The last day of the year

Ooh the last day of the year has come around.

I think I will have to look through my pictures when I get back home and see what improvements I have made through the year before I start planning out what I still need to learn and improve.

Books for Christmas

I have got some photography books for Christmas.

I will have to look through them and see if there is anything in them that can help me.

Sadly though as I thought there is no snow. If I would have stayed at home then I would have got the white Christmas that I would lvoe to have but not this year.

At least when I have hopefully moved to Canada then we will have lots of white Christmasses.

Let it snow

The snow arrived yesterday but while that was great there has not been any more. At least it has stayed cold so that what snow that fell is still there and is likely to stay.

It would have been a good opportunity to get lots of shots but sadly so far I have not really had the opportunity to do so (the last few days have been hectic for me)

At least I have been able to get some shots though and some from when it was snowing.

Reducing noise

Right my next mission is to find out how to reduce noise. I do not like using flash but of course I then end up with very noisy photographs when shooting indoors (like at my eldest sons nativity)

These are the best shots that I got of him. I was very fortunate that even though was several rows back I was able to get this shot.

 

Waiting for the snow

I have been told that there is snow due here soon. I am looking forward to it arriving as it will be lovely to photograph. Though it will be better once it has stopped snowing. I would like to get some nice snowflake shots. I think I will have to find out how I can get some.

I will be disappointed that I will not catch any snow this Christmas. I very much doubt that I will get any where we will be going. It is possible but I am not sure if I can remember seeing any snow there. At least next year I will be spending Christmas at home. Though not that I have ever seen any snow at Christmas either and of course it will be Murphy's law that states that we will have a te Christmas while we are away.

I do love taking pictures of frost as well but sadly we have not had much of that either.

I did get this shot recently of a frosty dead wild flower. I am pleased with how it has turned out.

New photography magazine

I went to the shops today and I was able to get the latest copy of Digital Photographer. I really need to subscribe to this so I do not need to rush out to the shops to get it.

It looks like it is going to be interesting this month. There are sections about Interior shots and getting perfect lighting. Even though I do not like using the flash I think it is good to still develop that skill in case I need to use it (there will be times when I will not be able to get away with not using the flash)

The going pro section is about securing sponsorship from manufacturers. That sounds something that would be really helpful for me (though that would be most helpful now as funds are short and there is always stuff that I am going to need) I will take that with me when I go away next week. I am not feeling well enough to read it tonight. Fluffy romance is the only thing that I will reading tonight.

I have been taking some shots of the sky today. I read that it is always good to have a collection of good sky shots for the times when nature does not provide them (darn that pesky nature for holding out on us when we need it, we are photographers...it should make everything perfect for us every time)

I am not sure what is causing it but there are a few specks on my pictures. It is either something on the lens or something on the mirror in the camera. I hope it is not the latter, as I have not needed to clean that yet and I am very nervous about doing it. I am not going to do it without a proper kit though. At least Photoshop will fix any problems that I come across (I love CS4)

Today I managed to get some nice sunset clouds (the sun had already set at not long past 3pm so I missed that as I was collecting the younglings from school)

I think I am going to have to find out how to get low light shots without the noise.

I really love photographing frost. I think it looks so pretty.

Sorting through my magazines

I get a couple of photography magazines a month, but I have got out of the habit of reading them.  I have still been buying them as I know that at some point I know that I will be able to look through and learn something from them.

Today I got all of my copies of Digital photo and Digital photographer that I have got. I sorted through them and took out the useful bits and put them in a folder so that at least I know where they all are and they will be kept in good contition as well.

My challenge of learning something new about Photoshop each day had to be put on hold due to other things that I have had to do first, and times when I have just been too tired. I think the best thing for me to do is to leave this challenge until the New Year when things have hopefully settled down.

Now we are into winter I have decided that I would see what interesting things that I can photograph. It is easy to get into the habit of thinking that Spring, Summer and Autumn are the only seasons to find anything interesting to photograph. But today when walking through the woods I thought the water drops on the dead wild flowers looked really interesting (especially with the spider webs there as well)