Day 121 - Sunday 29 August 2010

121. Well, it's day 121 of the 365 blog! Nothing special about that... but for me a big day because today is the first day of my mobilised tour with the British Army. I've effectively left home and I'm living in army barracks. Although I'll continue taking pictures for the 365 project, posting them on the blog will be somewhat erratic as I'll be needing to find an internet connection... and that wasn't at all successful when I went to Atltcar back in June!

This picture is of a dilapidated sign on one of the dilapidated barrack blocks on camp...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/160 @ f4, ISO 200

Day 120 - Saturday 28 August 2010

Mirror, mirror. Today is our wedding anniversary... we spent last night in a (very) expensive hotel as a treat. I saw this view last last night and decided I would shoot it this morning for my 365. The shadow on the wall was cast by my lovely wife, Debs...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/10 @ f3.2, ISO 200

Day 119 - Friday 27 August 2010

Falls. A small waterfall in a stream close to my home. It's in a flood control area we call 'The Lagoons' which rarely floods...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/500 @ f4, ISO 200

Day 118 - Thursday 26 August 2010

Doha. Similar to a shot I posted a couple of days ago... but this is a real bear. Seven years ago I went abroad to work for 4 months. My (then 11 year old) daughter, Sian gave me her first and most loved teddy, Little Ted, to take with me to "look after you". I'm going away again soon and wanted to take Little Ted with me, but sadly he's looking quite worn out and I doubt he'd survive the trip (he's 18 years old after all!)

So... I spent some time in the loft today rummaging through a BIG bag of teddys looking for a suitable replacement and found Doha, so named because he was bought in the American PX (NAAFI) at Camp Doha in Kuwait City as a gift for Sian on my last trip away. Doha is wearing a dessert cammo hat and shirt with the slogan 'Greetings from Camp Doha'...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/8 @ f2.8, ISO 400

Day 117 - Wednesday 25 August 2010

Glass. This is a small, ornate glass dish shot with Ian's technique of using a computer screen as backlighting. The dish was full of Bombay Mix which I just had to finish before I could take the shot...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/8 @ f2.8, ISO 100

Day 116 - Tuesday 24 August 2010

Puddle. Slightly better weather today, with more sunshine than rain. The rain had collected in a puddle on the patio table and was reflecting the neighbours house lit with late evening sunshine...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/160 @ f4, ISO 100

Day 115 - Monday 23 August 2010

Rainbow. The telegraph pole outside my house makes a return to my 365 project but in very different weather conditions. We had just experienced a heavy downpour, one of several today, when the sun made a rare appearance creating a rainbow...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f8, ISO 100

Day 114 - Sunday 22 August 2010

Aurora Borealis. Not really :D This one started life as picture of sunlight filtered through vertical blinds being reflected off the windowsill onto the ceiling in my lounge. I've used a second, similar, picture on a layer over the first, inverted and the layer mode set to 'Lighten', followed by 'Hue', 'Levels' & curves adjustments...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f6.3, ISO 800

Day 113 - Saturday 21 August 2010

Boofle. My daughter passed her A levels and has been accepted to Birmingham university against very high odds if you believe the hype in the press this week. This picture is a detail shot from one of the congratulation cards she received...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/20 @ f2.8, ISO 800

Day 112 - Friday 20 August 2010

Roots. Looking a bit like alien tentacles, this is a macro shot of the roots on a bunch of spring onions...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/8 @ f2.8, ISO 200

Day 111 - Thursday 19 August 2010

One drop of rain. A reasonably nice day ended with a bit of rain, which is fine with me as I wanted to do something featuring rain. This is rain water collecting on the edge of a patio chair...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/16 @ f2.8, ISO 200

Day 110 - Wednesday 18 August 2010

Yucca. I'm still playing with Clive's double exposure blend technique today. This one is a defocussed image of a Yucca plant blended onto a close-up of one of it's leaves. Both pictures were shot into the sun for the backlighting which has resulted in lens flare. I quite like result...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/160 @ f4, ISO 200

Day 109 - Tuesday 17 August 2010

Ladybird. This picture is a blend of two separate exposures. It's a technique one of the other participants in this 365 project on Photoportal, Clive, does really well. I've not gone to the extremes he does so the effect isn't so noticable here because I wanted the ladybird to remain reasonably sharp. It wasn't untill I was editing this picture that I noticed the ant and the aphids...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/50 @ f2.8, ISO 200

Day 108 - Monday 16 August 2010

Handle. A nice hot and sunny day again today, time to get the decking painted with a wax based wood preservative. This is handle of the 5 litre can along with it's reflection in the top of the can...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/80 @ f2.8, ISO 100

Day 107 - Sunday 15 August 2010

Prancing Horse. Today was my daughter, Sian's day out. She chose a supercar driving day. The weather was sunny and hot, in complete contrast to yesterday. This is the Ferrari flag we had to wait by for our turn to drive the Ferrari 360 Spider...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f8, ISO 100

Day 106 - Saturday 14 August 2010

Green. Spent today on a military vehicle driving experience with my son, Evan. Great day out :) though quite wet and very muddy! This is a picnic table which is actually under a green tarpualin covered shelter that was totally ineffective at keeping the rain out...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/80 @ f4, ISO 200

Day 105 - Friday 13 August 2010

Venetian. Friday 13th!!! A day for staying in with the blinds closed. Not really :D Got this one nice and early shortly after getting up and noticed the shadows created by the venetian blind in the downstairs cloakroom. I was hoping to get a picture of the Perseid meteor shower for today and went out into the garden after midnight, but the only shower I saw was rain...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/40 @ f2.8, ISO 200

Day 104 - Thursday 12 August 2010

Shipshape. Another last minute picture and another play with the macro attachment. This is an ornamental fishermans dinghy made of wood that sits on the dressing table in our bedroom. This view was taken with the lens resting on the transom to show the helmsmans view of the boat...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/3 @ f2.8, ISO 200

Day 103 - Wednesday 11 August 2010

Widow Box. One of the windows in the Blue Pig public house, a 19th century building in Grantham. The interesting pub name comes from the local practice of naming pubs according to their political allegence. The Blue Pig is one of several pubs with 'blue' in their name signifying their support for the Manners family (The Duke of Rutland from Belvoir Castle) who were Whigs and chose blue as their colour...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/320 @ f8, ISO 100

Day 102 - Tuesday 10 August 2010

Web. Just a simple shot of a telegraph pole outside my house with BT lines radiating out to all the houses in my corner of the street. The wires remind me of the basic structure of a spiders web. Wouldn't like to meet the spider building a web that big though...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/800 @ f8, ISO 400

Day 101 - Monday 09 August 2010

Earring. Quite a busy day today, followed by a visit from family with a meal out. It was getting quite late and realised I hadn't taken todays's picture. Whilst in the restaurant I'd noticed Debs' earings swinging and decided to make them today's subject...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/8 @ f2.8, ISO 400

Day 100 - Sunday 08 August 2010

Shreddies! Mmmm... soul food :D ...and you can eat more than 3 of them :) It's day 100 of the 365 challenge and I haven't ignored that fact! This image does have a connection to the number 100. Shreddies are made from 100% whole grain wheat...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/40 @ f2.8, ISO 100

Day 99 - Saturday 07 August 2010

Fence. I tried something similar to this idea way back on day 18 with a chain-link fence. This one is a rather more formidable coated steel affair separating the railway at Eastcroft from some waist ground. Day 18 was in black & white but I quite like the colours in this one...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/100 @ f4, ISO 100

Day 98 - Friday 06 August 2010

Shoosmiths. This is an attempt to capture the lighting illuminating Law firm, Shoosmiths building in Nottingham. Shooting after dark handheld from a train who's diesel engines are causing bad vibrations is never a good idea...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1 sec @ f3.5, ISO 400

Day 97 - Thursday 05 August 2010

Chopsticks. Macro shot of a bunch of decorative wooden chopsticks we've collected over the years...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/25 @ f2.8, ISO 400

Day 96 - Wednesday 04 August 2010

Reflection. Took a stroll with Debs along the canal in Nottingham today. This picture is of some new(ish) apartments built on the opposite bank reflected in the canal...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f7.1, ISO 400

Day 95 - Teuesday 03 August 2010

Jet trails. Quite a stormy overcst sky this evening but just as the sun was setting, the black clouds parted to reveal this deep blue sky crossed with jet trails...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f7.1, ISO 400

Day 94 - Monday 02 August 2010

Basket. Another picture that came about by noticing the way sunlight creates interesting patterns in light & shade from everyday obects, in this case a plastic washing basket sitting on the tiled floor in the utility room...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/250 @ f4.5, ISO 100

Day 93 - Sunday 01 August 2010

Nightshot. The V1 has Nightshot and Nightframe modes which I haven't tried before. Both illuminate the scene with infrared (IR) light, in the case of Nightframe it's so you can see the scene on the screen before the image is taken with the flash. Nightshot however, takes an IR image using the IR illumination so the result is very green. I could convert the result to black & white but I like the eerie green effect.

This is the view from the cab of my train in Eastcroft sidings, waiting my turn to depart for Nottingham station. Taken handheld through a windscreen still wet with water from the carriage washing plant...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/3 @ f2.8, ISO 800

Day 92 - Saturday 31 July 2010

Cosmos. Taken just a few hours after yesterday's shot having just driven to work for my night shift, this is an out of focus close up of the LED tail light on one of our trains. It looks a bit like one of those very colourful images from the Hubble space telescope to me...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/80 @ f3.5, ISO 200

Day 91 - Friday 30 July 2010

Vent. An unusual one, and somewhat rushed as It's been a very busy weekend! Work wouldn't give me time off to go away but as I was on night shift I worked and went away... commuting between the two venues and getting very little sleep! This is a shot of the vent high on the wall in the bunk room I wasn't sleeping much in...

...Sony V1, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar 7-28 f2.8-4, 1/50 @ f3.5, ISO 200