Category Archives: Project 365

Epic Fail – Project 365

Posted on by

As some of you may know I was attempting to take a photograph a day for a year. The main aim of the project was to improve my photography skills and knowledge of my camera. If anyone was actually following the photos I had taken you may have noticed that I haven't posted a new one since December. This isn't because I haven't taken any photos … I have to admit I certainly haven't taken 1 a day since then. It is mostly because I haven't taken anything even remotely interesting. I don't want to make any excuses for failing to get a good shot each day as it all boils down to me not being organised enough to find something interesting to shoot and get out there and shoot it each day.

I have decided to abandon my current project 365 and embark on something a little easier and hopefully still achieve the goals of getting better skills and knowledge of my camera. So I intend to take a picture each week for the next year (Starting at some point soon). This will give me the opportunity to decide what I am going to shoot, plan it and then get out an do it (hopefully). It also means that you don't get 5 shots a week of me running out of the office trying to find a picture!

Day 20 – Berries

Posted on by

One of the good things that has come from doing this project is that I am getting away from my desk every day and going for a bit of a wander. Today I found these berries (admittedly they are about 10 metres from the office but I did find them on the way back!). Once again I struggled with the strong light behind the subject, it's definitely something I need to learn to deal with better. 

As shot the berries seemed to loose a lot of their 'redness' but once onto the computer fixing the White Balance brought everything out nicely. I tried to use the curves tool to drop the brightness in the background but it didn't really work. 

Continue reading →

Day 18 – The River Wharfe @ Tadcaster

Posted on by

Caitlin, bless her little cotton socks, has a chest infection. She has very kindly decided to share it with me so I had to go to the doctors to get it checked out. This is the River Wharfe @ Tadcaster by the doctors surgery. I had been hoping to get a sunset shot, but by the time I made it to Tadcaster I had missed it so settled for a shot of the river instead. 

Continue reading →

Day 15 – Sunrise

Posted on by

This morning whilst driving back from dropping Caitlin off at nursery the sun look awesome diffused through the fog across the fields. Unfortunately given the state of the roads it wasn't really safe to stop and this was the first chance I had to get the shot. I didn't have my tripod with me and I was in a bit of a rush so maybe not as good as if I had taken some time to get the shot I really wanted. I've had to use the 'curves' tool and the 'shadows and highlights' tool to get it half way decent which is annoying as I could have got this on the camera so much better. I think it is safe to say that I have learnt 2 things from my project so far:

  • Have my camera with me at all times
  • Take time to get the shot right on the camera rather than relying on Photoshop

Continue reading →

Day 14 – Curry Night

Posted on by

Tonight we got a babysitter in for Caitlin and went out for a curry with Paul & Sally instead of them having separate stag and hen do's before their wedding in a couple of weeks time. We had a fantastic curry from Sunar Bangla in Church Fenton and then wandered back to their new house for a couple of drinkies.

So todays shot was supposed to be one of Paul and Sally celebrating but I was too wrapped up in doing the celebrating and catching up with friends that I didn't take anything till we were on the way home! This is the church in Fenton … it didn't come out so well as I only had the Xacti with me which isn't so good in the dark. I will definitely get back to this church with the SLR and a tripod one day soon. It was taken in colour but looked better in black and white. 

Continue reading →

Processing Photographs

Posted on by

Most of the photos that I have taken so far for my 'Project 365' have been almost as shot on the camera. Generally I have opened them up in Photoshop to convert them from NEF (Nikon's RAW Format) to JPG. I have on some tweeked the black and white points using the curves tool.

The photo for day 10 I played a little more with the midpoint values on the curves too to get it to look how it actually looked outside. I think it came out quite well but still didn't quite capture what I as a person could see on the day, but it was as close as I could get it.

Continue reading →

Day 13 – Poorly Baby & Closed Nursery

Posted on by

Caitlin has been confirmed with a chest infection and is on Amoxycillin and Salbutamol to help her get over it. Turns out half of the kids at nursery are on the same.

The snow has been falling hard today and this meant that Nursery closed at lunchtime. I picked Caitlin up and we met Sarah at home. She refused to sleep until she finally flaked out on the sofa and we wrapped her up in a fleecy blanket … she is now snoring!

Continue reading →