Photos

#shotonmoment

This is my last photo from my Budapest trip for #euroku2017. It's been over a month since I left and I've come to realise that holding out this long past the date of taking photos is cheating at my own game - where the game is to take more photos and post one each day of 2017.

I've taken lots of photos since returning from Budapest and I'm going to post them throughout November to bring my feed into the present.

In December I'm going to trial my 2018 challenge early of taking at least one photo per day and posting it. This is going to be hard for holidays but I might post multiple times or use Instagram multi-image 'posts' to get around the issue.

There have been multiple cases this year where I've wanted to post a photo nearer the date it was taken - the U2 concert this summer was most frustrating - and I think it's time I made the feed closer to 'real-time'. I'm making this change after upgrading to a #Pixel2 and buying some #shotonmoment lenses. I thought I'd take my digital compact everywhere with me but the reality was that I didn't. Someone also asked if I'd moved to Budapest - I haven't - but the comment got me thinking!

The Commuter, Waterloo edition. Third photo in the "commuter series".
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Mind it nowe. I was minding the gap while testing out my new lenses. #shotonmoment #shotonmomentsuperfish ·
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My submission for #WHPlikealocal is this overly lit up house on the way back from Putney station.
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Blossom Street, in the shadows.

This is the last of the #latergrams, tomorrow we're posting photos by the day for real. ·
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Planes backed up pretty bad coming into Heathrow today

Microsoft Future Decoded. My first Instagram photo with my #shotonmoment Superfish lens

Christ Church is very close to work and I've taken it's photo many times, but I've only recently been able to pack it all into one shot with my new #shotonmoment super fish lens

Keen to get back on track today with my photo a day challenge I took a chilly detour in my shorts round leadenhall. Got lots of big glass building photos too but this was my favorite. #shotonmoment @moment

At work, we call this 'piss alley'. It's got a new set of artwork just in time for Christmas

For obvious reasons, this photo has been posted upside-down.

@willhoffmann94 and I completed an ascent of Mount Fyrish bright and early this morning. Lots of nice ones from sunset too too but this one's still my favorite for today.
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Highland Council leisure facilities open throughout the Christmas period. @willhoffmann94 & Rory enjoying the recently-refurbished competition pool.

I came home tonight via Paddington. District like was in a bad way..

I spent the day expecting to post one of my starry sky pictures from the early hours of the morning but when I came across this athletic sheep I couldn't resist

Another cold dull day here. I prefer taking landscapes, but macros with my new #shotonmoment macro lens has become the dull-day fallback.

Not really sure what this is, spider's hideaway or something.

Looking South from the Ullapool road

This is not an endorsement of Christmas capitalism. I was shopping for essential, non-christmas food and household cleaning products only.
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The nice thing about this #365photochallenge is that you can get away with posting the same shots with different lighting.

Back in the Highlands for Christmas. Lots and lots of nice snowy photos from the sleeper this morning but I'm posting this one instead to avoid train tracks three days running.
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Thought I'd post a photo taken with the macro lens. Got it just in time before heading off and only got round to trying it out today.

This wasn't technically taken today but it didn't look like this until I stacked all of the images in photoshop in the early ours of this morning so I think it still counts.

This is about 20, 4 second, 400 ISO exposures layered with the 'maximum' smart object stacking mode to bring out the cars moving on the road.

I did make up a different version that kept the stars steady but I think the trails are actually nicer. This is the first photo I've taken that's captured the earth spinning which is quite cool

Widgeon flying away before I could get any closer. Even with the 2x lens the birds are just specs really so I've left it as the whole scene rather than trying to get any closer

Lots of nice ones today but this was Mum's favorite. Went for another bonus walk after Findhorn beach around Logie

I'm finding no end of uses for the fisheye lens - forests being the latest frontier.

Little bit snowy at the beach today. Little bit cold too

The #shotonmoment telephoto is pretty useful in getting a little closer into landscapes like this but the fringing is a bit annoying. It can be sharpened out a little but it basically needs to be cropped off.

Last night was my second last night at home so, keen to get a picture of some nice star trails, I was out late again - this time armed with dad's tripod too.

I pointed the camera approximately north so Polaris would be in the shot and left it running for 30 minutes. It was a lovely night but hanging around in the cold gets boring fast.

There were a lot more clouds than I'd have liked but with some clever photoshop blending I managed to get the trails singled out ok against the sky. This is based on 120 exposures at ISO 200.

Aged about thirteen, we used to go on camping expeditions to this little abandoned cottage. Found it more eerie going alone today than I did then.

Used the fisheye for this one, then corrected for the bulge in Photoshop. There was a tree in the way so I had to take it quite close up.

Prior to the haunted camping trips, we used to cycle our bikes down through the wood to this other abandoned house. It's in far better condition & seems a shame no one's managed to take it on.

Leaving all this behind tonight. Back to London on the sleeper and back to work tomorrow morning. Already planning my next Scotland trips; I'll miss it.

Wanted to take a picture of the inside of Christ Church again today but this is St Mary's Church Battersea instead. Christ Church is closed until the 8th.

I've got a bit of a thing for roads and paths trailing off-screen. This was a new walk along the river west of Beauly today. This small road was a solid sheet of ice on the way out but almost completely thawed by the way back.

In the end, this is the only photo I've decided to post from hogmanay at Gallowhill. I took a long running one that didn't turn out as well as I expected.

Most of the other ones didn't really have any star interest and instead just looked like noisy daytime shots. I quite enjoyed playing with the Photoshop B&W raw tools to bring out the plough in this one.

This is my first proper post of the year so I should outline my new rules for 2018.

* Post photos within 24hrs of taking them
* Post photos in the order they were taken
* Square photos only - no videos or multi-photo posts
* No 'overshare', leave an hour at least between posts

Slime

Footbridge to Uig sands, the biggest beach I've ever seen

Uig beach tide valleys

Getting blood out of a stone

Stacked this one up in Photoshop to make sure I got all the waves in

The tiny, colorful world of the barnacle

First time using the macro lens in a while. Some freshly fallen hailstones

Beach before breakfast. Getting good wave photos is proving quite the challenge, missing not being able to zoom past 2x

More sky, more beach, yeah yeah..

Sometimes climbing even just a small hill does the trick

I've spent my entire life looking for the perfect fence and this is the closest I've come to finding it

Buoy, I don't know

Cool stream making its way down to the sea. Little bit of blue sky peeking though before behind blown away by more snow showers

Lone fishing boat leaving Ullapool

Ben Mhor Coigach

Sun just coming up on the way to Ullapool

Sunset over the Beauly Firth

Looking up at the trees in the evening sun. Taken at Gallowhill

More wide-angle tracks

Moment wide getting some sun

Wintery walk round Aultgowrie

The 270 to Mitcham

Lights, camera..

Clouds rushing over the Golden valley today. No rainbow this time though

Oak Tree in the orchard

More farm tracks off Long Lane, Peterchurch

The old plough was once a pub

Catholic Church, Hereford.

The Old House in Hereford. I walk though the town centre on my way to Granny's from the station

Sunset before the storm. Lewis, Scotland

Not the vines..

This is Lufthansa town

Goodbye Rome

These are the Spanish Steps, at night

More Colosseum!

View over to St Peter's from Palantine hill

Arch of Constantine

Obligatory Colosseum picture

Mangurstadh bay - No. 2.

Tripod? Ain't nobody got time for that. This is a mean stack of 25 photos taken 'freestyle' as close as I could get to steady while pushing back against a 35 mile an hour wind at the top of a cliff.

Also saved this special one for post #1500

Returning to the same spot at night

Come to the Vatican for roof trees and bobbly street lights

Obligatory photo from the top

The Gallery of Maps, much help from the #shotonmoment fisheye today

Edinburgh and the castle

I had some time to kill in Inverness while waiting for the sleeper. Thought I'd do the tourist thing and take some photos of the castle

My plane was only a little larger

The long road home. I'll be in London tomorrow morning

Goodbye beach

Wanted to get this stream with a more interesting light. Just going to have to live with those footprints..

Another storm passing through

Mangurstadh bay, last one. Promise

Sheep are really the ones in charge

Nice wall

Waves taller than the horizon

More drama

Down the road to Uig sands

The last time I visited the Callanish Standing Stones it was June, pouring with rain and really busy. This meant I didn't get any good photos.

Today, it was almost deserted and there was great visibility.

Septimus Severus Arch

News. Just. In. Sneak preview of my upcoming alt-account for DELICIOUS uncooked vegetable macro mega close-ups! Likeandsubscribe.

Some very relieved little plants happy to see the back of the sun after being gently baked for three days in a row

The London eye is surrounded by so much shite it's hard to get a good photo

4/16 crash

Sometimes this tunnel looks more interesting than others

Will the sun come back tomorrow?

Spare one wasabi trip, lunch this week has consisted almost entirely of reheated carrot and potato soup. Struggling badly to keep up with the number of potatoes in stock

Putney's most ominous renovation

I'm all about veg and cranes right now and I know you are too. Give the people want they want.

Smoggy Putney morning

Finally got a photo of the Waterloo cranes I'm happy with. Moment tele to the rescue. Thought it looked more interesting upside down

Mum doesn't think I should take pictures of peoples houses, but I don't think anybody loves here

Bit of low cloud getting in the way of planes coming into land at Heathrow

Dilapidated street corridor to another dimension

Please be respectful of our neighbors

Tobermory, Chelsea Edition

Just about the prettiest thing on fugly Putney High Street

Token lobby sculpture

Constructing more lines

Extraterrestrial plant-life

More waiting for the bus shots

Grayscale graduated filter on it's first outing.

Could have done with blurring this one out for the foreground issues but though the reflections were cool enough.

Testing out my new graduated blue filter this morning. Don't know if it's worth it really, fell like the effect is easily added later..

Polarizer vs the mud

Big Sky

I have an idea #blackandwhite

Shortly followed by something of a jog to platform zone D

These people could spin every day

And the rain came down

Pixel 2 seems to struggle with these lit up road signs and dark backgrounds. I'd rather have the real blue which was much darker but here's the best I could get anyway

Boat trippers, don't think they saw me

Mandatory Nyhavn photo - about as much tourism as we had time for

Barbican fire exit

Light and dark, seemed to have quite a bit of trouble getting the light right on this one. Still not convinced

Aultgowrie through the polarizer

Crow

I'd say this was the most photogenic chapel in Faro's cathedral. Fisheye coming into it's own again, with a touch of #skrwt lens correction.

Nice to have a better rig than many of the the SLR tourists for this type of subject.

In faro all the churches seem to be closed on Saturdays, they can't stop me taking pictures on the outside.

Bug on the wire

Evening sun hotter than expected

Night light at the villa

Drynie Park on a summers evening, doesn't get much darker than this 🌄

Where to?

Think I've taken this car's picture before

Colors come out to play

Climbed all the way out into the river and deliberately got my feet all wet for this one. Not even that wow but I felt given the effort I had to post it anyway.

Promise it's the last polarized river you'll get for a while. On the sleeper train home again, back to work tomorrow.

Oddly quiet building across the street

In the summer the river's low enough to get almost underneath the falls. Still ended up with one wet foot though..

Ullapool harbour

This is what a road looks like after you fill it's valley with a reservoir for a hydro scheme. Never seen it this dry in my life.

Moment and polarizer attachment getting an outing to Blackwater. The #shotonmoment filter mount is a bit of a faff but the polarizer gives a nice effect.

Curvy

But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York

That sky is real, it's cold in this room.

Bicycle roundabout

My body is ready

Favorite from today. Taken at the start of the walk up the back of Redcastle this evening. More trails tracks and all things good.

Horse chestnut

Lunchtime stroll

Mhangarstadh Bay, 1 of a few

Hills as far as the eye can see. Uig, Lewis - looking south

@tlfrd made me walk home from the station last night. He also told me to take this photo, so you can thank him for this #nofilter _masterpiece_

Detour via the Barbican

Went for a wander at lunch today encompassing a visit to Christ Church

This is the Peace Pagoda is Battersea Park. I cycle past it every day but I'd been waiting for a nice sunny morning to light it up

Small harbour near Uigen on Lewis

Walking up to the top of Gallowhill Wood is my new favorite walk and I managed to sell it as a good firework-viewpoint.

I took quite a few photos which I've yet to edit but since I started 2017 with a photo of me taking photos I thought I'd start 2018 the same way. The only difference is that I took this photo, if you look closely, you can see the strap of the remote shutter dangling from my right hand.

Happy New Year!

I was hoping for something more interesting to end the year on but these Mulbuie cows will have to do.

This is it, the end of 2017 and the end of my #365photochallenge. I'm going to be making some changes to the rules tomorrow.

I set out to post a photo every day to encourage me to get back into photography. In this sense I think it's been successful - thanks for putting up with it.

I went from iPhone 6, to Sony RX100IV to Pixel 2 + #shotonmoment. There's no denying that the best quality photos came from the camera but I think the #Pixel2 is close enough for me. Also, with the moment superfish and wide lenses I can do more than I could with my camera anyway.

I've been to Asturias, South Uist, Ireland and Budapest this year. Next year I'd like that list to be longer.

I'll likely be doing a roundup of my favorites on my blog early in the new year.
The challenge stops here. The fear of not having a photo to post each day lead me to store up photos while on holiday and post them over the following month. This gives me lots of choice but ultimately makes for a slightly boring feed. When I did set the new rule at the beginning of this month to post photos only on the day they were taken I found that the quality suffered. I also found that while home for Christmas I'd have liked sometimes to post more than one photo per day.
So that's it.

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