Assignment 4

I have had major computer problems for the last 2 weeks, so I am a bit behind with the blog - but here it is for all it is worth!!! :)

My daughter and I went to London last weekend to see Dirty Dancing in the West End.....It was spectacular, if any of you like the film (my daughters' favourite ever film!!!!!!) you will absolutely LOVE the show!! Vikki wants to go back to see it again, but I think she would probably go with her girl friends next time....i think I slowed her down too much on the Sunday when she wanted to go shopping!!!!! :)

The photos I took over the weekend weren't very good, but not to worry.

On the way down we stopped at a motorway services (Oxford I think), it was very posh!!! I took a photo of it before anyone else from the bus got there, and then changed it to B&W

Here they are........

I think that the B&W photo shows more of the detail of the wood on the chairs and is more of the sort of photo you might see in a magazine to show off the "atmosphere"

I couldn't believe it when I read Cheryl's email for the final week, it was almost like a re-run of assignment 3 for me, as I had converted photos to B&W for that assignment as well :)

Well, it is all over now!!!

Never mind, it was all good fun, and I have enjoyed it - but then I always enjoy going out and taking photos. However, I have now got the confidence to take my camera off Auto or "P" and use the Aperature/Shutter/Manual buttons more of the time. Although, if I am taking a "once in a lifetime" shot, I think I would still use"P" just to make sure I didn't waste the chance :)

Assignment 3 - Reflections

Imagine our absolute delight when we found out that there was a Classic Car meeting at the Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port, where we live, on Sunday....

We arrived at about 9.30 and there were already some cars there, they would be leaving at 11am for a tour around the Wirral. I took about 100 photos, most on Aperature - but when I got brave I took a few on Manual......

Here is a selection.....

This, as you can see is the Jaguar on the bonnet of one of the classic cars, converted to B & W for effect.

The second photo is of the wheel off another Jaguar, I love this photo, with the spokes of the wheel and the reflection in the tiny hub cap.

I am going to London at the weekend to see Dirty Dancing with my daughter, so I am taking the camera with me, and hope to get some good photos whilst I am there. We are spending Sunay in Covent Garden, so I should be able to get some good snaps of the street entertainers....hopefully :)

Assignment 2

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks, that I haven't been able to update my blog, but I have got a few minutes so am going to post some of the photos I took a couple of weekends ago, on a trip to Chester with Chris and another photography friend, Richard, who came all the way from Nottingham to be with us........







The first image was taken from the City walls in Chester, I liked the roof tops with all of the chimney pots and aerials all in a row...... not a very good image but you get the idea?!?!

The second image is of the Roman Guards, they were doing a re-enactment at the Roman Amphitheatre, very impressive. However, one of them appears to be picking his nose, I do hope that it was just for effect :) I was hoping to find one of them on their mobile phones, as it would have made a really good photo, but I couldn't find one :(

This nice chap even took time to pose for me, rather threateningly though :)

This photo was taken on the way back to the car, the ducks were on a market stall, I liked the duck with the wooden egg, so I sat myself down on a nearby bench and took a few photos of them - they mad me smile.... :)

Day 1

I have had time to read my manual, and to find the relevant buttons to press, and I also found that I can see the histogram whilst I am focussing on a shot!! You learn something new every day, so they say!! :)

I decided to take my camera out with me today to a crop, just in case I got time to practice. One of the girls went outside for a breath of fresh air and came running back in for me to take my camera outside, as there was a robin sitting on the hedge.

So Chrism and I went outside, I took about 20 photos of the robin, who was very tame and came ever so close to us. Here are my three best shots

This photo was the most amazing, as I have not done anything to it, and the histogram was almost perfect, rising to a peak in the middle, just like Cheryl had showed us :) OK so my halo has just fell around my ankles!!!! The rest weren't so good, and neede a little "tweak" in photoshop.....some were under exposed, a lot, and some were over exposed, a lot. I am hoping that the more I experiment, the easier it will become. I must admit, that I DID put the camera onto "P" just to see what settings the camera was using, and "played" with similar settings.

This needed a little tweak in PS but I was quite pleased with it...

I was hoping that this photo would turn out better than it did, it is a little out of focus and needed a fair bit of sharpening, but it is still OK to me :)

The moral of the story is, take your camera with you wherever you go, you don't know what might turn up while you are out. So for the next 4 weeks, where I go, Camera goes too!! :)

Will be back tomorrow to see what I have done......

Bye for now

Check out my Slide Show!

Day one.....

Just received assinment 1 from Cheryl - I am TERRIFIED!!! This is WAY outside my comfort zone, I hardly EVER us manual mode for taking photos, the time I DID it was a DISASTER!!!

However, I am ready for the challenge, and it certainly going to slow me down when taking photos.

MY chosen theme is urban life......quite a diverse theme I know, but I was going to choose flora and fauna, but any flowers that are still around are starting to look a little bit sad now, not that they looked that good in the summer, with all the rain we had!!! :)

I have just had a quick look around images using yahoo search engine, and I have found a few inspirational shots.....

No 1 - taken from tanakawho's flickr album, I have always wanted to take a photo like this, but it has never worked out for me. However, I have to go to Liverpool if I want to take photos like this, as the buildings in Chester aren't big enough....

No 2 - taken from andreas Reinhold's Flickr album, this album has a lot of stunning photos in it, and if you get time I would go and take a look. This photo is so simple, yet complex at the same time, the different colours and shapes are all wonderful, I would like to take a photo similar to this, but I am not holding out much hope :)

No3 was taken from the internet, and was't assigned to anybody. Again, this photo is so simple, but to get the same effect would be quite difficult, to get the one red tulip in focus, whilst all the yellow tulips are not.

I am going to finish here, and reflect on what I intend to achieve from the Masterclass, and hope that I manage to do so.....

See you soon