059/365

We managed to get out this afternoon, took the dogs for a walk along the cliffs between St Margarets Bay and Kingsdown. The temperature got to around 15C and the sea was like a mill pond.

058/365 Nice Pear

Once again time is not on my side..... Set-up. Pear stood on a sheet of black craft foam which is curved up behind. Main light is a gridded SB600 camera left. Background is a gridded cobra with two yellow gels. Aperture f11 to try and keep the background in focus.

057/365 Guilty

Sadly no time for anything creative or artistic today. I did however get the opportunity for some crime scene photography - there is little doubt who is guilty although the evidence is circumstantial. Ironically, tonight was the dogs first visit to obedience classes - we did sit, stay etc. but didn't learn the, 'don't dig the plants up!' command. Oh well there's always next week....

056/365 Skittles

I really can't take any credit for this, I saw the technique in Digital SLR magazine. I changed the set-up slightly, the sweets are in a glass bowl with cling-film tightly stretched over the opening. If you had a nice piece of glass and more time you could achieve a much cleaner effect. I carefully dripped water onto the cling-film and used a flash bounced of some white craft foam to light the scene. I used manual focus to get the droplets as sharp as possible.

055/365 The Mask

This mask stares at me on a daily basis, made a number of years ago by my son it has pride of place in the office bathroom. I am not sure who it was modelled on ....
The lighting was a gridded flash above the mask to create the vignette.

054/365

Out of time and inspiration and it's raining! A quick snap of one of the valentine roses - still going strong...amazing the quality you get from petrol stations these days ;-)

053/365 Dog Brush

Well once again time was an issue today. Tonight's shoot didn't start until 22:00 but I had seen the new dog brush... Set-up, low powered magenta gelled flash held as high as I could in left hand, white balance set to incandescent to give blue effect, shutter 320 (I think) to kill ambient, aperture 2.8 for bokeh.

052/365 On the latch

I really must paint this door...

051/365

No rain today and it actually felt quite Spring like. I wanted to take pictures of the primroses and snowdrops in the garden but the grass was a bit damp to kneel on! So, on a lovely dry day I improvised rain with the squirty bottle. I've posted two pictures today because I like the colours of both but can't really make my mind up which I prefer.

050/365 St Pauls

A snapshot of St Pauls Cathedral taken quicly on the way to the station.

049/365 Damages

Years ago this was a Cinema - I remember going there as a child on Saturday mornings. It was then converted to a nightclub - Images, affectionately known as 'Damages' by the locals. It is now empty and has been for some time and will soon be demolished as part of a major re-development of the town centre.

048/365 Bamboo

Bamboo is taking over our garden, in years to come it will have taken over the village - in decades it will be visible from the moon. Anyway, my wife planted it and she likes it. I like taking shots of it against the blue summer sky but as we don't have one of those at the moment so I had to improvise with the infamous cardboard box background.
Set-up. Camera right, small 'ebay' soft box on SB600, set to low power as main light. Back, Cobra flash - low power and green gelled, in a cardboard box with holes punched in it to make to make the out of focus 'bokeh' . Gridded Sigma (optical slave) with blue gel on the background. Aperture wide open, and shutter 1/500 to kill the ambient light.

047/365 Tiltshift Western Docks

I managed a quick picture of Dover Western Docks just in case I didn't get time for anything else. The picture, or snapshot was pretty uninspiring so I processed it using Tiltshiftmaker. tiltshiftmaker.com/

046/365 Red, red wine

A nice bottle of red to accompany some nice roast lamb - New Zealand of course, couldn't bring myself to buy Welsh today :-)

045/365

Valentines day, so a shot of the obligatory roses. This does seem a bit girlie but I did quickly take it during 'half time' of the Rugby. Sadly, England lost..... Set-up. Camera right, small 'ebay' soft box on SB600, set to low power just to light rose. Back, Cobra flash - very low power, in a cardboard box with holes punched in it to make to make the out of focus 'bokeh'. Aperture wide open, to give the nice circles and shutter 1/500 to kill any ambient light giving the black background.

044/365

Another night arrives with no picture or even the glimmer of an idea. We went for a little drive around and ended up doing a time lapse over the dual carriageway. The red sky was a real bonus.

The alarm went off just before 07:00 and the hotel room curtains were slightly open. I couldn't believe my luck a fantastic sunrise with the silhouette of a couple of building site cranes.

042/365

Travelling and in meetigs today so little time to do a 'proper' picture. This is a snatched image through the train window.

041/365 Out of time

Completely out of time tonight ....

040/365

Rain pretty much all day today. I didn't even go outside to take this it was snapped through the window.

039/365

No single decent picture today but a collage of shots taken one handed whilst being dragged around by Marley.

038/365

Park bench - not much more to say really. The light was fading so I have resorted to a sneaky black and white conversion. I actually managed a few pictures today and have posted them to my Flickr stream

037/365 Bob

Bob came to live with us just over two months ago and he's settled in really well. He's put on a bit of weight and has really become part of the family.

036/365

Another photographically dull day... A quick picture of a dead Clematis stem using the office window, a cardboard box with some holes in it and flash behind it as background. This could have been so much nicer but it was raining and I didn't have any time.

035/365

Lack of time and inspiration today. This is a carving in the eaves of the village church gateway.

034/365 Robin!!

Over the last couple of days I have seen a Robin in our garden. I thought it would be nice for him to feature in today's photo. I moved an old wheel barrow close to the house, stood it upright and added some bread to make an impromptu bird table. Within minutes a pair of Doves were feeding - they quickly finished the bread so I added more. Next the dog went into the garden knocked over the wheel barrow and finished the second sitting. Fortunately I got a picture of the Doves - unfortunately I haven't seen the Robin again.

I was pleased today that a couple of my photos had been posted on the 365 Community Blog.

More snow this morning and all trains from the south into London were canceled. It is a sad fact that we cannot cope with extremes of weather in this country - a couple of inches of snow and everything grinds to a halt, two days of sun and the papers will publish the 'Phew what a scorcher' headline. The children were sent home from school just before lunch so Thomas and I took the dogs for a quick walk. Most of the pictures I took were rubbish but I really like this one - I love the movement and the cartoon look of the dogs.

032/365 Snow

A flurry of snow here today. The temperature has dropped further and it is still snowing this evening. This means the country will be at a complete standstill by morning!! I have a meeting in London tomorrow but can't see me going unless things improve overnight.