Day 27

27/6/12

Today was about shifting some things around in the attic, as I am in the process of redecorating.
I found these things up there - and these games used to give me purpose to get through the day! NHL '96 was a PC game I used to play religiously when I was around 11 years old. Before computers - I would play Subbuteo until the cows would come home. I found about 20 different teams, and here are some of the most memorable! I also have a full size pitch, goalposts, floodlight, stands with mini people, and advertising boards! Subbuteo must have kept me quiet years! Then Bill Gates came along and we all feared we would get the 'millenium bug'.

Day 28

28/6/12

Flash floods hit the UK today, but fortunately I wasn't affected. Businesses and Homes were ruined across the region, and the main thing I was bothered about was being at work without being at work without being able to document it!

I heard reports that back home at midday the water was knee deep on my road - but by the time I had got back the water had receeded and everything looked normal!

At work I noticed the lake in the car park threatening our cars at one point, and as the rain was coming down so quickly, I thought I'd need to get the bus home.

Day 29

29/6/12

As I didn't shoot anything today, here is one I made earlier..
A cheeky Tulip popped up early last spring, right in the middle of our lawn. Sadly, it had to go!


Day 30

30/6/12

Well I have been blogging for over four weeks now, and looking back through the shots, there is a varied bunch! I have really enjoyed using my wide angle lens this month, you can be very creative with it if you take a few risks.

Here are some pics with that same lens of our newly furnished 'guest room'.

 Holding the camera above my head, with the wide angle creates a disprportionate effect - kind of like a CCTV effect which I like. And I'm only small.

R E S P E C T!!

I just tried to type that as quick as it's sung, but I failed.

This is a HDR shot of 3 different images - A green bushy landscape, a blurred bush, and a graffitti'd brick wall!

Day 25

25/6/12

Today you can see me on the other side of the lens for a change! I had a rehearsal tonight for 'Abridged',  http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/open-stages/the-complete-works-of-shakespeare-abridged.aspx (link just in case you want to see me 'act' at the RSC. Plug done...

Becky took some rehearsal shots with my camera, and got some great shots! There was no flash used, a high ISO at about 1600 (subsequently the quality may have been lost - this is a side effect of shooting in low light without flash), a wide aperture of 2.8, and a fairly slow shutter speed of about1/60 sec. Set these in manual next time you want to takle some good pictures at a gig for example.

Have a butchers!

Day 26

26/6/12

So I am becoming a little addicted to Triptychs, which are an image comprising of one or more images, either portrait or landscape. For those of you reading this who have been following, you may remember that I did it last time with my guitar, this time I used a human. Having a girlfriend who is an actress is good - as every time I have a portrait related idea, she is very comfortable in front of the camera, and we both play around with ideas. As this ideology is abstract anyway, we took a couple of abstract portraits. See what you think.

  

the first four days of summer.

Day 21

21/6/12

Well it's the longest day of the year today, but the weather has been pretty awful all day. Here is a picture that sums up the first day of British summertime.










Day 22

22/6/12

Today I was asked at work to photograph some of the company's products for potential buyers. The manager had just brought a very cute little lightbox, which is a mini studio basically, and you can change the colour of the backdrop. For £30, its a really good piece of kit - especially if you are an ebayer - your stuff will the extra professionalism when you're selling it. It came with 2 halogen lights that you can shine directly onto your subject, or diffuse it through the walls.








Day 23

23/6/12

Went out for a quiet drink tonight, and ended up in a pub with live music on! Such a cool band were playing - the likes of The Stones, Zeppelin, The Kinks and Some other great rocking tunes. Hard to shoot a band from afar, when the quintessential groupie has had one too many Scrumpys and is going for it on the dance floor. Didn't even catch this band's name, but they were cool. Loved the bassist's hat - very Jimmy Page.








Day 24

24/6/12

Went for a stroll around Birmingham today and found an outdoor art exhibition, which was so cool. From artists to photography, all put a local spin on their work. One photographer had photographed most popular local road names, and Becky brought one of where she lived when she was studying. Little things like that give you style, and I felt very inspired. Also another photographer dabbled in HDR with a twist; it was famous local landmarks, that looked spray painted with graffitti. Jo Ruth was the photographer's name. Awesomely conceptual and original. Had I had £100 on me, I definitely would have brought some of her artwork. Later on we went to the Jewellery quarter, and found some great buildings that had so much character, but looked completely unused.

I went to Gloucester, so call me Dr Foster.

Day 18

18/6/12

Prisoner at work.

I was asked to throw out some rubbish at work on Monday, and came across this interesting scene.

A vibrant canvassed blue sky with omni-directional fluffy white clouds greeted me on this summer's afternoon.

I like this shot as it is juxtaposed by the sharp iron railings that sit below the grassy knoll, that lead the eye into the vastness of fields, and at 12:04, anything that's not work. I thought it was interesting as the railings seem to have been bent towards the field, which sets off my imagination of a riot happening here and people panicing to escape. I doubt it though, as where I work, there are about 8 members of staff.


Day 19

19/6/12



 Today I visited the city of Gloucester, and I love this city. Great memories come flooding back as soon as I get to a certain point on the road inbound, as I had a short happy spell of work in this city, around xmas '09. I wandered down to the docks, and set myself the challenge of only shooting in mono, to see if I could create some sort of epic effect. When there is blazing sunshine, the sky bleaches white'ish grey, and clouds seem whiter than normal. The key is to keep your eye on your exposures, which is difficult shooting in mono - as with patchy sunlight, it's easy to under/over expose a shot. I always shoot RAW, if you don't speak camera that basically means a digital negative. So if you get home and something isn't quite right, things like white balance and exposure can be tweaked. Here are some of the shots I got of this cool Roman city.

 Jake Harding, you obviously belong in South Central L.A or Brooklyn even with artistic graffiti like that.

Th

Day 20

20/6/12

Here is a HDR shot I took in Thailand in April, at Maya Bay, Koh Phi Phi Keh. Sticking to the black and white theme, I have enhanced a single image with Photomatix - see what you think!