Dizzy's 52, Part II. The mother of all catch ups??

dizzy

dizzy

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David Thomas
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I'm not quite sure where to begin here!! As you may remember, we had loads of IT drama prior to our going back to the UK for a 16 day visit and was finally able to start catching up on things in the few days before we left around the 10th July. Well... I was feeling all pleased with myself for finally being up and running again, had managed to find the UK power lead for the laptop, Jo's Dad had just ordered the internet for their house and i'd paid for a data package on my iphone. Everything was going OK on the way back to the UK apart from a 3 hour delay in the airport and an hours delay getting the hire car. By the time we reached Derbyshire, feeling very jaded, we discovered that somewhere in the airport my iphone had gone missing. Joy.

We were then patiently waiting for the broadband line to go live at my in-laws and we were all very pleased when it all seemed to be up and running - i should point out that the PC they had seemed to be dead, but at least we had our laptop while that went to be repaired...

The first time the laptop was on, it downloaded some Vista updates and installed them when we switched off. Unfortunately, the next morning when Jo went to switch on she didn't realise that the laptop was completing the installation process and assumed it was just not responding so she held the power button down until it went off. As you may have already guessed, that lead to a corrupt disc that can't be resolved without a reinstallation of the OS. Double Joy.

We're now without iphone, laptop or pc. Not to worry we thought, Jo's sister lives 2 minutes round the corner and we could use there computer. TO cut a long story short, her orange broadband line was down and despite her spending hours on the phone to them everyday, it remained down. Magic.

We did go on our travels to see my family and again to cut a long story short, it was a mix of we have internet connection but our computer is broken or we have a working PC and the line is down. I could have cried.

Thankfully, we had taken our (very) old UK mobile phones back with us so I bought a SIM card and was able to very painfully find out what the themes were each week and capture them. Another bonus was that I'd taken lots of memory cards as I had been asked to do some wedding work for Jo's niece on the final weekend.

Straight after coming back I was straight back in to 7 days of 12 hour shifts and it's taken until today to get a computer working again. I officially am never having another PC ever again. This laptop has already crashed twice since I got it going again and I think we've nearly saved enough for a visit to the apple store the next time I get a day off!!!

So, apologies for the delay in getting them up, but I have been still going. I'll post the missing shots below now. It's good to be back, keep your fingers crossed that the laptop lasts until I've got to the apple store!

Dizzy (y)
 
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52.27 Highlight. This was the week we were going back to the UK and apart from seeing the family again, the highlight of the week for me was always going to be having a trip to the chippy and some proper beer!! The fish, chips and kebab disappeared in double quick time so it was beer!! Don't let it be said I've never suffered for art. So, there's the highlights in the bottle and the biggest highlight of the week for me after 18 months without proper beer. 52.27 Highlight - Good to see you, old friend!

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52.28 Fun. As soon as I read what this was going to be I knew what direction I'd be going in. We were driving over to stay at my sisters farm at the end of the week in mid-wales and it was the first time I'd have seen my nephew and nieces in nearly 2 years. The eldest is 5 now and the youngest is 2 - she'd been just a baby when I left the UK so it was very exciting to see her development. The fingers were crossed for the entire week hoping that the rain would hold off while we were there so that I could try and get some shots of the kids playing on a giant trampoline they have in the field below the house. Someone must have taken pity on me after all the IT disasters!! 52.28 Fun - I can fly, Uncle David!!


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52.29 - Easy. This took a bit of thinking about as my initial thought was to do with all the things we have these days that make our life easier. Then I realised that all those things were either lost or broken... The end of this week was the wedding so I tried to get hold of my brother-in-law to ask him to make sure his young kids had some shoes with laces with them. The idea being, one of the kids sitting on the step tying their shoe laces. To my dismay, I found that they don't own any shoes with laces in!!! But then I thought, why not adapt the idea slightly? After all, velcro shoes are much easier than laces! 52.29 Easy - Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=64811][/URL]
 
52.30 Colour. Colour? Colour??? Has nobody been paying attention to my pictures? The inspiration finally came when I was asked to act as Sqn Phot for a medal presentation. Not everyone may be aware, but the colour of the ribbons on medals all have significant meanings. It got me thinking... Just before I got back, my Father had finished clearing my grandparents house as they'd found a buyer. All i'd asked for was some old family photographs and my grandfathers medals. He was aircrew in the Lancaster Bombers during the war and was shot down on their way back from a mission. He ever talked to anyone about his time in the service apart from me, which made me feel even closer to him. So on this shot I've put his medals on top of mine. I hope you don't think this a little self indulgent, but it has meant a lot to me to do this.

[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=64812][/URL]
 
Gawd, David, what a hectic hectic time! I was wondering where you'd got to! Was actually gonna leave a reply on your last thread yesterday, it was all the way on page 3!
Brilliant of you to have been to determined to carry on with the tasks and what GREAT shots they are!!! Really like the 'Easy' and 'Highlight' ones.
And must've been painful for you to have done colour :LOL: ;)
 
Shorty said:
Gawd, David, what a hectic hectic time! I was wondering where you'd got to! Was actually gonna leave a reply on your last thread yesterday, it was all the way on page 3!
Brilliant of you to have been to determined to carry on with the tasks and what GREAT shots they are!!! Really like the 'Easy' and 'Highlight' ones.
And must've been painful for you to have done colour :LOL: ;)
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Many thanks! I was tempted to do a black and white for the colour theme, after all, they're both colours too!!
 
You've had an IT horror story David... save your pennies and get that Mac mate, I did and I love it:love:. Glad I did to as the monitor on my laptop has died.:shake:
That's quite some catch up and all of them great shots, I like fun, but then I would wouldn't I;). Easy is a great idea too. Don't get me started on Old Speckled Hen, love the stuff.:naughty:
Colour is very poignant and not at all self indulgent. (y)

Glad to see you back.

Mark(y)
 
Welcome back David, glad you got the IT mare sorted out. A great set of catch up shots. they all work very well... Well done on managing to leave one in colour, and a lovely shot it is too (not self indulgent at all but full of meaning).
 
maddog.mark said:
You've had an IT horror story David... save your pennies and get that Mac mate, I did and I love it:love:. Glad I did to as the monitor on my laptop has died.:shake:
That's quite some catch up and all of them great shots, I like fun, but then I would wouldn't I;). Easy is a great idea too. Don't get me started on Old Speckled Hen, love the stuff.:naughty:
Colour is very poignant and not at all self indulgent. (y)

Glad to see you back.

Mark(y)
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Cheers, Mark! It crashed again after I'd posted all these so I went on line and got a personal shopper appointment at the local apple store. I'm now typing this on a lurvely Macbook pro!!! :love: The only problem is, I have to save up for LR2 to put on it now...
 
jgs001 said:
Welcome back David, glad you got the IT mare sorted out. A great set of catch up shots. they all work very well... Well done on managing to leave one in colour, and a lovely shot it is too (not self indulgent at all but full of meaning).
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Many thanks, John. If it hadn't been a subject like this, I don't think I'd have been able to live with the torment of the colour :LOL: Only kidding, I'm not that mono mad. Am I??
 
Well you're certainly back from your IT nightmare with a bang!
I like all of the shots here. My favourite I think is Highlight. Unusual for me because I don't normally like selective colouring but that really works for me.

Your colour shot is very poignant too. Great idea and a very personal interpretation. Out of interest what do the colours on the ribbons signify?
 
Welcome back - hopefully to the land of permanent internet access and a fully-functioning Macbook Pro! I think that must be some kind of disaster record. Hope it didn't spoil your holiday, though. :)

It certainly hasn't affected your togging inspiration one bit. That's a cracking set of pictures you've posted. I love 'Easy' for the subject matter and the dof, but my favourite is 'Colour' because of the reasons behind it. That's very special. :)

Jean
 
dizzy said:
Many thanks, John. If it hadn't been a subject like this, I don't think I'd have been able to live with the torment of the colour :LOL: Only kidding, I'm not that mono mad. Am I??
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Not at all... I have to say I'm finding the lack of colour route strangely attracting me... :help:
 
Welcome back David...:wave:

Computers, don’t you just love them sometimes...:razz:

Has always your photography is spot on with the themes and content...:love:

You are spoiling us with 4 shot in one go...:)

Highlight...:clap:
Fun...:clap:
Easy...:clap:
Colour...:clap:

All very well thought out and a great insight to your world...superb mate...(y)
 
Hi David, what a nightmare :(

But at least you got a tasty new computer out of it ;)

Love the Highlight shot and the selective colouring really works on this one :clap:

Easy is fantastic and I love the DoF you've achieved there :clap:

Fun looks exactly that (and it's in colour :thinking:) :clap:

And Colour, what a great picture and a great story, not self-indulgent at all. :clap::clap:

So what a great welcome back for us
 
Now then, where to start!! Things got very silly over here with work going 24 hours, 70+hr weeks, and yet more personal tragedy - you wouldn't believe everything that's happened to us over the last 2 years if it was part of an eastenders plot! Anyway, something had to give and as a result the camera has been gathering dust in the corner and I've not had any 'web-time'. Apart from having to go in to get all my wisdom teeth removed it seems like we have a calm period so I'm going to try and jump back in if people don't mind? I have to say that I don't feel worthy of being here with all you guys meeting deadlines every week.

Believe it or not, I've been MIA for 15 weeks; why isn't there an emoticon for thoroughly ashamed? I had done a few that I hadn't processed until recently - we got the mac but no software to process anything but I've got LR2 installed now. I've done 43 and just shot 32. Here are the ones I've got, 8 more to come if people don't mind. I have to say I'm not looking forward to a couple of them though...

52.31 Food. Following Hollie being a willing volunteer in previous shots I thought it was only fair that her participation this time should involve the reward I promised her for emotion! I think she was pleased (sorry about going colour). 52.31 Food - A just reward.


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52.32 - Exposed. This sort of uses the idea I wanted to do for exposure with a very low key portrait and as Jo had been asking for ages why I'd not done any shots of tummy during the pregnancy I thought, why not?? This isn't the one I wanted to post. There is another in my gallery that I think is one of the nicest shots I've done, unfortunately it's NSFW so I didn't want to cause problems. Please have a look at that one too and let me know what you think NSFW. 52.32 Exposure - 33 Weeks of Joy


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70583][/URL]
 
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52.33 Mono. Well, as you all know, I'm not one for doing anything in mono... Well, I know this is a little bit of a cheat, but I wanted to use one of my favourite mono shots. I was asked to shoot Jo's niece's wedding at the end of July and I just loved this one. I'm more than happy to do another mono if you're all unhappy about using this one; I'd rather be upfront rather than claim this was done just for the theme! 52.33 mono - The Bride.


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70584][/URL]
 
52.34 Season. This was one that I shot in the right week. Unfortunately, I was missing the previous 2 weeks and had no way of processing it! Living in the desert we don't get the usual changes in season as everywhere pretty much looks the same all year round. I was thinking of a nice piece of raw fish or meat with crushed rock salt and pepper over the top, but kept eating all the food I bought before I remembered about the shot!! I then noticed all the fruit that had fallen over our wall from next doors fruit tree and ran in to grab the camera. 52.34 Season - Decay of Summer


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70586][/URL]
 
52.35 Grunge. On it's way!
52.36 Respect
52.37 Friendship
52.38 Fresh Starts
 
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52.39 Passion
52.40 Water
52.41 Out of Context
52.42 Bubbles
 
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52.43 Low Down. I'm always a big fan of looking up when walking around as it's amazing what can be overlooked. I headed off to one of my favourite desert landscape shots to do the opposite. NOthing was really leaping out at me and I thought it was going to be a wasted trip until I had one of those double take moments as I walked past a small tunnel (for want of a better description) down by my feet. The sun was coming close to the horizon and was coming through the back of a small hole carved through some rock at my feet giving a stunning glow inside it. I do feel physically sick posting 3 colour shots out of 5, can a leopard really change it's spots?? I hope I've done it justice anyway. 52.43 Low down - Sun from below.


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70585][/URL]
 
dizzy said:
52.32 - Exposed. This sort of uses the idea I wanted to do for exposure with a very low key portrait and as Jo had been asking for ages why I'd not done any shots of tummy during the pregnancy I thought, why not?? This isn't the one I wanted to post. There is another in my gallery that I think is one of the nicest shots I've done, unfortunately it's NSFW so I didn't want to cause problems. Please have a look at that one too and let me know what you think. 52.32 Exposure - 33 Weeks of Joy


[url=http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70583][/URL]
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I was wondering how you and your wife were doing!
That's a lovely shot - really like it!

I really like your Mono shot, too!

Look forward to seeing more of your catch ups, and really hope things calm down for you :hug:
 
Great series of shots David, and well done for getting back and on with it. I hope things are returning to a more normal state now. (y)
 
Great catchup! And some excellent shots there. Can't say a bad word about any of them to be honest (y)
 
Thanks guys. I'm hoping the drugs they give me after the wisdom teeth extraction won't leave me too zombie like so I can get cracking!
 
Well done on catching up . . . (well almost ;)) With everything that you've got going on I'm amazed that you've managed to get any shots in at all never mind 5 - and all of them good too!

Food : (y) I like it. Nice informal portrait. Good fun. Lovely colours in the lolly. My only niggle is the right side of her hat is getting lost in the backgrounds.

Exposed : The processing is spot on in both of these and they're both lovely, sensitive shots.
As much as I like the one that you posted, the one in your gallery is just beautiful :clap: :clap: :clap:.
Compositionally it just works much better for me with the position of her hands - it really looks like she's cradling her bump.
I also love the glint of light on her wedding / engagement rings in the gallery version.

Mono : Classic wedding shot - very nice (y)

Season : Is that a fig?
Lovely colour and texture in it and I really like the dof in this one. Being picky again (sorry) but I'd like to see the weed to the right of it cloned out or maybe things repositioned to lose it.

Low Down : I've been trying not to look because I don't even know what I'm going to do for this yet.
I couldn't help it though . . . and what a shot! I absolutely love it :love:
The colours from that glow are just gorgeous and there's something very sensual about that rock formation.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your catch up shots.
Good luck with the wisdom teeth (ooouuuuccchhhh! :puke:)
 
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Thanks. Some good points to think about there. The fruit is actually a peach. The absence of autumnal colours here meant I was going to lay out some beach towels, sun tan lotion, book and an iced drink next to the pool. in keeping with my luck, the day i had to do the shot it was cloudy and windy. Typical! I'd been out the back looking around to see if there was any chance of clouds moving on before the room i needed by the pool wasn't in harsh shadow from the house and spotted the fruit. Every cloud and all that!
 
Ya welcome back...:wave:

I was wondering if you would be back before we finished these 52s...it would have be a shame if you didn't finish them after all this time...:clap:

FOOD Great fun shot...

EXPOSED Fantastic lighting...

MONO It's your calling card...(y) Lovely image...

SEASON Great DOF work...

LOW DOWN Looks like another planet, (swear words) brilliant colours...:LOL:

Great set of catch up shots David...keep them coming...(y)
 
Welcome back David :wave: and glad life seemsto have settled down a bit and Jo looks great:D

Food - lovely portrait, and If I remember right it's the only food shot with a person in it (y)

Exposed - a very emotional picture with great lighting, and perfect for the theme :clap::clap:

Mono - Love the wedding shot. Great processing and use of space (y)

Season - Another great shot but I'd have pulled up the weed first :naughty:

Low Down - what an amazing shot :clap::clap: I love it

Great set of catch up shots.
 
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