Thought for the Week

"A hug is a perfect gift - one size fits all and nobody minds if you give it back."
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26things January

It's time again, time to post the 26things for last month, at least the ones I photographed. I have to say, I did much better this time round, with a mini splurge right at the end I have ended up with 17 I think!

Here goes -

1. PHOTOGRAPHY

The cover of one of the books I bought in order to satisfy my thirst for knowledge on how to produce good photographs and how to use photo imaging software to give the best possible results.

4. LIGHT

This is the inside of the 'day-light' bulb I put in my spot lamp to assist with the photographing of my flowers for the last project of my college work. It took quite a long while to get a shot I was pleased with as the brightness of a 60 watt bulb at just a few centimetres aways tends to confuse the camera, but I think this one works.

8. FRUIT

I think this is one of my favourite shots of the selection of fruit and veg I covered one wet afternoon. I figured it would make an interesting 'padding' feature for the Flora and Fauna project. This is, obviously, a slice of kiwi fruit. I laid the slice onto a white glass chopping board and shone my lamp through it from underneath. I love the effect.

10. 2

Two chains which were hanging from the open metal work steps which led from the old cobbled street of the Fishmarket down to the little fishing boats moored in the outer harbour. It was a busy day when I took this photo last week and I think some people thought I was mad! Maybe I am!! but I like the image.

11. IN THE SKY

I took this shot last year whilst I was on the Waverly paddle steamer on my trip up the Thames. The plane was coming in to London City Airport and came directly overhead. The sun, glinting off the flaps, was possibly the first sun we had seen all day.

12. MIRROR

A night shot on the beach at Folkestone taken last Saturday night. The end of the pier, which also marks the entrance to the outer harbour, is well lit, and its image is mirrored in the wet sand from the receding tide.

13. Keys

A simple picture of a key, with one shadow created by a lamp and the second shadow created by the camera's flash. If I had taken this with more time to spare I would probably have played around with the composition to get them all equidistance apart.

15. SPORTS

I took my camera along to my son's last football match, assuming that the last college project was going to be on movement. I thought I may as well have a go and see if I could even manage to get a player AND the ball in the same picture whilst moving!! I don't think I did too bad for my first attempt, and it can only get better!

16. REMOTE

The remote control for our sky TV, taken along the length, whilst laying flat on the floor. The things I do for my art!!! lol

17. CHOCOLATE

This one was easy. It may not be artistic, but this is how I like to think of chocolate; a nice big mountain of it in lovely little bite size pieces... and yes, I did eat it afterwards, it seemed rude not to!

18. IN MY BATHROOM

The showerhead in my bathroom.


19. TEMPTATION

What I really should have shot for this word has been covered under 'chocolate' already, so after thinking of another suitable image to take, I remembered this. This is a diary. It belongs to my youngest daughter who is 17. Every woman out there knows what a 17 year old girl writes about in her diary. It's just sitting there, right next to the pretty photo albums she has filled with pictures of her friends, especially the really 'close' friends. Sometimes it is very difiicult not to look. The temptation is always there, after all, who would know? I would.

20. STILL LIFE

A beautiful rose, covered in tiny droplets of water. This photograph was actually taken indoors. I stood the rose, from a bouquet I had brought for college, in a small vase and sprayed it with water, I was pretty pleased with the result. I tried to do the same with a lily I had, but what I didn't realise was that the water would drip off the large stamens and heavily stain the soft, delicate petals. Needless to say, I don't have any beautiful shots of that flower!


21. ROUND

This one could have fitted into the 'In my bathroom' category as that's where it is. We have just finished a complete makeover, knocking the bathroom and toilet into one area. This is the smart, stainless steel, round trap on the sink which is now wall mounted with all the pipework hidden behind the tiling.


23. WATER

My photography magazine showed an article where a professional photographer visited the home of a reader and showed them how they could create some amazing shots with very little outlay, at home. This is one of the projects they did. It consisted of nothing more than a pint glass filled with water and one or two drops of washing up liquid to make a few bubbles. With coloured card behind the glass and shot in macro the results were amazing, so I thought I would give it a go and this was the result.


25. NEWBORN

Again, I blogged this recently, but for anyone that wasn't reading at the time, this is my first great neice, and she is the most beautiful baby I have seen since my own children were born.


26. BRIDGE

Another photograph from my existing pics. This one of Tower Bridge was taken in October last year when Hubby and I spent the day in London for our wedding anniversary, but I blogged it at the time so I won't go into detail here.

If you didn't already come from there, pop over to Miss U's site and check out her 26things. I'm on my way now.

6 comments:

Elaine Denning said...

Ali...I am absolutely, totally amazed.
Seriously.
I know you've always had a really good eye for things (your photos from London last year being perfect examples of that), but looking at some of these, you actually 'look' like a photographer! You know...a proper one! Even comparing them to last month's 26 Things, your improvement stands out a mile.

I really can't choose a favourite. Light, Fruit, Keys and Sports were incredible. Still Life and Water were...well...they blew me away!
I suppose if I had to choose one it would have to be water, for the simple reason that even with my stupid camera, I could have produced something similar. I have no excuse, do I?

I think it's about time you started seriously thinking about a career.

Ali said...

Miss U ~ I fear you give me too much credit for a good camera, but thank you. I did take more of this months shots just for this entry, rather than relying heavily on previous photos I had. I am totally addicted to the art of photography, and practice can only improve my images I guess. Am loving it.

Hugs. x

Unknown said...

Since you have already been over to Miss U's where I confessed my love of pictures that captured the essence of light, will it come as any surprise that my favorite on yours was...Light? But that said, Still Life and Water were close runner ups, so guess I'm kind of partial to to water pictures as well, especially those that capture the finer details (like droplets or bubbles, as the case may be).

Ali said...

The Big One ~I'm glad you enjoyed some of my latest snaps, the lightbulb was one of those 'why?' photos, you know, where everyone that hears I photographed a light bulb goes.. "Why?" lol but it is one of my favourites too.

This months readers entry is perfect panoramic shots, so maybe I can create a masterpiece for you with water and light in the same image!

Thanks for taking the time to drop by. x

Cherrie said...

Very nice pictures! Whose heart wouldn't melt looking at that baby! The light bulb and rose were lovely too. But white chocolate? You've found my weakness . . .

Ali said...

Cherrie ~ another white chocolate fan, yeah. What with the dieting etc I haven't indulged for quite some time... just as well I never know when to stop... hang on... I take that back, of course I do.... I stop when it's all gone!!

I really must find a few moments to pop across to Chez Cherrie and catch up.