dishing out answers as fast as they would come. Definitely one to be viewed large (in my opinion)
March 29th. Pffff... whatever turns you on. Having just returned from an magnificent day with the majestic @padlock and twenty other awesome souls wandering around exotic locations like the Borough Market and ending up in a pub (The Shipwrights Arms - definitely on the sleazier side but welcoming nonetheless) the only shot that I felt inclined to post was this sign on a lamppost!
March 28th. Day off.
March 27th. Timeless? Apologies for the filler from yesterday but I wanted to get this shot in. Donna's first full day of retirement and not only did I drag her out of bed at 3:15 in the morning but I then dragged around Petworth House during the day. In the kitchens there were row upon row of these ancient copper pans and I thought they would make for a nice shot. As for timeless... well, my Mum always said that if you want to know the time, ask a copper! (I did with this lot and they didn't know - isn't that typical?)
Post script: For those of you who don't know, in England, a copper is one of a number of familiar terms for a Policeman.
Post script: For those of you who don't know, in England, a copper is one of a number of familiar terms for a Policeman.
March 26th. Na na na hey hey goodbye. This is for my Get Pushed challenge this week from Mike Gifford @mikegifford was "Capture a night time long exposure (>10 sec) and have stars and water in the picture". Seeing as early this morning was the only slot that promised uninterrupted views of the stars this week I got out of bed at three fifteen this morning and with a sleepy Donna in tow (a heck of a way for her to start her first day of retirement) drove to the nearest stretch of water, a set of hammer ponds near Horsham.
The reason for the heading? Look at the colour of the sky... It is sodium lighting from Horsham (about a mile and a half away) and the chemical symbol for Sodium is? Na. To the naked eye, it wasn't visible but the camera picked it up a treat as can be seen in this exposure. Although I can take it away in Photoshop, there was something eerily pleasing about an orange sky. You might have to look at it large to see the stars. And here is the song that inspired today's title. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE - a real blast from the past
The reason for the heading? Look at the colour of the sky... It is sodium lighting from Horsham (about a mile and a half away) and the chemical symbol for Sodium is? Na. To the naked eye, it wasn't visible but the camera picked it up a treat as can be seen in this exposure. Although I can take it away in Photoshop, there was something eerily pleasing about an orange sky. You might have to look at it large to see the stars. And here is the song that inspired today's title. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE - a real blast from the past
March 25th. UP in London for Donna's retirement - no time for anything!
Not even a date for this one. It's just a spare shot from the 14th where a cyclist entered a long exposure shot and left his own light trail.
March 23rd. Sunday = a day of rest.
March 22nd. The end is nigh! You know how it is, you can't see the wood for the trees and you need a picture for the se7en group and there it is sitting right in front of you! I looked into my spare cable drawer and there was the answer for today - a multiplicity of endings. I am only glad that human beings weren't made with such a variety of ends otherwise we would have died out centuries ago!
March 21st. Dentist appointment for two extractions and I really don't feel like picking up my camera.
March 20th. First day of spring and a day of rest from photography.
March 20th. First day of spring and a day of rest from photography.
March 19th. Every house should have one... at least one... I have a small nuclear reactor in every room and you should too. It's another shot for my get pushed challenge for the week. So who is going to have a guess at what this mundane household item is, from the photograph shown? (Actually it is the innards of a smoke alarm)
March 18th. Meet Tom. This is one attempt at my Get Pushed Challenge for this week. Rachael asked me to take a picture of "an everyday item taken from a weird/different/zany angle so it isn't necessarily obviously that thing at first glance." OK, she wanted me to do this outside and I cheated and took this kitchen item outside so I guess I will have to do another shot as well. I thought that I would go for a heavily overexposed shot for a change.
Anyway... why Tom? Because this is an integral part of a piece of Le Creuset kitchenware and I name everything so this is "Tom Le Creuset". What is it? I am sure that some of you know by now and will be able to give an answer faster than I can snap my fingers. [Snap!]. In case folks don't know, I will give you the answer later on. (Actually it is the wire mesh from a cafetiere / French press.
Anyway... why Tom? Because this is an integral part of a piece of Le Creuset kitchenware and I name everything so this is "Tom Le Creuset". What is it? I am sure that some of you know by now and will be able to give an answer faster than I can snap my fingers. [Snap!]. In case folks don't know, I will give you the answer later on. (Actually it is the wire mesh from a cafetiere / French press.
March 17th. Album Cover Challenge 25. The band name is "Komonga" (it is a town in the Bogandé Department of Gnagna Province in eastern Burkina Faso)
and the title came from the quote
"One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork. Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)"
and the picture is an old one I built over a year ago.
and the title came from the quote
"One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork. Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)"
and the picture is an old one I built over a year ago.
March 16th. Oh Danny boy...I was at a concert last night (The Brighton Consort singing works by Palestrina and his contemporaries) and during the interval we wandered around the church. This impressive stack of organ pipes caught my eye and deserved a photograph (well, I thought so!)
March 15th. (Not) made in Great Britain. I came across this gorgeous tray liner in a box of apples at our local fruit and veg farm shop today and I begged to be allowed to have it. Obviously the big tear filled eyes did the trick because I was allowed to take it away with me. It was a simple matter then to put something that was obviously not British on it and take the shot. Or rather shots because this is a five shot HDR image finished off in Photoshop.
@steampowered Paul
@steampowered Paul
March 14th. Ah... Houston... we have a problem... Get Pushed challenge 86 - Yvonne @yvonneknitsknots said "I'm going to ask you to take a night shot." Well, she wanted me to show why my camera is so awesome at doing night shots but I think I have failed. After a week of clear (ish) nights, last night was the first time that I had the time to go out to shoot stars. I drove up to the South Downs only to find that it was sacked in with heavy mist. So, Yvonne, I am afraid that there are no stars and only a watery moon which seriously pi55ed me off as I really wanted a shot over the Downs with loadsa stars showing. I even struggled to get this one because it was also a night for the local dirt cyclists to have a night ride and I kept getting photobombed and having light trails on my shots!
March 13th. The Pig Bang Theory of creation. My wife was given a magnificent present some years back. It is a multifunction torch. It's a torch, rat urine detector lamp and laser pointer all rolled into one (every home should have one!). I was sculling about looking for pictures when I happened to shine the laser onto a glass pig ornament. Oooh... I almost wet myself with the effect (good thing there isn't a snapchap urine detector built into the torch, eh?). So here we have "Pig in Space" or the "Pig Bang Theory" of the creation of the Universe.
March 12th. Game over man! The irrepressible @padlock sorting out a space invader in London today. We had a grand time just walking and talking and not really taking many photographs. We were joined by the ever gorgeous @jo13 for lunch and then after a good old chinwag (ooh - the gossip we heard from Jo... well, I never! :o))) it was almost time to return home. Another enjoyable day in the great company of good friends.
March 11th. Perish the thought! Product placement? Me? I know that most people photograph the shiny side of the disk but me being awkward decided that it looked nicer on the gritty, matt side. Plus I liked the colours although they did have a tendency to shift faster than I could photograph what I wanted because of the setting sun!
March 10th. String theory. My child bride just gave me an amazing present. A large ball of string! I'm as happy as a sandboy now. Macro shot, illuminated from one side with a softened speedlight. It reminds me of a whirlpool.
March 9th. Testing, testing! Having just upgraded my mobile phone (and swapped to a supplier who can give me the service I pay for!) I had to try out the camera on it. This is Timisoara Vibrissa who, at thirteen years old, isn't quite the little minx that she was when she was a kitten. I'm reasonably impressed with the results. The phone? A Galaxy Note 3
March 8th - a double shot today! (This was taken for the se7en group) Don't brake! Pleeeeeease don't brake!
Don't try this at home kiddies! This is two shots superimposed (as if you hadn't guessed!)
Do you know how hard it is to find a relatively unlumpy bit of road in the UK? I needed an exposure time of about one third of a second to get the feeling of motion outside the car but I needed a deep enough DoF to get the car interior and just outside the window sharp but in that short a time the car jounced over yet another bump or lump, blurring everything. Four hundred and thirty two shots later... As for the shot of me leaning over the bonnet. I'm sure that all of the neighbours think I am mad or a pervert. Every time they walked past, I was slumped over the bonnet and displaying my nether regions to the world!
Anyway this shot reminds me of the joke about two nuns driving along a road one night when suddenly a bat splats into the windscreen. The nun who was driving gives it a quick squirt with the washers and then uses the wipers to try and clean it off. As she does this, the bat turns into a vampire with big pointy teeth.
"What shall we do?" Groans the nun in the passenger's seat.
"Quickly..." says the nun doing the driving, "show him your cross!"
So quick as a flash the other nun leans out of the window and roars "Get off my windscreen right now, you toothy git!"
Don't try this at home kiddies! This is two shots superimposed (as if you hadn't guessed!)
Do you know how hard it is to find a relatively unlumpy bit of road in the UK? I needed an exposure time of about one third of a second to get the feeling of motion outside the car but I needed a deep enough DoF to get the car interior and just outside the window sharp but in that short a time the car jounced over yet another bump or lump, blurring everything. Four hundred and thirty two shots later... As for the shot of me leaning over the bonnet. I'm sure that all of the neighbours think I am mad or a pervert. Every time they walked past, I was slumped over the bonnet and displaying my nether regions to the world!
Anyway this shot reminds me of the joke about two nuns driving along a road one night when suddenly a bat splats into the windscreen. The nun who was driving gives it a quick squirt with the washers and then uses the wipers to try and clean it off. As she does this, the bat turns into a vampire with big pointy teeth.
"What shall we do?" Groans the nun in the passenger's seat.
"Quickly..." says the nun doing the driving, "show him your cross!"
So quick as a flash the other nun leans out of the window and roars "Get off my windscreen right now, you toothy git!"
March 8th. Beautiful Angela. Angela is one of our friends and she retired yesterday (well done!) She complained that no-one has taken a reasonable picture of her so I thought "There's a challenge!" This shot was taken using my Orbis ring flash adapter to the right and a white reflector to the right The resulting soft light was just gorgeous. I have smoothed out a few fine wrinkles and brightened the eyes just a touch but apart from that, this is (to my mind) a really nice picture of her. She even admitted this herself.
March 7th. One more day off.
March 6th. Another day off.
March 5th. Day off for anger management (i.e. ditching O2 as a mobile phone supplier.)
March 6th. Another day off.
March 5th. Day off for anger management (i.e. ditching O2 as a mobile phone supplier.)
March 4th. Get pushed challenge 85 - Whisky Heaven. Wow! Was this a b*gg*r to create. Thomas Toth asked me to "Take a HIGH ISO shot (5000 or 6400 ISO) and ensure that the grain is visible and adds to the shot." The details... This was shot in a darkened room. I wound the camera up to ISO 6400 as requested, aperture f/22, 1/400 second and lit the scene with a single Speedlight wound right down to 1/128th power, using a honeycomb grid to get the distinct pool of light on my face and a manual zoom on the flash set to 200mm to accentuate that further. Trying to see the grain is awkward but if you zoom in on my face then you can make out the grain in between the thread veins there! I think that the biggest problem is that the Canon 1D-X handles noise so very well that it is difficult to see. I will have another go if I can find a situation that I think I can get away with at ISO 5000 - 6400 (an ISO faster than that would be easy!).
Music to go with it? Fats Domino singing "Whisky heaven"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjbz2LF8p_0
Music to go with it? Fats Domino singing "Whisky heaven"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjbz2LF8p_0
March 3rd. Green Turtle returning to the sea. Another filler, I am afraid. My phojo has deserted me for the moment so you might see more than one or two fillers for a few days. This was January 2006 and this poor lady had swum from off the coast of Brazil (home) almost all the way across the South Atlantic to Ascension Island to drag herself out of the water at night, to scoop a bottle shaped hole and lay up to one hundred and fifty eggs. She then returns to the sea by the next morning where she will be [ahem!] serviced by a male turtle and then return the next night to repeat the exercise for several days. She performs this procedure every five years from the age of twenty onwards and does it all without any food for the length of time the breeding season takes because the sea grass that she eats does not grow near Ascension. Because there are so few beaches and so many turtles per beach, it is not uncommon for a female to uncover someone else's eggs whilst she is digging yet another nest. The more foolhardy, younger, females drag themselves further inshore, cross the road at the back of the beach near Georgetown and excavate holes in the sandy tennis courts and football pitches! Every day during the breeding season, volunteers man the beaches to make sure that no females are left, trapped by obstacles or if they have turned over, they are righted and guided to the sea. Given the fact that these gracious ladies weigh several hundredweight, there isn't any chance to actually transport them to the waters edge.
March 2nd. Class will now come to order! This is a first for me. For the first time in my project, it's a filler (yes, the dreaded "F" word).
This was shot way back in January 2006 in the Falklands at a place called Bertha's Beach. Now... here is the golden rule... You are NOT (definitely NOT) allowed to approach the penguins to within two metres. It is FORBIDDEN! However, as my friend Roy found, if you plonk your botty on the ground and wait, the Penguins (young Gentoo in this case) will approach you and come closer than two metres out of curiosity. You have kept your part of the bargain, it is them that broke the rules! In this case, the youngsters were fascinated by Roy and came to see what he was up to and to me he looked for all the world like a teacher addressing a classroom full of youngsters. I'm glad that I grabbed this shot when I did because a minute later, the adults started coming ashore with crops full of food and in seconds flat there was a mass of fleeing youngsters all intent on feeding. Class dismissed!
This was shot way back in January 2006 in the Falklands at a place called Bertha's Beach. Now... here is the golden rule... You are NOT (definitely NOT) allowed to approach the penguins to within two metres. It is FORBIDDEN! However, as my friend Roy found, if you plonk your botty on the ground and wait, the Penguins (young Gentoo in this case) will approach you and come closer than two metres out of curiosity. You have kept your part of the bargain, it is them that broke the rules! In this case, the youngsters were fascinated by Roy and came to see what he was up to and to me he looked for all the world like a teacher addressing a classroom full of youngsters. I'm glad that I grabbed this shot when I did because a minute later, the adults started coming ashore with crops full of food and in seconds flat there was a mass of fleeing youngsters all intent on feeding. Class dismissed!
March 1st. One for the pot? I had just finished cleaning out the gutters and decided to come in for a nice hot cuppa. First I slipped and then I tripped and suddenly I found myself in hot water!
Actually, I did this for the se7en group photo for the day - I didn't bother doing one for me.
Actually, I did this for the se7en group photo for the day - I didn't bother doing one for me.