Photo diary of a Beginner

The walk home - 19th March 09

2009-03-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

You will never see the best shot of this...

2009-03-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

... because I wasn't quick enough on the draw. The best shot (IMO), had the old woman just where she was, but with a look of surprise on her face and her hand over her mouth... Aw well, close but no cigar.

Anyway, the context is that this is apparently how the water quality tests are done. The tap is turned on to maximum, a bottle of water is taken, and the tap left running while the engineer runs and records the tests inside his van, just out of shot.

Slovakia - scenery, skiing and a little girl being angry at the hotel.

2009-03-18T02:12:00.001-07:00

The above two are some shots that just about worked. I was trying to track skiers as they whizzed past me - stood outside, high shutter, high iso in the breaktimes I had in the conference.

Some landscapes which come out crisper than the rest (still handheld, Im afraid) and a little girl who was happily telling a stanchion of the hotel that whatever it was doing, it was doing it wrong :)

Cropping an earlier photo

2009-03-14T02:12:00.001-07:00

I tend to just put up what I take, with only the usual post processing of white-balance, exposure, etc but for this photo, I wished I had a zoom lens, so I've cropped it and uploaded this new version. What do you reckon?

(Cropped from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben_on_the_move/3351616721/)

Night shots

2009-03-14T02:04:00.000-07:00

Some nighttime shots taken Friday, 13th March while I walked back into town from work.

Just one photo from 12th March lunchtime...

2009-03-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

And this was it... meh, clichéd.

Snapping the Tourists

2009-03-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Just sat on a bench to eat my sandwich, by the Martyr's memorial in Oxford, and a group of malaysian(?) tourists came past and set up their shot. So... I took a few shots of them :)

I like the expression of the woman in the second photo too!

Colourful buildings in Oxford

2009-03-14T01:48:00.001-07:00

Always thought it strange how colourful certain areas of central Oxford actually are.

Urban photography; shooting people

2009-03-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Taken 12th March, while wandering around in Oxford during my lunch break.

Water

2009-03-14T01:29:00.000-07:00

While walking back home from work along the canal path back into Oxford, I noticed that the sluices were overflowing, gushing water out from the canal. I had to take a few shots. Above is my favorite one because of the colours and texture; the flash froze the water to look like ice.

In the Marketplace

2009-03-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

Photos taken in Gloucester Green, Oxford, during lunch while the market is running. For a number of these, I was aiming to get some good technical shots as well as try to capture something interesting. I was definitely starting to have fun learning how to make certain shots happen with the camera's settings :)

View Larger Map

Macro #2

2009-03-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

Second macro taken on the first morning, not quite as sharp as I'd like, but I am hand-holding these shots.

First! (by preference)

2009-03-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first shot I tried to take with the camera, first thing the morning after I got it. This was taken in my back garden, macro setting zoomed in to the lenses fullest (55mm) and just as the sun peaked over the garden wall. I don't know if it is a bad thing that the part where the sun reflects most brightly on the leaf is blown out, but I'll just chalk it up to better luck next time.

(What you cannot see, is that I am being beset by neighbourhood cats, who think, possibly quite rightly, that I am a soft touch and would feed them if they pestered me enough.)

Introduction

2009-03-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

Last week, I bought myself a shiny, shiny Nikon D60 + lens kit (18-55mm VR) and have been going a little photo crazy.

"Try to take at least one good photo daily"

I'm not entirely sure where that idea came from, but it has that 'interesting idea' ring to it. Hence this blog :)

I'll post on here links to the photos I've taken that I thought were Good Enough(tm) to be seen, starting with a few retrospective ones.

(I may post more than one photo a day, or I might not post anything for a few days; the aim is the attempt to take photos - meaning I have to have my camera with me, I have to be ready to take a good image and I have to be looking for a good shot.)