Tag Archives: landscape photography

Iceland – Day 3

The third day was the day I was most excited about; lots of waterfalls! We had to getup pretty early as we had a lot further to drive on this day, and it was still pitch black as we went to our first stop; the lava centre.

Seljalandsfoss

The first waterfall we went to was Seljalandsfoss. The group pretty much ran around it, I don’t think I’ve ever had to take photos so fast before. This is also when I found out that my tripod head was well and truly broken.

Seljalandsfoss

The day before everyone else had gone into the secret lagoon, and I’d opted to stay out and edit photos. It was whilst I was here that I noticed that my tripod head wouldn’t lock into place, so I asked the coach driver of he had a screwdriver or something I could use to try and fix it. He did, and I thought I had, however when it came to trying to lock the head in place at the waterfall I realised that I had, in fact, not fixed it at all.

Seljalandsfoss

We went from this waterfall to the black sand beaches at Vik. The sun was rising at the point and the light was just delicious.

Road
Vik

The tide was pretty far in at the beach and the waves were ferocious.

Black Sand Beach
Vik

Finally, we ended up at Skógafoss at sunset.

Skógafoss at sunset

Project 365 // 2011 – A review so far…

I’ve been thinking (OK so I’ve only had the blog for a matter of hours, but my mind does work on overdrive) as to how best go about cataloguing some of my favourite shots from this year. Originally I was thinking about doing a blog post a shot, but then I realised that I do actually have a life (hahaha not really, I just haven’t taken a photo yet for today). So for now we shall go with this approach.
I’m going to look back over each month and write a little overview of the month, commenting on any stand out bits from the month (because I think a p365 is an excellent way to remember significant things that have happened, not just photos).

Yes I know it’s November, and it might make more sense to wait until the end of the year. But you know, living life outside the box and all that 😛

Right, here goes… Shots which were “photo of the day” only in this post!

January.
A month of wonder (ha, not really just my birthday! :-D). A lot of lighting mistakes were made in this month, although at the time I was impressed – though isn’t that the way it usually goes! On the positive at least I was experimenting and trying new things. I’m a firm believer at looking for the positives in a situation…

February (why does it always take me 3 times to spell it right?).
The month which technically made the p365 a p366. But pish-pash who wants technicalities. A bit of a safe month by the looks of things. Got out more with the camera but didn’t really do anything different. A couple of dud shots towards the start of the month, but if memory serves me correctly I was going on a night out after work, so maybe time was an issue…? >_> We had snow, I had a half term. I bought a furry wolf snood and wore it just about everywhere.

March.
A good month for flowers! And it shows, hahaha, a lot of flower shots this month! Also had a week of experiments where I tried different things (shooting smoke, drops of water etc) and ended up putting Danbo in most of the shots. I had a lot of fun that week, but it was a week which was focused heavily around taking photographs so it’s not something I could maintain with a full time job.

April.
Upon review not actually as bad as I thought it was. It gets worse towards the end of the month though. This was the month that we finally got our kitchen sorted. You can really tell where things start to pile up on top of me from work! Still a safe month in terms of what I was trying to photograph.


May.
Very questionably month. Not a very good month at all really. Very clear that my heart wasn’t in photography at all.

June.
Another not very good month. Apparently if I was shooting flowers I was better than if I was trying to shoot something else. Should probably have stuck to shooting most days then, hehe!

July.
Still some questionable material in there, but you can tell that I’m starting to put a bit more effort into what I’m shooting. Especially so towards the back end of the month, which is where the six week holidays start. In July I’ve started to venture out of the house a bit more to take photographs of things other than “things which I found around the house” or “flowers in my garden”. One of the pictures from this month got Explored on Flickr, which gave me a confidence boost right when I needed it.
This month also sees the start of my love affair with getting a blown out sun in shot…

August.
A good month! I came to the realisation that work wasn’t everything (easier to get into the routine of this whilst on holiday!) and I should put more time into the things which I love. The month of August is made up of festivals and day trips, and photographing both. A lot of time was spent by myself trying to get my head straight, and by the end of the month I was a lot happier in myself and how I would deal with things when I returned to work.




September.
Another good month despite returning to work! Experimented a lot this month with back lighting, but by this time I’d decided that I really enjoy being outside and taking landscape shots, so there is a lot of that as well. Someone I know on Flickr who lives near me found a field of sunflowers, which caused much excitement. I’ve always wanted to photograph a field of sunflowers but I’d always dismissed it as being a pipe dream because no-one seemed to know of any such field anywhere near where I live. I also made more of an effort to be out at sunrise or sunset.

October.
My favourite month! ^_^ I love autumn, but what with p365//2010 being over by this time and p365//2011 being a right off for these months I’ve never really tried to photograph it. It was more challenging than I though, I had some idea which I really wanted to work out but they didn’t. All in all though another good month – just have to keep trying with the ideas until I manage to get them right!

November.
Well in so far we’re only on day 3, and I haven’t taken a photo yet for today (I’m thinking something with sparklers…)

The rest of the year….
I’m looking to finish the year off as the last few months have been, enthused by photography but not overwhelmed. After all it is just a hobby. I enjoy that I can see my own progress; I think I would define 2011 as the year I learnt how to take photographs technically and 2012 as the year I learnt how to take photographs – although we are always learning and I am looking forward to what 2013 will bring.

To anyone still sticking at a project 365 – keep at it, we’re almost there!
To anyone thinking about taking one up – it’s a lot of hard work and sometimes you will hate it, but it has massive pay offs. Each photograph will remind you of a point in your life and you will be able to see how you have progressed (if that is what you want to do)