Summertime

Ive been sunbathing in the garden today..well for the last 3days actually..in an attempt to get a suntan before my cousins wedding in September. After 3days in the sun..nothing..not even a pink glow..not that i want that but still..anything is better than nothing. From the elbow down im abit brown..but thats normal,they are always out in the open..and the mixture of a hundred freckles and tattoos make them look darker anyway. But the top half of my arms are as white as a ghost..not even a single freckle..they dont look like they've ever seen the sun before in my 21years of life...and well...dont even get me started on my legs. Ive got 5wks to loose 14lbs (at least) and get a tan..and at the rate im going in..its gonna take me more like 5months!!!


Bordem in the garden earlier led to me messing around and taking photos of pretty much anything to do with ME : )
I searched my wardrobe for my newish surf shorts..that havent seen the light of day since they were bought last summer in Newquay when i last went surfing,pulled all my shoes out to find some vans that matched the colors and then found some daisies and snapped. Bordem leads me to such stupid stuff..i mean i found shorts and matching vans just to take a picture of my feet on the grass..like anyone cares if they watch my shorts..you cant even see my shorts anyway!

After this i lay around for abit longer..getting a giant tennis ball dropped on my face everynow and then by my dog Holly and pulled out piles of grass from by my sides until i decided to take a couple of pictures of my tattooed arms.

Bordem is a terrible thing..but i was home alone..well apart from my dog..and sunbathing was getting me no where. Lets home tomorrow is a better day..more productive and well..alittle bit more fun.

365

Ok..so after thinking about it even more i decided to start my 365 project on http://www.flickr.com/ and im today is going to be Day 3. Ive already had comments and a good amount of views which is great..it inspires me that people are taking the time to look at my pictures and sometimes comment. I dont have that many views and even less comments but even some views are better than none and my comments have been encouraging,caring,constructive...every little bit helps. Hopefully as my contacts grow and my photography gets better and more varied i'll get more views and more comments and that'll inspire me even more to keep trying and improving.

DAY 1

This was my day 1 self portrait. Nothing special but i was sitting in my car really bored and so i just snapped this for fun. I have a really goofy look on my face but its better than that no smile stone face that i usually have in photos. I thought i'd use this as my first..a starter..just typical and boring and then see where i go from here.

Day 2

This is my day 2 from yesterday. Its crap i know but i had this idea in my head that unfortunately i wasnt able to pull off. I have some ideas but at the moment..my skill isnt upto my imagination. Hopefully...somewhere down the line my skills will have improved and i'll be able to re-visit this and produce something clever and closer to what i see in my mind..but for now this will have to do.

Thanks to my folks for having whiskey.brandy and baileys in their cupboard..the vodka and martini are mine : )

Let the fun times begin!!

Today I....

...Went for a walk around my neighbourhood. Its been a boring day and there wasnt much to do. I popped to the shop and noticed that the Reform Church just around the corner from me has had this new big metal cross sculpture put up outside...it looks great!

Im not sure what the building was before it was turned into a church..i cant imagine that it has always been a chuch especially because its surrouned by so many houses..although saying that St Pauls' Church is just down the road.
On the way back past..i stopped to take this shot. I was stood across the road from the church and used my wide angle 17.5-45mm to take the shot. I had to wait til there was no cars as the road runs right in front and i was getting a couple of funny looks..but thats normal now as i walk around with my camera and a tripod sticking out of my bag 24/7.

I walked down past the river where i normally walk my dog and cut up this lane. Ive walked up this lane many times in my life..when i was young i used to walk up here with my friends and then duck under or jump over a fence on the right
side...just past the bend...into an orchard owned by Bulmers Cider Company who make Strongbow and other ciders. We used to walk through the orchards,picking the apples and playing stupid games...we could spend hours in there doing nothing at all. Further up the lane of the left side theres a field that backs onto some houses where they have a kids playground and basketball court where i used to play 2 on 2 with my bestmates. And,right at the top of the lane there are more fields that belong to a local farmer..we used to play hide & seek in his crop fields..ducking in and out of corn and hay growing in them...where we used to make rope swings and tie them to the big oaks.
When i was a kid living in this little town was soo exciting. It didnt matter that it was in the middle of the countryside..that instead of giant shopping centers and motorway links we had farms and villages. I got to play outside all the time..go fishing with my big brother down the river and make up endless games in big open fields. Now that im older..living in this little town isnt as exciting as it used to be. The jobs are limited and the houses are expensive. There arent the opportunities here that there are in other places..in bigger places. As much as i love this town and walking around memembering all the good fun times..i long for the day when i can leave again..when finally my adult life becomes more important than my childhood!

Self

Since ive been on flickr ive noticed this thing called the 365 project..basically,you have to take a self-portrait a day for a whole year. Some of the pictures ive seen are absolutely fantastic..the imagination of some people just blows me away. Recently ive been really wanting to get in on the 365 action but i think it takes a certain skill and imagination that i just dont possess. This guy Pete http://www.flickr.com/photos/arkworld/ has the greatest imagination you can think of,awesome skills and such beautiful little girls aswell..his 365's really inspire me!

The more i look at everyone's 365 projects the more i want to do it and ive been taking afew self portraits..and trying to think of good ideas for them..none of which ive been able to pull off so far..more practive is needed i think.

I took this one last week...using my new tripod to enable more freedom/flexibility. Im using my brothers old bedroom..the spare room...as a sort of studio at the moment..the walls are bare and neutral and the natural light is better. I cant smile in self portrait..i cant really smile at all..but in a self portrait..it feels stupid smiling..i mean,what are you smiling at..theres nothing there : )

Anyway,i took this for fun..i wanted to mess around in acr and play around with color and exposure etc and eventually i came up with this. I like it but as yet havent found any other pictures to use it on. Because of the tint..it gives a green look to everything and makes my red hair look redder.

I took this picture this afternoon..i spent about 1/2 hour taking a bunch of photos trying to achieve what i wanted but it just wasnt happening so in the end i snapped this just before i gave up. I have a slight smile for a change but for some reason it looks like i have a lazy eye or something...lol. I neve manage to take a picture where you can actually really see my eyes either so they just end up looking like black dots. I think it might be because of the lighting or by the looks of them in this picture..they arent open enough or enough of a focus in the picture. I'll get better...like i say..its all part of the learning process.

Worcester

I went all the way to worcester yesterday with my mate Dave...all the way..like its really that far! Hes doing work experience at Wyvern as part of his university course so we drove up there so he knows where hes got to go in Sept when he starts. The place was pretty easy to find and we went in and he had a quick chat with the woman he'll be working with..she gave us abit of a tour..doesnt look all the impressive i have to admit but what he'll be doing sounds exciting.
After that we headed back into worcester town to do some shopping..i say we..more HIM! I had a look around the shops though and looked longingly at all the things i couldnt afford to buy. It was a really nice day..the sun came out at last despite loads of rain in the morning.
After Dave spent all his money we headed for a late lunch and just chilled out abit before the journey home. I took my camera with me but for some reason didnt take a single picture... Next time i'll make sure i take some..its shame,it was such a fun day!!

Photo of the Day:Friday

My photo of the day today is from another walk down to the river. This time we were able to walk the field..along the top bank,down the side of the field and back along in front of the river.


I took this on July 30th in the late evening so the light was great. I used photoshop to edit using a lomo effect. This is one of the first photos ive used lomo on..i really like the look it gives.

Photo of the Day:Thursday

Photo of the Day for Thursday is this beautiful flower. Ive been watering my neighbours garden while they're on holiday.


I took this on July 27th in the evening just after id watered all the pots. I used a color pop setting in ACR to boost the brightness.