Bluesmachine's photo52 2011 (Up to date now)

I forgot to mention; as you may have realised, the angle is off on this. When I was rushing around I knocked the tripod which moved the entire thing about 1" to the left. I did go back to this yesterday to reshoot it, but apparently my cat has been playing with the eggs and sweets, so some things are scattered around the house now, and others are in the bin, smashed to bits! :D
 
Love your take on HARD. Great colour, tone and subject matter. My only niggle is that it looks like you overdid the vignette slightly, and have lost the corner of the Joy, and the e of love.
Other than that, I like this a lot.

Rgds

Adie
 
Yeah I was really rushed and stressing about getting it done. We've been decorating the house and it's been like a bomb site for weeks. It's really difficult getting anything done, plus my net connection was only fixed yesterday!

The egg is off centre ( well to be exact the whole image is off centre due to knocking the tripod) and I need to reel in the vignetting. Overall I'm pleased with the image idea and processing style, but not the execution of either!
 
Hiya Niall,

Good take on the theme for Hard, although I think this would fit for 'clutter' too, and I mean that in a positive way.

There are a lot of 'hard' subjects in your image. I agree with Adie about the vignette, something to bear in mind for next time.

Otherwise a nice take on the theme and it looks like you have put a lot of thought and effort into creating the image.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 

Clutter by Niall Allen, on Flickr

Simple and I didn't have to go anywhere! I did want to try and take a photo from an elevated position over a market place, but the market here is indoors so I can't do that and I don't know of anywhere else near here, so this is what I decided on :)

It was a little soft for some reason, so I've applied the processing effect above, with some sharpening and noise reduction. Still, it covers the theme, so it'll do :D
 
Hi Niall

I really like your clutter shot ,it's got added interest from the ajar door leading to (possibly) more clutter & I find I'm trying to read the book titles:thumbs:
The sepia tones also work really well ....great shot :thumbs:
 
Hiya Niall,

Yep I agree with Lynne, this is a good shot that fits the theme well and I too like the processing. Your clutter looks a lot more organised than my house, and I can't even blame mine on decorating (so I will just have to put the blame on my 6 year old son .... well who else could it be, certainly not moi :p)

I too find myself wanting to peer in and see what clutter is in the back room, so well done on capturing an inviting image (if that is the right word) :thinking:

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Thanks :)

That's actually why I took it. I was looking at the bookcase thinking "god that's messy" and noticed the clutter in the back room. This was a few weeks ago, and I only thought about it a couple of days ago.

I think I'm getting the vignetting bug at the moment. Every photo I have, I've had a look at with vignetting applied, but I've avoided posting them again as it's a bit over kill :D I really must look at another processing style for my next photo.

Listening to the racket the roofer is making outside, I may be doing a spot of photo journalism if he falls off :D
 
Bluesmachine said:
Thanks :)

That's actually why I took it. I was looking at the bookcase thinking "god that's messy" and noticed the clutter in the back room. This was a few weeks ago, and I only thought about it a couple of days ago.

I think I'm getting the vignetting bug at the moment. Every photo I have, I've had a look at with vignetting applied, but I've avoided posting them again as it's a bit over kill :D I really must look at another processing style for my next photo.

Listening to the racket the roofer is making outside, I may be doing a spot of photo journalism if he falls off :D
Click to expand...


I know what you mean about getting a 'bug' for a particular style of processing, and I too went through and still do use vignette, which can be very effective with the right image.

As you use the various pp options available you will soon know which will look best with an image.

I find I have to curb my pp'ing at times and with this Photo52 have been trying to get the image as close as possible in camera rather than spend hours processing. Although there are the times where it is fun to see what pp techniques can do to an image. In my 365 I tend to be quite creative with the pp as it is part of my processing learning experience.

Cheers

Dawn :)

P.S. I hope the roofer doesn't fall off!
 
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I've actually got hundreds of presets that have some really nice effect. I think I've only used about 8 of them recently. Normally I like the clean, crisp image with little done to it, but I like the style of photo you can get from a 5DmkII camera with the 35L, so I try to create that effect until I find £3200 somewhere to buy that setup myself :D
 
Niall, I've missed your 52 for some reason.

For me you have great composition skills. I like the simplicity of your photographs.

Lots of others to go through so I'll keep it brief (I've also not looked at any follow-up comments):

#1: nice tight composition and b&w works well. I'd like to see a shallower dof and the 'Y' in the middle of the bench stands out - not sure f it was intentional?? I'm not keen on your edit, though.

#2: nice and simple with good dof. I'd like to see the apple in the right side of the bowl though.

#3: not keen on the door being central and it looks like it's leaning (I'm believe there's a term for this, but I can't recall). I like the moss. Just seen you Flickr and this is better, apart from the sky and kerb (?)in the foreground.

#4: any photograph with a cat in it works for me! I'd remove the green thing and the mouse (?) on the left.

#5: nice and simple and the format works well. I find the vignetting on the J and E distracting but the sharpness of the egg is great.

#6: I though the door should be closed but I can see the clutter in there as well. I also like the muted colours.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for the reply. I thought people just hated what I was posting as no one ever replies; not that it bothers me as I'm doing it purely to learn :)

The apple shot really isn't there for anything other than to allow me to progress in the photo52. It really was a 2 second shot as I was walking through the dining room. I've actually deliberately processed it to look as bad as I could. I was extremely stressed and unhappy with missing out on my planned shot.

#3 The door is actually central because 12-24 on a crop, doesn't get all of the church in. I had to zoom in a little to get a sort of framing done on the shot or you could see that the left of the shot had things cut off, which ruined it totally. If I ever get my 5dMKII (or mkIII) I'll retake it with the same lens to see what 12mm looks like on full frame!

#4 I'm not sure what that was on the left, but it may have been a catnip toy. I didn't really have much choice taking that photo. My sister's cats are nuts! :D

#5 I completely messed up the processing, but as I was so stressed about getting it done late, I missed the fact I'd got that wrong. I was more concerned about the egg being sharp. Due to the processing I used, I lost a LOT of sharpness, then I noticed the egg was off centre and that I'd knocked the tripod and the whole image was off centre. I'd moved the tripod about 2" diagonally from where I wanted it. It took me AGES laying out the boiled sweets correctly too. The image I planned out looked much better :( Sadly my cat smacked everything around while I was upstairs processing this shot, so the moment (and eggs) were gone!

This weeks shot has the door left open deliberately. You can't see it as well on the image on the forum, but on flickr it's larger and you can see in to the room. I always use the smallest image link on forums from Flickr to avoid people having to load large images :)
 
Hi Niall, just seen your week 6 and I really like it. :thumbs:
I has a natural look , but the processing works very well.
Great take on "clutter". The open door with a view into next room really adds to the shot. The understated vignette adds to the image without being overdone.

Looking forward to your week 7.

Patrick
 
Thanks :)

I've been franticly trying to think of something for 'delicate'. I've been a little short of time, more so than usual, this week as I FINALLY got my physio appointment through for my knee. I did briefly consider taking a photo of my knee whilst in physio class but I doubt anyone wants to see my hairy legs :D
 
I somehow totally forgot about my birthday today and have be *ahem* celebrating for a couple of days. I'll try and get last weeks done at some point today, in between family members turning up, eating food and having a drink!

At least I'm off for two weeks, so I'll have plenty of time to take photos. I'm going to randomly pick a city on payday next week and go to do some street photography for a change :)
 
I've had such a busy time since the 'delicate' theme was announced I still haven't had a chance to take ANY photos, never mind the one for this theme :( I'm hoping to do something today, but I've got a lot to do as I'm off work. I swear I have to do less in work!

Also, I have absolutely no idea what to do for chaos. The only idea I thought of was the butterfly effect, which someone has already done, so that's out the window. The weather is bad too so I can't go anywhere. Frustrating isn't the word.
 

Angel tree by Niall Allen, on Flickr

Rather than take another macro photo of a feather or a flower, I spotted this miniature Christmas tree on the bookcase, so I thought it would perfectly fit the delicate theme!

I still have ZERO idea for chaos though. Oh, actually I just thought of one while I was typing! Yay!

{edit} This is very late due to not having any time in the last week. Physio took my spare time unfortunately, but I'd rather be taking late photos and getting strong enough to allow me to run in the meantime :)
 
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Ta :)

I forget why, but there was a reason the crop was so tight. I think it was that I had a plan of using it as a Christmas card too (getting my money out of it :D). I decided I wanted to use the Sigma 105 macro lens for a change, rather than overkill with the 50mm1.4 (I love that lens so much, I'm using it for everything :D)

I still haven't taken my "chaos" photo, and to be quite honest I don't know what to do. I have one idea, but it's pretty poor, although I don't want to skip it. I've also just spent 10 hours fixing a very old laptop for my aunt, which was incredibly frustrating and riddled with virus/malware/spyware thanks to some bright spark removing all the security I installed on it :cuckoo:

Today my new PC bits have arrived, so I'm backing everything up before building my shiny new hex core system.

Busy busy!
 

Organised chaos by Niall Allen, on Flickr

I couldn't resist. I've left the basket of pens slightly out of shot to give it a cramped feel. I really feel there should be something in the centre to cut out the harsh light effect from the processing. Still, organised chaos (they're my, or my sisters old colouring books from 34 years ago!) is what it says to me. The tube at the back contains 100s & 1000s, which was going to be my initial idea, but I didn't want to clear them up again. I was going to spell out the word chaos in 100s & 1000s :D
 
Hi, Niall, I like the processing on this one, gives it a nice aged feel.

It's waayyy to organised for me though. I'd like to have seen some pens and 100s & 1000s on the table and a few opens on the excersise books.

I appreciate the 3 seconds it would have taken tp tidy it up may have put you off, though...;)

Bit more focus would have helped...

And, I have to say, some of these chaos shots put my house to shame!

Cheers.
 
Heh, yeah. I've got a lot on at the moment, and only took that on the spur of the moment as we've just moved an old bookcase and they were on the table.

I suppose having pens all over the table in that gap in the centre would be better too. I never thought of that at the time. There was more clutter around the shot, but it wasn't really consistent with those items (psychology, management & nursing books!). I always try to keep shots tight to avoid them screaming of a photo taken by a random novice toddling around the house taking loads of photos of nothing. My tree shot even had a DIY light box made from A4 paper :D
 
Hiya Niall,

Soz, missed your last two weeks, so doing a quick catch up here:

Delicate: I like this, especially the bit of bokeh going on and the vignette frames it nicely. What are you doing with a christmas tree on display at this time of year? :D

Chaos: I like your idea, although if that is chaos then you should see out house :lol: I agree about the light reflecting off the table and it would have been better to try to tone it down with something there. I wasn't sure what was in the little bottle until I read your write-up to the pic. Maybe the 100s & 1000s will come in handy for another photo some time soon.

Otherwise well done.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Thanks :)

I'm actually trying not to duplicate photos that could cross over from previous ones (chaos & clutter in this case). I think I'm over thinking things really. I stress myself out far too much trying to think of an image, but I'm always happy afterwards, if only realising what I could have done better.

Overall I'd say that despite my failings I'm quite happy with trying different things. I just need to think of something for finish. I'll have a look around to see if there are any races in the region this week so I can use my 70-200 for a change :D
 
Well I've got a photo idea for finish. My hard drive with 2 years of photography on it, just died. I've lost all my photography, backups of browsers stuff, family photos, including photos of my recently deceased cat, Lily :(

Program backups, system settings, music. Everything.

I'm really annoyed as the drive was working fine. I install it in my new PC and it dies. To make matters worse, I ordered an external drive yesterday to back all this up. :thumbsdown:
 
Bluesmachine said:
Well I've got a photo idea for finish. My hard drive with 2 years of photography on it, just died. I've lost all my photography, backups of browsers stuff, family photos, including photos of my recently deceased cat, Lily :(

Program backups, system settings, music. Everything.

I'm really annoyed as the drive was working fine. I install it in my new PC and it dies. To make matters worse, I ordered an external drive yesterday to back all this up. :thumbsdown:
Click to expand...

I'd take it to a repair shop and have them have a look at it. If it were me, I'd be willing to pay good money if they could recover the lost data.

I lost all my iTunes library last year and was absolutely fumming with myself...I now have 2 external drive and back up 'in the cloud'.

Good luck...:thumbs:
 
It's most definitely irrecoverable :(

The drive seems to be totally dead. I rebooted before and heard a click of death from it trying to spin up. This parrot is dead.

The annoying thing is that this IS my backup. I was planning on using my old parts to build a PC for my mum next payday, and as such ordered a 500gb drive along with my external one. The obvious plan was to have external backup and my mums PC to use as a redundant back up for everything as well. That way I'd be covered. I'd been planning it for months, but only finished paying a loan off last month, and this month and the next was when I was upgrading.

I've done everything I can with the hardware, and installed new bios on the motherboard in the vain hope something would happen, but no.

I backed up my itunes folder after forgetting to last time. It took me 2 days to mp3 everything last time. I HATE the way you can back up your iphone, and things you bought from their store, but you can't copy the music from your iphone to itunes. It's ridiculous; obviously you've had it on itunes in the first place for it to be on your phone! I hate Apple :razz:
 
Hi, just wanted to say I really like your 'hard' shot. Not that I don't like the others of course but that one stands out. The colours and the sharpness are really nice.
Cheers
Jonathan
 
Thanks :)

On an even brighter note, I FIXED THE DRIVE!

Well, technically it wasn't broken. The transfer rate had to be switched from 6gb per sec to 3 in order for my sata drives to work. Who knew?! I'm still getting those backup drives delivered tomorrow though. I'm not going through that again!
 

Finished by Niall Allen, on Flickr

Sorry it's late, I've been a bit ill all week :( Also I had to build a new system, and recover my files that got corrupted. As it turns out my backup drive was dying after all!

I used the harsh vignetting as the tiles looked out of place, and the contrast between them and the brickwork outside really didn't go. It's not the best, but I've got a lot to do and this is already late!
 
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Bluesmachine said:
Thanks :)

On an even brighter note, I FIXED THE DRIVE!

Well, technically it wasn't broken. The transfer rate had to be switched from 6gb per sec to 3 in order for my sata drives to work. Who knew?! I'm still getting those backup drives delivered tomorrow though. I'm not going through that again!
Click to expand...

:thumbs:

Bluesmachine said:

Finished by Niall Allen, on Flickr

Sorry it's late, I've been a bit ill all week :( Also I had to build a new system, and recover my files that got corrupted. As it turns out my backup drive was dying after all!

I used the harsh vignetting as the tiles looked out of place, and the contrast between them and the brickwork outside really didn't go. It's not the best, but I've got a lot to do and this is already late!
Click to expand...

You've mentioned the faults, but good job getting one up.

The rear flowers have a water colour look about them. Taps/window latches (?) on the right are a bit distracting.

Ah, well, at least you recovered your data!!

Cheers.
 
I think they're leaves on the window box outside. Or maybe the little windmill thing my mum has out there! I didn't even notice it. If I hadn't rushed so much I could have easily cloned it out.
 
Liking the inspiration on finished; to be fair I didn't notice the latch until I read the comments so it's not too noticeable. Much better than mine I fear, I think it was a bit too routine :)
 
Hiya Niall

Well done on getting your week 9 posted. I like your thought process for this week, having the new daffs in the background and the 'finished' in the fore.

I'm not going to repeat what has already been commented, but agree with most.

The bits on the right didn't really bug me at first glance, and it's funny how one can miss something, then when someone points out certain bits they become more obvious.

Anyway, well done I think you hit the theme there.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 

Trio by Niall Allen, on Flickr

Very late sorry. I can't shake this bug I've picked up. 3 weeks I've been ill now :( I'm not happy with this at all really, but due to whatever this bug is that I've got, my eyes are really strained and I have slight shaking in my hands. Besides feeling terrible, I thought I should at least try to do something so people know I haven't given up. I've no idea what to do for the reshoot. The apple awfulness that I did earlier definitely could use it, but I'm not feeling up to much at the moment.

I'll try to catch up in the next week.

Well, I've just tried to take a photo for Knowledge, but for some reason my 12-24 seems to be coming out soft wide open, which it hasn't done before. Hmm. I'm probably doing something wrong, but I'm too tired to care now, so I'll wait a while to try again.
 
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Hiya Niall,

Sorry to hear you have not been feeling so well, I hope you get better soon.

Well done to you for making the effort, despite feeling under the weather.

Your trio shot definitely fits the theme and I like how have got them all set to 3 o'clock.

Nice DOF and the b&w conversion works for the image, the focus also appears good too (pity though that the face of the left hand watch is leaning back).

Now you take care and get yourself better.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
hiya niall, i like the trio shot:)

i think it would be better if either they were all set to 3.03 like the middle one was, or all just set to 3.00?
i'm afraid I'm tempted to steal the idea for my own development...
 
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