May Day Weekend

 

It feels like forever ago that my family & I visited Hastings to see my nan and spend the weekend together for the May Day 'Jack in the Green' celebrations and bike run. I'm not quite sure where this month has disappeared to, its been hectically busy with work, visiting family & dressing up as an OAP at a hen doo in Cambridge, that i haven't had a chance to sit still and update this blog, my camera hasn't sat still either, i haven't stopped using it this month in the hope to complete my unit assignment & move on to the next chapter.

My IOP course said my assignment was to practice taking photos of:

• Moving objects
• Close up Macro photos
• Portrait photos

On the Sunday we spent the day walking around the old town together, had a nice drink whilst soaking up the Morris dancing atmosphere, had a peek in the shops, Steve had a go on a potters wheel, we adventured up to the top of Hastings cliff and back down again to the fisherman's end, then had lunch in a lovely seafront cafe together, it was a great day & i got to play around with all the camera settings, here are some of the photos;

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we made our way back to the seafront for the best way possible to tick 'moving objects' off my list at the May Day motorbike run from London to Hastings.  The town was absolutely packed as far as the eye could see with motorbikes, leather and tattoos, the atmosphere was great & so too were the photo opportunities & we found ourselves a great spot for watching all the motorbikes, trikes & quads enter the seafront....

 

 

 

 

 

When we returned back to Nans i tried my hand at some close up macro photos in her pretty garden but i think i need some more practice on them but not bad for my first go!

 

 

 

 

We were so lucky with the weather & it was really nice to have Michael spend a weekend with us too, which brings me to say well done to my Mum & Brother who each took the following photos which came out really well.

 

 

 

Thank you for a great weekend xx

Quiet Saturdays

Its been quite a while, possibly over 6 weeks since we last had a quiet Saturday at home, its great having such a busy social life visiting & spending time with family & friends but the only down side is that nothing else gets done......my coursework, my blog updates, my new found writing hobby, the hoovering, the dusting, world domination, the list goes on.  So it made a nice change to wake up this morning in our own home and have no plans for the daytime.

Its now nearly 2pm and to be honest most of the list above still remains undone........BUT........I did get my head down and update this blog twice this morning (Go me!) then got out my notebook, camera and pen out & got stuck in to Unit 3 of my diploma & I'm pleased to say 3 hours later, I've completed the coursework, completed the unit test and passed with 90% (You need 70% to move to next unit) and I now have my next assignment to do!

So what did I learn in Unit 3 - Controlling light with apertures

The most important thing I've learnt today is that the aperture is the size of the opening in the lens.  A smaller aperture lets in less light & a larger aperture lets in more light!  A large aperture gives you a background which is out of focus, a small aperture will create an image with everything in shot in focus.  I've also learnt that the depth of field is influenced by how far away your subject is from the camera, the aperture & the focal length.

Other subjects covered & mastered in this unit were as follows:

Aperture settings, Diaphragms, Focal lengths, Aperture priorities, Spot meters, the sunny f/16 rule, Bracketing, Exposure bracketing, Image sensors & lighting conditions.



Next step, Unit 3 assignment.......I'll be back soon with photos

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

My unit two assignment was to capture photos in the following modes on my camera

A portrait shot in portrait mode

A landscape shot in landscape mode

 

A macro shot in macro mode

An action shot in action mode

With a weekend break to Great Yarmouth approaching with our friends Nic & Andy & their little cutie Oliver, I saw a great opportunity to tick some of these off the list & so along came my camera too. 

Our weekend was lovely, we couldn't have asked for better weather, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, our caravan was lovely & in a beautiful location perfect for our love of walking on the beach collecting memory pebbles.  Straight away I was able to tick 'Landscape Mode' from the list.

 

 

The next day we took a trip to the Sealife centre & afterwards Oliver had a play on the beach with his first bucket & spade which became the perfect opportunity for my 'Portrait Mode' photo.

 

 

Whilst Oliver was building sandcastles with his Mummy & Daddy, Steve & I took a walk along the beach together to the structure of an old pier I'd spotted on the horizon & knew would be the perfect prop for some photos.

 

 

 

 

Next up a little play with the self timer mode.....and a lot of running to get into position haha

 

 

We rounded off the day with some beautiful photos for the Barclay-Bloyce family album

 

Back to the caravan park for a little posey shot by the men.....

 

 

Rounded off with the cutest photo of Oliver & Daddy, all together now awwwwwwww

 

If at first you dont succeed......

......get frustrated, sulk and temporarily give up. Yes, I'm afraid to say that was my attitude back in February when i just could not get my head round the settings on my camera & with no manual or instructions to help me on my American bought camera to say it drove me potty would be an understatement & I temporarily gave up, something unfortunately I do all too easily in my life when I don't master something straight away.

With my birthday round the corner & family members asking me how my course was going & not having a justifiable answer I asked my parents for the camera manual for my birthday & they done just that! (Thanks Mum & Dad) So with my new manual in one hand and my camera in the other i was ready to learn all there was to know about my confusing Rebel XT.

Ok so not all there was to know.......But enough to complete Unit two of the diploma course & then complete the end of unit test! YAY 2 down......Only 13 to go!!

So here is what I learnt throughout unit 2 - Understanding the technology of digital photography

Mega pixels, Light sensors, Active Pixel Sensors, PPI's, resolutions, RAW files & TIFFS

Scene modes - Self Portrait, Action Mode, Manual Mode, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Point & Shoot, Freezing Motion, Panning Action & Action scene Mode.

I also learnt that JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group - who knew ha ha??!!

Next step
Unit two assignment....

Saturday stroll in the snow

I can't believe how hard done by Witham has been the last few days with snow.  It's like the snow done a total detour around our town & forgot all about us.  For 2 days we've been on snow watch out our window waiting for this 'snow blizzard' the weather channels promised us.  It seems like everyone i know from Bristol through to Oxford, from Hastings up to Orpington, from Yorkshire right down to Norfolk got exciting 'build a snowman' amounts of snow on Friday.........but us........We just got a feeble covering of flakes that barely covered the cars, we went to bed last night so disappointed but through the night we were lucky enough that the flakes arrived & so this morning the ground and cars were all covered & a snow walk was organised.  After wrapping up like eskimo's the wellies came back out & we all took ourselves & the dog for a nice long walk along the river for 2 hours, finished off with a hot bowl of soup & a lovely cup of coffee.  It was a great walk with all Steve's family, just a shame we didn't get thick snow.........But now we are at home with a free weekend ahead, our fingers are crossed it gets heavier tonight & tomorrow can become a sledge day!!

Here are some of the best photos from today -

Let it snow, let it snow, let it melt.

Blankets of snow drifting in from America? Yeah right, all that arrived was the usual snow drizzle that takes 20 minutes to start settling, stays for half hour then melts!  So as soon as it started to settle Steve & I put on our wellies, grabbed the camera & went for a little walk.......I say little because we totally underestimated how bloody cold it was outside & after walking down to the lake & teasing the ducks with our lack of bread, feeling rather guilty & frozen we retreated back into the flat for a warm cup of tea.

Here are some of the better shots from today's outing, which brings my first assignment to a total of 100 photos.  Time to move on to Unit Two!



Surprise, surprise.....It's all melted now ha-ha.

8th January, the day I started my course. Also coincidentally the same day I finished Unit One.......I'm on a roll haha.  I was hooked from the minute i started.  I sat at our table like an eager little student with my laptop open armed with a new notebook and pen, ready to watch a 69 page presentation introducing me to the basics of photography.  Basics......were they kidding?  ND Filters, ISO speeds, shutter speeds, Apertures, Skylights, UV Filters, Linear & Circular Lenses.......It fast became apparent that i actually haven't a clue on the terminology I'm just good, or very jammy at capturing the occasional good shot, I do however have a huge passion for photography so i will bloody conquer this course.

After reading the presentation the opportunity was available to take the Unit One test.  It said you can take this test as many times as you like, anything over 70% would pass you & unlock Unit 2, so with my mind fresh from 69 pages of overwhelming photography jargon thought I would give it a bash...........5 minutes later I passed.........with 100% WooHoo.

So now I have my Unit One assignment to complete.  I have to take 100 photos within my local area with my camera set to automatic.  The purpose is to teach me that 'Auto mode' is the enemy & will not provide me with the best possible photos.  With the aim to learn in the next units what setting is best for every eventuality i will encounter.

So with my parents in town & a roast dinner that needed to be burnt off, we decided to go for a walk round our local lake which at the moment is flooded so a great opportunity to bring along the camera & work towards my 100 photos assignment goal.

So here are the best of the photos I took which I don't think are too bad considering this was the first proper outdoor opportunity I've had to use my camera before, its all very new to me & exciting!



Here are the photos that didn't come out so well on manual, but that was all part of the challenge (even though its frustrating as they would have been good photos)