Project 365 update #3

Here's the last few entries from my project 365 - a photo a day. You can view the entire project by clicking the link at the top of this blog "365- A photo a day"

15 - Time for your meds

This is my mum's 15 year old cat, Bootie (named for her little white boots) who I purchased for $10 with my own money when I was 13.

She survived a health scare late last year and narrowly avoided getting put down because we didn't want her suffering. But against all odds, she managed to somehow get healthy again.

She will live out the rest of her days having to take a tablet each day because of a dodgy thyroid - the cause of her sickness last year.

My parents have gone away for a few days so we went to their house tp feed and medicate the cat today. In this photo, my husband is feeding Bootie her daily tablet wrapped in a piece of turkey breast to disguise the medicine.

16 - Surveillance Overkill

A shot of the tower of CCTV cameras located in the staff carpark of the local council office. I think they're slightly paranoid.

I took this shot while I was riding my bike to work - I'd never noticed it before but I figured they had every angle covered!

This shot is fairly appropriate for our household today with the arrival of my sister-in-law's puppy, Bella, who we will be baby-sitting for a week: she will be under total surveillance by my husband and me!
(No doubt some puppy photos will feature over the coming days!)

Taken from the seat of a bicycle, vignette and green tinge added to make the cameras feel like they are the ones being watched...

f/20, 1/100s, ISO 200

17 - These boots were made for shovelling

This is what my boots looked like after 3.5 hours of shovelling thicky, sloppy mud from the farm yard animal pen at the RSPCA, Fairfield, Qld.

The RSPCA Brisbane headquaters was totally flooded in last week's flood (some buildings right up to their roof) but fortunately all animals were evacuated safely.

I went along today to help them clean up and it was great to see so many other animal lovers lending a hand. Because the RSPCA is a charity, they don't qualify for any of the government's flood relief funding :(

After we'd scraped up as much mud as we could, I sprinkled lime all over the ground to help kill any nasty bugs that may have been in the mud.

A hot, tiring and messy day but well worth the effort!

PS I don't have 'cankles' - the boots/socks come about half way up my shins :)

Taken with my point and shoot camera (Olympus u1030 SW) set to 'portrait' mode which resulted in f/4.5, 1/500s, ISO 80




18 - New best friend

Today was a day of puppy-sitting and hot weather. As previously promised, here's a shot of the pup! (plus my own gentle giant, Nelson. He's the one on the left :)

Bella (the pup) is a 9 week old chocolate Labrador and belongs to my sister-in-law and her family. We're looking after Bella for a week while the family is on holiday.

Nelson is a Labradoodle and is turning 7 this year. Despite his relatively 'old-man' status, he's never really grown up and is almost as much of a puppy as when we first got him.

The two of them just LOVE each other to bits! They constantly play together and Nelson is just so gentle with her it's amazing - she even had her head in his mouth at one stage and he just sat there, lol.

PS the title of this shot was taken from an episode of "Absolutely Fabulous" which is one of my favourite shows.

f/5.3, 1/400, ISO auto which selected an ISO of 2200 (not sure why so high with this value!). Black point and highlights adjusted in photoshop.

The indoor clothesline

WHAT
This shot was taken in my lounge room and is a close up view of the pegs and washing on the clothes rack we've been forced to set up in an attempt to dry the ever- increasing piles of washing.

This shot was day 8 of my 365 project (see link at the top of this blog for more info)


WHY
The immense ammount of rain we've had lately is still heavily making its impact felt on my life - it's nearly impossible to get any clothes dry!

Originally I had intended to use a photograph of my friends and their baby who were coming over to visit that night as my shot of the day. But when I walked past this now common-place sight in my lounge, the bright multi-coloured pegs were just begging me to photograph them.

I figured it was a fitting shot for my 365 photo as it told some more of the story of my life lately :) ie. a frustrated woman with limited clean underwear remaining!


HOW
I used a large aperture (f/4.5 - as low as my lens would go) in order to get a shallow depth of field. I focused on the yellow peg right of centre. Shot on a tripod in aperture priority mode, with a 1.0s shutter, ISO 250.

POST PRODUCTION
I played with it a bit in photoshop to get the grainy/slightly 'hipstamatic' look :) (increased black point, upped the exposure level, reduced contrast, increased clarity, increased highlights then added a noise filter to get the grainy look.)

365 Project update

So far so good with the 365 Project! I've only missed one day (January 3rd) and my excuse is that I hadn't decided to do the project until the 4th of Jan and alas, I hadn't taken a photo on the 3rd.

(To see the progress thus far, click the link at the top of the blog page entitled "365 Project-A photo a day")

I've decided that I'm going to try and either make each photo like a little story of what a particular day entailed for me, or what was the most interesting/significant/annoying thing I experienced about that day.

For example on day 7, it rained extremely heavily for about an hour this morning causing flash flooding across the city. But in the afternoon, the sun came out. I was therefore able to take my dog walking for the first time in days. Therefore the photo for January 7 shows my dog, Nelson, on our walk looking at a flooded creek near my house.

I used a shallow depth of field (5/f) to make Nelson the main focus of this image, resulting in the slightly blurred bridge/water. I shot in Aperture priority mode which resulted in the camera selecting a shutter speed of 1/500s. ISO was 200.

Because it was quite dull, the sky unfortunately isn't all that interesting and the brown muddy water is a bit yuck too. But, the whole point of this photo wasn't to take a landscape masterpiece, it was to document my day.

In photoshop, I increased the clarity, black point and upped the luminance/saturation of the red lead/collar to make it stand out and bring a splash of colour.

After publishing today's shot, I've also learnt that I will have to keep in mind the previous photos I've taken in this project - it's only day 7 and already I've included two of Nelson! I don't want one particular person/animal/type of shot to dominate my project. I realise there will be some recurring themes throughout the year but I will try and mix it up.

Project 365

To see the most up-to-date version of my Project 365, click the bar at the top of the blog page entiitled "365 Project - A photo a day"

WHAT
Project 365 is my attempt to take 1 photo a day for the whole year. I'm not sure how long I'll stay committed for, but I'm going to give it a go. Having said that, I've already missed one day (the 3rd of January) because I only decided to undertake this project on the 4th of Jan. Luckily, I'd taken some photos on the 1st and 2nd to fill in those days.

WHY
Many people undertake this challenge at the beginning of the year in an effort to use and learn more about their cameras and to train their eye to find a photo in any situation.

Being forced to take a photo each day, I know that some of them will be rubbish if I'm rushed or not really 'feeling' there's a photo to be found somewhere. But this will hopefully help me learn what to do better and encourage me to try out some different photographic techniques or camera settings.

It's also a good way to document my year (for which I have big expectations! :)

HOW
I've set a daily alarm on my phone at 2pm reminding me to take a photo each day. To try and stay motivated, I might also look at setting myself a weekly theme to focus my efforts more if I start to struggle for ideas and to try and photograph things I've never snapped before.

Here are my shots so far (apart from Jan 3rd) - they don't have a set theme yet.

01/01/2011

The above shot is of two of my friends at my New Year's Eve party, taken shortly after midnight (ie. January 1st). I used a shallow depth of field and focused on the bottles in front to blur the happy couple in the background.

02/1/2011

A misty, cloud covering hiking trail at Springbrook National Park, Gold Coast, Australia. My husband and I went hiking on this trail (Twin Falls circuit) as with the recent deluge of rain our state has been experiencing, we were desperate to venture outside while the rain held off!

The cloud actually made it difficult to focus the camera on autofocus mode, as it was getting confused by the swirling mist.

04/01/2011

This is a self portrait in the reflection of a hand dryer in the ladies toilets at my work. It was about 30 mins before taking this photo that I decided to embark on Project 365, hence the rather strange subject matter. This one was taken on my iPhone. I like how shiny the hand dryer is and the random pattern of brown tiles under it. As I said, I was a bit desperate for a photo at this point :)

05/01/2011 My dog, Nelson (a Labradoodle) 'helping' me with the gardening. I thought he looked very cute trying to hide his giant body behind the vines.

I used a large aperture to increase the shutter speed in the available light so that I could quickly fire off a series of shots and get his in focus as he was moving around sniffing things a fair bit.