So I’ve started a project that I’ve meant to do for both Nairn and Erica but never got around to starting. It’s purely a personally project but I don’t mind sharing it with you guys. Basically the intent is to have a photo almost every day for the first year of Greer’s life. If Erica had not had the problems she had I’d probably have completely forgotten about this but with her going from a tiny baby with health problems to a healthy child almost over night we never really seen a gradual change in her. I want to be able to see Greer changing and growing and I want to be able to show her this in the years to come. I’d originally started posting the pictures on my Flickr account but in order to stop my contacts being flooded with photos of Greer that were almost identical I was making them private but that defeated the idea of sharing them with anyone we knew if they wanted to see them. So I added a subdomain on my blog and all the photos will be displayed there. As I mentioned there isn’t going to be a picture every day but I aim to try for that anyway. We’re only a couple of weeks into her life and I’ve missed one so far and fully expect to miss a couple more over the coming months. It’s no big deal so there’s none of the pressure that’s stopped me keeping photoblogs before or stopped me completing 365 projects. I’m really looking forward to this.

You can find the project at http://greer365.theapochrypha.co.uk

Speed: 1/1000 Aperture: f1.8 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 50mm

Do you know why people constantly take photos of their cats? It’s because they don’t run away and they are cuter that most inanimate objects.

This 50mm lens is really bugging me. Because you can’t really see the depth of field without using the magic button when I think somethings in focus I usually find that the cats nose is crystal clear but it’s eyes are fuzzy. Practice practice practice.

Right. I’ve decided its time to get the photoblog back on the go. Since Erica was born I’ve had neither the time nor the energy to keep it up but enough is enough.

Two things have got my enthusiasm and energy level back up for this. I’ve got a fortnights holiday starting next week and we’ll at least be spending a few days on the east coast an maybe fit in a trip elsewhere as well. A photography forum I am a member of has also started a mini competition running alongside a main competition. The main one gives me a chance of winning some weird monopod/pouchpod thingie for every post I make and the the mini one gets me put forward for display on the sites front page each week. Basically their assignments are going to slightly more strict for a change. You get two weeks to get a photo taken and uploaded on a specific theme and the best one wins. I doubt I’ll win but its the taking part that counts as they say. Also each photo I post makes my chance of winning the main prize a little better The other reason is that Alt Nation is changing the way its photography forum works and a small camera club seems to be starting with folk from AN running the show.

• Food and Drink
• Symmetry
• Spring
• Odd or Even
• Cityscapes
• Portrait of a Person
• Rust
• Waterworks
• Squares
• Backyard Birds
• Circles
• Lines
• Black and White
• Pay Attention to Foregrounds
• Urban Decay
• Portraits
• Dangerous Animals
• 9 to 5
• Slow Sync Flash
• Silhouettes
• Still Life
• Faster, Faster, Faster
• Icon of Your City
• Get Down and Dirty
• Shallow DoF / Macro
• Antique Your Digital Images
• Panning
• Slow Shutter Speed
• Water
• Your Fave for 2006
• Christmas
• Wind
• Blue
• Pets
• My Backyard
• Wide Angle
• Pink

I think I’m getting bogged down with my photoblog as I’ve got it into my head that every picture has to be technically good. Its supposed to be a pictorial representation of what I did that day. If it happens to be good then bonus!

I think I need to try and seperate the daily pics from the other stuff I post up to it somehow but I’m not sure how.

Blogs updated btw.

Today I went out to try and recreate a picture I took 2 years ago. I took it with my old digitial compact which took some amazing pictures but since I’ve started using the 300D I’ve had great problems learning how my old camera actually worked.

I’ve tried several times to get that picture again and each and every time I’ve failed in one way or another. Becuase I’m taking the picture vertically I seem to havea problem getting the shot in focus. Add in to that the sky is very bright and I get the exposure completely wrong. Messing about with the aperture settings have also borne no fruit as when I get it right I mess up something else.

I think I may have cracked it today but until I get it home I’m not so sure. The photos are not going to be good but I think I got the picture taken the way I wanted to. After having a quick look through the LCD display on the camera I know there are twigs and branches in all the wrong places but its only the start of the season and very few trees had suitable foliage so heres hoping I’ll get some good shots with the Canon this year.

Finally refound the link I was talking about a few entries ago for ideas with regards to what I’m trying trying to do withthe photoblog.

Just in case I lose it again its here

This photo a day thing is getting bloody hard!

I’m considering changing the rules but I think if I did that when I got to the end I’d feel cheated. I know I’m doing this for two main reasons. The first is to allow folk an insight into my life and the second is to try and help me be a better photographer purely through practise. My main problem comes from the one photo per day ruling. I’d originally intended it as one photo taken each day so that I’d be able to see what I’d done every day but what if I take two cracking photos one day and cant find anything worth posting the next? I’m already struggling as is. Theoretically I could post the second picture as a normal entry on my photoblog and not as part of the photo a day thing but I’d still be at a loss for the day without a decent pic.

What do you guys think?

Some of you may have seen my 101 things in 1001 days post a while back or even noticed that two of my most recent posts were to do with that…

Now one of the things I want to do is photograph a year in my life. Its going to be boring as hell most likely but just being disciplined enough to have a camera on my 365 days a year and take a photo thats worthy of inclusion for that day would be a new thing for me. Thankfully my new phone has a camera on it so at least I’ll have something with me should I forget a proper camera. Most folk seem to do this to cover the 1st January right through to the 31st December but I think I’ll do it slightly differently. I reckon recording the entirety of my 31st year on this earth would be a better bet so starting from this saturday thats what I’ll be doing.

I reckon it would be very easy to cheat at this. Forget a day here and a day there and I’m sure you could make up some filler pics on the off days but thats not how I want it to be. Its to be accurate and with a bit of luck a little arty and nice.

We’ll see how it goes I think…