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.

26things December

After my first attempt at 26things in November of last year, I was determined to get more of the words on the list for this next one during December, little did I realise that Miss U's fan club had SUCH a great sense of humour!!! Guys, come on... honestly... necrophilia!!????

Seriously though, you are all fantastic. We asked for a list of 26 words and you were all up to the challenge. In no time at all Elaine was sending me the final list and we were frantically emailing each other to say "What the **** are we gonna do with this lot"?

Remember when I said that the rules stated the photographer should use artistic licence to produce a photographic response to the words on the list? Well, I didn't just use artistic licence, oh no, not this gal, I used it, abused it, bent it, contorted it, damn near broke it, then I went to work.

I hope you find some of the pictures of interest, god, I hope you find some that actually relate to the word!!!

Here we go.


1. Despondent (Dan)


2. Hopeful (Dan)

This is my form for what I hope will be my final blood test after having my thyroid operation half way through last year. Fingers crossed, it will come back clear, and that will be that.

3. Reap (Art)

4. Beneficial (Art)

These are little glass stones, about the size of an English penny. To me, they represent the benefit I have gained by attending Weight Watchers for two thirds of last year. Each time a member loses half a stone (7lb) they are given one of these stones to keep in their purse to remind them how much they have benefitted from all their hard work. I keep mine right beside my kettle in the kitchen and that way I get to see them every morning before I eat anything I shouldn't!!!

5. Panic (Suze)

Christmas has come and gone, and it's not the only thing!

6. Honesty (Suze)

7. Larger than Life (justmee)

8. Hot to Trot (justmee)

One of my ALL TIME favourite meals - curry, and the hotter the better. I could eat it every day of the week and not get bored of it, and lucky for me, it rarely has that undesired effect that many people seem to suffer with after extremely hot and spicy food!!! So this photograph is in recognition of all those people that do suffer the after effects and eat it regardless.

This is also my favourite photograph this month.

9. Brainstorm (rn_buffoon)

10. Pallid (rn_buffoon)

A bit more of an interpretation than a literal meaning, but we couldn't leave rn_buffoon out now could we? Can you guess who's eye this is?

11. Fluffy (Kitty)

A shot of the fluffy white clouds I took on one of my trips to Langdon Cliff which I blogged a few months ago. Yes, I know this isn't a cliff! As I walked along the cliff top, my attention was drawn in the opposite direction by a tractor ploughing a field and being followed by about 120 seagulls. These clouds looked so gorgeous and the three pilons in the centre provide some scale.

12. Wild (Kitty)

13. Comfort (Robyn)

14. Peace (Robyn)

15. Fascination (Cherrie)

16. Boredom (Cherrie)

17. Transparency (Mike)

18. Urban Decay (Mike)

19. Christmas (The Big One)

Even with the allowance of artistic licence, it had to be a christmas tree or the big man himself! This is my latest addition to my christmas soft toy collection. Each year I buy a new one and am building quite a collection. My plan is, when my youngest daughter leaves home and I don't have the time or the inclination to decorate in the way she does, I can have all my christmassy toys out, then when christmas is over, I can throw them all in a bag and put them back in the loft for another year... job done!!! Good plan huh!

20. Artichoke. (The Big One)

21. Happy (Kristen)

22. Weekend (Kristen)

23. Religion (Janet)

A picture of the Parish Church of Fornham St Martins which I visited last summer as part of my research into my family history. I was hoping to find the grave of my Great, Great Grandfather, as this is where he grew up, alas I was unsuccessful on that attempt.

24. Sticky (Janet)

25. Necrophilia (Steven)

Well I know that this is where I broke the mould with the old artistic licence, but hey you can't knock a girl for trying!!! They have assumed the position after all, and as you can see not only are the dead, they are most certainly stuffed... so this is my interpretation of your word Steven!

26. Prostate (Steven)

27. Equilibrium (Darfuria)

28. Benevolence (Darfuria)

29. Merry (Leigh)We have a refridgerator in our garage in which we keep beer and other bottled happy juice, and over christmas, partly because it has been so cold, and partly because there were a lot of visitors at mine Christmas eve, hubby put a selection of different beer cans and alcoholic bottled drinks into a large bucket to bring indoors. He marched into the dining room, big grin on his face and said "How's that for a party bucket"? We certainly got merry on that lot!

30. Wet (Leigh)

Another photograph similar to one I have blogged before. I took this photograph to use in my college project as a visual representation of a slow shutter speed. The sea is one of my favourite places to be when it is high tide, or in the winter when the weather is very rough and stormy.

This was quite a challenging list, but great fun to do. January's list is up on the web site now, and believe it or not I have actually already started taking photo's for it!!! (Yes, Elaine, really!).

We couldn't have done it without the list created by Miss U's friends, and for that, I thank you. I do however have one small, tiny request! If you want to play along in February with creating the list for us to photograph, please click here, it's a fantastic group of words you can select from.. honestly, click the link!!!

If you haven't already been over to check out Miss U's list... go now!

26things November

Last month Miss U gave me a link to a web site hosted on flickr which she thought I might enjoy, given my re-enlightened interest in photography, and it turned out to be a photographic scavenger hunt... what fun!!

Each month, or bi-monthly, haven't quite worked that out yet, a list of 26 things is posted on the site. Anyone can play along as long as they sign up to the group and the idea is that you go out and photograph as many of the '26things' as you can, putting your own artistic slant and creativity into your shots. We decided to challenge each other and then blog about it at the same time.

The rules state that these photographs do not have to have been taken especially for the list, you can use old photographs you have saved on your computer, but they must be your own work, and they must not be heavily manipulated in a software package, eg Photoshop, except for a general lightening/contrast.

Seems easy I thought. Mistake number 1. It was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be, especially with the lack of time to go out and about which I am suffering from badly at the moment. However, I have a few of the 26things, allbeit, not particularly artistic, I am posting them anyway, in the hope it will spur me on to do better with the next list!!! (Note to self: must do better).

Here are the 26 things, and my meagre attempt at producing/using photographs I have taken to fill the criteria:

1. glee

This is me on a night out last Sunday. Well actually, it was a whole afternoon and an entire evening. The football team had a big cup match to play, and the club had booked a coach. 40 of us turned up to board the coach for a road trip out of town, but the football was cancelled due to the severe weather... we all decided we still wanted a jolly. What do they put in the beer nowadays?

2. village

3. reality

This is the scar from my thyroid operation back in the summer. It was an hour or so after getting back to the ward, as you see, the surgeons artistic drawing is still there. When hubby came to visit me later that day, he renamed me Frankie and threatened to get me a bolt to put through my neck!!!! Sod!

4. accident
5. anxiety
6. low
7. copy

8. kindness
This is the huge bunch of flowers that my daughter received last month from her work colleagues after coming out of hospital following an unexpected operation at short notice. They were gorgeous, but of course, I had to photograph them. So glad I took some macro shots of some of the individual flowers, our second project at college has just been handed out, and it is all macro on the topic of Flora and Fauna!! How lucky is that!

9. bad taste

10. stairwell This stairwell is half way up the south tower of Tower Bridge in London. As we climbed the steps up to the walkways high above the road level, the circular iron staircase and the studed iron support work was a great contrast to the delicate carvings which are in abundance on the outside of the bridge supports and I just had the urge to snap it

11. public transport
You have seen this picture taken from the London Eye before I know, but I love it, and it fitted right into this category, given that we are allowed to use artistic licence on the meanings. It is for the public to 'ride' on and the ride is called a 'flight' so I say it fits right in!

12. art I came across this painting of Brooklyn Bridge shortly after arriving back from my hols in America last year, now it hangs on the wall in my living room. Not only is it a fantastic print on canvas, but every time I look at it I get a warm glow inside and remember the night me and G shared a bottle or two of wine with our dinner on Pier 17, and then sat and looked across to the bridge as the sun went down and the city began to sparkle in lights.

13. shoes

Shoes - what more can I say. These are a few of mine. I tried to be artistic with them, first arranging them in a circle with all the toes to the centre and then in a heap, this is what I settled for!

14. Friday
15. alley

16. 7pm
Now, I did take a picture for this, I sat with my camera mounted on its tripod because of the low light levels, and had my TV on the Sky Programme selection page at 7pm, waiting for the clock in the top of the screen to flick over to 7pm also!!! Neat huh!! Not so neat when you have left your memory card in the slot of the computer and I actually photographed nothing!!!

17. telephone

18. ant's eye view A fun picture I took at Langdon Cliffs, some pictures of which I have posted in a previous entry. Cliffs around the coast of England are reknowned in history for smugglers and when I took the photograph it was meant to symbolise someone peering over the edge to see if the coast was clear.

19. words Taken from my latest photography magazine.

20. odd

Can you guess what it is yet? (Sorry, that was my Rolf Harris impression). I took this for my first assignment at college that was all about patterns and textures, and whilst the picture itself may not be that 'odd' it was an odd thing to photograph. It's the drum inside my washing machine.

21. a stop sign

22. traditional

A Scarecrow. The photograph was taken earlier this year, or was it last year, anyway I was asked to judge an annual scarecrow competition held at Wimpole Hall, a National Trust property, and this is one of many great entrants.

23. the sea

A trip to the seafront at Folkestone. The reason, for me, was to enable me to show the difference between fast and slow shutter speeds for my college course. These lads happened by as I was nearing the end of my shoot, made me laugh so much it was hard to shoot anything

24. stripes Also taken on my afternoon/evening out last Sunday with the footy team... don't ask, just don't!!

25. tangled

After washing, before drying, my hair is always pretty tangled.

26. a night shot

Speaks for itself.

I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures, and now zip over to Miss U's and take a look at hers.

*side note to Miss U, your Thursday photo that you took on a Friday!!! I had Friday in my list anyway, so I reckon you get let off with that one!!

Loved your list, some cool ideas, I can see we are going to have to up the anti on the next list!