Soooooooo Christmas – YEAH!
I was spoilt rotten this year, I got tonnes of great presents! It was a very busy time Sunday, Monday as we prepped everything for Christmas Day, but in the end it went off smoothly. Today we’re relaxing and sorting out places to put our presents and I’m playing on Minecraft (my friend from work bought it me :-P).
Today me and Krys got the last few bits for Christmas sorted – turkey and swordfish are in the freezer, presents are all wrapped and passed on, so we decided to go to the Christmas Fayre at Wentworth Woodhouse. It was quite late on it the day by the time we got there, maybe 230, 3pm.
When we got there it was a bit cloudy… Then it spitted a bit with rain… Then the sun broke through 😀
Today was really cold. It was minus numbers when I was driving to work, and now I’m home I’ve got the heating on and I’m fleece but I’m still a bit on the nippely side (My right have feels like I’ve been outside recently in the freezing cold, when in reality I’ve been inside for almost 4 hours).
I have terrible circulation!!
In other news
Tomorrow is December and I still don’t have an advent calendar 
Fifteen more days until the school holidays!
I bought myself an upgraded body for my SLR, not a massive upgrade but still! Seeing as I’ve been having a pants time of it was work I thought I would treat myself (This decision was somewhat spur of the moment).
The Peak District is a large area which mainly covers Derbyshire. At the Peak District you will find a lot of moorland, streams, rocks, hills and other some such picturesque delights. There are a number of villages/towns in the Peak District too.
Higger Tor is not that far outside of Sheffield city center (I think that technically it falls into the boundaries of Sheffield), quite close to Hathersage. It falls under the category of the Dark Peak, which is thought of as being a wilder part of the Peak District.
This was also the first time that I used my remote shutter to try and get me in the shot too!
Sorry, just felt really unnatural to write just “winter” :-p
This morning we went to Bakewell.
Bakewell is in Derbyshire, and is built around the river Wye bang smack in the middle of the Peak District in the UK.
This weekend was Christmas Weekend there (though we didn’t go for this reason, we went for the farmers market which happens every last weekend of the month).
My Christmas present had come through the post this morning as well so I was especially excited. For Christmas. Christmas. WOOO
I ran a little bit out of steam the last couple of days and my photographs are a little bit lacking… As the skies cleared up as the day went on I decided to go to my favourite spot to take a few photographs.
It was rather muddy and I wasn’t particularly dressed for the occasion but when has that ever stopped me!
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)
Manadh Photography 