074/365

The sun shone today and following a morning of tidying in the garden we ventured once again to Samphire Hoe. I've posted two pictures because I like them both.

073/365 Curry

Curry - take away...

072/365

Talking of inanimate objects...

Good intention faded into lack of time, mixed with a couple of glasses of red with dinner, result = Daffodil in a wine glass.

I like daffodils but I don't think I could drink a whole one.

Credit to the wine glass goes to Lance and to the fact that the bottle is now empty...

071/365

It is interesting where this project takes you. At the start I thought it would be much more a diary of my daily life but it quickly became much more photography, rather than subject based. I would never have believed that I would be spending so much of my free time taking pictures on inanimate objects. So much, that when I post a picture like today's I almost feel like I have let myself down - which is clearly stupid. I think part of this has come from joining the Flickr groups where we wax lyrical over out of focus pictures of bananas. I have learned a lot from some fantastic photographers but need a bit of a reality check!
Anyway, enough waffle. Today's picture was taken at Dog obedience classes and features my daughter Hannah and Marley, who collectively are very much stars of the show.

PS. Watch out for my out of focus banana - coming soon ;-)

070/365 Bollards

It's been one of those days....

069/365 Moon

A bit of a throwaway tonight - out of focus and badly exposed but in mitigation it was dark and it's a long way away.

068/365 Seeing Red

Regular visitors here will remember that I have an assistant who does my shredding. It appears he has learnt a new trick, after completing the morning's paperwork he ate my glasses.

Set up here

067/365 Bob

066/365 Fowlmead

Fowlmead Country Park, opened in 2007 is a new nature reserve and leisure park that has been regenerated from the former Betteshanger Colliery spoil tip. The area has been landscaped with extensive planting of native plants and trees although it will be some years before they reach maturity. Whilst this appears a great project for the environment it is a real shame that the mining heritage has been forgotten. Everyone in the area refers to the area as Betteshanger so it beats me why the bureaucrats had to invent the Fowlmead name. When the park was opened I played at the opening event with the Betteshanger Brass Band.

065/365

Looking out of the office window this afternoon I could see interesting clouds with shafts of light from the setting sun. Sadly, by the time I got an opportunity to get away the drama had gone. Anyway, it's the weekend and I nearly captured what I wanted which must be better than not knowing what you wanted in the first place!!

064/365

I'm not a happy bunny today. Short of time and ideas I got my camera out and realised that the wireless flash transmitter was missing from the hot shoe. The last time I remember seeing it was when I took the dogs for a walk, as it was dry I had slung the camera round my neck in tourist style. I can only assume that I have dropped it on the walk. The triggers are just cheap ebay items but I hate losing things. Anyway, tonight's uninspiring picture is rusty screws lit by LED torches. apl666.blogspot.com/

063/365

Rubbish day today - no time for a 'proper' picture. This is Log Man, sitting on the edge of the bamboo forest - I may exagerate slightly but the stuff is really spreading.

062/365 Losing the plot

What did you do last night? Me, in between training, dog walking and the latest episode of 24 I took a picture of a bottle of kitchen cleaner. Roll on the lighter evenings and some good weather...

061/365 St Nicholas Cole Abbey

My meeting finished early today and on the way back to the tube I saw this reflection of St Nicholas Cole Abbey in the building opposite.

060/365 Samphire Ho

Four million tonnes of spoil from the building of the Channel Tunnel has been turned into a grassland which is  hoped will become an important conservation area. At the far westerly point is a small stretch of shingle beach and up in the cliffes is this semi derelict construction yard. We didn't see any dogs!!

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.

031/365 Stuff

There is a fantastic little shop in Dover that always catches my attention, Stuff - a cross between a hardware and junk shop.I really wish there were more places like this. I particularly like the sign over the door, my excuse for today's second picture

030/365 No Vacancies

The credit crunch is seriously hitting the UK. The pound is extremely weak against the Dollar and the Euro at the moment. Many Brits apparently are choosing not to holiday abroad but to stay at home. The TV news report today showed a group of young people who were holidaying in Dover. This came as a huge surprise to me - mainly because I had taken this picture today. This is prime location, directly opposite the 'marina' - a sorry closed down, boarded up hotel. Not my ideal holiday location.

029/365

I like the way the sun shines through the blinds, you really can't beat natural light. I did try a quick portrait but my model didn't have her 'lippy' on so the photo did not get the necessary model release.

My picture features an old Bakelite GPO 300 type telephone which I bought on eBay. Sadly it has some of it's internals missing so it doesn't work properly but looks good.

028/365 In the Shadows

Self portrait minus me!!

027/365 Hard Boiled Eggs

I can't believe I have resorted to taking pictures of eggs - it is beyond a yoke.

Cracking picture though .....