Monday 15 March 2010

365 FAIL

I've had to stop with the 365. I simply don't have time. Being out the house for almost 12 hours a day, trying to keep fit and still cook a "proper" dinner in the evening is leaving with very little time. I barely have time to complete the challenges I set for my Flickr group, never mind anything else.

I am kicking myself for not being able to do it but the photos were substandard and I wasn't happy with them. I am going to do it but I'll probably start in September again and use it as a break from studying.

Till then, I have only 18 weeks to get fit for a wedding - not my wedding (thankfully!), but the boyfriend's brother's wedding. I hate having my photo taken and the last thing I want to do is look like a whale in the pics so I'm going to work really hard at eating the right kind of food, rather than the carb based diet I've had recently.

Till the start of the new 365, I'll use this blog to post other photos and maybe some writing - if I ever get round to it, as that's something that I haven't done for ages, again due to time constraints! :o)

Monday 1 March 2010

365 - Catch up!

It's been a while so a quick catch up of the 365. It's proving harder than I thought because I don't seem to have time to actually think too hard about the shots, however, I will try harder!

Don't forget, if you want to see a bigger version, just click on the photo and it'll take you to my Flickr page....

22nd Feb - Waiting for the bus, it started to snow (again) but the sun was painting the clouds with a lovely reddish hue. This didn't capture it. :))

009/365 - 22nd Feb 2010 - Clouds


23rd Feb - On the way into work, between buses. There was a little patch of ground undisturbed by people but it looked like the birds had been taking part in a waltz!

010/365 - 23rd Feb 2010 - Prints

24th Feb - Nom Nom Nom. Sometimes, just sometimes, nothing else will do. I have gone for months without eating Quavers but then all of a sudden, I MUST have them. The 24th was one of those days!

011/365 - 24th Feb 2010 - Nom Nom Nom

25th Feb - Wall at Work. I like to print my photos up and I stuck them up at work to make the office a little brighter!

012/365 - 25th Feb 2010 - Prints

26th Feb - Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. One of the first shots I took on Friday - I haven't had time to look at the rest properly but will soon.

013/365 - 26th Feb 2010 - Orchid

Sunday 21 February 2010

The 365 Challenge - #7 & #8

Yesterday was a trip to Whitehouse Farm just outside Morpeth. We had a brilliant time and James loved feeding the animals. He was especially happy to see the horses and did not seem as put off as the adults by the smell of the pig pen! I haven't looked at all of my shots from yesterday yet but this was one of the early ones and, because it looks like (s)he's smiling, I decided to make it my number 7 in my 365 challenge:-

007/365 - 20th Feb 2010 - Happy Goat

Today, I've been feeling a bit strange - I just keep coming over really light-headed. So I decided to go for an easy subject - Doris, my begonia. Except it wasn't as easy as I thought. I only realised how rubbish my shots were after it was dark. This is the best I could do with the shots I had:-

008/365 - 21st Feb 2010 - "Doris"

Not brilliant but it could be worse - I took a shot of the light coming through the voile on the wooden floor and in theory, it should have been good but the reality was that it was worse than this one!

Saturday 20 February 2010

The 365 Challenge #5 and #6

When it started snowing outside while I was at work, I quickly took this snap through the window. It's not the best shot out there but I chose it over other shots I had taken that day because it seemed to mean a little more than a random shot of a water cooler...

005/365 - 18th Feb 2010 - Snow


On the way home yesterday, I got on a bus and realised that it was probably older than I am. Although the bus company had installed cameras on it, the outside was filthy and so was the inside. The windows at the back, where I decided to sit, were covered in scratches, dirt and this....

006/365 - 19th Feb 2010 - on the bus

At least the sky was pretty!

Thursday 18 February 2010

The Digital Economy Bill

Article from CopyrightAction.com

Note: This deals mostly with just the photography element - I know the bill is a lot more complex than this - read the comments also for info re Flickr

I'm not happy with the proposed bill. I'm trying to keep a level head about it but have written to my MP with the template letter and a personal note. I'm still waiting on a response to my letter about asthmatics and prescription charges and I blogged about that a while ago so I'm not holding my breath yet - I think it took almost 5 months to get a response the last time.

I post my photos on Flickr, on here and on another, more personal blog site.

Because of this, I should be easy to contact. On flickr, anyone wanting to use my photos (not that I think it would happen, but as an example...) could set up a flickr account and contact me that way (I keep my yahoo email private). On here, they could set up an account and email me. On Blogger, they could set up an account and email me.

But will they do that? If the email address is not visable, will they just say that they can't contact the owner? I hope not but I could see it happening. And why? Because, from the way I read the bill, it's up to the photographer to first of all find if it's being used or not and if it is, it's up to the photographer to prove that they weren't contacted. And if the photographer does prove ownership, an agency gets a slice of royalties, then the government gets a slice of royalties and finally the photographer gets royalties.

Gordon Brown is probably rubbing his hands at the potential revenue. This is incredibly unfair on anyone who has stood in awful weather conditions, paid for courses and invested time and money in photography.

My photos are MINE. I choose to show them. I don't earn any money off them - I'm not interested in selling them. How dare the government try to introduce a bill which could take my property off me and fatten their coiffers - because that's what it is. I honestly don't think that many companies will bother too hard to find the owner unless it's blatantly obvious who the image belongs to and if they are caught will just go "ooops, silly me".

There are some absolutely amazing photographers on flickr who haven't used the site for a long time but their images are still there. Does this make them orphan works? It shouldn't. They still belong to that person whether you can contact them or not.

It's bad enough getting suspicious looks from people because I have a "professional" camera without this.

I'm sick to death of photography being a battle all the time. As the template letter said, if this were a motor car, this bill is basically saying that if the number plate is missing, it's ok to claim use of it. And if this were a motor car and they tried to pass this bill, they would be laughed at. But because a photo is "just a digital image", they think it doesn't matter.

Well, it matters to me and lots of people like me. They wouldn't do this to songs, they wouldn't do it to paintings, they wouldn't do it to writing, so why do it to photographs? As far as I'm concerned, it's all expressions of creativity and they either introduce this bill for all paintings, books, writing and photos, or for none of them.

(sorry, got a bit ranty towards the end there!)

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Because I like it :o)

Chinese New Year 2010

No other reason.

This was taken at the Chinese New Year Celebrations on the 14th Feb 2010 in Newcastle. I was lucky to get this.

Edited as follows:-

GIMP - cropped and levels tweaked.

Photoscape - vignette #1, #2, #3, #4 added. Cross process filter applied. Vignette #1 added again.

003 and 004 of 365

This first shot was taken yesterday when I was a little rushed off my feet. Yes, it's an orange. I've tried to make it as interesting as possible but it hasn't really worked... :))

003/365 - 16th Feb 2010 - orange


This one was taken today on my way to get the bus home. It's in the centre of Newcastle and is a new building that they are finishing off. I wish I could have found something more interesting to take a shot of but that's why this is a challenge!

004/365 - 17th Feb 2010 - Newcastle