go ahead, snoop around…

So, it turns out that an ND2 Grad and an ND2 isn’t enough for the sort of shot I’m going for. This is at 6ish seconds and f/32; the sky’s too bright and the sea isn’t blurred enough so I guess I’ll have to get some more filters. Great.

It also transpires that if you stay in at the harbour front after dusk, they lock the gates. If you’re on foot, this isn’t a problem but if you’re in a car it’s a pain! Luckily, I was reminded that there is another exit that could be open and it was!

I’m not particularly happy with this shot, but it’s all I’ve got to go on today!

Yeah, it’s very similar to last night’s. I’m so incredibly tired, I thought I’d take advantage of Southampton’s architecture again. The way this week’s going, it’ll probably be more of the same tomorrow, too!

One of the great things about Southampton, if you like that sort of thing, is that it’s home to an incredible amount of very simplistic architecture. I have no idea how old this building is, but there are loads of buildings like this - massive patterns, lots of symmetry just cutting into the sky and it gives great scope for some abstract shots of bold shapes and colours.

Since we got to Southampton, this has been my favourite building here. I don’t think I’ve really done it justice as far as the overall impressiveness of the structure goes, but I love this view of the building. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more of this type of photo to be had around here.

Another busy day today, so a relatively unimaginative abstract of a chive flower. I think what I need to start doing is really planning my day, thinking what sort of shot I want to go for, then try to fulfil that shot for the day. If you’re passing and you have anything you use for subject inspiration that you can offer, I’d be very grateful as the only thing I’ve come across is the A-Z of Inspiration thread on the Talk Photography forums.

When I come home, I’m always mad-busy. This time has been no different. I’ve had car stuff to do, been out for a meal and there are puppies that just command too much attention!

This is Bernard, he’s half of my parents’ puppy duo. He’s hilarious. I think all puppies are pretty hilarious but Bernard has the added bonus of reminding me of Blackadder and being unable to function on a 24-hour sleep cycle.

I’m really disappointed with not having had chance to get out and take hunt for some photos today. Whist we were sat at the restaurant, a hot-air balloon race flew overhead. I didn’t have my camera on me. That being said, Bernard is a very handsome fellow and I really like this as a shot of him so I guess it’s all worked out!

This is slightly late (though it was taken on Friday!). I had to be in Salisbury today for a mate’s birthday party, so I thought I’d kill some time with my camera before we all had to meet up. I remembered that I’d never actually spent any time in the grounds of the Cathedral; it’s an incredibly beautiful building so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult. I spent about an hour wandering round the building, getting frustrated that I couldn’t get the perspective right and it was too late in the day so the side I wanted to shoot was in front of the sun. It was a disaster. Most of the shots I ended up with put the tower in totally the wrong perspective and made it look tiny, so about 75% of them were binned straight away! …

Today, the picturesque village of Lyndhurst taught me that just because you’re picturesque, doesn’t mean you’re photogenic. Forests are not really that interesting, and neither are graveyards (which is annoying because I was hoping they would be!).

I do, however, like horses (well, all animals really) and this guy wasn’t scared of me at all. Good for him!

Charlotte saved the day today. Normally if I went out and didn’t get a single thing I wouldn’t really care, but we were out for hours today and the centre of Southampton had nothing to offer. I thought I was going to be posting pictures of the roses in the garden (now people will know when I’ve not had a good day!). She spotted this on her driving lesson!

Today, I invested in an ND2 and an ND2-Grad filter and Cokin holder. The grad was used on this as the sun was pretty damn bright. I like them a lot. I wanted to get an IR filter but apparently the D200 doesn’t like IR. I’m looking forward to getting my filter on. Or something.

Tomorrow, hopefully something from the New Forest

This really sums up today’s weather. It rained, then some more, then some more so we stayed in and had cookies. I wanted to take some macros but all the bugs are probably in having cookies too. Charlotte went and grabbed this fuschia flower, and water droplets were clinging to it and retaining their shape (there must be a name for this).

I have no idea what the magnification of this is, but the droplet is about half a mm across in real life. It was taken with 64mm of stacked tubes and a Raynox MSN 202 at 70mm. It’s ridiculously difficult not to shake when taking photos at this magnification, I think VR will help one day!

(centre!)

So, Charlotte had her theory test today and passed. Not that I ever doubted her, but an individual’s own self doubt is enough to throw yours into question from time to time. I wandered all around the dock gate 20 end of Southampton this morning, but the horrible weather wasn’t really that inspiring. I had a good stab at South Western House, too but I think that would greatly benefit from a nice sky so I posted this one instead.

I absolutely love this kind of architecture and Southampton has it in droves. Huge blocks of concrete with amazing adornments and unlikely symmetry that were probably put up in the 60s - I’m likely to post a lot of that sort of thing. I love the external staircase on this building, it looks like it has a corresponding half that someone moved.