From the other side (Day 365)

Yes the final day has come and I have reached the end of the project and felt I should really do something a bit different.  So I moved to the other side of the camera for a self portrait session. When doing portrait / family / wedding sessions I frequently have clients concerned as they don't like to be photographed and are 'shy' of the lens.  Well so am I.  The camera can be unforgiving, all those grey hairs and wrinkles, fluff on the jumper etc. etc.   So to celebrate all those that I have cajoled into smiley poses, double clicked for the blinkers and generally had a laugh with to get the picture, I present myself unedited wrinkles and all.

As for the 365 project - I'm both happy and sad it's finished.  At times it has been frustrating as I haven't had an image that I felt was good enough to publish, but have published it anyway to achieve the final goal.

Yes at times I felt like giving up, but I am stubborn and know I would have regretted it.  So I invented more challenges, like the last couple of weeks using my mobile or compact.

The worst part was having a great colour image that just did not translate into black and white.  However, I do think it has helped my photography and in some cases black and white surpassed my expectations.  It also brought back a lot of memories of when I did my original photography training with a rolls of film and a twin lens mamiya.

 But now I move on and know that after a couple of weeks I'll be looking for another project.  Not sure what it'll be next time.  Any suggestions welcome.

 Maybe I'll go back to using film.  Maybe I'll try photographing a beards.  Whatever it is, it will be a shorter project than 365 days.  But I'm glad I did it.

I'm now off to get a large G & T and I'll raise my glass to my dad for the inspiration for the project.

Totally unsatisfactory penultimate installment! (Days 354 - 364)

Now by totally unsatisfactory I am talking about the standard of the photographs in this instalment.  I decided to shake up the last couple of week by not using my usual camera and instead using my mobile phone (a new experience for me), a compact or a bridge camera.  It turned out to be a combination of frustration and fun - lots of missed opportunities but a freedom of travelling light. So the offerings are detailed in the captions.

Day 354 - Selfie on the mobile when out running (cani cross) in thick ice - not mastered getting the dog to look at the camera.

Day 355 - Bridge camera on a mountain walk up Goatfell in lovely sunny conditions with plenty of snow near the summit.

Day 356 - Bridge camera - stormy with lots of light reflecting so frustrated at not having a polarizing filter. But I got some good atmospheric images.

Day 357 - Bridge camera - again not bad considering I didn't have a tripod or a filter.

Day 358 - So happy I wasn't subjecting my main camera to these conditions!  Wow it was wild.

Day 359 - Trying to work out how to actually use my mobile phone camera and not doing very well.  There was actually a fantastic moon rising but the camera just wasn't up to it - frustrating - but then my phone only cost £70 and there are great cameras on some mobiles.

Day 360 - Proper camera day.  Out to capture birds but the weather didn't play ball, although I managed a quick snap of this shelduck which is the first record of its return this year after migrating.

Day 361 - A snap on the beach.  The storms are washing up lots of debris, including skeletons of various mammals. 

Day 362 - Mobile - Actually a great photo (in colour) of one of the brightest rainbows I've ever seen.  Shame the quality of the image prevents me from doing much with it.

Day 363 - Foul weather and I took this from the car - feeling lazy today.

Day 363 - No idea what happened with this one taken on my mobile - the image is distorted and I really can't get the hang of using my mobile, I prefer the compact if I can't carry anything bigger.