The Quiet Photographer

Postcard

2018-02-16T19:55:00.000+00:00

What would you do if you lived somewhere like this?

Answers on a postcard....

A new blog post!

2017-11-16T21:38:00.000+00:00

It's been a long, long time since I updated this blog. Hopefully not too long (I did at least remember the name of my blogging host).

Quite a few things have happened since my last update last summer. I finished taking a photo everyday, I had just run out of motivation to keep it going. Saying all this though, taking a photo every single day for three years is pretty impressive and is a good record of my life - the good times, adventures and how boring a day can sometimes be.

The major change though has been going from an engaged woman to a married one! Proper grown up now. Wedding snaps, thoughts and ramblings to follow.

I best post some photos here, as that is why you are looking on this page.

Well that is all for now.

Photography Roadshow

2016-06-20T17:20:00.001+01:00

Every once in a while a photography opportunity comes by which you cannot let pass you by. I had heard about the photography roadshow whilst googling things to do at Stowe Gardens (one of my favourite National Trust places), I put it in my diary and hoped that it wasn't just one of these events that you read about and nothing comes of. The night before, I fretted about getting there and there not being any sign of an event, or there not being any cameras to borrow, but these things thankfully didn't occur. We arrived and were greeted by a large Panasonic marquee and a wide selection of cameras to try.

I first opted for a small, almost compact camera, as my Iphone was small and my DSLR is somewhere feeling unloved.
I struggled with a few things with this camera:
Getting the focus right, and to get the focus on the correct object.
The battery quickly ran out due to having an automatic zoom.

The second camera I tried was a bridge camera, and perhaps should have been the one I picked from the beginning. This camera just felt more right than the other. Ok, so I still couldn't get the focus spot on, but the layout was easier and I could scroll through different options easily (who knew cameras these days would have a star effect!)

I found I struggled with the focus on both these cameras, maybe it's a Panasonic thing, or maybe it's just that technology has moved on from me looking at DSLR's many years ago.

Camera 1

Camera 2

New thinking

2016-02-19T12:44:00.000+00:00

My apologies, it has been far too long since I have done anything amazing/special/great with this blog. When I think about the neglect I have shown this blog I think back to conversations that I had with fellow bloggers and promises we made, so guys where are your updates?! It is far too easy to say that life gets busy and make excuses.

What has actually been happening in the world of my photography? Well, not a huge amount. I have finally finished my second year of taking a photo a day. This time, I was ready to be finished. I was thinking about restarting it for a few days, but no, I opted not to do it for a third year. The pressure is now off, I can take and post photos of what I want, no stress (and be able to go out and enjoy life and microadventures)

Night 1 of adventuring

Moring 2 of adventuring

Meow, woof, squeak, quack, chirp

2015-08-09T22:16:00.000+01:00

As per usual I can't remember where I have put all my memory cards, so I've been through my phone and pulled out a few animal photos I've taken this year. As I haven't yet found my USP maybe, with some work and practice this could be it, I might need to get a few pets first though!

Stained glass

2015-08-04T20:43:00.001+01:00

So, I may have forgotten about this blog, what with getting a new phone, not having wifi access and various other reasons.

I will try to post a few photos here from my here and at some point try to get this page fully updated :/

So for some reason my phone blog cannot access recent photos, so these are from March.

These are photos of my most recent stained glass project. It's still a work in progress, hopefully to be completed this year!

No! No holiday snaps, please!

2014-12-28T15:01:00.000+00:00

This has been a tough post to write. I have photos to go here, lots of photos, but I have had to stop myself from posting all of them. This post was very, very close to becoming a page of holiday snaps. Each snap holding a memory and a story, but that's just what they were, snaps. I know the stories and the memories as do the people that shared the moments with me but how interesting are these to others? So instead I've picked a few photos which I think are good photos.

Catch up time, well almost

2014-12-25T12:36:00.002+00:00

It's time to start catching up with a few projects. I am still way behind blogging for this year (things were looking so good around the middle of the year, but have dwindled due to my own lack of blogging)

I still need to catch up with:
1. The rest of my American holiday photos (yes, so I can bore a few more people with photos and sunshine and water
2. Sea kayaking
3. My year in photos (yes, just as exciting as it sounds)

I am going to start with sea kayaking, as those photos are the easiest to sort

In September I spent a weekend learning about sea kayaking in the Menai Straits. I have never sat in a sea kayak before never mind paddled one. Thankfully my knowledge of wobbly flat water racing boats came in useful, as I picked the most tippy one the had on offer and felt stable in. My camera of choice (or necessity) for this trip was my GoPro (my much unused, stored away in a drawer, uncharged GoPro). Until I find/invent/get bought for me some suitable reliable waterproof housing for my Iphone, my GoPro will have to do. So I went armed with 10 screen shots of instructions, a basic knowledge of the settings, a zip tie and a sling, all in all the photos turned out ok.

And of course where ever I go, my Iphone goes

The prettiest cat I have ever seen (and a dog)

2014-08-21T13:37:00.002+01:00

In Pennsylvania I met the prettiest cat I have ever seen. Sadly, this cat was unwilling to get into my bag and travel to the West coast and then back to England. Shame, he would have liked it here... will just have to try again next time.

Oh, and there there was a Paraguayan dog in Pennsylvania too.

Sorting time

2014-08-14T20:02:00.001+01:00

So, am back in the UK and it's time to try to sort the photos. Anyone that knows me, will know that I take a lot of photos.

Today, I have managed to sort through 3 folders of various locations, in the vague hope I can cut the vast number down to a few that I might be able to put in a photo book. For some reason I have chosen not to do them in date order. I have completed: Niagara Falls, The Horseshoe Curve and Williamsburg. No idea why I choose these, they aren't even in the same state.

Niagara Falls

Horseshoe Curve

Williamsburg

This is a very small number of photos in each folder. More will follow later (when they are sorted).

Philly

2014-08-04T16:35:00.001+01:00

2 nights in Philly, did and saw everything that I wanted to do/see. Only missed getting a Philly cheese steak from the original home of the cheese steak, but the one I did have was awesome.

Washington, D.C.

2014-07-28T18:09:00.001+01:00

Am now finished with d.c, was a nice place, even with the humidity. Off to Philly next, where I'm hoping for slightly cooler weather and my own hotel room.

Highlights/lowlights from d.c, were:

*staying with family

* managing the metro system and the odd bods I encountered

* looking up at impressive ceilings in the library of congress and the Jefferson memorial

* almost seeing Obama

* finding and using as much free wifi as possible (yes, I know I'm on holiday, but like to have the wifi as a just in case)

All the following photos are from my iPhone as I don't have my laptop with me

Blast again

2014-06-20T15:53:00.000+01:00

After the major panic of fearing I had deleted all of the second section of photos, I found them in the folder named 'no' (meaning not for blog), yes of course, that's a perfect place to put my good photos of the Blastathon :/

Hopefully the first set of photos have gone down well, here are a few more that I managed to snap on the day.

Hope you enjoy these photos. I plan to stay this side of the white water, so who knows, I might well see you at the next Blastathon.

Blastathon (part 1)

2014-06-19T16:51:00.004+01:00

1 weir,
1 dog bone,
3 black dogs,
A handful of mad people/white water paddlers,
Some curious spectators
And 1 full memory card.

Please feel free to pass the link for this page to those involved. I just ask that you let me know if you would like to use any of these photos.

Part 2 to follow soon.

Deja vu?!

2014-05-28T12:54:00.000+01:00

So, the title of this blog is 'deja vu'
I am still very proud of the work that I created for the exhibition and enjoying seeing it up around my parents place. I will also have some of it (what I haven't sold, given away) when I finally settle in a place to live. I also love the photos I took when I gatecrashed an event in Southbank.

Other people's events

Exhibition photos

Every time I open up my blog to see how it actually looks in real time, I am reminded of a phase in my life when I fell in love with a place in London. Actually, I lie, I still love the place. Where is this place? Well, I have photos throughout my blog and posts about it.... it's the Southbank skate park and Leake Road. I love the fact that things change every time that I am there, the graffiti can change on an hourly basis or yearly basis. Watching the artists at their work is amazing, there is skill in using those spray cans - layers of paint and textures, crisp outlines and sharp colours.

Being a tourist, I only get a glimpse of the life of the skate park once or twice a year. One of the niggles (for me), is that the life of the park goes through phases. This could be due to the bigger picture of the skate park or London. This doesn't sound like much, but wandering around you get a sense of how loved the place is at that moment in time. The last time I was there, people were busy trying to save the park and fingers crossed they have achieved this. I have been done during the year of the London Olympics and the golden jubilee, it was nice to see graffiti up representing us as a British nation.

Theses are photos taken earlier this year (yes, unfortunately with my Iphone)

Alnmouth 2

2014-05-14T20:49:00.001+01:00

Day 4

Holy Island

(I know there are a few spots on some of these photos, I will get round to fixing them at some point, just not yet)

Day 5

The journey home

Alnmouth 1

2014-05-11T19:12:00.002+01:00

Finally, I have found a little bit of time and a place with reliable broadband. Time to upload photos, type a few words and enjoy a cuppa.

Ok, so after starting this blog post, I have found that I still cannot cut down on what I think are good photos, this has resulted in me only getting half way through going on about my trip to Alnmouth before wanting to give up for today.

Day 1
Arriving in Alnmouth

Day 2

Day 3

Craster

Seahouses

Sunny bank holiday?!

2014-05-05T20:25:00.000+01:00

So, I am still not quite ready to upload my Alnmouth holiday snaps just yet, due to not having an internet connection or not having the memory cards with me. I will have to come back to these at a different time. I am though, excited about sorting through them all and uploading them, as I feel that I have some good ones in amongst the thousands that I took.

I am still continuing with my 100 days photos. I did feel that I would lose motivation with this, now that there is no finish date (unless you count day 365), but there is so much to photograph out there. I still always have my phone with me and know that I can pick up my SLR and snap away with that at a moments notice. So days 119 - 121, I went out to the countryside armed with my camera and this time was able to have more of confidence in what I felt would make a good photo. I was lucky to come across a Druid ceremony at a stone circle and read up on some history.

Fingers crossed

2014-04-18T19:45:00.001+01:00

My night photos have been entered into the night workshop competition, with MediaMG Photography, who ran the night photography workshop in Oxford. Fingers crossed, a winner will be announced at the end of the month.

Amongst the tulips

2014-04-09T13:54:00.001+01:00

I am still surprised by the number of blog views I had here the other day. It's amazing what a little bit of publicity can do. I have never got over 100 page views in one day before. Ok, so some bloggers get thousands of page views day, but I don't go round shouting how good I think I am, I'm just not that sort of person. I also understand that, that number of page views cannot be maintained at the moment, but hopefully a few/couple of people will stick around and see what is going on.

I owe a big thank-you to Mark Rainsley (http://southwestseakayaking.co.uk/), who was the person in the back of the kayak in the last blog post, who wanted to show his friends what he had been up to on a wet Sunday in April. I think we are now equal after I fed him hot cross buns and made sure he had enough water throughout the race. I also think (hope), that some of the photos from the last post will also be used in my kayak club's newsletter.

I am still unsure of my unique selling point, but I am happy with that. I take photos of things that capture my eye, whether it is a kayak race or a flower in the garden. Maybe at some point I will settle..... maybe. (My background keeps reminding me that I have more photos to put up from a short trip I took to London)

I also mentioned to a friend that I would mention him on here, a tiny bit of extra publicity for him (here's a link to his website). If anyone is round York this evening, he is taking part in an open mic tonight tonight.

Mission: Support a crew

2014-04-07T14:25:00.002+01:00

Date: 6/4/14
Place: Devizes, then along the canal to Newbury
Time: 7.30am (Devizes) till 2.30pm (Newbury)
Mission: Provide snacks and drinks to two kayakers, whilst they paddle 35 miles along the canal.
Potential issues:
*Loss of boat,
*Getting the munchies and eating all the snacks,
*Getting lost,
*Car breaking down,
*Hitting wildlife,
*Falling into canal,
*Losing camera equipment down hill,
*Upsetting locals,
*Snacks being eaten by wildlife,
*Giving the drinks to the wrong crew members,
*Turning up at the wrong locks

The start

Horton bridge

All Cannings

Some of the other competitors

K1 next year Mark?

Jen reminding support crews where to feed there crews (not on the water!)

Further down the canal in the rain

Almost there Kintbury

What the kayakers missed

Thank-you's:

*Jen and Mark for letting me support you

*The locals dogs that I met along the way for not eating the snacks

*The marshal who kept an eye on my stuff whilst I scrambled down a bank to retrieve my lens hood

*To the lady next to me who I didn't have to rescue after she stumbled on the river bank

*To Jen for informing me that I was at the wrong lock

Apologies:

*Mark, I filled your bottle at one point with what I thought was water, turns out it was one of Jen's electrolyte drinks

*To the poor animal that decided to cross the road in front of my car

*The crew for trying to tell them they were at the last lock, when in fact I had turned up at the wrong lock

Garden shots

2014-03-29T21:52:00.003+00:00

So with less than 3 weeks to go before I head up to the North East coast, I am starting to worry a little. Do I have the right equipment? Am I able to take ok photos? Yes, I take photos and am just starting to have to confidence in myself that I can take good ones. I am thinking of hiring a wide angled lens for the holiday, just to try something new (and because I don't have much faith in my current distance lens). But, saying this, I have taken both my lenses out in the garden today and got some ok shots (pretty much bulk standard ones, in terms of the photography world).

I have also found that many people don't click the link to this blog. Some make make the excuse that they don't have time others have no excuse. So I am no longer surprised when I ask people if they have seen the photos on my blog that they give me a puzzled look. It's tough, I write in this blog to record my thoughts about where I am with my photography. I don't expect people to sit and read through all my ramblings, but maybe just to have a look at the photos. I am going to keep going with this but potentially post my photos individually on Facebook, just to reach a wider audience. Thank you to those that do take the time to have a read and a look, it is greatly appreciated and helpful.

And more from today:

Arboretums are just for trees?

2014-03-23T13:56:00.001+00:00

After driving past the arboretum everyday on my way to and from work, I decided to pop in and have a look at the daffodils that I could see from the road. I took my SLR and my trusty Iphone with me and managed to get some ok shots.

There was one major difference when I came to reviewing my photos, this time I could tell the difference between the SLR and Iphone shots. I had mentioned to a friend a few months back when I was 'pro Iphone' photos that I could not tell the difference and he insisted that you can, now after looking through them, I know what he means. So, some of these photos are from my Iphone but the majority are from my SLR. Have a look through and enjoy, I have naturally added some shots that I like, that I know aren't every ones cup of tea.

Night photos

2014-03-22T17:38:00.001+00:00

After being told the one photo that I put up on Facebook of my night photographs was boring, I am intrigued to see what people think of these.

We had a few hours in Oxford at the Bodleian library, starting at twilight and then at Oxford castle. On this night there was a full moon but after overhearing discussions about how to get the moon more 'moon like', I opted for the easier photos of the night sky.

I throughly enjoyed this evening even if I did start out with a wonky tripod which has meant refreshing my skill of how to rotate and then crop photos.

Night photography

2014-03-16T22:29:00.002+00:00

Have just come in from an awesome evening in Oxford taking photos in the dark. Photos will follow shortly (as was suffering from a wonky tripod) as some editing needs to take place.

One thing I have found after the course (and which I should have asked whilst there), is how do you get good pictures of the moon?! The best I've got is a white blob on a black background, or a starburst effect which could have been taken during the day of the sun (somehow).