What I really like

For quite awhile now I have been taking photos of landscapes, things etc, and although I enjoy it I kept feeling there was somthing missing and it wasn't until the other day when I took photos of the seals that I realised what it was, I was missing the animals, I don't seem to have taken any animal photos for ages.  So today I had a trip to my friend's farm to see their horses and bumped into an old friend .....  Valentino

Often wondered why bull's had such huge nostrils - now I know!

Photo a week

Ok hands up I have failed miserably again at an indoor still life - full of good intentions then everything goes to pot... BUT.... I do have some outdoor still life.  This afternoon I went to Wheal Martyn (an old clay workings) with some of the camera club members and we spent the afternoon wandering around. It is a lovely area for walking and interesting to see the remains of the old workings, it is hard to image what working conditions must have been like in those days.  Here are the outdoor still life I came up with - you will have to excuse my ignorance as I have no idea what the items are called or were used for, though the second is possibly a drive wheel of some description!

Louise on the other hand has been very creative and completed the brief very well.

A walk down memory lane.

Every now and then I sit down and transfer my photos to an external hard drive (If you are reading this and takes photos and don't save copies start doing so straight away, as once gone they cannot be replaced - I know I learnt the hard way!).  Naturally this means I revisit old images that I have taken and in a way forgotten about and it ends up like a walk down memory lane, as behind each photo there is a story be it a long one or a short one, but each one has a special memory for me.  The one below was taken last April, at a local ploughing demonstration.  I have always loved shire horses and was determined to get there to see the demonstration. I dragged Amanda along (who admitted afterwards to really enjoying it) and we had a lovely morning watching the shires work the land.  All the shires were stunning but these three captured my heart.  The day also led to my meeting a gentleman who breeds minature shetlands and ponies, who has been kind enough to allow me to go and photograph his animals as much as I like, which for me is a wonderful opportunity and I am looking forward to the good weather to get back there.

First Sunset of 2011

Bernadette dragged me kicking and screaming to Perranporth this evening to take photos of the sunset for her art course work.  Reluctantly I took the camera......  OK so you all know I'm lying, I willingly drove her there and even let her use my other camera and tripod and lens!!!  How good a mother am I??  All was going well until she said "can I use this as mine now and keep it in my room"?  ... that was going just abit too far for my liking.   Anyway enough rambling, here are the first sunset shots for this year and I have a feeling there will be many more to come.

Still life..

...is the challenge for our weekly photo for last week and the next couple of weeks, (see Louise's) using different lighting ie side, front etc.  I have to confess to having been a little slack this weekend as I have been out taking photos instead of staying indoors, but here are a couple I took last week, just as a still life, I also used it as photos for the A-Z challenge that I am doing on UKS and flickr, these were for the letter B.

All taken using natural light through the window. 

January's photo

Well here is Januay's photo of my back yard - that sounds so good, wish it was mine. The rain did stop for a while and the light looked lovely, so I popped out and took this one.

And as I promised some more seal photos from yesterday's walk,  here are a couple.

Still haven't looked up what kind they are, so if anyone reading this does know would you mind leaving me a comment and telling me :)  Thank you.

If you go down to the beach today....

.... we certainly had a wonderful surprise.  During the week a friend told me about some seals on a beach that she had seen.  So this afternoon armed with camera, tripod and big lens Mick & I set off to see if we could see anything.  Here is a sample of what we found,

These were just two that were in the water, we spotted five in the water and nine lying on the beach.  Considering I was on the top of the cliff, the wind blowing a hooly and they were around 400-500ft away I am rather pleased with the images.  I have more of those on the beach but will upload those tomorrow.
I have to admit to knowing very little about seals - apart from them being very big when they pop up in the water beside you, not being the most confident of swimmers in the sea, it frightened the living daylights out of me when one did a few years back.  I think these are male though I am not really sure. Personally I love the colouring on the middle photo and can't wait to go back and get some more images and hopefully see this one out of the water.

Sunday Stroll

Sunday morning Mick and I went for a stroll out to Nare Head.  It was one of those mornings that made you thankful to be alive and filled you with positvie anticipation for the year ahead. Here are a couple of photos taken during our stroll.

This is Kiberick Cove which is situated between The Dobman and Nare Head.  It is a lovely little cove, bit of a steep climb down and back up, first time we did it we thought we were going to have heart failure, but after three or four times you start to get use to it, well just!!  We tend to walk down towards the beach the turn off to the right and climb out onto the rocks to go fishing.  Lovely.

Caught this little chap looking wishfully out to sea whilst we sat on the edge of Nare Head watching a fishing boat go by.  He was so cheeky happy to pose - I think he thought we had some food, which we didn't, but it did make me think I ought to carry some in my camera bag in future.

And finally a selection of three together - otherwise this could end up as a really long post.  If you look closely at the middle photo you will see sheep grazing on the cliff face.  Amusing to watch when you consider they have fields of grass up above on safe ground .

Lanhydrock

Saturday afternoon I met up with some of the camera club members at Lanhydrock House to have a play with the cameras as you do.  It was a lovely afternoon - even if Ididn't get many good photos - the company was very good and the advice from the more advanced members is/was invaulable.  Here are a couple of the images I am pleased with.

Respryn bridge.

Although I have titled this post Lanhydrock these two images are actually of Respryn as we walked towards the house, but whose splitting hairs eh? 
I'm also using the image of the bridge (arches) as my first image for the  A_Z challenge that is taking place on UKS/flickr - very loose I know but as usual running late!

Week 9 of our photo challenge.

This week we decided to take some images from a low angle, Louise's are here.  I wanted to get some up to date photos of Sammy as I have a feeling time is getting short for us all.  Normally as soon as I lay on the floor he gets up and comes straight over to me and lays down with me making it impossible to take a photo of him from a low angle, this time he just laid there then eventually buried his head in his quilt, his way of telling me he had had enough.  He does look very sorry for himself as he had just had his eye drops, hence his eyes look so watery.  Bless him.

Mick and I went for a lovely walk out to Nare Head this morning, it was glorious, blue skies, sun shining, lambs running around the fields, hard to believe it was the 9th of January and 12 months ago we were covered in snow and at a stand still.  As you walk along you come across sheep grazing happily, or as in the case of this one just lying there enjoying the warmth of the sun.  Usually they trot away when you approach them but this one just carried on lying there, must have known as was going to get on my knees for her - which I did,

A good start to the New Year.

Well I really feel the gods have been looking down kindly on us this week.  Amanda turned 16 on Tuesday and she wanted to have a family meal, so we went to The Heron Inn at Malpas, which I can fully recommend for excellent food, service with a smile and all at a reasonable price.  Wednesday saw us all returning to normal, work, college and school, just as if the last two and a half weeks had never happened!  Thursday turned out to be the best day of the week as Bernadette passed her driving test first time and Mick finally .... and I mean finally heard that his job with the council is safe - we were suppose to hear the beginning of November!!!  It wasn't until I heard that I realised how the wait had got to me - such a relief.  Now I can concentrate on worrying about Bernadette being out on the road on her own, though I know I will get use to it after awhile.  Have to say it was nice when she offered to pick Amanda up from the station today for me... I could get use to this!

After weeks of living off two to four hours sleep a night due to Sammy's nocturnal activities we gave in and spoke with the vet yesterday who prescribed sleeping tablets for him.  I had seven hours sleep last night and actually felt like a human being today - wonderful.  We did and do feel guilty about it - but there was no way we could carry on as we were and I'm sure he will feel better for it in the long run.

Thought I would post a photo of Amanda, not taken on her birthday, but on the 22nd Dec an hour after she had her braces removed flashing those lovely teeth off.

Week 8 of our photo challenge.

Last week Louise and I played with long dof, this is where you aim to have much more in focus in your image compared to short dof where you have a blurry background, (which we did here and here )  I decided to have a play with the flowers Mick bought me as this is what I came up with, I had also intended to use the images for the triptych but they didn't work out, think they are better as individual images.

First post...

Already the second day of the year - I had hope to post yesterday and think about my plans for 2011 as it was we had a birthday party here for Mick's mum and I never got near the computer, it was a fantastic day, the whole family was here for her and she was in her element, she went home with a huge smile on her face which is what we had hope to achieve and we did.

I realised this morning that I hadn't posted my image for Dec last month so here it is alittle late.

Normally I am itching to take all the decorations down and get back to normal, but I'm just not in a rush this year, maybe it is because it has been such a busy period, though very enjoyable or maybe because I know there are going to be some changes this new year and I'm putting off the start of them, or maybe I just don't want life to go back to normal!  Who knows.