Since I was working all through christmas and new year I went over to Sweden to see my family in January instead. Went for 11 days (10th-20th), and as always it was really nice to see everyone; especially as I hadn't seen them since July.This photo was taken just as I got out the exit at Arlanda Airport and I was heading for the coach going into Stockholm.
Ok, so the plan initially is to add a week a day (or something along those lines) to catch up by the end of this week. Then after that it'll be a weekly post. So this photo was taken one morning on my way to work, on 03-Jan-2014. Not looking very wintery, but I just love how the morning sun reflects in the puddles.
With it being a new year, and having enjoyed my 30-day challenge a few months ago, I thought I'd start a new project for this year. Since I don't think I'd be able to keep up with a daily project such as the 365 project, I'll make it a weekly one instead - hence the title of the post of "Fifty-Two Weeks project". The rules I've set myself for this fifty-two weeks project is simply that the photo has to have been taken in the week I'm posting it for (the week being Monday through to Sunday). And that's it, simple as that. Obviously the purpose of this is to keep developing my photography skills, and to try learning new skills and try things I've not done before.
As I'm currently on holiday visiting my family in Sweden I might not have time to upload the photos from the last couple of weeks just now, but if anything it'll be when I come back home.
..even though it's technically now the beginning of the year. This is a belated reflection on 2013.It had its ups and downs, stresses, happy moments, less happy moments, some travelling, too much work at some points, learning curves, ruts, changes. And it went by in a flash.. If 2014 goes by as quickly I hope I watch it fly by from a less apathetic state than I did 2013..
Looking forward then on 2014. There's certain things I would want. Change - mainly habits. Not get stuck in the "work, eat, sleep, repeat"-cycle again. Need to get my crap together. Want to do more of the stuff I enjoy rather than being shattered after work and spending the evening and/or weekend on the sofa (and we get back to habits and the need to change them). I did a 30-day photo challenge a few months ago, and I'm thinking of doing something similar this year. There's the 365 project where you take a photo a day. But I think I'll do a weekly one instead to start off with and see if I can stick to that for a year. Make my own little fifty-two weeks project :) Also want to get round the country a bit more. So day-trips with my camera will be on the cards now I've finished the payment plan for the loveliness that is my iMac. Can get cheap coach tickets try and do one a month or so. Finishing off the my website, and making it mobile friendly, is also on the to-do list. Not much left to do on it apart from uploading a lot of photos.
At the moment I'm really looking forward to 10 days of in about a week. Having worked all of xmas (apart from xmas day which we all got off) and new year, I'm going over to Sweden to see my family. It's always nice to go visit them, especially when I've not seen them for 6 months or so. So now I'm counting down the days :) Also got myself an appointment at True Tattoo to add to my tattoo "collection" on 14-Jan :D excited about that :) and I'll obviously post a photo on here once it's been done.
Anyway, I should get to bed (or rather switch the light off as I'm actually posting this from my bed on my iPhone) as it's getting on for 1am and my alarm is set for 6am..
Today is the last day of the 30-day challenge. I set this 30-day challenge to keep taking photos and being creative on a daily basis, and to help me get out of the "work. eat. sleep. repeat."-cycle I'd gotten myself into. I have enjoyed it very much, and it got me thinking and planning my photos a bit more than just taking photos of things I walk past. I will continue to post photos, although not on an every day basis. I will also put up some of the photos which lost out to the ones I have posted over the last 30 days. Chances are that the 30-day challenge photos will end up as an album on Facebook as well.
Day 30: 09-Nov-2013
Had something else planned for today's photo, but then on my way home from the shops I noticed this leaf perfectly balanced on the metal wire running along the fence to my back garden. And the other plan went out the window :)
Day 29: 08-Nov-2013
Has to be said, Evernote is one of my favourite apps and I use it on a pretty much daily basis. They do mobile apps as well as desktop apps, it's free, and will let you sync notes between your devices on your account. Used my Lensbaby Composer lens for the first time in a while when taking today's photo, and I think I have to get it out more often :)
Day 26: 05-Nov-2013
Tuesday was Bonfire Night, and after dinner with some friends we walked down to the Forest Recreation ground and watched the fireworks. This is one of the many photos I took. Didn't bring my Canon 600D but instead used my iPhone - and the burst mode came in handy when it came to photographing fireworks.
Day 27: 06-Nov-2013
This was when I was waiting for the bus on my way home from work. Can tell autumn is here and normal British weather service has been resumed ;)
Day 28: 07-Nov-2013
Had a wander around town before heading to church yesterday evening. Can remember the name of the road, but it's around the corner from the newly build student housing and the Travel Inn (?) hotel in town. Took some of the newly built student housing as well, but this one won out over the others for the 30-day challenge.
Ok, so I noticed (25 days into my 30-day challenge - great powers of observation huh? ;P) that the photos posted were not links to view the full size photo. Admittedly the "full size" on these are 1280x853 (for the landscape orientation ones, and 853x1280 for the portrait orientation ones) exported from iPhoto. But they're still larger than the initial preview. I have been through all the posts and re-uploaded the photos and updated the posts with the photos as links, as well as making the formatting a bit more uniform (as it would seem that the software I was using for publishing the posts did a bit of its own thing here and there). As much as I'm not keen on the WordPress dashboard for posts, I think I'll still stick with it for future posts until I find something better.
Day 24: 03-Nov-2013
Ok, so yesterday I spent most of the day on my sofa feeling like I was coughing my lungs up (stupid cold.. :/ ) and had an afternoon nap (after having not gotten much sleep during the night). So, to sum things up I didn’t get much done yesterday. Which is also why the photo for yesterday was a bit of a last minute thing, and technically it was probably taken after midnight.. But my 30-day challenge, my rules - so I say it still counts ;)
Day 25: 04-Nov-2013
Lovely day today - clear blue sky and a bit cold :) ventured as far as the alleyway that my front door faces onto ;P still, it’s the first time I’ve even opened the front door since getting back from town on Saturday. At least I got a bit of fresh air, and the photo turned out alright as well :)
Hmm.. have built up a bit of a back log again this week..
Day 20: 30-Oct-2013
The Elite building in town. Waiting for the bus to go to work, and it was a really nice morning - clear blue sky, and a bit cold.
Day 21: 31-Oct-2013
This was on the notice board in the prayer room in the Inspire building by church :)
Day 22: 01-Nov-2013
Persistent little plant on the stone wall for St. John’s Church along Church Drive. One of the many plant still green even though it’s now getting to the beginning of November.
Day 23: 02-Nov-2013
Some of the leaves have started coming off the trees, especially as it’s been windy the last couple of day. Just liked the colours on this one and how the leaves matches the yellow road markings.
Day 18: 28-Oct-2013
At the back of the back garden. Everything is still very green for it being the end of October.
Day 19: 29-Oct-2013
There’s some benefits of it being dark when getting home from work :) Fun with camera, monopod, and a slow shutter speed at the bus stop on Mansfield Road.
Day 17: 27-Oct-2013
Talbot Street on a Sunday evening - it's been too long..
Day 16: 26-Oct-2013
Waiting for the bus yesterday afternoon on my way to work. Didn't bring my camera since I thought I'd have no time to spare - and I didn't really (hence why this was taken in the few minutes I had until the bus turned up).
Have managed the build up a bit of a back-log over the last few days, so here's days 12-15 all in one go.
Day 12: 22-Oct-2013
Banksy "style" graffiti near one of the local pubs. It is a Banksy motif, but I doubt it's actually by him. I love the motif though, and it's one that's involved in my "if I were to get another tattoo"-plans.
Day 13: 23-Oct-2013
Autumn is coming. The weather has been warm, if not at least mild, for it getting to the end of October. But the colour of the leaves have started to change and they have started coming off the the trees.
Day 14: 24-Oct-2013
Student (I think) housing next to church.
Day 15: 25-Oct-2013
The Message.
Have that weird feeling where it feels like I've been off work for more than 4 days, but at the same time it feels like my long weekend has gone by in a flash. Not gotten as much done as I wanted to - maybe partially due to feeling completely out of it for most of Saturday and sleeping half of Sunday away. I seem to get to Saturday afternoon and then I crash and burn these days, and the work "hangover" sets in where I literally feel hung over despite not having had a drop of alcohol.
Today has been a bit of a geeky day, at least in the afternoon, but I also managed to go out with my camera for a bit whilst there was a brief break in all the raining. Actually trying to decide which photo to use for today for my 30-day challenge that I'm doing. Narrowed it down from three to two so far - all of them of the same motif.
On a geeky note, I've managed to find an iOS emulator (which was included in Xcode - a free IDE for coding/web development). So I can now test my website in that without potentially breaking my actual live site/blog/galleries, because at the moment it's not very readable on a mobile. Will be trying to sort it out in the week, if nothing else next weekend.
This was my desk this afternoon :) You'd think with having a job where I spend 7.5hrs (or 8.5hrs when I work through my lunch) in front of a computer that I wouldn't want to spend my weekend in front of one. But on the weekend it's by choice, and it's doing things I enjoy (although I enjoy my job as well).
My desk
Watched the Apple event this evening, and was very pleasantly surprised at them offering OS X Mavericks for free. When I upgraded from OS X Lion to OS X Mountain Lion on my laptop when Mountain Lion was released it was only £13.99 which isn't exactly extortionate, especially how much it used to cost to upgrade Windows. But being rather (very much) skint until January I was planning on putting it off until then to upgrade OS X my iMac and Macbook Pro. However, now I can upgrade for free :D Happy days :)
In fact, this is what shows up in the App Store now :) Another project for next weekend ;)
App store - Mavericks update
Day 11: 21-Oct-2013
Thanks to the ever so "lovely" British weather there was no outdoors photography to be done today. It's been raining literally all day, and this was the (so-called) view out my bedroom window earlier today..
Day 9: 19-Oct-2013
Had a wander around town yesterday, and remembered the sculpture I'd seen "behind" Albert Hall a few weeks ago when I didn't have my camera with me. Would love to take photos of it again when the weather is a bit nicer. Massive mirror dish by the Nottingham Playhouse, with the Albert Hall in the reflection. The sculpture is called Sky Mirror and is by Anish Kapoor, and it's 5.75x5.75x1.08 metres.
Day 10: 20-Oct-2013
My freshly re-installed MacBook Pro. Will have the joy tomorrow of setting it up and moving files back from external hard drive. A bit of geekyness never hurts ;)
Got a bit of a mini-theme going for the last two days - old and battered..
Day 7: 17-Oct-2013
Walk past this building every Thursday on my way to church. It looks old and worn, and seem to be one of many buildings that are unfortunately being left to fall into ruin.
Day 8: 18-Oct-2013
The skip "graveyard" near work. Always full of old dumpsters/skips that look like they've seen better days.
The weather forecast isn't looking too promising for the next week, but hoping to get out and about a bit more during daylight over the (extended) weekend. Just have to hope for no rain, and then I'll be sorted.
Day 6: 16-Oct-2013
With it raining pretty much all day today, I wasn't expecting to take photos on my way home from work. But it had kindly cleared up by the time I left work (late as usual). A bit of reflection in one of the many puddles on the way to the bus stop this evening.