The Big Night Out

CSE Show. The Combined Services Entertainment show comes to Camp Bastion. No big name artists but it was a good show all the same. A nice relaxing evening of entertainment and a chance to unwind from the stresses of work...

It's all over...

365 days later and the project is finished.  As expected, I've learned one hell of a lot about photography!  It's not just a case of looking for pictures, you have to see them.  An unusual statement... but a true one.  We often look at things without actually "seeing" them.  Searching for un-noticed detail or unusual angles in the mundane everyday sights we come across is a skill that needs to be learned and a project of this nature certainly helps develop that skill.

I would not have been able to complete this project without the support and encouragement of my fellow 365ers at the PHOTOPORTAL website... thanks all of you.

I would also like to thank family and friends... many of whome have thought I've gone mad, taking pictures of the strangest things but have still found the time to comment either on this blog or on Facebook.  You all had some input into the successful completion of this project.  Thank you.

So what now?  Well, I need a rest first of all.  It has been quite an effort having to find a picture to take every day, especially in the difficult environment I find myself in at the moment.  Another project is very likely, though what form it will take I do not know!  I'm open to suggestions but won't decide until after I've returned home in June.  Whatever it is, I hope you'll all stay with me for the journey.

Day 365 - Saturday 30 April 2011

Gold. The (possibly!) gold plated contacts on an 8Gb SD card...

Day 364 - Friday 29 April 2011

Catch. That's all it is... the catch on a high voltage cabinet that is part of the electricity supply to the pods. I found the unusual shadow cast by the late afternoon sun interesting...

Day 363 - Thursday 28 April 2011

Taxi. C130 Hercules taxiing in from the runway after an internal flight...

Day 362 - Wednesday 27 April 2011

ONYX. The rugged and very useful torch issued to deploying troops...

Day 361 - Tuesday 26 April 2011

Move to the back of the bus please. Most of the old coaches used as transport around this huge camp originate from Germany...

Day 360 - Monday 25 April 2011

Charleston. The same type of aircraft as the one featured in "Whale Tail" two days ago. This was all I could see of this one visible above some ISO containers at the back of the PHF...

Day 359 - Sunday 24 April 2011

Hover. The pilot of this Chinook very obligingly kept his helicopter in a hover for a couple of minutes allowing me to play with shutter speed and get some motion in the rotors...

Day 358 - Saturday 23 April 2011

Whale Tail. The rear end of another huge transport aircraft...

Day 357 - Friday 22 April 2011

IL-76. These lumbering Ilushin 76 transport aircraft are quite common out here. They take forever to get up to any speed on the runway before reluctantly taking to the air, leaving a trail of black smoke from their engines! Their ex Soviet military heritage is evident in the nose and tail gunners positions they still have...

Day 356 - Thursday 21 April 2011

Shade. In the shadow of a C130 Hercules aircraft on the blisteringly hot ramp...

Day 355 - Wednesday 20 April 2011

RP-HX70. Quite a few busy days recently... you can tell from the subject matter of my 365 shots when I've got back to the tent and realised I haven't taken the daily picture and reach for the nearest object to my bedspace. Here is a shot of my trusty earphones...

Day 354 - Tuesday 19 April 2011

Chicken in a Box. Quite literally. This KFC outlet in Bastion 2 is built into an ISO container. The smell of chips from there drives me crazy. I haven't had chips for ages and makes me wonder why the cookhouse doesn't serve chips!

Day 353 - Monday 18 April 2011

3 Band. One of the free radios given out to the troops by BFBS...

Day 352 - Sunday 17 April 2011

Back Home. I wish I was! Close-up of the buttons on my MP3 player...

Day 351 - Saturday 16 April 2011

SIGMA. Close-up of the barrel on one of my lenses...

Day 350 - Friday 15 April 2011

Jingly Market. Not technically a market, these Afghan shops on camp are a permanent fixture and open every day. They still sell typical tourist/market tat though...

Day 349 - Thursday 14 April 2011

SACRILEGE! I'm longing for the taste of the real thing now but this is all that is available. It'll have to do...

Day 348 - Wednesday 13 April 2011

Ben 10. Another long awaited item from my comfy box, the brand new Ben 10 duvet set.  I now officially have the most colourful bedspace in the tent...

Day 347 - Tuesday 12 April 2011

Life! The rains have encouraged a fer blades of grass and the odd weed to grow in the ditches but this bushy growth of grass seems to be flourishing against one of the old boundary fences...

Day 346 - Monday 11 April 2011

Silver Lining. After the storm the sunshine returns, though only for a while as it turned out to be a showery day today...

Day 345 - Sunday 10 April 2011

1T. The inevitable aftermath of the stormy night last night is the flooding. This is one of the wooden pallets used as a stepping stone through one of many puddles...

Day 344 - Saturday 9 April 2011

Perfect Storm. One hell of a storm brewing as we finished work! Spent some time (and nearly 100 frames) trying again to capture the spectacular lightning show (an effort that was a spectacular failure!). I did catch the approach of a huge sand storm rushing in from left of frame though. This is one of the last shots before I decided to put the camera away to avoid a huge dusty sensor problem...

Day 343 - Friday 8 April 2011

Alt Gr. Well, I finally gave in and took a picture of my keyboard!  I've used the LED light in my optical mouse as a light source to add at least a bit of interest...

Day 342 - Thursday 7 April 2011

Dalek. Close up of my clip-on bedside lamp, an invaluable piece of kit on tour. This crop makes it look like one of Doctor Who's adversaries...

Day 341 - Wednesday 6 April 2011

Oyster. My genuine fake $20 Rolex watch bought from a Jingly shop on camp. Works well enough though...

Day 340 - Tuesday 5 Apr 2011

Mean Machine. Another silhouette shot of a passing helicopter, but when I saw this Apache comming I couldn't resist...

Day 339 - Monday 4 April 2011

Slinky. For some strange reason there is a Slinky knocking about the office. You can make a lot of interesting photographic patterns with one of these toys. I tried a few today and had trouble selecting which one to post...

Day 338 - Sunday 3 April 2011

Tins. A row of aircraft baggage tins waiting to be loaded for the Tristar...

Day 337 - Saturday 2 April 2011

Morning glory. Yet another glorious sunrise. Taken from outside the accomodation whilst waiting for the transport to work. Makes going to work in the morning a pleasure...

Day 336 - Friday 1 April 2011

Cage. A cage pallet perched ontop of an ISO container...

Day 335 - Thursday 31 March 2011

Awning. There's a story behind this one! A few days ago a disgruntled officer compained about being kept waiting outside the PHF for a check-in, sitting in the hot sun for more than an hour. The answer... we now have an awning set up outside the front of the PHF tent so any 'huffysirs' with an aversion to a bit of sunlight can wait in the shade...

Day 334 - Wednesday 30 March 2011

Rainbow. Stacked ISO containers silhouetted against arc lighting...

Day 333 - Tuesday 29 March 2011

Flypast 2. Another helicoper shot. No idea what this one is, probably of Russian vintage but it's one of several operated by a private company to deliver supplies, often underslung in cargo nets, to remote locations. This is one of a flight of 2 returning to Bastion in the late afternoon. Unfortunately the shutter speed was too fast to capture movement in the rotor...

Day 332 - Monday 28 March 2011

NON-POTABLE. I posted an image a while ago of a tanker filling up with water at a stand pipe. This is the other end of the operation, delivering non-potable water to various locations around camp...

Day 331 - Sunday 27 March 2011

Mug. At last! My MFO box has arrived after a mammoth six and a half month journey by sea and road. I now have my favourite mug and can enjoy a cup of tea in style. No more horrible cardboard cups...

Day 330 - Saturday 26 March 2011

Description: Dusty Sunrise. Plenty of dust around this morning making it difficult for the sun to shine...

Day 329 - Fraiday 25 March 2011

Sunrise landing. A helo comming in to land early in the morning as I'm waiting for the transport into work...

Day 328 - Thursday 24 March 2011

Crack. Dammage to one of the heavy duty blast walls...

Day 327 - Wednesday 23 March 2011

Pallet. The edge of an aircraft cargo pallet, this one being the property of the US Airforce...

Day 326 - Tuesday 22 March 2011

Stars n Stripes. Its an overdone technique these days but I saw this and thought it had to be done...

Day 325 - Monday 21 March 2011

Canvas. The sagging roof of the inbound passenger terminal tent in the early morning sun...

Day 324 - Sunday 20 March 2011

Fandango. The fan on one of the 'air conditioning' units in the departures tent. Unfortunately they all seem to have only two settings, hot and very hot! Its like an oven in there these days...

Day 323 - Saturday 19 March 2011

SCHOPF. Mud splattered cut-out lettering on the side of an airfield tug...