A Rookie's Perspective...

Lack of Posts....

2007-03-05T09:01:00.000Z

Hi, I'm writing to apologise for the complete lack of posting that has happened here recently. I'm currently one and a half weeks away from my dissertation deadline and it has been consuming much or my time as of late. I hope to start shooting again as soon as it is over, so I'll probably next be posting around mid-March. I hope you check back around then and continue with the great feedback I've had regarding my photos.

All the best,

Adam

A Horse's View...

2007-02-20T10:27:00.000Z

Whilst out on a wander I stumbled upon this horse who possibly had the best view in Durham! Possibly out this weekend for some new photos, I'm running out of interesting posts at the moment, apologies!

Birthday Shot...

2007-02-18T17:58:00.000Z

Hey, sorry for the delay in since my last post... I've just had my birthday and been in the post-birthday lull that seems to follow it! I had a really great day and an even better night 'cos we had an Epiphany Ball in college which was offsite at a place called Lunley Castle. I had an amazing night and this is one of the photos I took. It means a lot to me 'cos it's of all my friends and obviously on such a memorable night for me. Anyways... my girlfriend's parents bought me a full size (54") tripod so I'll be taking that out for a trial run soon! It's about about time I got a full size one, the mini one was starting to give me back ache! Hopefully I'll be able to head out some time tnhis week (probably after Wednesday 'cos I've got a dissertation meeting with my tutor) and take some new shots. I might head down the river area or go find some more woods. Anyways, hope you enjoy the shot!

English Countryside...

2007-02-15T10:23:00.000Z

This is a shot of the rolling hills just a ten minute walk from where I live in Durham, UK. Whenever I'm getting a bit fed-up of studying I head out here and it really helps clear my mind. We're not far from the river Wear either, I might post a shot of that soon.

Happy Valentine's Day...

2007-02-14T13:20:00.000Z

This is the shot of the sunset I was tell you about. I think if I have two large figures hand-in-hand facing the sunset it would look pretty good. Tell me what you think.

Formation...

2007-02-13T09:34:00.000Z

Don't ask me what this is, all I know is that it was growing out of the side of this tree! The light is entirely natural which, I think, is quite qurprising 'cos it looks like there's a spotlight on it or something! There's a photo competition running in my college at the moment. The theme is "Love is..." (obviously for Valentine's Day), can anyone think of something interesting for me to photograph? I was thinking a sunset in the background with two people looking at at holding hands, they obviously just appear as sillhouettes. I've already got the perfect place picked out for the sunset, I've got a few photos of it which I'll post either later today or tomorrow. Thanks for the comments on the photos too, it's a good feeling when people let me know that they enjoy looking at what I take!

Sentinels...

2007-02-11T21:06:00.000Z

These trees were taken on my walk the other day, they all seem to be pointing towards the sun, clever this nature business isn't it! Not been feeling too good recently hence a lack of new material, hopefully I should start perking up soon and can go out to shoot some new photos.

The Church...

2007-02-10T11:09:00.000Z

This shot is of a Church in Durham city centr, I took the photo as the sun was going down hence the vivid light on the left hand-side of the spire as we look. I've made the sky a little bluer but aside from that there's little editing. I'm running out of good photos to post at the mo 'cos the weather is so miserable (football was cancelled this morning, waterlogged pitch). Hopefully it'll either snow properly or get better soon and I can post some interesting photos!

Wander...

2007-02-09T11:56:00.000Z

This is one of the shots from my random walk the other day. I've brought the greens out a bit and levelled is a bit but not much Photoshop here... Football will probably be cancelled again this weekend so I can sense another wander coming on.

First Snow...

2007-02-07T22:44:00.000Z

As our ever-so-reliable weathermen predicted, Durham got it's first dusting of snow today. Admittedly it was only a little bit overnight but it stuck around long enough for me to get a few shots, I'm quite happy with the results since it's my first time using my tripod. I took this on a little detour back from my only lecture today (Internation Economics - argh) and also went on a walk through the countryside in the late afternoon since football practice was cancelled. I've took some photos from that walk too but they haven't turned out particularly well due to rubbish lighting conditions. I may put one or two up at a latter date but at the moment I think this is the best of the bunch... hope you like it.

First Attempt...

2007-02-06T18:15:00.000Z

This is my first real attempt at doing anything in Photoshop and I'm quite happy with the result. I know that I had a comment from a visitor saying that they didn't like vivid colour against black and white but I quite like it in this case, I think it really emphasises the beauty and makes what would be an average photo in colour look quite spectacular. Not sure how this little fella will do over the next few days, it's forecast to snow here! Hopefully if it does I'll get some pretty awesome shots; I look forward to sharing them with you.

A Night Fit For A Werewolf...

2007-02-05T10:11:00.002Z

Hey, this is my first night sky shot. You can see that the underside of the clouds have a red/orange tint to them whilst the top side has a more of a silver glow, this is because I took this photo above the science site at my university and the orange glow came from the lights on site. I've dimmed the moon slightly but aside from that there's no further editing. O yeh, I've acquired two tools in one day to help my photography. Firstly, I got myself a copy of Photoshop so let me know of any tips you may have to help me improve my photos. And also, my friend on my corridor gave me a mini-tripod. Apparently it had been in the PA comm. cupboard for months and nobody claimed it so he gave it to me since I told him about my developing hobby in photography! What a guy!

Alleyway...

2007-02-04T13:42:00.000Z

This photo is of an alleyway down the side of a house, I think the rust colour really contrasts against the colours around it. I've experimented with focal softening again, hopefully I haven't overdone it, it's good that Picasa keeps a backup of the original!

The Leaf...

2007-02-03T22:20:00.000Z

I uploaded another entry about the cathedral a minute ago but I've taken it down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don't want this blog to appear like an ad for the Durham tourism industry, the cathedral is beautiful and all and I personally love just looking at at when I walk past on my way to lectures but I don't want to be characterised as the person who always takes cathedral shots! Secondly, I'm not sure if the photo was worthy of merit in photography terms since I mainly put it up because it's a shot of a beautiful and magnificent structure. Anyways, I decided to replace that post with one of this leaf. I'm not sure if the softening is a bit much, I might re-do a version without so much softening, I just wanted to highlight the frailty of this little leaf that I saw. Everything else is dying around it but it's just carrying on, and doing quite well by the looks of things! I hope you enjoy this shot, please let me know what your thoughts are regarding the softening or any other aspect. I take it is a huge complement when other photographers take the time to comment on my photos, I truly value your opinion!

The Cathedral City...

2007-02-03T09:45:00.000Z

This is the cathedral in Durham, pretty spectacular if you ask me!

A Liverpudlian Sunset ...

2007-02-02T18:38:00.000Z

This is the view from my window at home in Liverpool. I lowered the exposure on my camera a few clicks and the results were pretty spectacular. Given that this was my first attempt at taking shots of sunsets/sunrises I'm pretty happy with it! Let me know what you think...

The Walk Home...

2007-02-02T16:02:00.000Z

I took this photo on the walk home from the same night-out I mentioned in a previous post, I applied focal black and white in Picasa and think the result is beautiful.

Damp Wood...

2007-02-01T11:58:00.000Z

I decided to upload another photo today since I've decided to take the morning off (dissertation this afternoon, I promise). This photo was taken by the bank of the River Wear, I thought the orange wood looked quite impressive against the backdrop of the cathedral.

Autostitch...

2007-02-01T10:02:00.000Z

Hey, I've just downloaded this program called Autostitch which automatically creates panoramic photos. If the results of the test I've just ran are anything to go by then it's an amazing bit of software, and what's even better... it's freeware!
Check out some of the results, they're amazing!

Psychedelic Street Lights...

2007-02-01T09:19:00.000Z

I took this on the way back from a night-out in Durham last night, it was set to slow shutter speed and I must've moved it, hence the wavy street lights, but in a way I think it looks quite cool. Minor sharpening and saturation increase applied in Picasa.

Handrail...

2007-01-31T17:05:00.000Z

I saw this handrail on my way back from a lecture today, I set my camera to Macro mode and have sharpened and increased the saturation slightly in Picasa. I think it's pretty cool since I couldn't tell you how old the rail really is, it's on one of the oldest streets in Durham. Let me know what you think.

First Post...

2007-01-31T16:44:00.000Z

Hi, I'm Adam, the rookie photographer and author of this blog. I'm a 20 year-old student currently studying Economics at Durham University and (amongst other things) I enjoy photography. This is a new hobby of mine and I've only took it up recently but I hope that with the beautiful surroundings of Durham and with some constructive criticism I could become decent at it!
First of all, let me start off by saying that I, in all honesty, know very little about photography! I don't know what ISO or apeture or anything like that does to photographs and I only learnt how to use the Macro mode today! If you can suggest anything that can make my photos look better then please do so!
Secondly, I don't own a really fancy camera, it's a simple 'point and shoot' camera (albeit a very nice one!) that can be found here (I have the EX-z70). I'm getting a tripod for my birthday on Feb 16th so hopefully the standard of photos will improve after that!
Finally, as with taking photos, I know very little about editing them in various applications. I'm starting to use Picasa since it's pretty basic and even someone like me can master it! I've just downloaded the GIMP and would really like to learn how to use it properly, if you can recommend a certain effect to apply then please do so!
So that's pretty much it, whatever I offer you I hope you enjoy and like I said earlier, please, please help me get better by letting me know what you think of the photos I post!

Here it goes... first photo!