10 Minute Topic - Using my camera phone to get back into enjoying photography again

Well, I appear to have done my usual thing of starting strong, and then just not followed through. My idea of a 10 minute topic post every week is now missing quite a few weeks. But I'm not going to get annoyed with myself, or just throw things up in the air in resignation. I'm just going to carry on.

Now, what to write about...

I have not shown my photo blog any love for quite some time now. I think the two main reasons are that I have been slack with blogging all round. Also, I have not been seeking photo opportunities as the only digital camera I had was the one on my HTC One M7, which was deteriorating with each picture (possibly due to the number of times I dropped the poor thing!).

London Winter Skyline as Seen Through My HTC One M7

I have recently upgraded my phone to the HTC One M8. And I have to say, I am starting to enjoy photography again. The ultrapixel camera doesn't have the highest number of megapixies in its class. Despite that, it reviewed well, and I have been pleased with some of the pictures I have taken so far.

The more pictures I take with the M8, the more I think I should learn to take better quality pictures with my phone. It is, after all, the camera that I take with me everywhere nowadays. One way to take more pictures is to have a project. Having moved to a new build estate in St. Neots recently, I thought I would take a photo-a-day type thing covering the houses that are going up down the road from me. They are going up so fast, so there should interesting changes every day. Through taking more photos and looking at them I hope to improve my composition, subject matter, and even dabble in some post processing.

 Pic # 001: The Building Site in St. Neots Near My House

Here is the first picture. The trained eye will see loads wrong with it, but one has to start somewhere.
The composition of the picture is uninspiring, the colours are a bit drab, and there isn't anything in it to grab the viewer's attention. As I get more into this project, I will hopefully take some much, much better pictures.

For now, I am at the end of my 10 minutes and so need to wind up the post. All that is left now is editing, adding the pictures I've referenced in the post, and publishing.

Silent Sunday 12/01/2014

#SilentSunday

Swan at Sunset, Chesham

I love taking photos in February. The light is so crisp. Shame I have never taken the time to do it justice! One day I will learn how to convey the blueness of the sky and the brightness of the sun.

Yesterday, I was out for a stroll, and saw a swan in the local lake swimming about. The light on the trees at the other end of the lake was amazing. And all I had was my HTC Desire to photograph it.The photo below is straight from the phone to upload. It could do with a bit of work, especially cropping the creeping leaves centre-top.

For all the photo's inadequacies I still like it. A swan in a winter photo is always a winner. Enjoy!

Back To It

It is amazing how my last post was about trying to get back into blogging, and then nothing. Well, here is another attempt! I'm doing so many things at the moment that I have no idea how often I will update this blog. The thing is, I am still taking photos with an idea to upload to here! So, here goes...

This photo was taken on my way to work. All the pigeons looked like they were waiting for the library to open, much the same as you would imagine (very dedicated!) students to do.

Now They're Getting Educated!

Chesham in Fog

Wow, I can't belive I have not updated my photo blog in so long! Quite a lot has happened in the past 9 months (no, not that!), and I guess it has taken me this long to get back into the swing of things.

My first offering is Chesham in the Fog. This was taken about a month ago on my way home. The lights and were halo-ing in the fog creating such a dramatic effect. Unfortunately, being at night, the light was difficult. This particular photo was taken by balancing the camera on a post while crossing the bridge.

Sheep Wranglers Caught in the Act

Well, not really. But it did look funny seeing truck full of mini Superlambananas stopped outside of the cathedral in Liverpool.

These were delivered around Liverpool as part of the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. A total of 125 Superlambananas have been placed around the city and are on display for 10 weeks.
Unfortunately, one has already been stolen from a small flock of construction Superlambananas from Hope Street, near where these photos were taken.
Being the cynic that I am, I expect there to be many more reports of the poor things being stolen and vandalised during their display period.

Inspirational Photography... in Lego

A friend of mine sent me a link to a flickr album the other day which totally blew me away. As I've said before, I both love and hate flickr. This is a reason to love flickr.

One of the things I often say when viewing other people's photos is "I wish I could recreate that shot". Well, Balakov has recreated some of the most famous photos of all time in Lego. His Classics in Lego set contains macro photos in which Lego figures are posed to recreate a famous picture. Not only does Balakov give you the Lego picture, but he links to a copy of the original, and shows the setup of the shot too.

One of my favourites of his collection is the recreation of the Tennis Girl photo from 1976 (seen on the right). I unfortunately, never bought the poster as a kid. I certainly knew of its existence. There is a great story about the photo on wikipedia, which, for me, gives it even more importance in the world of photography.

 

Balakov's most recent (re-)creation is of the 1967 Bigfoot sighting. This is yet another image which has been in and out of sight during my lifetime. Every time someone announces they have seen bigfoot, the news/documentary/magazine drags out this famous still for comparison.
In this picture, I particularly like the fact a Chewbacca figure was used. I think it adds a certain irony; one picture contains a fictional furry character from a famous film, the other contains Chewbacca. :-)

The only problem I have now is that I see these images and say "I wish I could recreate that recreation of that shot"...

All images were used in this article with prior permission from the author. Thanks Balakov.