weekly SimonB - 52 for 2024 - Week 51 - Entertaining

I'm on a mission at the moment!

Another two pictures to catch up on, these were also quite good fun to take.

Week 26 - Natural Abstract

I wanted to use the macro lens and I had a lot of leaves on the lawn as I had spent the weekend pruning the beech trees in the garden. The sun was very bright and by holding the leaf up to the sun and being careful not to look directly at the sun, I was able to capture all the cells and veins in the leaf.


Week 26 Natural by Simon Brown


Week 27 - Light

The blinds always throw interesting shapes on the floor in the morning and with some catnip I managed to find a willing subject in our cat Lilly. She loves rolling around in the sun and the catnip helps too! I really like the way her paw is just sticking up in the air, I had to adjust the shutter speed to account for her quick flicks from side to side.



Week 27 Light by Simon Brown
 
Another selection of pictures towards catching up!

Week 28 - Clouds

This was taken about a week ago at the local beach, the weather was unusually nice and everyone had taken the opportunity to enjoy it, as you can probably see from all the cars at the bottom. I thought the clouds here looked quite good for the theme, although it did need some tweaking to get some blue in it, hopefully I didn't go too far.


Clouds by Simon Brown

Week 29 - Summer

I was at a loss for ideas for this theme and ended up with two images that I liked for the theme, I chose the rose image of course as it is nice to see them in full bloom but I also liked watching the dogs enjoying the weather on the beach, choices choices!


Summer Rose by Simon Brown


Summer Dog by Simon Brown
 
I think I might have gone with the dog on the beach - that shot has a great feel to it.
 
Drink and Bridges - Two good shots. Good choice of B&W in Drink and the colour contrast and composition in Bridges is great.
 
Two nice shots. I particularly like the composition and simplicity of the bridge.
 
I thought this would be a good one for the theme and the technique, however it was a bit of a pain to do, but I learnt a lot in the process. There is quite a bit of photo shopping involved in this picture. My propmaster wife Disney93 kindly helped out by holding the slippery ice cube with a pair of tongs, which was later edited out. I also "backlit" the bottom of the match with another flame, which was also edited out along with the mini tripod holding the match.

Finding the right settings was the tricky part as my prop master had the tough job of keeping the ice cube as still as possible while I had to set the camera to get as much light as I needed to keep the match and flame sharp and the background dark.

After many, many shots and attempts, I finally came up with this.

I'm sure you've noticed that the hot and cold make a nice contrast for the tech!


Hot and Cold by Simon Brown
 
Yep - that's a clever clogs shot for sure :)
 
Good idea for the tech theme and has worked well. Fair play for the effort involved
 
Kell said:
Nice idea and nicely taken.

I think now you know why all food photographers use gelatine ‘ice’ cubes.

We once work with an inexperienced guy shooting drinks and the ice was gone in about 20 minutes under the studio lights
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That makes a lot of sense, my ice cube wasn’t wasted. It was soon plopped into a glass of whisky.

-Oy- said:
Yep - that's a clever clogs shot for sure :)
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Thank you!

nog said:
Good idea for the tech theme and has worked well. Fair play for the effort involved
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A frustrating process but I sort of got what I wanted in the end.

AlanDorset said:
Plenty of tech in there !
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Thanking you!
 
You certainly put the effort in. Works well for the theme and fits the tech bill well.
 
Well, where has the time gone?!

It's been a bit of a poor show from me this year, I have been easily distracted by one thing or another (been working on my degree too, got my results yesterday and I got a first!) and had an excuse ready to avoid updating the weekly theme. However, the poor weather we have been having here today has allowed me to knuckle down and get on with it!

So, I apologise in advance for a rather large catch up (16 weeks!) over the next couple of days and the lack of comments on all of your amazing pictures. These are all pictures I've taken through the year using either a DSLR, iPhone or drone. I was hoping to take a drone picture today but storm Darragh has put that idea to bed and tomorrow isn't looking much better.

So here is the catch up...

Week 33 - Song Title - Sweet dreams (are made of this)

Nothing like curling up in bed after a day at work!


33 Sweet Dreams by Simon Brown

Week 34 - Cutlery

Macro shot of the end of a spoon, taken free hand so it took a few attempts to avoid a blurry shot.


34 Cutlery by Simon Brown

Week 35 - Free Week

Visited Chester Zoo a couple of weeks ago to see the new-ish Snow Leopards, always like the Komodo dragon and got this shot of its claws.


35 Free Week by Simon Brown

Week 36 - Tools

These are some of the many tools used in my workplace


36 Tools by Simon Brown

Week 37 - Occupation

Perhaps a bit of a spooky picture just as you're going off to sleep, never been on the receiving end thankfully.


37 Occupation by Simon Brown

Week 38 - People

I went to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg and they had many many models and scenes on display. It really was a good day out and I thought this would be an interesting take for the people theme but model people!


38 People by Simon Brown

Week 39 - Exit

A nice straightforward one!


39 Exit by Simon Brown

Week 40 - Candid

A sneaky picture of my wife playing the clarinet and learning to play the Cantina band song from Star Wars. I'm always impressed with how she is able to read music its all Dutch to me!


40 Candid by Simon Brown
 
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Week 41 - Friend

Our cat who very much enjoys being in front of the fire, caught her pulling a derpy face.


41 Friend by Simon Brown



Well that's me catching up, going to try and post some more up tomorrow if the weather let me.
 
Good work on the degree and the catch up.

Ones that took my eye - the SWEET DREAMS shot because it's so vivid it popped off the screen.

PEOPLE - I can't decide if it would work better with a crop of the top right corner. One the one hand, crop it out and it looks like a drone shot of a festival. On the other hand, leave it in and you're convinced it is a drone shot until you see that. So there are two layers to it.

FRIEND - Who wouldn't love that shot?

SNAPPERS - love the close up.
 
Boots said:
Excellent catch up!
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Thanks, I feel like I've missed out this year. Still more to do!

firewireguy said:
Congrats on the degree and a nice catch up
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Thanks! I'm glad its over too.

Kell said:
Good work on the degree and the catch up.

Ones that took my eye - the SWEET DREAMS shot because it's so vivid it popped off the screen.

PEOPLE - I can't decide if it would work better with a crop of the top right corner. One the one hand, crop it out and it looks like a drone shot of a festival. On the other hand, leave it in and you're convinced it is a drone shot until you see that. So there are two layers to it.

FRIEND - Who wouldn't love that shot?

SNAPPERS - love the close up.
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Thanks for your kind feedback, I hadn't thought about the crop of the corner as I was so focused on the scene. You are right though it does add two layers to it :)
 
Must keep getting the photos uploaded!

Week 42 - Local

I was hoping to use my drone for this picture of my local village, I thought it might have been a bit brave as it was the day after the storm but it seemed okay. What I didn't consider was that although it was ok at ground level once I got the drone in the air around 50ft, the drone started to panic about the wind! Thankfully I managed to land without any issues. So I took this picture of the local train station from the footbridge, I've tweaked it a little in Lightroom and it'll tick the box for the theme.


42 Local by Simon Brown


Week 43 - Rough

The first thing I thought about for this theme was sandpaper, I am sure other people had the same idea for the theme but I haven't looked at them all yet! I quite like how the detail of the sandpaper came out here.


43 Rough by Simon Brown
 
Boots said:
Two good catch-up shots Simon
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Thanks Paul, not in the spirit of the game but my New years resolution will be to be more proactive next year. Playing with the camera and editing these last few days has been quite enjoyable.
 
So, I am finally getting there with the catch-up. I realise now how enjoyable it is and have been viewing this challenge as homework rather than something fun to do with the camera.

So...

Week 44 - Night

This was a picture I had always wanted to revisit as the last time I attempted this type of shot the wind was upsetting the tripod a lot! I did a bit of tweaking in Lightroom to get the sky darker and bring up the intensity of the lights.


44 Night by Simon Brown

Week 45 - Snappers

This was taken on a driving holiday to the Swiss Alps, the roads were simply amazing however the passes were closed due to snow in June! They reopened a week later when we had moved on to France :rolleyes:


45 Snappers by Simon Brown

Week 46 - Intricate

A close-up of a Lego model I'm currently building, it is probably easy to guess that it is the Batmobile. Won it on eBay for a very good price although there is a piece missing here and there.


46 Intricate by Simon Brown

Week 47 - Ancient

I considered posting a picture of my father-in-law but thought better of it! This is a strange little fort on St Michael's Isle in the Isle of Mann is called Derby Fort it was built in 1645 during the English Civil War. A small artillery fort designed to protect the nearby port of Derbyhaven. The stone structure remains well-preserved and accessible by drone!


47 Ancient by Simon Brown

Week 48 - Numbers

Quite a lazy shot here as I looked down at my keyboard and saw the numbers and thought that'll do!


48 Numbers by Simon Brown
 
So I was thinking about what to do for the circle theme and I noticed while washing up that our utensil holder is full of holes. To be somewhat creative I turned it upside down with my mobile phone light on with some coloured plastic over it. I liked the effect not sure what it looks like, perhaps a strange tardis?

Week 49 - Circles


49 Circles by Simon Brown
 
Circles - well thought out and shot!
 
I thought I would try to repeat the shot I did for last year's Christmassy theme. This time around, we got a new artificial tree, and it has some fancy multi-coloured lights system going on. So, I quite like how the streaks of light change colour through the picture. I was tempted by my other picture as well, but the submitted one won out as it is just a bit more striking and different.


50 Decorations1 by Simon Brown


50 Decorations2 by Simon Brown
 
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