Day 16...

Everyone has now started losing track of the days of the week - on the MSE Forums where I post regularly it feels like every second thread starts with "I couldn't work out what day it was today! I'm not finding it too bad at the moment, partly because I'm working 4 days a week I guess. I confess that I'm extremely glad to have work to do at the moment as well - if nothing else if fills the days.

We're planning some nice food for the weekend - MrEH chose brownies to be what gets baked, and I'll probably try to get those done early in the day on Friday so I can take a couple to Mum & Dad when I go over with their shopping. I'm going to do a roast again, and might make sausage rolls I think too - we picked up a yellow stickered pack of ready rolled shortcrust pastry the other week and it's been sitting in the freezer ready to be used for something. There will also of course be cheese - well there's always cheese! One advantage for the past couple of weeks has also been having time to cook a sunday roast - so often we have other plans for Sundays that don't lend themselves to the time needed to give to a roast dinner, so this is feeling like a real treat.

I've been playing with the macro lens again - it is a lens I've had in my kit for a good few years now. In fact, I also thought for a long while that it was one of those too badly affected by internal fungus to be useable - for years I thought I'd long since thrown it out, but when we were decluttering a few months back one of the things we went through was the trunk I used to keep all sorts of photo stuff in, and to my delight, in the bottom of an old lens carrying case, I found the macro lens. The delight increased when I discovered that in fact it had almost no fungus damage at all - and it's hardly been off the camera since. I love the way it has the ability to bring out the really fine detail - like the scratches and dents in my wedding ring in the photo above. I can see it getting a fair bit more use in the next little while!

Robyn

Day 9...

Like many others, we now have it confirmed that our income is going to be reduced by the current emergency situation with COVID-19 - not surprising, and we will be far from the worst affected. It does make me feel extremely glad that we have learned the financial skills that we have over the past few years, and most of all that we used those skills to pay off the mortgage early. If you have also been financially hit, and are now worried how you will manage, keep checking back here on Fridays - I'm going to reprise my Frugal Friday series for a while as things occur to me that may be of use.

Today was also the first day of a series of planned "photo missions" on Instagram - the idea is to get people thinking about taking photos, while staying within the confines of the lockdown rules. Today was a "Photo Fools Day" challenge - asking people to photograph perfectly ordinary household items but at an obscure or unusual angle then post them up for others to guess what they are. From my perspective it got me playing with the macro lens again - the image above was as a result of a suggestion from MrEH of "the bottom of a camera" - look carefully and you'll see that it's the tripod mounting thread - on the base of my 80D as it happens! Tomorrow will be the first say of our "Lockdown Scavenger Hunt" - with the first mission being "photograph something beginning with, or inspired by, the letter L" - again, there's a fair bit of scope there hopefully! Other days missions will include a word using that day's letter as a theme (For example perhaps "Down" for D or "edible" for E) Allowing that I'm loving that macro lens at the moment, I'm half tempted to restrict myself to just that one lens for my shots - we'll see!

I'm also trying to make sure that I get some structure and routine in my days as this thing unfolds - I don't think any of us are under any illusion any more that this is really just a three week thing,and so my feeling is that the longer we have to spend in lockdown, the more important keeping a focus on particular areas of achievement might be helpful. More on my plans tomorrow...

Robyn

Day 3...

At 8pm this evening something rather special happened - across the UK people stepped outside their doors, leaned out of windows and walked onto balconies to deliver a resounding round of applause as a thank you to all those in the thick of things caring for people - it was originally intended to a gesture specific to thank the NHS, but I think it has extended far beyond that now. Individually a small thing - but at least in our area the majority of households seemed to be taking part - and that added up to a fair level of appreciation. Very special indeed, and very engendered a feeling of togetherness that I think most of us need about now.

 ...In other news, day confusion has started - this afternoon I had to check my calendar to be sure it was a Thursday before confirming to my boss that I intend to treat tomorrow as a "normal" Friday - by which I mean I won't be working. I love my 4 day weeks - but usually on a Friday I would be getting out and about - often a long run by the river first thing, maybe the weekly shop, and possibly a trip to the RSPB reserve with the camera in the afternoon, and in between catching up with the houseworky bits. My plan for tomorrow in the interest of keeping up some sort of routine is to try to stick as closely to normal as possible - MrEH and I will head out for a run/walk first thing, then he'll start work once we are back. I will need to go to the shop at some stage , and there will be various bits to do around the house.

I may manage to get outside with the camera again - today's project was entirely contained within our little balcony, and was inspired when I saw the sun shining through the beautiful anemone flowers.

My macro lens doesn't get as much action as it should these days - but perhaps the next few weeks might be an opportunity to remember how much I love it. I'd also quite like to see if I can get some shots of our resident local birds on and around our feeders, but one thing at a time, perhaps!

I may write a Frugal Friday post for tomorrow - it feels like a good time to post one perhaps, with lots of people feeling that now is a good time to overhaul their finances, and also getting a bit of a "leg up" with an enforced period of lower spending. Keep an eye here through the day if that is something that interests you.

Robyn

A is For...

I confess, I usually run like the plague from those themed blog things - it's not that I don't want to join in, it's that I know I'll get so far with it, and then forget, and the it'll all be spoilt and everyone will hate me. Well no, not really. It's really that I'll get so far with it and then forget, and then I'll feel like I've failed.  Well you know what - who cares? A good friend of mine has just got to grips with embarking on something she's been thinking about for ages. Years pretty much. And she finally confronted her demons over that whole "expectations" thing - what will other people think, what will people say if....you know the ones. So this, on a smaller scale, is ME confronting MINE.

So - the idea - it's called the Alphabet Photography Project and has been started by Podcast - you'll find their "A" on that link. Which scuppered me for a moment, as my first thought was an "abandoned" picture too. I'm sure there's no rules against me choosing the same, but no, I wanted mine to be something different to any others I'd seen - it would have felt like cheating otherwise. I also wondered if it's possible to so far as possible make my posts on this theme about things that for whatever reason make me happy. That sort of links in with #100DaysHappy - another thing I've not joined in with.

So.....A - is for Aquilegia.

Beautiful, delicate flowers, coming in all manner of colours - I love them and when I see one for sale, in full bloom, I can rarely resist  buying it. As a result, our little strip of flower garden is full of the things - which, at this time of year, makes me smile each and every time I go out there. Now that's GOT to be a good thing, hasn't it!

Robyn

Reasons to be Cheerful...

One...



...the macro lens was already on the camera when I wandered outside earlier on and spotted this little chap sitting on a leaf!

Two...



...there are still tomatoes to ripen on our accidental tomato plants. (Accidental because we didn't actually sow the seed for any of them....two came courtesy of our lovely upstairs neighbours, they have an allotment and had a glut of tomato plants, the remainder - quite a few! - must have seeded from the compost we assume).

Three...



...we have a sunflower! What's more, it's continuing the tradition of accidental planting as we don't know where this one came from either - it's under the bird feeders though so we assume that one of our lovely Blue Tits or Sparrows must have sown it for us as a thank you for feeding them! Either way it's such a lovely bright cheery thing!

Some more reasons for being cheerful today: The delicious hot buttered toasted fruit and nut bread I just had with a cup of tea, the fact that my tonsillitus (which was raging on Tuesday and looked very likely that it was going to require a trip to the Doctors to get rid) seems to be on the run, I have enough money in my purse for a trip to speedway this evening, and the invitation has arrived to a friends 50th birthday party which a) means seeing lots of other friends at the same time, b) means a trip to Edinburgh is on the cards, and c) is being held in a brewery! Hurrah! Do parties get any better than that?!

Robyn

Macro lens gets an outing...

and I am VERY excited about this shot. For many years there has been one subject which I have wanted to photograph, but never quite managed. Either I've not had the camera with me, or I've been in a rush, or it's been too windy....the excuses have come thick and fast so imagine my excitement when, on glancing out of the window this morning, with my time to all intents and purposes being my own, I spotted my subject of choice just sitting there waiting for me!



I possibly wouldn't have even noticed it had it not been for the photo challenge I'm currently taking part in - which is going extremely well. It's fantastic seeing a whole group of people actually making use of their cameras and thinking about the shots they are taking far, far more than they usually would. The results being produced are great too - I think it would be fair to say that most of the participants have a far better eye for a shot than they think they have.

Oh, it should be mentioned that I originally had an altogether different idea for my shot for this week's challenge (which was "up close & personal" by the way) but I might now have to have a go at that another time instead. For the time being though, have another spiders web...



Robyn

Macro again...

Thought it was about time the 100mm f2.8 Macro lens saw some action again, and buying a couple of plants for the garden yesterday was all the inspiration I needed to get me going! I love doing macro stuff, but, as I have commented on before, often seem to lack the patience that it demands. Insect photography is beyond me for that reason, if no other - after the little bugger flying off for the fifth time just as I was ready to shoot I'd give up and go in for a cup of tea! These two were both shot using manual focus - AF with the macro lens doesn't really work so well. Settings for the first were f5.6, 1/60th second exposure , and the second - F11, 1/10th second exposure. ISO was 200 for both, as the light wasn't as good as I would have liked.

Anyway - the two pictures posted are both of Aquilegia - but quite different flowers as you can see. I also have a beautiful mauve and white one which I may try and do some shots with in due course. I did try a few this morning but got nothing that I felt was up to standard. Now all I have to do is to decide which of these two images I'm going to use as my pc desktop.....oh, and plant them in the garden, of course!
Robyn

My "Macro weekend" continued yesterday when I documented some of Mum's jewellery too, including this beautiful gold & garnet ring. Lighting this time was via ordinary room lights - which actually worked really well to get a nice bright working environment, and my 550EX speedlite flashgun. The tripod has proved absolutely invaluable over the past few days - doing macro work without it is close to impossible due to the tiny depth of field with the 100mm macro lens. Having forgotten to pick up my remote release before we left home, I used the self timer for this shoot to avoid any risk of vibration from my hands affecting the shots.

Robyn

My Valentine.....

As it was St Valentines day yesterday, it seemed an appropriate day to get my Macro lens out and carry out a project I'd been promising I would do for a while - that being some decent shots of our wedding rings and my engagement ring/eternity ring. The shot above is an example - and a more simple set-up would be hard to imagine!
I used a chair, with two sheets of plain white A4 paper on it - one propped against the back of the chair curving round to meet the seat, the other lying along the seat and overlapping the first sheet slightly. Lighting was an anglepoise lamp behind and to the left of me, and hotshoe mounted flash dialed down to -2 compensation. I did experiment with bouncing the flash but direct actually worked better which surprised me a little. Initially there were a few awkward shadows just in front of the rings but these were dealt with first via levels to blow out the background as far as possible, and secondly by a little dodging where needed. The macro lens comes out so seldom it scarcely seems I can justify having it, somehow. Every now and again though I get the inspiration for a project something like this, and it just makes sense, and I love the challenge of using it. Not being naturally the most controlled and patient of people, I feel it must benefit my photography to accasionally slow everything down and use a piece of kit that actually demands a cool head and a little planning.

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

...If anyone can identify this plant we'd be most grateful! It was taken on last year's trip, growing in the wall around the Butt of Lewis lighthouse, and so far nobody has been able to identify it. We even put the picture into my horticulture-mad Aunt's Christmas photobook in the hope that she would be able to shed some light but so far, no joy. One thing we know for sure is that it's not a sea-pink as the leaves are too fine and delicate.

Just five weeks until we're off there again now. Time truly seems to be flying by this year - we still have ferry tickets to organise so those will get bought in the next little while.

Robyn