011/365: House 1
11 Jan, 2009
Not a cop out shot by any means, but this is a pic of my soon to be new home!
At the moment this is all it is, dirt in the ground, but as the weeks and months go on then you shall see it grow along with me! These will eventually form a collage (of all the pics of it being built) and will be printed out and displayed in the hall! cool idea huh?!



Stats: 40D, 10mm, 1/80 @f6.3, iso100
PS'd: Nothing!

010/365: Has BEEn??
10 Jan, 2009
This lil fella has been sat on my window sill now for over 3 months. I've been meening to get this macro shot of him since then. So I decided tonight was the night!
And here it is... High key, Sharp contrast, using my new studio lights. Look out for more insect shots later this year!



Stats: 40D, 300mm, 1/100 @f9, iso100
PS'd: Yellow stauration increased, and just sharpened

010/365: The eyes have it!
10 Jan, 2009
My beautiful GF Jenni!, man I love having a willing model! I asked her to pose for me in front of my new studio lights this evening and she obliged, with a twisted arm... Wanted to go for a close up shot of her eyes, I had the shot in mind but couldn't quite make it happen, maybe had the wrong lens on... Well I'm sure there will be plenty of more chances soon! Not 100% sure on the DOF yet, think I may have got it wrong?



Stats: 40D, 105mm, 1/30 @f4, iso 100
PS'd: Removed stray hairs, boosted contrast, increased saturation, sharpened.

008/365: Four Candles?
08 Jan, 2009
Well no actually, theres only three, but any time I see more than 2 candles together I always think of the Two Ronnies sketch 'Four candles'
(basically two guys in a hardware shop, one asks for fork handles, the other hands him 'four candles', you see the joke here surely? It really is a iconic British comedy moment! -You simply must see it... Try youtube!)
Bokeh affect applied via a 50mm 1.8II lens, NICE!, I love this lens! :D
Took three times focusing on each of the three candles but prefered the focus attention on the closer one.



Stats: 40D, 50mm, 1/10 @f1.8, iso100
PS'd: Hardly anything! just a contrast boost, and sharpened.

007/365: Fast Lane
07 Jan, 2009
'Life moves pretty fast....' (and so can I !!) A famous quote from Ferris Bueller In his film 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' An absolutly cracking 80's film I used to love watching while younger. Thought I'd have another pop at trying this, thing is my tripod doesn't like being squeezed into a recaro seat!
This is two pictures blended together as the shot with the trails has the dash all blured, yet a stationary shot of the interior of the car yielded a much sharper image. think I might try this again in the future on a less bumpy Norfolk road and with a little more preparation in putting the tripod in the car!



Stats: 40D, 11m, 8sec @f9.0, iso 100
PS'd: Merged two frames as mention above. Sharpened, boosted colour.

006/365: Twelfth Night
06 Jan, 2009
Didn't come out quite as I'd hoped as someone moved the tripod slightly, or the weight of the camera moved it (rubbish tripod!)
Wanted to show the transition between when the decs are up and when they come down on this traditional day of removing the decorations.



Stats: 40D, 10mm, 1/4@f4, iso100
PS'd: Two images on top of one another then lightened to show transition of removal of decs... :(

005/365: Red Pill or Blue Pill?
05 Jan, 2009
Found some Smarties all over the floor today at work, and while clearing them up it gave me a corker of an idea!
Now we could go into the meaning of this over and over but i think if you just follow this link (http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/matrix.php) then you will find all you need to know!
The reason why theres more red pills than blue is to show the desparation to break out of this reality and into the other quicker! Theres so many explainations and theorys and ideas that there is far to many to list and go into....
....Make you own conclusions.... ;) (enjoy)



Stats: 400D, 68mm, 1/40@f4.0, iso100
PS'd: Boosted the Red and Blue colour, added vignette to remove some nasty stuff in two of the corners, sharpened.

004/365: Burnt out and Abandoned
04 Jan, 2009
GR TL 859 845. Saw this gem on the other side of the carridgeway while on the way home. I caught a quick look and thought.... 'Sod it!' so I got to the next roundabout and came back down this carridgeway to get some shots. And man I'm glad I did!
Not overly impressed the way the sky has come out as it has no features (overcast) so I tryed to burn the sky in as much as possible.



Stats: 40D, 12mm, 1/30@f5.6, iso100
PS'd: Mono treatment, duplicated main layer then added on top and lightened to give washed out colour look, burned the sky while dodging the dark metal work on the car, sharpened and viola.

003/365: Stopping at platform 2
03 Jan, 2009
Waterbeach station. GR TL 499 648. (thought I'd start to include these as its helping me understand where I've been and if you fancy visiting too then you can!)
Drove through here the night before and thought I'd come tonight while I wasn't busy. Glad I did! Not only did I nearly kill myself with a passing train I got some cracking shots!
This one was probably the last if the images of the night, the 22:02 train from London stopping off at Waterbeach, although with the streak of light it looks like its not going to stop!



Stats: 40D, 10mm, 20sec @f16, iso100
PS'd: Merged two pictures to give me a point of light at the vanishing point on the railway, manually adjusted the WB to get rid of the unwanted soduim glow, sharpened.

Ok so a pic a day AND uploading in the same day might not work so as long as I take the photo a day it doesn't matter if it goes on tut interweb the same day! :lol:

002/365: Star Trails
Got to Waterbeach barracks this evening to be greeted with a crystal clear sky. So out came my £100 remote release and I set about snapping. Well the camera did, I sat in my warm car while the remote did its magic!
This shot comprises of 5 separate images all of 300 seconds (5 minutes) As we all know the longer the exposure the more digital noise creeps in, so to avoid this you keep the exposure time limited. After all the shots have been processed then they are all combined in PS and had the layer opacity changed to lighten. This technique I learnt from one of my magazines! ;)
(only problem is when I adjusted the WB to play down the 'Soduim Glow' it made the stars blue.... Lesson learnt!, wont be making the same mistake again!)



Stats: 40D, 10mm, 5x 300second @f6.3, iso100
PS'd: Multiple layer merge, lightened, digital gradient added to reduce foreground colour.