Catch Up

Health:
Up and down, changing day to day. On Friday I had the best day I'd had in ages, and was feeling quite positive that I would be able to start my return to work in a fortnights time when I see my GP again. Then Saturday I had the worst day I'd had in several weeks. It's so bloody frustrating, I just wish I knew how much longer it's gonna take to recover. This is seriously doing my head in! A trip away tomorrow I suspect will leave me with more frustrations, as it is way more than I should be doing, but unavoidable... such is life.

Travel:
Tomorrow I am driving 330 miles from home to Middlesbrough. To be precise, to Teeside University. My daughter is hoping to attend the Uni next year after the completion of her Access course and they have an open day, which will provide her with a real insight into the course, the campus and the area. We are travelling up by car, and I am driving. The AA travel planner logs the route at 5 hours 50 minutes, but I'm sure I can knock a bit off that, traffic conditions permitting. We are staying overnight, and then spending Wednesday at the University.

Unfortunately, due to work commitments, she is not able to stop for 2 nights, as this would have given us the ideal opportunity to visit the moors and the local area in more detail. It would also have meant that I didn't have to do the return drive after a full days activity. Is such a shame, we both wanted to venture onto the moors, and I was hoping to take my SLR camera for the obligatory shots!!

With the lack of time, I don't think I will have the chance for much in the way of photography, but I will take my little point and shoot in case I get the chance for a couple of shots!

Anniversaries:
I have let 2 anniversaries slip by unnoticed too, for one reason or another. The first was my 1st anniversary here in blogland, which was way back at the beginning of September. What a long time ago that seems now! The second was my 21st. No, not my birthday, I wish, but my wedding anniversary last Thursday.

Photography:
I am continuing the enjoyment the Camera Club provides with regards to learning about photography in more detail, and also in being very critical about my own photographs that I produce to enter into the regular competitions they hold.

I have participated in the first 2 digital image comps already, and last week I entered the 1st print competition of the season. I spent ages trawling through my photo's, finding a very good reason why each would not quite cut the mustard so to speak! Having by that time, already sat through the judging session of the 1st digital comp, I had the judges comments ringing in my ears!!!

Not happy with any I had, I went out to shoot for the 'perfect' shot. It will be a long time before I produce such an image..lol ... but this was the second photograph I took that day, and the one I entered into the competition. I'll let you know how many holes the judge picks in it when the competition is judged later this month.

One of the categories they have for the digital competitions is 'Creative'. This is meant to be more than just taking a photograph and applying a filter in photoshop.

This is what I entered in Digital 1, which was judged at 18 pts. (The marks are always out of 20)

... and this is what I entered in Digital 2 ...

... in preparation for the third entry, this is the beginnings of an idea for Digital 3. The sharpness of this image is not right, I need a much greater DOP, but I was playing with the idea, and will hopefully shoot the eye again to create the image I enter. Each entry has to be titled, and after much deliberation, I think I found a fitting title for this effort. You may need to click on the image to really see what's going on:

Sight Seeing