Update

I had a bit of a thought this morning as I was pondering the photo for the day. I set up two bloggs, I know madness, the idea was to do my own proper one using wordpress and the web site I actually have and for some reason a blogspot one, well as usual I'm a bit lazy so the blogspot one was simple to set up. Now part of this challenge is to do things properly and blogspot is ok but not really what I want. So it's migration time!

I've moved all my posts to chippy1402.co.uk and all have to ask is that from now on you look there for my blogging!

 

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Day 67

Busy at work today but in the interest of keeping up with the photo a day I thought about it and took a photo early on. For me this project is really about taking that photo each day and because of that I'm starting to find my style. I'm loving the black and white I'm doing at the moment. Even being restricted on lens and EV is not really causing too much hassle. I think that's because I started out many years ago with my trusty Canon FTB shooting black and white with only a 50mm lens on it so it's almost a comfort for me to be back in that position. The beauty of the digital age is the flexibility of RAW back in the days you could push the processing in the dark room but the digital stuff gives so much flexibility in contrast and brightness.

 

 

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Day 66

Day off in sunny Ireland. Now normally I'd be out with my camera with my collection of lenses snapping hundreds of shots of mountains trees green stuff and the like, but thanks to this lent thing I'm stuck with my 35mm lens.
I did go out for a walk though and snapped a couple of nice pictures of the local church and a fairly nice one of a bit of railing but nothing special.
It was a close run thing to me putting in a filler when as I was walking back up the stairs I saw the chandelier. I held the camera at arms length and snapped this photo.
Having a limited choice is a most astounding thing sometimes as it really makes you look around!!

Day 65

Day 3 of my doing without for lent.
To be honest I'm really enjoying it! It's fun not worrying about EV and lens choice. I'm just looking about and thinking hmmm nice texture, or nice lead lines etc.
So today it was a work day and as I was waiting for some stuff to turn up I started looking about and saw this old valve. I moved in close enough to fill the frame but leave some context in. Converted in Lightroom.

Day 64

It's day 2 of the minimum kit lent fest for me and it was interesting that I took very few pictures. I stopped at this bay on my way to the ferry today and wandered up the beach and because I had limited options I had to have a firm idea as to what I was going for.

I did look at cropping the image but only after I had posted it on the other site. I think I could have done a bit more with the right crop but that's another lesson learnt!

 

 

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A bit of clarification.

I was reading a magazine and it had an article about a photographer called Giacomo Brunelli. He has been taking photos in London for the last two years all in black and white. Not unusual so far but the really cool thing is he uses an old camera set at f1.8 and 1/1000 of a second with a 50mm lens.

This got me to thinking I have so much choice when taking a photo may be I should get back to basics. And as it's lent for the next 40 days I'm going to give it a go I've left all my gear at home and have travelled with my D7000 body and my 35mm f1.8 lens. Put my camera on to manual set the F stop to 1.8 and shutter to 1/1000.

I've found it quite liberating not worrying about what lens etc. and having to think about the limits of the exposure is quite a challenge but allows for interesting processing of the photos.

Well here's to the next 40 days it's going to be a blast!

 

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Day 63

So it's the beginning of lent tomorrow so I thought I should give up something for 40 days to push the photography a bit further and push the creative in me. I was reading a B&W photo magazine about a photographer called Giacomo Brunelli he is in London and takes photos with a 50mm lens at 1/1000 and f1.8 in black and white. Well that's giving up a whole lot so here goes the next 40 days are going to be interesting to say the least!!

Here's the first effort I'm actually happy with the way it's turned out and really like the lack of focus on the hound.

Day 62

After a chilly day out yesterday my thoughts where firmly fixed on indoors today. The one subject that always appeals the the flower. I really enjoy doing these and setting up the lighting is a large part of this subject.
I used my home made light box, although it's too small and then made up a couple of reflectors to bounce light from below and sides to light the petals and reduce shadows.
A quick process job in Photoshop for the levels curves and a tweak of saturation and the hint of blur to soften it a touch.

Day 61

Something different for me today. Part of the idea of doing this challenge was doing new things and this happened today. We where invited to a 4X4 event this Sunday and usually I would have made my excuses and stayed at home but with needing a photo we said yes. Over the course of the day I got closer to the action and a better understanding of what was going to happen.
So I'm going to put two photos on today the first was taken about half way through the event and I'm very happy with the result the second was taken towards the end of the event and I think I captured the event!!

 

Day 60

Bit of a trial today as it's a really clear night tonight I gave star photography a go. Ok so it's white dots but these are a long way away!!
I think the smudge in the middle is a galaxy of some sorts? I'm happy enough with the results but will give it another go with a longer lens and more shots or a shorter lens to get more stars in. Something to work at I guess.

Day 59

Wow I'm tired today! I read an article in a photo magazine on arty kind of shots using old electrical stuff and so thought why the heck not.
Lighting was awkward in the extreme I ended up using a high powered LED torch to light from the back. I was using deodorant as a fog type thing but ended up sneezing far too much and so ended up Photoshopping a fair amount to add atmosphere the the photo and hints of light beams through the photo.
It was an interesting experiment and one which i will tackle again I need a bit more experimentation as to which lens to use, I think my 50mm would have been ideal but will see another day.

Day 58

Bright colours for a dull day, during the usual walk with the dogs it struck me that the fence at the local school is really bright and interesting. I moved to such an angle to hide the individual bars to give a block colour effect. A few tweaks of levels to give a quite powerful photo.

Day 57

It's just an observational photo today nothing much to say just it's a lovely moment.

Day 56

In my quest for things to do macro seems to be fun. I found a small feather on the ground today and thought it would be cool to do a bit of a macro job on it.
I reversed a 105mm on to a 75-150 mm zoom, I would have liked to use the 50mm but it is out on loan at the moment. I then took 14 shots using my macro rail and then stacked them in Photoshop. If you look at this at 100% you can see the focus stack so I think I need to work on this a bit more!!

Day 55

I love having a small light box as there's not mushroom it it!! Oh the joy it's a good job I'm a Fun Guy!!!
On a serious note though I really like macro work and you really need to control the light. So my DIY light box is coming into it's own and opening up a whole avenue of photographs to take. I think in the next week or do I might build a bigger one for slightly larger items.
The ability to set the lighting up to create a feel is so much better than "Fixing in Post".

Day 54

After yesterdays master thought 7300 photos is really too many to fulfill my 365 day challenge! I thought a bit about the photo for today.
Now I really enjoy macro work and love a nice flower so I built a nice Light-box out of a cereal box, using white card and silver foil as reflectors and backgrounds. I'm thinking about building a kind of mini studio thing out of cardboard with slot in backgrounds etc. I think that might be quite cool.
I digress I built this light-box so I could control the lighting for this photo. I did consider cleaning up the dust and other bits but life isn't perfect!

Day 53

Wow I almost cracked today and posted a photo from yesterday!! I managed to take some photos and looked at them but some of yesterdays were better to be honest but as this is a photo a day challenge I'm going to stick with it.
I think the moral of this story is I'm actually taking too many photos in one day and then forgetting what I'm posting. For example yesterday I took 75 pictures around Norwich of which I'd be happy to use 15-20 pictures!! Great hit rate but when you think I have to post one a day that's going to be 7300 photos at that rate!! I need to slow this down and concentrate on one shot!!

Here's the photo from yesterday I like this enough to post it too!!

Day 52

Had a really nice afternoon walking around Norwich with my son and the Grandchildren ( not his! ) We went into Norwich Cathedral which was lovely. I took loads of nice photos of ceilings, windows and the like but the one that struck me as meaning something and capturing a moment was this one.

It's a candid moment as a couple of friends look at the candles just prior to lighting one themselves. I hope it leaves you wondering what they where reflecting upon at this moment in time.

Day 51

Spooning is Fun!!
I was really stuck today for inspiration but then remembered a magazine I had read in the last few days and there was a really cool shot of a spoon on a textured surface. So this is my homage to that photo.

I actually had a fair bit to think about with the lighting and positioning of the spoon and camera. I think I'll probably go back to this set up again to see what I can do with it.

Day 50

Well it's the first if the desperate shots today not too bad considering it's day 50! Still it's a well taken abstract of a fan heater in my hotel room.

I've had a long day at work and did go out and about after work but the grave yard I had eyed up was closing just as I arrived and they were fairly adamant not letting me in to take a couple of low light moody shots of graves and snow drops. Never mind there is always next time.

I suppose the good thing about this is no matter how yuck I felt I still took the shot. I almost talked myself out of it but I just had to post something for the day.

On the website I also post to a fair amount of the contributors seem to put in fillers. I suppose it's ok as it's not my project. For me though it's about doing this everyday.

 

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