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/.]
I started a “365” project yesterday. The idea is that you take a photo every single day for a year, and at the end of the year you can look back over the year, and have a record of highs and lows, and changes. You also should improve your photography by taking photos every day!
The photos can be of anything at all, although some people approach it in a time-lapse fashion, taking the “same” photo ideally at the same time every day for a year (for instance to document the changes in a garden). I’m not going to do that, because I think it will be more fun and less effort (and hence more likely to succeed) to just snap whatever captures my fancy on a given day.
People on the web seem to suggest that doing a “selfie” (a self portrait) once a month is a good idea, so you capture how you have changed as well. May 9th is a fairly random day to start a new project, but I seem to be particularly enthusiastic about photography at the moment, and wanted to strike while the iron’s hot. Also, the “traditional” start for this sort of thing – 1st Jan – strikes me as a really bad time to start something now, especially a photography project. There’s the whole resolution thing already going on, and you’re in the darkest, coldest, wettest months of the year.
My self-imposed “rules” are (i.e. The criteria I am using to judge whether I managed the project):
It doesn’t matter what equipment is used, but I must compose the shot and fire the shutter.
A “day” runs from midnight-midnight, and the photo must be taken on that day to count.
… That said I am allowed 5 ‘bys’, where I can assign a photo taken another day to a given day, if for some reason I’ve not taken a photo on that day.
The photos will be posted online to photo.eutony.net/365 within 2 weeks of being taken.
I also intended to blog on here once a week or so with the new photos, but I may not manage that. That said, here’s the kick-off photo:
