Shadows

Shadows.

Today I bought a flashgun for my 350D - from a charity shop for a whole shiny pound !!! And it works too. It's not the Canon one but it's a Jessops specifically designed for Canon EOS and it seems to give really good results.

And I just noticed that I made it through a whole month. Yip yip yip.

Joel Again

Ruth

This is Ruth. Proper critical comment welcomed here - this is quite a new kind of thing for me. Tomorrow will be some re edits.

Jobo

This is Joel. I know the crop is unusual but it suits him really well. His personality that is. You'll have to take my word for it.

Low light

Well my Minimalism entry is just about holding its head above water. My Fill The Frame entry on the other hand is sunk. 80 votes, average 4.4, 5 comments including one DNMC, one overprocessed IMO, plus the wonderful 'This is hard to enjoy' !!! I shall treasure that one. And I really like the picture and it came out just how I planned it. Before I started this PAD I would have been quite upset but now I'm really not. Votes. Who needs them ?

This is Chris. I was playing about at ISO1600 to see how well my new camera does in low light and I am really pleased with this. I know there is a little motion blur but it was really dark. This is the first time in living memory that anyone has pointed a camera at Chris and he hasn't immediately responded by getting his arse out. I think he knows I am a sensitive soul. To make up for it I did get a few shots of him picking his nose. I may post them tomorrow.

Edit for clarification - When I said Chris usually sees the camera and gets his arse out, this seems to have been interpreted as meaning that he gets angry. What I meant was that he literally gets his arse out. It's just something he does.

Minimalism III - Because there's a lot to be minimal about

Last few - we'll have a change tomorrow.

Minimalism II

These ones were straight from the camera.

Minimalism I

All taken with the Minimalism Challenge in mind but none that were any good straight out of the camera.

The best and most interesting thing about this PAD business is that it has speeded up my processing workrate enormously. It used to take me an age but these were edited in about 4 or 5 minutes each.

A beneficial side effect of putting up one or several images a day, which I hope will carry over into challenges, is that I am not nearly so prissy about my images now. Entering a challenge used to be really emotional - like sending your eldest and most precious son out into the world to face hardship and suffering and humiliation. While I am still quite fond of these images in some ways they are no longer like an eldest son to me, more like a younger son. Or a daughter.

Boxing Outtakes

Twentieth place is a result for me and if I'd corrected the colour cast in my challenge entry, well who knows. This is Sophie, aka Ugly Kid, aka Mupp Mupp, aka Porkball, aka Smallwood. She has other names as well. She does not like having her picture taken as it is too girly. The only way I could get her to co-operate was by letting her keep the costume. When I edited my challenge picture on my laptop it looked okay - slightly pink but not too bad. After a few comments on the colour I checked how the image looked on my PC and she looked like a freshly boiled lobster. So here's a few outtakes where I have tried to get the colour back to normal, although in some I'm afraid she's a bit blueish. On different monitors she probably looks orange.

Wildlife

Fun

Fun.

Grab yourself a theremin and all together now .....

Rails

These are the rails of a children's rollercoaster on the beach. I really like this poster edges filter effect - so I'm getting it out of my system before I'm tempted to use it in a challenge.

Rides

Sun

Today it forgot to rain so I went and loosed off 2GB of shots down at the beach. You're in for a few more of these I'm afraid.

Rain

It just chucked it down all day - all that was possible was to find a bit of shelter and shoot whatever was visible from there. These were taken from under the pier or 'boardwalk' as they say in some parts. This would be a cue for a song except for the fact that there was no sun to get out of, no stars and no one was having fun. I didn't see anyone making love. If I had I'd have had something more interesting to post.

Final shots with the S7000

The replacement 350D came through, I've read the instruction manual to the point where I nearly almost quite understand it (a bit), I've installed the software, and later today I will try actually using it.

Mouse

On days when I can't get to take any new pictures I think I'll edit up some old ones that never saw the light of day elsewhere. This was taken with the Pet Portrait Challenge in mind but didn't ever get entered. I still think it's quite funny.

Windows II

Haven't been able to get round all the other blogs for a couple of days - so I'm going to start a big round of viewing and commenting now. Thanks to all for the comments. All the best.

Windows on the soul

Enough said.

Oh well

The minus side. For a few hours yesterday I was the proud owner of a Canon 350D - until I realised it had been dropped at some point and the zoom on the lens was knackered. On the plus side, when I bought the thing I thought it was amazingly cheap - £350 with the kit lens - the prices on the internet were £450 - £600. While taking it back it emerged that the pricing had been done wrong in store - the price I paid was supposed to be for the body only !! So I got the lens for free and a replacement (the only one still on stock at any PCWorld store) should arrive in a couple of days.

I had intended to just post my first shots with the Canon, but since I don't have any, here's a taxi office.

Today I am going to buy a new camera

I didn't manage to get the lightbox set up - instead I took some shots for the Battle of the Sexes challenge using some kids from our street and some five pound notes. After I had cleared up and the ambulances had gone I found that I had some quite good pictures. Unfortunately I may have to reimburse the neighbours for damage to their children. One or two may have to be replaced. But if it gets me a 6 it will have been worthwhile.

Since I can't use today's pictures until after the challenge here is my December Free Study entry, which bombed (oversaturation; slapped wrist) and some other pictures from the same day.

Oh yes, and today I am going to buy a new camera.