A good day for photography

Today was a good day for taking photographs. The sun was out and the sky was clear of clouds. I was also out during the time when it was light so I was able to take advantage of this.

I did not really go walking anywhere but I was still able to get some shots along the ways that I walk often. I am feeling good about the shots that I took today. I think the composition works well with them. I am hoping that this is the start of the return of my confidence.

Felled tree:

 

Tree stump:

 

Face in the tree root:

I have taken a few pictures of this, but I just love photographing it. So not only here is another picture of it, I am sure there will be many more to follow.

Another shot of the moon

I decided to have another go at taking a shot of the moon before I went to bed. I noticed that the lens was not out at full. I took some more shots to make sure that I was at full capacity. I am happy with the shot that I got. I am looking forward to eventually being able to get a bigger lens so that I will be able to get a better shot.

This was the shot that I managed to get:

 

I do love going to the beach and looking at the sea, so it is not surprising that I also love going to the beach and the sea to photograph. The tide was in when I went shopping the other day so I was not able to get onto the beach for any shots, but I was still able to get some shots of the sea. I do not think I could ever get bored of looking at the sea.

I posted on Flickr

I managed to get back on Flickr and I posted some pictures. I also caught up on commenting on other peoples pictures. I am glad that I did. I have decided that next month I will do a 30 day project. Hopefully that will help me feel better about my photography.

I did not mention yesterday but I found out at the photography club that the course that I was thinking about taking (the advanced photography course) had been cancelled due to lack of interest. I think that maybe it starting in January did not help. Even though it will be ending when the warmer weather starts, maybe the April course will be more popular.

The moon looked so beautiful tonight that I went out in the cold to get a shot. While the tempreature is at freezing there is a breeze that is making it feel even colder. I had to use a fast shutter speed as I was shaking while trying to get a shot. I was not able to use a tripod either as I am not sure where I put it.

This was a shot that I got of the moon:

 

I also got this shot earlier on when I was taking the twins home from nursery. I love getting shots of sunlight where you catch the rays.

Judging time

I went to the photography club tonight and two photography competitions were being judged. I am not sure if I actually want to enter any pictures into a competition though. It is so fickle. A picture that won a previous competition came fourth tonight. It should have won.

I was not impressed with what he was saying. He was too hung up on technicalities. He gave a picture a high score that did not deserve it. There was no point of focus and I did not know what the picture was about, but it got the high score due to part of it being in focus.

The picture of my son got a high score though and it did look funky. It was nice to hear people appreciating it. I know I am biased when I say that I think my son looks lovely but it is nice to hear others think the same.

He would not have liked the portrait of my sons eyelashes that I love. It is not in enough fucus and the DOF is shallow. But that is why I love it.

It has got me questioning about entering competitions though because I do get enjoyment from taking pictures and I enjoy trying to get the best shot possible. I do not follow rules though and I am not a traditional photographer. I might enter one just to see how it goes and then work from there.

I took this shot of my daughter the other day. I thit is really cute. She likes hiding behind trees and saying boo to you when you pass. I think it is so cute that she has hidden behind a tree that is narrower than she is.

A way to make time

I need to find more time to get pictures when I am out and about. I have found a way of getting time during the day. It will give me a limited area to take pictures but it will be interesting to see what shots I can get.

All I need to do is leave the house five to ten minutes earlier when I collect the twins from nursery, and I will get some time to get some shots then. I did that today. I got a good opportunity. I think some days I could leave even earlier so I can wander off a little bit.

Here is a picture that I got today of one of the trees that has been cut down. They cut them down and the chop it up into sections which are easier to move about.

Taking a Photoshop course

I was sorting through some of my books and I found a piece of paper with some information about the starting dates of the advanced photogprahy course. I decided that with how I am feeling at the moment that I might wait until September to start the advanced course.

I will then look for a Photoshop course to do in between now and then. I think one of the areas that I am feeling the least confident is with what I can do editing wise.

I must confess that I am looking forward to some days when the lighting is better. It has been so dark recently that I have barely been able to photograph anything (when I have had the time that is)

Photography in the winter

Outdoor photography is very challenging at this time of the year due to the lighting challenges. I have got no real meas to do indoor photography as well (hopefully that will change once I have moved) so for now I have to work on my outfoor photography.

It has been so dark recently, even though the days are getting longer, because it has been so damp it has been really dark. I found that when we were going through the really cold spell the days were lighter as there were no cloud coverage.

I managed to get some shots around the wood today and I think the low lighting works well for for the mood of them.

The Forestry commission have cut down quite a few trees down in the wood at the back of our home. They told to get more light through, but I still do not like to see so many trees cut down. I sometimes wish that they would leave things to mother nature. It makes you think about the times when you go out for a walk about what you are seeing and it makes you think about what is out there that is truly natural. Mankind cannot help but interfering.

 

 

Putting my work on the wall

My brother asked to have some pictures of the younglings for Christmas. I decided to put one of them up on the wall.

I thought that it looked so nice up there that I would get some more printed off and put up there. I got the pictures printed off, they went AWOL. I found the pictures only for the Blu-tac to go missing. I got some from the shop today, so I was able to eventually put them up.

It is really nice to see pictures that I have taken up on the wall. I am going to get some more printed off and put up.

When walking in the wood I have noticed signs of the very first sights of spring. The trees are getting the buds ready and when the weather warms up they will open into leaves.

 

Capturing fog

We had a good fog the other day and I managed to get some shots of it. I got a shot in the woods and I am really pleased with how it turned out.

I think capturing fog is quite a challenging thing to do.

I got this shot of my daughter walking home from nursery. I am pleased with how it turned out as well.

 

The best laid plans

Often get sidetracked when I am busy. And my photography is not getting much time at the moment.

It is getting silly now. I do not have any time for anything, let alone my photography. The days are just flying through and I do not seem to do anything but run out to the shops, get younglings from nursery and school, cook, clean up and put the younglings to bed and relaxed for a bit it is time to go to bed.

The only thing that I am managing to get done is take some pictures when I am out and about. So at least I am getting something done.

I will just have to do what I can when I can, but it is frustrating.

Low lighting

It is that time of the year when lighting is not good. Even when it is light it has been overcast so that has made it even darker. It does not make it easy for getting pictures taken.

I did get some shots of the really icy path around the wood (I hope that it will have gone by the time I go out with my younglings on Monday, or at least receded more)

At least the steps are getting clearer.

You can see how the low lighting has affected the pictures though. Having said that I think that the noise looks right here. I think I need to find a way to make noise work in a picture. Make the photograph become a piece of artwork.

Here is the ice clearing from the steps:

Here is the very icy slope (It was like glass but thankfully I did not fall)

I read my Digital Photo and some good news

I took my step daughter dancing so this gave me a perfect opportunity to look through the latest photography magazine.

It was not a bad month but I was not that impressed. I did not think there was a lot that would be useful for me. There will be months like that but at least I read it. Next month there are going to be tips about capturing winter. I think that is a little late. I know that itll be in the shops late January but by then winter is a good way through and there will not be many more opportunities to capture proper winter weather (unless this year will be an exception) I think it would have been better to have had this either in the edition that was released in late November or late December at the latest.

I have just been working on editing some pictures and I ignored the blue effect that is appearing where there should be black. I opened up the picture even though it looked like there was now blue on my picture (I was planning on converting it to mono so was not bothered if there was any blue there) but when the picture opened up there was not blue there.

I was very pleased about this. This means that while there is a problem with my Photoshop it does not mean that there will be a problem with the final picture.

As a result the editing has gone better and I am much happier with the results.

There are the pictures that I was working on.

 

 

It was so difficult getting past this. I only discovered this when I was walking my younglings to nursery and school. Thankfully I was able to find a way around it as there was no way that we could walk on it (my boys fell on it and could not get up again)

I am also happy that these pictures do not seem so noisy as well.

I have had a look

But I still have not been able to find out what is causing the blue effect in my Photoshop. I will have to keep looking and see if I can find soemthing.

If that does not work out then I will post on a photography forum and see if they can help me.

My mission for tomorrow though is to read through my latest photography magazine.

Here are some more shots I got with the frost:

 

 

 

Right that is it

My mission for tomorrow is to try and figure out what is the matter with my Photoshop. The strange blue that is appearing when I open up RAW files is not good at all. It is really affecting how I edit my pictures and I am not totally happy with what I am producing as a result.

I was working on editing some pictures that I took today and no matter what I tried I was not happy with the result. The only way to get something to work is by converting to mono. But I do like using color from time to time.

This is one of the pictures that I was working on. It does look nice in black and white but it would not have looked good at all in color. I think that is a shame as it would have looked nice in color as well. I am happy with how the shot turned out. I think the sun works well in it.

This was a shot that I took this morning one part of the way which I walk to get to the school. As the snow has been melting and freezing at points, it has made it very icy. Walking to and from school has become a real challenge.

I lack direction

For a while I just do not feel like happy with my photography. Something felt missing. I think it started when I stopped looking forward to the photography magazines being released and then I stopeed reading the magazines and the next thing there is a whole pile of unread photography magazines.

The next thing was not being happy with my photography. I still get out every day taking pictures but when I look through them I do not see any that really make me feel happy.

Another thing is that I have stopped posting on Flickr. I really have got out of the habit of it and I do not think that is helping.

Today though when I was thinking about my photography I realized something which I think could be one of the main reasons I feel so 'Blah' about my photography. I have nothing to focus me, nothing to inspire me and nothing to aim for. No wonder I have been wandering aimlessly.

The things that focused me before was:

1. I had the project 365 every day to do
2. I had a 30 day project (again one picture a day)
3. I took part in a monthly online photography challenge.

This is what happened to those was:

1. The 365 day project came to an end.
2. I took a break from the 30 day project as it became too much
3. The online challenges came to an end temporalily.

I now have to work to get back my direction, focus, inspiration. I do want to improve my photography and I still want to become a professional photographer.

I think what I need to do to get back what I have lost is:

1. Find time each day to post something on Flickr. If I do not spend too much time on there then it does not become a chore.
2. Take part in another 30 day project.
3. Find some other projects on Flickr to take part in
4. If I do not want to start taking part in the online photogrpahy challenge competition then I could create my own.
5. Start reading my photography magazines again.

Hopefully that will help me get my photography mojo back.

The weather is sadly thawing out at the moment, but here are some shot that I got when it was cold (I am pretty happy with how these turned out.

 

 

 

Reducing noise

I do not know what I am doing but a lot of my pictures have been noisy recently. Maybe because we are not long past the shortest day that the light is not good enough.

I have had a quick look and I have managed to find some software that reduces noise. These are what I found so far:

Neat Image
Picture Code
Imagenomic

I will have a proper look at them tomorrow but at least I have found something from having a quick look.

This is a shot that I got of my younglings walking home in the snow.

Sorting through vacation pictures

I have eventually started to look through some of my vacation pictures. I have so many so I think it will take a while.

I will have to start reading my Photoshop book in the next week to see if I can do something interesting with the editing.

Though my Photoshop is acting strangely at the moment. When I am converting a RAW file when I increase the blacks they are putting blue on the picture instead. I wonder what is causing that.

Here are a couple of pictures that I have edited so far.

This was of a moon that I saw coming over the hill. I thought it looked funky:

This was taken in the town where my dad grew up. He told me that during the summer he would come here every day to play. I think it is really pretty.

Frost, frost glorious frost

Because it has been so cold recently the snow has stayed.

There was also a good amount of frost as well this morning. I love photographing the frost as I think it is so pretty.

These are some of the shots that I got of the frost this morning.

 

 

 

Uploading Christmas pictures

I have been uploading the pictures that I took while I was away. There are a lot to go through. I am not sure when I will be able to do this but I will do my best to find some time to do so though.

Though there are some of the pictures that I am not that happy with and had hoped that they would have turned out better, but sadly there is nothing that I can do about that. That is one of the down side of trying to take pictures when people are moving and I am moving as well. I think that is an area that I could work on. Though from what I have seen some of them have turned out well, so that is good.

Even with the photographs that did not turn out as well as I'd have hoped it has given me an oppiortunity to discover another area where I need to improve, or get more experience.

Here is a shot that I hav3e edited from my time away.

This was taken on Christmas day when my son was not well at all (we had to take him to the hospital, but thankfully he made a speedy recovery)

I am pleased with this sky shot that I got. I am working on building up a good selection of funky looking skies for times when I need to add o with a dull sky.

Challenges for 2010

The new year is here and this is a time for setting challenges for the next year. Most importantly they should be achievable challenges.

My photography challenges for this year are:

1. Go on another photography course
2. Enter a photography competition with the photography club
3. Look for a Photoshop course and if there is one available put my name down to attend it.
4. Read my Photoshop book and set aside times when I learn a new Photoshop thing each day for a week.
5. Find ways in which I could become a professional photographer.
6. Get on Flickr more often. Set aside days when I post pictures and comment on pictures. Days for posting are Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
7. Buy a domain name for my website.

I think that is enough to keep me busy.