I took this picture last year in October in Mid-Wales, and after much HDR'ing, decided to head it up for this blog entry!

Hello all - have been finding this blogging everyday thing very difficult, but I have been taking pictures! Sometimes the quality varies...

Day 14
14/6/12

This caught my eye as I was leaving this glass chopping board to dry, I happened to think it looked quite cool, as the words seem like they are projected onto the counter via the kitchen light, with some washing up liquid and bubbles making their way south into the promised land of the draining board.


Day 15
15/6/12

Today I discovered the art of a tryptch. I think I have spelt that right. Basically a collage of your digital photos, and these can look particularly cool when you are photographing a subject.

My models were my dog, Sasha, and my guitar. The idea was to catch the subject from different angles, and also hoping to create something abstract. I really like the the look of this technique, I am more than tempted to try and shoot for something to go as a canvas/frame on my new art gallery style bedroom wall. I will try and do some more of these when I have enough time!

Here are a few examples of what I came up with.

Day 16

16/6/12

Had my first rehearsal back with Tread The Boards (theatre co), preparing for our 3 man show of The 'Complete Works Of Shakespeare - Abridged'. The show is going up to Edinburgh for the fringe, and to B'ham, Cheltenham and the RSC main house along the way. If you want to come email me at andrewpatrick85@gmail.com and i'll give you links and info.

From left to right. Director Ash Bayliss, Actor Daniel Gough, and also, actor, John-Robert Partridge

Anyway, a 3 hour rehearsal is hard going, with a hangover it is very difficult. Got through it, and here is a pic from our rehearsal .

Day 17

17/6/12

Progress.. Plasterboarding my room today, and am about half way through thanks to the building crafts and talents of Danny Foster... Hopefully this time next week I'll be sleeping in my new palace... Wide angle lens shots to follow no doubt.

Now everything hurts.

Time for bed.

Night all!!

Feel free to share this amongst yo' friends!

Adios.

Mirrors, Water and Football. Days 11-13

3 days to catch up on... Hope you like!


Day 11

11/6/12

Today marked a big day for football fans, as England played France, and it finished 1 -1. What made me laugh was that I've never seen people leave work so quickly. I watched the game in a pub in Worcester, and at kick off at 5pm it was dead. By 5:03 it was packed full of suits.


I took this photo with Instagram, and focused on the middle third of the badge to try an add a compact look - as if it was taken from afar and it was a huge flag. This was a close up of my shirt. Have also added a vintage feel by muddying (is that a word?) the whites either side... 10 points if you can tell me which England shirt I was wearing... Clue - Mr Beckham had that famous mohican at the time....







The world famous three lions.Although we usually play like kittens, this performance was particularly lionesque - proud and courageous. For once.









12/6/12
Day 12

Becky had her first rehearsal in Stratford upon Avon today, and whilst waiting for her to finish, I strolled around finding various water features to play with.

As the Avon runs through the town, you can hire a rowing boat for around £6 for an hour. I found all these boats locked up for the evening, and they all looked sorry for themselves! I also found some Shakespeare themed boats upriver,

On this shot, with my 50mm, I managed to use a fast enough shutter speed to capture the falling water, and a wide enough aperture for everything to be in focus. In maual mode it can be tricky balancing these two things - constantly compensating one with the other. When one goes up - the other comes down etc.

 

 Here I took a shot over half a second, and a small group of people walked through pushing a lady in a wheelchair, which adds more movement to the scene - aswell as the running water. It's always best to capture someone walking in or through a scene, as if they are walking out of shot, we can't see what their journey is.




Here I sat looking up at the fountain, and didn't realise that I had water on the lens. I like this, as it feels like you are actually underneath that running water, Although it looks distant, the wide angle lens creates that illusion, as I was abvout a metre from these pillars.

Day 13

13/6/12

Checking my mirrors....

I placed the camera near to the rear view mirror in my car, and tried to get as far away from the camera as I could, whilst pointing in the right direction. As long as your camera device is out of shot, and you are looking directly into the lens for the position via the mirror/reflection, then I think these types of self portraits are fine - as opposed to those ones of people post of themselves when they have just been to the gym etc, where they are full frontal to the mirror, you can see their phone, and they are looking at the display to see how they look.... At least think about an artsitic shot? No? Just me then.

Until next time... So long!

Days 8-10

Wide Angle Lens at 20mm - f.4 @1/200 Iso 100 - In post production, making a warmer white balance, and increasing reds, and de-saturating the scene of natural colour adds a spot of drama in this canalside building.

As I haven't posted for a few a few days, I thought I would put 3 days in one.

Day 8
8/6/12

This day marked the first day of the European championship football tournament, so getting all excited I did't get chance to shoot anything, so here is one of my favourite shots that I have ever taken - ironically it was with my camera phone - edited with Instagram.

In the industrial part of Birmingham lies Digbeth, and a lot of urban graffiti and alternative art can be find here. Just goes to show - if you go off the beaten track slightly in a big city, you will find gems like this.

Day 9
9/6/12

Today I went to the wedding of Mr and Mrs Taylor, and the location of the venue was just as stunning as the venue itself - Chillington Hall in South Staffordshire. Just as the sun had set we arrived, and this is the view the happy couple had whilst welcomiung their evening guests. Again - edited in Instagram, I wanted to boost the dusk colours by enhancing the scene, and also added a dramatic filter.

Day 10

10/6/12

Today I thought I would give myself a challenge - and only use my wide angle lens (Sigma 10-20mm) with my Canon Rebel T3i of course. I walked down to the canal, and became obsessed with the detail of a road bridge. A wide angle lens can really make your subject look very angular and abstract when on the the furthest possible zoom length, which was at 10mm. I wanted to try and find some livestock for abstract animal portraits, but didn't get past the bridge! Here are a few of my best shots from today.

Was on my back for this shot, this bridge wasn't that big, but the wide angle lens distorts the shapes fooling the eye into thinking what you are looking at is bigger than it is.... A wide angle lens is an estate agent's best friend.

Zooming out and standing close to the subject creates an abstract image.

 Getting my clothes mucky and getting a few funny looks from passers by doesn't put me off.

I caught this barge coming under the bridge, but wanted to focus on the different colours of this old brickwork bridge.

This shot was taken about 15/20 feet away from the bridge, it looks miles away!

Day 7

7/6/12

I took this shot from my phone with instagram last night, underneath a glass ledge/porch in the jewellery quarter in Birmingham.

I ran under here to get out of the rain, and looking up, the rain and bright lights of this building add to this quite mysterious composition.

Haunted House...

6/6/12

Day 6

Managed to get up this morning! Even got to work early to show how keen I was. This morning I was frantically trying to find my work boots - and expected a telling off when I turned up without them. When I got there, they were sitting in the spot where I must have left them, over 12 months ago! Luckily the people at work hadn't thrown them out.

When I got home tonight I played around with my camera trying to achieve a ghostlike style, using long exposures that capture blur if there is movement in the scene, and out of focus shots, to add mystery. Sometimes an accidental bad shot can look even better than what you set out for. Initially I wanted to try doing some self-portraits tonight, but its very difficult to get yourself framed correctly. Here's what I've been doing in my spare time tonight!

Hope you don't get nightmares now...

Whooooo

Day 5

5/6/12

After the drive down to Wales last night to Becky's, today was my favourite of all the Jubilee days. A spread including cucumber sandwiches, Pimms and scones by far beat the bbq's and other parties - this one just felt more... Britisher.

So ate so much food I could barely walk, and although the weather was terrible all day - it didn't dampen our party spirits. Although there were just 8 of us (2 of them were cats), we ended up with a feast fit for the queen, thanks to Becky and her mother. I also learned how photogenic Becky's cats are, both Narla and Kitty both posed like Campbell and Moss in Milan.

As I got the train home today, everyone on that train faces the threat of work tomorrow, and looked like they'd had two weekends in one. Which I suppose we all have.

I start work tomorrow, as my brother-in-law has asked if I can lend and extra pair of hands at the factory, so that is good for me... Leading up to a very busy late summer, I suppose I need to get earing again, as I have been invigilating exams. As decent as the money is, it's not exactly a full time job. So... Up at 630 for the first time in a while... Will I just turn off my alarm in the morning, or will I actually get up? I'm not actually that good at getting up, ask most people who know me - I'm definitely a night owl.



Also at Becky's we managed a nice family portrait. Rested the camera on the fire place, used live view to frame the shot, and used a 10 second timer. Voila! Also got up close and personal with my 50 mm, witha really wide aperture of 1.8, I didn't need to use the flash to spook the cats from right up in their grill.

Above Right - Becky and Narla having cuddles.

Middle Left - Sultry Narla.

Bottom Right - Happy families. Sue, Sophie, Jamie, Becky, Charles and Me. 

Day 4 4/6/12

Today was a detox day, as last night's wedding of Mr and Mrs Gough was a corker. Obviously, a McDonalds was the perfect hangover cure. Having my usual of 2 double Cheesburgers and Large Fries, after that I felt right as rain.

Went back for a nap, then off to another Jubilee bbq, hosted by my big sister Cheryl. Having just got back now, I'm waiting for Becky to get here, then we are off to Wales to her house for guess what - a Jubilee bbq. Have just burned some wood that has come from my room, and tried to get some arty pictures of fire.

Short but sweet today, still enjoying the holidays.