Today was my last day at my job. The people I work with are usually voices on the phone, or email conversations. Our Head office is 3 hrs drive away so I rarely get to see them. Today I had to go and hand in all my equipment and have an exit interview. It was lovely to see everyone and I took them biscuits and Gin for my boss of 10 yrs, and Prosecco for one of the girls who bent over backwards to help sort my appointments out, and pictures of my cat for the lad that took over from her! They gave me flowers and champagne and there was lots of hugging. I managed not to cry, but had a few tears when I got home and read all the lovely things they wrote on my leaving card. At times like these my hubby always reminds me of this quote by Anatole France
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
Not sure what I will do next, but now to have a bit of time off.
Here we go into February and on to black & white. Still going to be using flowers and indoor stuff on work days by the looks of it. I took my camera to work with me just in case, and spent my journeys in a B&W frame of mind, but no time to stop and the weather is blowing a hooley. Never mind, it’s all practice. I processed this in several different ways in B&W, I found it difficult to make a choice about it all to start with, so ended up playing around in different softwares and with presets and in PS so a lot done to it to make it look like it does. I liked the end result anyway so that’s OK. I wanted to give a feel for the vibrant yellow and blood red petal tips, not sure if that comes across.
Well that’s January over, and the end of the still life section of the 366, though I guess there may be some in amongst the other themes. I have really enjoyed this month, looking back at the beginning the first few shots were not very interesting, and not that well composed either. After day 5 I seemed to make a leap forward when I started trying to tell a story with the items I was choosing, and then also found out to do the simplest of shots like the flowers in the vases on a windowsill. I feel my composition skills have improved and hope that will help the rest of the project & my photography in general.
Tomorrow begins the black & white theme. A little bit of trepidation as I love colour best, so now to focus on shapes and textures and contrasts!
Only 5 more days of still life left, and my conservatory is full of flowers that refuse to die! I couldn’t help buying some more yesterday in Tesco’s as they had some different ones to Asda! This has one of my latest bunch of roses in it, I love the red/yellow contrast.
My 2nd favourite camera is my SX70, which I’ve been neglecting so much since starting the 366, intending to shoot a few film packs when the weather perks up.
Holy moly we have blue skies! Still freezing and the snow is still around, but a bit of sun and blue certainly makes a nice change. I heard on th e radio that one village in Pembrokeshire, Wales has had rain for 80 consecutive days! 80! I’d shoot meself. Anyway here’s my photo to celebrate the blue! Also posting the final part of Fuerteventura on the filmblog, must sort out the next lot!
And breathe! Today I took a more simple composition, seemed less stressful than all the breakfast stuff in a short time span. But as I’ve finished work more or less I had more time to process and get what I wanted it to look like. Also I love my little wooden heart, it was a wedding present, and love is lovely. 😀 So romance instead of food. I don’t have a studio or lighting, so am learning to adapt to the gloomy conditions. Thank any available deity for Lightroom, Photoshop etc!
It comes round so quick! Another busy week, is there any other kind? As usual I didn’t get a photo on Monday, must have a mental block but on Tuesday I went to see client who lives in Finchale Abbey Village, which is like wooden lodges set in the Abbey Grounds. It was a beautiful day and I had to take a picture of the Abbey as I left.
There’s a river behind the Abbey so am going to have to do a proper shoot down there at some stage.
Finchale Abbey
Wednesday was my first time (and last!) in my new clinic in Newcastle. We had a room in Barnabas Church, but unfortunately on the other side of the wall was the ladies toilet, and every time someone flushed the loo, washed their hands, or used the air hand dryer, you could hear it really well in the room. Also the kitchen was opposite, complete with whistling chef, and the metro underground trains run beneath it. All in all NOT conducive to doing hearing tests! My morning client didn’t turn up, and one of my 2 afternoon clients forgot and went on holiday!
Quiet room. NOT
Thursday morning, was another beautiful day & I went to the opticians in South Shields. Am FINALLY getting my eyes sorted out, my current spectaculars are scratched to the Nth and I can’t see out of them, am looking forward to picking up my new bins in a couple of weeks. Anyway I took an Iphone shot of South Shields while I was walking up to the opticians.
South Shields.
Thursday was exciting as I texted my Tog friend Mike to see if he fancied doing a night shoot, something we always said we’d do but never got round to. Anyway he said yep lets do it so we got together our cameras, tripods, flasks of coffee, several chocolate bars and packets of crisps, and set off for Keilder Water which is the UK official “Dark Sky” and only 1 1/2hrs up the road from us. It was a bit spur of the moment, and by the time we set off at 9.30am it was proper dark, so we couldn’t see where we were 😀 but we got there about 11pm and then spent a couple of hours or so shooting stars. The sky was amazing, you just don’t see this many stars in towns and urban areas and I got a few nice shots for a 1st attempt. We are definitely going again. We set off back at 2am, and the mist and fog had really rolled in, so we gingerly made our way back, I dropped Mike off and then got home at 4am. Here are some of the pics:-
Ursa Major (The Plough/Big Dipper/Great Bear) over Keilder Water
pleiades
Milky WayMilky Way B&w
Got well bitten by some bugs on my face so look like Spotty Dotty now 😦 but it was worth it!
Friday was a day off, actually so was Thursday but I went to work after the opticians. I didn’t take a shot on Friday as I slept in, and then spent the afternoon processing the photos of the stars.
Saturday Phil and I went out to lunch and met up with Shelley and Cal for a pub lunch at The Hastings Hill pub in Sunderland. Scampi & Chips, very nice! I took a couple of shots of Cal but he never keeps still so its a bit blurry.
CAL
As I hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks, Shelley had bought me some flowers and chocs for my birthday which was a lovely surprise.
flowers from Shelley
So now it’s sunday, and I’ve been doing photo’s for the Sunday Challenge group over on Ipernity and the challenge was selective light. I used the rose that came in Shelley’s flowers,
Rose
and also took a pic of my new watch which I bought on Wednesday morning when no-one turned up for my clinic so I went shopping instead. I lost my dear 25yr old watch when I went to Saltwell Tower last weekend, it must have fallen off somewhere in the park, and no-one handed it in.
new watch
And that’s been my week! Phil’s finished his night shift on Thursday night so we’ve had a lovely weekend, and I just made a very yummy dinner for us, stuffed chicken breasts -cheese,mushrooms, garlic all mushed up in tomato puree, with roasty potatoes in cheese & tomato sauce, all my own recipe and work 😀 Need a nap now!
fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe 
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