September photography challenge - pt 4

Final week of the month. This is always a week of mixed emotions for me - exhaustion from trying come up with ideas for all the themes and therefore some relief that September is coming to an end. This is also tempered with sadness as I so enjoy being forced out of my comfort zone and getting out there and taking some photos.

So here are my three entries for the last week:

theme 10 - self portrait

This is a perennial theme and one I always find hard.

I don’t take many images of people and even fewer that are posed.

I tried to convey a sense of how I will be feeling throughout the Rugby World Cup this Autumn.

theme 11 - beautiful

I’ve been wanting to try photographing water drops for a while after I got the inspiration from a magazine article. A simple flash, grill pan and dripping bag was all I needed and it was surprising how easy this was in the end.

I took lots of photos with different coloured backgrounds (and lots with the drop just above the water of just after it settled!). In the end I liked this plain one the best.

theme 12 - fresh

My final photo and the one that I had to rush the most. I was away for the weekend at the end of this week and struggled to find something I was happy with.

A fresh coffee always makes me smile so I thought I'd go for this. Plus I could use my water drop experience again!

So there we are - all twelve photos done and the challenge is over for another year. We had a great party to round off the challenge and it was fantastic to exchange thoughts and favourites with the others that took part. I feel like the standard of my photos is slowly going up year on year and that makes me happy.

Looking forward to next year now.

September photography challenge - pt 3

I really feel like I got back into the swing of things this week. I felt inspired by a few ideas and was really excited to shoot some of the themes.

This week we had music, movie title and at night.

theme 7 - music

My daughter is always interested in getting involved with the annual photography challenge. This year she was only too keen to help make some ‘music’ while I took this image.

It was taken with a very shallow depth of field to get only the end of the recorder in focus and I love the way this focuses you straight to the ‘music’.

Face paint is model’s own!

theme 8 - movie title

Most years there is a charades style theme around movies. I had the idea for this at the start of the week but didn’t get a chance to take the shot until towards the end of the week and it was a lot of fun.

I ended up putting on the face paint myself and had to buy some large red balloons especially.

In hindsight I should have warned my wife that this was what I was going to do before hand.

If you haven’t guessed it yet the movie is IT!

theme 9 - at night

I have wanted to take a picture of our completely black cat for a long time, Every time I’ve tried (during the day) she just looks like a black blob with yellow eyes.

This theme gave me the perfect opportunity. I imagine that this is the last thing that the mice see when she is out hunting!

Next week is the last week of the challenge which is always sad (and a little bit of a relief). The final three themes are self portrait, beautiful and fresh.

September photography challenge - pt 2

So now we’re into the second week and I have really found this hard! The themes seemed difficult to interpret for me and I couldn’t find inspiration, especially with ‘unexpected’ - how do you generate an unexpected moment to capture?!

I captured these throughout the week but waited to post them until the end of the week in the hope that I would be struck by something better… well it hasn't happened yet.

This week’s themes were speed, unexpected and wild.

theme 4 - speed

I got my son’s scalextric set out of the attic and set it up in the hope of getting an action shot of two cars racing. I had to sellotape the triggers on the controllers to keep the cars going while I took photos. I really like how the front car is already out of shot.

theme 5 - unexpected

This was the hardest one so far. I really struggled to think how I could generate an unexpected moment to capture that would seem genuine.

In the end I was out for a walk one evening and saw the most incredible sunset. I dashed back home to grab my camera and grab a couple of shots.

theme 6 - wild

We’ve recently started putting out bird food in the garden again and I’ve been amazed at how many blue tits we’re getting.

I was trying to get an image of a blue tit in flight but after many pictures of a blurred bird or a tail, I ended up with this… a little bit wild.

Well, we’re half way through the month now - let’s hope I can get my creative juices flowing for next week’s themes.

Next week’s themes are music, movie title and at night - let’s get started.

September photography challenge - pt 1

Every year I take part in a photography challenge run by a local photographer in her facebook group. This is the same photographer through whom I learned all about cameras (and, more importantly who inspired me to use my camera more often).

The challenge is normally 30 themes, one for each day in September. The idea is that you must take the photograph on that day and upload it to the group where the community give feedback. It’s a great way to encourage regular camera use and practicing all sorts of different techniques. Plus it’s a lot of fun.

Well this year, the seventh that the challenge has happened, it had felt a lot to ask of everyone to take a photo every day of the month so the challenge has been paired back to 4 weeks with three themes each week. Now you get the whole week to take all three images and upload by the end of the week.

I thought I would share mine here.

The first week’s themes are: together, green and vantage point:

theme 1 - together

This was actually the image that took me the longest. As it got to the Saturday at the end of the week I thought that this would work, plus I got a cooked breakfast out of it too,. I didn’t have long to take the image as i wasn’t going to eat cold bacon and eggs!

theme 2 - green

I had a problem with inspiration here and eventually settled on a mojito. I was a bit worried that i had over done the ingredients and that it would be too green but i’m Really pleased with the result. Especially the inclusion of an old salad server so look like a muddler..

Sadly I didn’t even make a mojito, this was just soda water!

theme 3 - vantage point

This is a view of the Shard in London, taken through a. window at St Dunstan in the East church. I visited here early in the week to get this image but it didn’t come out how I wanted.

I then, by chance saw exactly what I was after on Instagram. So i returned to try again and was really pleased with the way this came out.

The problem I find with some of these themes is that they can be interpreted in so many different ways that sometimes imagining something that is immediately recognisable as the theme is really difficult. Looking forward to next week’s themes: speed, unexpected and wild.