12th June Challenge

The idea behind this challenge is to carry your camera with you through the day and shoot 12 shots on the 12 day of every month....nice record at the end of 12 months...so here goes.

First shot of the morning just after I had woken up and still lying in bed
Very spoilt to enjoy breakfast in bed while browsing through my new camera manual

View from my bedroom window - at least the skies are blue!

A "happy" Pansy's on my terrace

View from my terrace while enjoying a cup of coffee

Spent the morning getting our bank statements etc together for Simon and the children's Shengen Vis application

Nicholas had a second birthday party in the afternoon so off we went

Jelly was on the menu....always a firm favourite with kiddies

The beautiful birthday girl

Very quick and easy dinner, fresh soup and home made bread rolls

Some peace and quiet with a bit of Biggest Loser - I love love love this program and have watched every series, so inspirational

Last bit of Stephanie Meyer before finally climbing into bed

Team Up Thursday - Week 3

Theme: Sports

I chose our theme for this week and considering I am not in the slightest bit sports inclined I have NO IDEA what possessed me, I don't go anywhere even vaguely resembling a sports facility or field EVER lol. Fortunately my eldest son is the exact opposite and plays Rugby, Table Tennis, Football and Cricket and very kindly obliged by putting on his kit and letting me take some shots. As some reader of my other blog will know I purchased a Nikon D90 on Saturday last week and so this weeks photos where the first taken on the camera, without time to read the manual ;0)

I am pretty please with the final result even if it took a while to achieve - it was inspired by World Cup Fever (I am South African after all) and Phil's total obsession with Manchester United.

click on images to enlarge

The depth of field on Claire's shot is excellent and somehow the scratches on the side of the row boat tell a story of many hours spent on the water....such a different take on the theme and I think it is fantastic.

Other bloggers taking up the challenge:
(I have only linked in to one participant in each partnership, you should easily be able to navigate from there)
Kirsten & Marcelle
Corey & Berta
Megan & Melody
Joanne & Rose
Cat and Shayne

Photo's that didn't make the cut...

Team Up Thursday - Week 2

Theme: Red

Claire chose our theme this week and I must admit it had my creative juices flowing, I tried a couple of different things but unfortunately as the weather was really grotty here the light was for the most part shocking and so most of them failed :0I

In desperation I had finally settled on a photo I took a while back in London (see the end of the post) but as red is for me first and foremost the colour of love, coming up the stairs this afternoon and finding Nick's little red crocs lying there in the sand my heart welled up and suddenly I had my shot.

Just a little bit of love

Claire's photo this week is wonderful, I love the wine falling into the glass and the light in the top half of the photo, all I said when I received it was WOW!

Other bloggers taking up the challenge:
(I have only linked in to one participant in each partnership, you should easily be able to navigate from there)
Kirsten & Marcelle
Corey & Berta
Megan & Melody
Joanne & Rose
Cat and Shayne


Photo's that didn't make the cut...

Nothing say "red" quite like a london phone box

Messing around with some red jumping castle balls and natural sunlight through our lounge window

Team Up Thursday - Week 1

Theme: New Experiences

Having followed this "challenge" for a couple of weeks, I have convinced Claire to become my partner and am quite excited to reveal our first set of photos. I chose the theme for week 1 and as this is a "new experience" for us I thought that it would make a great starting point. I promised myself that I wouldn't make this challenge all about photos of my children but having been on the beach with Nicholas on Saturday I simply couldn't resist my choice for this week.

This is the first summer where Nick has been really aware of his surroundings and watching him lie in the wet sand "exploring" with his hands I just knew I had my shot, he really loved getting his hands dirty and was totally entranced by his "new experience"

Click on the photos to enlarge

I LOVE this photo from Claire, you can just see from her uncle's face the absolute glee of riding this bike, the emotion is brilliantly captured giving the feeling that he is a little boy again - awesome "first experience"

Other bloggers taking up the challenge:
(I have only linked in to one participant in each partnership, you should easily be able to navigate from there)
Kirsten & Marcelle
Corey & Berta
Megan & Melody
Joanne & Rose
Cat and Shayne

Not sure if you are supposed to do this but these are the photos that didn't make the final cut :0)

Sea Mist on West Wittering Beach

Exploring hands

Talking about Tripods

Having been absent for such a long time I think last weeks post has me fired up again and I am finally getting round to a long promised post....hope it isn't to late to be of use to you Helen.

When it comes to tripods the old adage of the higher the cost the better the quality does apply I am afraid and there is simply no cheap way round this piece of equipment, it is important to remember that you are going to trust this "stand" with your most precious possession (your camera) and you don't want it toppling over.

I would recommend staying away from cheap spindly table tripods and spending the extra money on a professional quality one even if you are not shooting on a professional camera - personally I prefer the clip legs which can be very easily released without turning of lots of little knobs but that is just a matter of preference, there is no scientific reason why they are better, they are simply a little easier to use, but as they are a more recent development can be a little harder to find.

And that is it....go sturdy, aluminium and expensive and you will never regret it :0)

Working in the Snow

It has been a while since my last post and I guess it is just a bit of a case of so much to say and so little time to say it in.....the weather in England today has forced my hand however and I would be remiss to miss the opportunity to talk about taking photos in the snow.

Snow photography can be a little tricky as the camera may be inclined to either overexpose the snow if you take your light reading off the subject or underexpose the subject if you take your reading off the snow itself - I generally leave the camera on auto and try and find something between the two to read the light. This has been a recipe for success for me but it has taken practise and lots of thrown away photos to achieve a point where I am happy with the exposure on just about every shot.

The second important element of snow photography for me is the mood you are trying to create - I am of course not referring here to family snaps of snow fights and tobogganing but rather of trying to achieve the type of photo you may want to hang on your wall. I was fortunate enough to go out today on a "photoshoot" into an area of virgin snow....I chose to focus on three elements and I have to say I am pleased with the results.

Water...
Obviously where there is snow most water will generally be iced over, but if you are fortunate enough to catch some that is yet to freeze you can use it to capture some lovely reflections as it will generally be very still.

The way the snow reaches the water can also create a lovely composition and I particularly like the contrast between sky, snow and water in the first shot. The starkness of the snow can be lots of fun to play with using contrasts when photographing, and if you are lucky enough to have a bright blue sky all the better.


Macro Photography
One of my passions which is particularly hard for me to resist is any form of macro photography....in the snow it is important to really get up close and see how the ice has affected plants around you, try to take your light reading off the plant material rather then the snow and make sure you are using either a macro facility on your point and shoot or are using a lens with macro facilities on an DSLR. If the fall hasn't been to heavy you may even be able to pick up individual snowflakes on the branches of trees.


Mood
I find the snow very peaceful and for me straight lines convey structure and order which are also peaceful to me, so in order to convey the mood I was looking for I sought out compositions that allowed for strong linear subjects

Like fireworks snow is all about practise, get out there and have fun with the shadows and contrasts - the rewards can be astounding

Photographing Fireworks

Taking a really good firework photo, in my experience, requires only three things....a good zoom lens, a tripod and the ability to manually adjust your shutter speed while the camera takes care of the aperture. This facility is known as the shutter priority and is normally indicated by an "S" on your camera controls.

To begin with I would recommend finding yourself a high vantage point where you are unlikely to have people walking in front of the lens and set yourself up nice and early when it is still light and you are able to see what you are doing without any pressure to get your camera settings right as the display starts.

While it is light you will be unable to test your camera settings, but I would recommend a shutter speed of 10 seconds as a good starting point and then playing from there....you will find anything higher then about 15 seconds will allow in too much light and you will loose some of the "drama" of the shot while anything less then about 8 seconds won't let enough light in and you will just get little specs of light on a huge expanse of black sky.

One of the most difficult aspects of this kind of photograph is getting your AF to focus when the sky is black, my recommendation here is to wait for the flair to go off, track it and hit the trigger....this will take practise as you need to get the timing spot on, too much movement once the shutter is open will result in blur and without the flair your camera will never focus. On your first time out if you get 25% of your shots right that will be great, use the rest to learn what works and what doesn't and just have fun playing around with timing.

On the topic of blur, it is almost impossible to obtain a nice sharp firework photo without a good stable tripod...the tripod needs to be stable enough to absorb your movement on the camera without wobbling and allow you to keep your finger on the trigger constantly - I tend to anchor my tripod with one hand while using the other to take the shot. It is a good idea to use a remote trigger if you have one, but it takes a bit of practise so this probably shouldn't be the first time you use it.


The most exciting thing about photographing fireworks is that every single one is different and no two photos will every be the same, I LOVE this aspect of photography and trying to capture the magnificence of the display....it takes time and practise but for me is so worthwhile in the end and if it is your thing you will get many happy hours playing with your settings.