Photography: Different directions
The sun came out a little last week and I took advantage of that to take this photo of the river. I’m shooting in a westerly direction, the sun is southerly and to my left. You can see it shining through the trees and giving an interesting effect. (more…)
The Review: Setting up a blog
The Black Country isn’t the prettiest place to live or take photographs, but I manage and get a lot of interest in my photography. So if you’re blogging adding pictures to your words, can get the message to your readers across a lot more effectively and you don’t really need fancy equipment for online photographs. (more…)
Experts and education
Did you remember to change your clocks this morning? Yes, we changed to British Summer Time here in the UK, this morning. I was up an hour earlier, but the heating didn’t come on to warm the house before I got out of bed. It was a bit chilly… (more…)
Clocks forward this weekend and a full moon…
You are probably wondering why today’s photo is of a electronic fly catcher. I decided to photograph the things I see, with my phone; just one a day. The patterns in this photo are interesting and you also get a glimpse of my garden. (more…)
Photography: landscape photography
I took this photo in 2012 with my Fujfilm S5600, since then I’ve moved on to a Nikon DSLR and have more experience. I think my style of photography has also changed. The scenes change too and the weather changes with the changing seasons. You don’t need an expensive camera to take good shots or to experiment.
Black Country photography
It makes it a little more interesting to add words to the pictures. This is the Midland Metro coming into the station. They have a new tram that I want to photograph soon, I’m told it’s longer. I hope it’s a lighter colour too… (more…)
The Review: The end of winter
It’s the Spring Equinox on Thursday; winter is finally ending. Some weather forecasters are saying we will have a heat wave again like last summer. The ones on the BBC have said Spring starts on the 1st of March; so we’ll ignore them… (more…)
Photography: Black Country landscapes
It’s still winter for another 9 days in, but the sun is coming out a little now. The light for this shot was quite good, but the sun was low in the sky and so lots of shadow. It’s the canal and shows two 18th century bridges. (more…)
The review: Local community and events
I’ve had a strange week. I did finally manage to get to the hospital for my blood test. I was in and out in 10 minutes, which left 20 minutes on my 30 minutes parking. At a pound for 30 minutes, it seemed a shame to waste it. The car park was quite full though and so I decided not to join the Costa Coffee crowd, although the Taste Cafe was a little tempting. (more…)
The Review: A week of floods
We haven’t been affected much by the floods here in the Black Country. The River Tame flooded a little and I managed to get a photo. It probably flooded a bit in Sandwell Valley Countryside Park too, but the excess would go into Forge Mill Lake. Maybe they need a balancing lake on the Thames?
Photography: Preventing blur
Today’s photo isn’t particularly interesting, but there is a lot of detail. You can see the fine branches of the trees and the ripples on the water. The image could have been much sharper, but I managed an interesting effect with a filter. I also kept the camera very still and used quite a fast speed. (more…)
Photography: Sandwell Valley
The Black Country isn’t known for beautiful landscapes, but I only had to go about a mile and a half to take this photo. I added a border and title with PhotoScape. The winter colours were interesting with the sun quite low. (more…)
Photography: Competition Photos
I took this photo yesterday when the sun came out. It looked like a great shot, but it was into the sun. The tow path was damaged and uneven and I was on a very narrow part next to the water. You need to be careful in such locations! (more…)
Living life in a balanced way
The present and the future are connected to the past and partly determined by it. If we have prepared for the future, we will have a better future. That might mean guarding against the bad things that might happen in the future by driving carefully, taking precautions and saving for the future. We just have to find a good balance between our present and future needs, so we can enjoy both. (more…)
Photography: Trams and trains
I took this photo on my last outing, the weather since has been terrible. The camera speed was too slow for a fast train, but I like the effect. The train and the station in the same frame! (more…)
Photography: Slow speeds.
At first glance this photo looks good, but it’s slightly blurred. It would have been good if I could have held the camera perfectly still. The other option is to use a faster shutter speed. You can see the frost on the tow path of the canal, so I was shivering a little! A faster shutter speed was the obvious answer. (more…)
The Christmas review
Are you thinking about making New Year resolutions? Setting goals in life, whether it’s to lose weight and keep fit or something even more challenging can be useful. Try writing some things down and thinking about what is achievable and how you might achieve it. I have a few goals that include more photography. (more…)
Photography: Calendar photos
I need some photos for a waterways calendar competition, so I was out in the freezing cold on Sunday taking photos of the canals. The sun came out a little for this one, but there were still dark clouds. It’s a nice picture, but is it good enough for a calendar? I would have preferred more light and camera shake is also a problem when it’s that cold. You shiver! (more…)
The weekend review
Today’s picture is of the canal bridge over to Moorcroft Wood. I am still looking for a suitable photo for the Waterways calendar competition. I might go back there tomorrow and take another shot of that bridge at a higher resolution. (more…)
Photography: ISO, aperture and speed
This isn’t a great photo. I took it out of the window, trying to get my settings right before taking photos in wet cloudy weather. This was taken with my Nikon D3200 DSLR. It has a larger sensor than a bridge camera or compact camera and so is better in low light. Bridge cameras have a good zoom, but if you double click this picture to make it larger you can see that the definition is such that I can zoom in and read the number plates on those cars easily. (more…)
The weekend review
I read a really good article yesterday about how to take night pictures. They say you should consider the exposure triangle to set your camera for this type of picture. That is set the ISO, aperture and speed. While I was doing all that and setting up a tripod, I would probably get mugged for the camera. (more…)
Neodigital Art and photography
We want the Black Country to be represented in a 2015 Waterways calendar and so I’ve taken some canal pictures. The light wasn’t good when I took this one and despite the editing and fancy frame. I don’t think it’s interesting enough for a calendar. The tree silhouette against the sky is artistic though. (more…)
Grandiose schemes
I photographed the Midland Metro yesterday, that was a grandiose scheme meant to bring wealth to Birmingham and the Black Country. They want to extend it to Merry Hill, another grandiose scheme that started with a tax free enterprise zone. They always want grandiose and iconic schemes. (more…)
Hypothermia in Wednesbury
Officially the winter hasn’t even started yet, we’re still in Autumn; but the sub zero temperatures are here. I went to the switching on of the Christmas lights in Wednesbury yesterday. It was cold. The temperature was 0 C and the wind chill factor made it feel like –10. I’ll probably use the photos of that tomorrow.
