365 ~ September 19th ~ 25th

Posted in 365, Fuji, FujiX-T2, photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , ,

As I mentioned last week, this week we will be practicing fast shutter speed photography. I did a lot of that a couple of weeks ago in the ‘motion’ week so wasn’t overly enthused. Consequently the second half of the week my photo’s went to rat-shit, oh well, only 90 odd days left to go, I can bear it!

Abbreviations you may come across during this post. AFAC~ airy fairy abstract concept. AAFP ~ annoying as F-bomb prompt. CBBP ~ completely bloody barking prompt. Also, maybe swearing happens.

Here we go….

Day 262 ~ Declutter. ~ I decluttered my hands by getting rid of this butterfly confetti.  I used as fast of a shutter speed as I could with the light that I had available.  My shutter speed was 1/320.  As a result you can see the movement of the butterflies as they fall from my hand.  Some appear crisper that others. If I had used a faster shutter speed I might have frozen the movement more and had more of the butterflies in focus.  However, I like that there is the illusion of movement. Take the opportunity today to declutter your environment.  Use a fast shutter speed and show us how you declutter!

Oh CBBP straight up! How reaching is that prompt?? Who ‘clutters’ their hands with butterfly confetti I ask you?? No-one, that’s who. 🤦‍♀️ I would think for most sane people, decluttering means opening up drawers and cupboards and the like, throwing useless stuff away and tidying up what’s left. If you do have butterfly confetti in the house it will no doubt be in a box or package of some sort and you can tidy it into a space in the cupboard or throw the box away if you’re not intending ever to go to a wedding again. You don’t tip them all out into your hands and chuck them about which, as it happens, is cluttering the bliddy floor up! AAFP! Seriously, my eyes hurt with rolling.

I tidied up my shed shelf and ‘decluttered’the dead flowers. A bit.

declutter

Day 263 ~ Energetic. ~ We are freezing the action this week using a Fast Shutter Speed. Hubby and I were on a road trip and came across this old Hydro-Dam. You can just feel the energy as the water cascades over the rocks. Water is very powerful and I always feel the energy when I’m around it.  What makes you feel energetic or produces energy? Do you have any water nearby that you can capture and freeze the action?  The higher the shutter speed, the more crisp and detailed your photo will be.

A work day so no time to go off looking for waterfalls in the evening, but we have the embodiment of ‘energetic’ living with us, so the prompt was taken care of.

energetic

Day 264 ~ Prompt Free. ~ Prompt Free Days often bring to mind the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”  Some days, we feel restricted by the prompt, but on other days, no specific prompt makes us feel lost by having no point of departure. Think about these prompt free days as a check-in as to how this project is changing you. What do you notice that you would have overlooked previously? What small moments in you day now feel bigger and call to be documented? Today is a blank canvas for which all of the other prompts have prepared you. Keep our eyes open and have fun!

This was a work day too but in the evening I was watering the plants and had a go at freezing the water drops coming out of the watering can. Not entirely successful as although I managed to get my shutter speed up to 8000 I had not enough light to cope with that so dropped the aperture to f2.8 and so got blurry drops anyway. Needed either to shoot in better light to up the aperture, or crank out the flash! It was a good lesson for me though and I know now how I’d do it better, so 👍 for this prompt 👎 for the photo.

prompt free ~ fast shutter

Day 265 ~ Catch ~Sometimes in life things happen fast and you need to get that one shot of something moving.  These two are often found chasing each other.  What I tend to do is to put my shot selection to high speed continuous shooting so that I can rattle off a few shots.  Also, I select on my Canon AL SERVO – or Nikon (AL-C). This autofocus mode is useful for tracking moving subjects and for focusing at very shallow depth of field (wide apertures) when shooting hand-held in very close-up situations. The question is does Jasper ever catch Kaya? What are you going to catch today?

Another work day so I asked Phil to be my muse yet again and had him throwing a ball up in the air and catching it. Various garden acoutrements were accosted by the ball along the way. 🙄 No damage done though 😊.

catch

Day 266 ~ Ring. ~ Ring of Fire.  I captured the moon glowing orange through forest fire smoke. The moon is a fast moving target!  It moves quickly so you need to use a fast shutter speed to capture it.  The best settings for a great moon shot are ISO 100, an aperture between f5.6 and f11, and a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/250. You will need to use a tripod to avoid vibrations. If the moon isn’t your thing, or simply is not a possibility, perhaps try photographing a scarf twirling in a circle, a ball in motion, or a tire spinning!  Have fun with fast shutter speed.

Well I’ve shot the moon before quite successfully so figured I”d do it again easy enough, and the weather forecast showed partial clouds so shouldn’t be a problem. Stupid me. Clouds, lots of clouds. The camera was all set up ready to go and I kept checking to see if there was any sign of the moon. Eventually a small and brief break in the sky happened and I ran outside with the tripod, switched the camera on and couldn’t see a thing through it. With the clouds ever encroaching again I employed panic mode quickly switching the camera to auto and took a shot just before the moon was covered over again. Of course then the shot was rubbish, the shutter speed too slow etc. Hands up, I did consider using one of my good efforts, but that’s too much cheating for me so here is the damn shot I took.

Also Mrs Cocktail~Dress must have been smoking something funny because there really wasn’t a ‘ring of fire’ around her moon shot, and anyway the moon looks nothing like a ring unless it having an eclipse thingy. Just sayin’.

ring

Day 267 ~ 9 O’Clock. ~ It’s our monthly time prompt. You get to show us what’s happening at 9 o’clock in your world? Whether you decide morning or night remember it is fast shutter week so try to freeze the action that’s going on around you! By 9 pm it is all quiet here at the beach! 

I wasn’t even out of bed at 9am, so had to do 9pm at night. At 9pm on a Friday night we are in our music room with a couple of beverages, the cat, and playing records and discs etc. Not much action to freeze (other than Winnie sniffing the floor) so I gave up on fast shutter speed and just took a 7 second shot. Rebel.

9 O’Clock

Day 268. ~ Room + song lyrics. ~Evette was thrilled when I asked her to jump on my bed!  Giggle!  She has a loft bed so she isn’t able to do this in her own room.  Once you find your room today – room to grow, room to breathe, a bedroom (or any room in your house for that matter) – see how you can add a subject that moves quickly causing you to use a fast shutter speed. For Eve jumping on the bed, my shutter speed was 1/250.  Then, add some song lyrics to your photo and you’re done.  

🤦‍♀️. Giggle?? She won’t be laughing when the springs go b’doyng and the bed legs snap. The Evette child is not a small tot. This is an AFAC anyway, I did a room the day before. Sigh. And really not much action goes on in any of our rooms, not any acton I’d be photographing and showing people anyhoo, maybe the kitchen but I’ve done that before. Sigh. This is a double AFAC for song lyrics too. Sigh. Phil to the rescue again as I heard him in his modelling room shouting at his computer and bashing the keyboard in a violent manner whilst attempting to purchase a DVD of an Amanda Marshall concert. The song lyrics I used are by the incomparable Joe Walsh, entitled ‘Analog Man’ which Phil most certainly is. 🤣

room

So that was the week that was. A bit of a damp squib really and not very inspiring sorry, but hey ho we’re doing another colour week next time which is purple! I have nothing purple. 🥴

54 thoughts on “365 ~ September 19th ~ 25th”

  3. Have to say I’m with Phil in being an Analog Man. I spent a lot of time smashing my fist into my computer desk too. Winnie seems to be taking these prompts pretty seriously though. Maybe the cats are hoping you can set up some modeling work for them, and see this whole project as portfolio building.

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  5. I feel like Phil should get a medal for being the “Hero” of this post.
    When I first saw the pix of him on the couch for 9pm, I thought he was wearing a tie to listen to the music and I thought to myself, my goodness, there is somebody who takes their music listening VERY seriously.

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  8. This was a difficult week for both of us! I am quite annoyed at the prompts, and making them work is difficult!

    You have done well and three cheers for Phil and all of his help!

    Declutter had me stumped – I love your ‘she shed,’ the pumpkin especially – and love the flower petals.
    Winnie is a super hero, patrolling the fence line – I love her! 😄
    My favourite this week is the watering the garden – well done!
    Phil is a super star playing catch in the back yard! – My hubby, Peter won’t help…unless some serious bribery of home baked sweets are involved.
    The moon shot is very moody – I love it!
    It is nice to see you both relaxing with Winnie!
    Room was another REALLY annoying prompt – You did well, my hubby would be bashing the keyboard to!

    I hope purple is a better week for us both. Hugs 😄

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    1. Cheers Connie, fingers crossed for purple but I’m doubtful 🤣 I’ve given up on IG posting as I just can’t be arsed with it, downloading, uploading, tagging etc etc but will visit you there, still doing Flickr and the blog though of course.

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  10. Phil is a star! He comes to the rescue a lot 😉

    I was mesmerized by Energetic. That’s just too freaking cool. And you might not have liked the prompt free but this non-photographer thought it was spectacular.

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  11. What fun photos, Fraggle. Excellent work on the freeze frame kitty shots. That had to be a lot harder than it looks. Then I had to imagine the feline reaction to “Various garden acoutrements were accosted by the ball along the way.” LOL. Have a brilliant new week. Hugs on the wing.

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  18. Those prompts! I love almost every photograph of the moon that I’ve ever seen, so even your ‘failure’ is wonderful to me. The water droplets are my favourite, although I can understand why it might not meet your exacting standards. I also thought that Phil was wearing a tie. Then I asked myself if it was remotely likely that he was the kind of man who would be relaxing in a tie and scrolled back to check.

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