It was a local church who were running it, and I entered the photo below into the water category. It won the category, and was also voted best in show!! Chuffed, to be honest. I think it’s probably the best photo I’ve ever taken (best being a relative term), and I was hoping it would at least place in the category, but taking Best in Show was a real surprise and honour.
Can I now describe myself as a prize-winning photographer? 🙂
For anyone who’s interested, it took around an hour, 300 exposures, and lots of experimentation with lighting, background, and food colouring. The only thing I don’t like about it is the little white spot just to the left of the main “tower” – should have cloned it out.
Camera on tripod, I pre-focussed on where the drop would be, and switched to manual focus. Exposure was also manual (f/4.0 and 1/50s), but almost all the illumination is from the flash firing horizontally from the left of the camera. Slightly cropped to remove some foreground, but otherwise SOOC. My right hand was holding a dropper about one metre above a dinner plate with blue food-coloured water in, left hand fired shutter on the camera.
Set myself a mini challenge this week – to take 7 photos on a musical theme.
Quite happy with the results, so here they are!
I also realised that I’m starting to take photos trying to please the other members of 365project.org, and try to make it into the popular pages / top 20. This was never the point of my project – yes I want to improve my photography, but my aim is to take photos I like, and if other people like them too, that’s a bonus. It’s funny how the act of doing something often changes into something else without you always realising.
Even more than that, I don’t mind bad photos being included, where I’ve tried something and it hasn’t worked. I can’t honestly say that I’m happy with every photo so far, but that’s ok!
Ha – bet the title made you think this was another photography entry! What’s that? It didn’t? Oh well.
It’s actually pretty well halfway through the year, so I thought I’d take stock over my resolutions and targets for 2011 (as first covered in this entry).
Climbing – absolutely dismal! Haven’t been since April, and it’s now going to be almost impossible to hit 20. Motivation is a weird thing – I love it when I get there, but can’t quite get my butt out of the door!
Blogging – on track here! 28/50 (including this one), and only halfway through the year.
Growing Leaders. Very much on track. Awesome course, and can’t believe there’s only 4 sessions left. God seems to really be using the material in the lives of everyone involved. Already looking forward to GL2012.
Cinema – slipping a bit here; no trips yet (that I can recall). Plenty of DVDs thanks to LoveFilm gift sub though.
Weight – on track (just!). 71.9kg at the last weigh in.
Photo. Submitted an entry to every DLSR Skills homework so far. I also submitted one to the Great Yorkshire Show competition (which didn’t make it past the first round), and submitted 4 to a local Church’s photo competition (judging in a couple of weeks). So this one’s nailed, but I’d love to see one in print too. Also 100% record on my 365 project.
Camping – not yet. Looking like a back garden jobbie over the summer hols.
All in all not too shoddy. I’m a bit disappointed about the climbing, and how that’s fallen off my agenda (again!), but I’m hugely enjoying photography, and (I think) my photos are improving too!
One of the frustrating (although not in a bad way) things about the 365 project is the one-photo-per-day rule. I had the fortune to pop down to Cornwall for a few days last week, and ended up at the end of each day with several good (IMO!) candidates for that day’s picture. Only one allowed though.
Other days I’m having to go out and invent pictures in order to satisfy that day’s requirement.
While there is a strong temptation to ‘average out’ the photos, and use the 15 or so I took in Cornwall over the coming days, that would actually translate to a fortnight of not taking photos!
However I’m not willing to let the near misses go to waste either, so here are the ones that weren’t selected on the day they were taken, but which I would have been happy to use if I’d have been allowed!
Interestingly, there’s a shop called “Middleton’s” in Fowey. However it’s a sweet shop rather than party supplies!
Hope I’m not getting boring!! The last 6 posts have been about photography, and this is no exception. I’ll save some bandwidth by not actually including any pictures this time – how about that?
Starting week 4 of my 365 (which in itself is a bit scary), and haven’t particularly struggled so far for inspiration or motiviation. In fact, I still have a fairly long list of subjects I want to photograph, and a fairly long list of photographic styles/techniques to try out.
To whet the appetite for the next 49 weeks, here are some of the photos I want to take over the next year:
Various musical instruments I play.
Self portraits.
A landscape or two.
Wildlife.
Baby shots.
More ‘daily’/’weekly’ shots (stuff I do regularly), like:
I like 365project because it has a calendar view that shows you the picture from each day, and it allows e-mail submission (but haven’t tried that yet!)
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working my way through the Practical Photography’s DSLR Skills Bootcamp. This month is about creative metering and exposure, and the assignment is to take a long exposure shot of a moving car, but panning it so the car is sharp and the background is blurred.
So I spent lunchtime today shivering in the wind and the rain beside one of the arterial roads into Harrogate honing my skills.
I’m only allowed to choose one as my submission for the bootcamp, and I’m only allowed one for the 365… but I had so much fun I’m going to put all the better shots on here.
I particularly like the bin lorry – I didn’t notice the driver was waving until afterwards!
I’ve add a slightly more convenient ‘in’ to the 365 photos, although it does require Flash.
Point a browser at www.eutony.net/365 to see the pics, and that page also has a direct link to the set on Flickr (the less than memorable www.flickr.com/photos/66189293@N00/sets/72157626684135070/).
I’ve also added it to the left navigation panel. Aren’t I kind? 🙂
[22/09/11 Edit – As Flickr only allows 200 photos, I’m now hosting them myself! Check out photo.eutony.net/365/.]
