We have heating

Woo Hoo......the heating in the house is finally fixed albeit one radiator. Having spent two weeks on an airbed in the living room whilst all the bedroom flooring was up, I am looking forward to finally getting a good nights sleep. Anyway, yesterday I thought I would go out and get a few photos fairly local. So out came the OS map and decided to go about 3 miles up the road to Belthorn and find a waterfall that was marked nearby. Some of the shots are shown below. The downside is, I have slight arthritis in my ankle because of too many years of football and the obligatory bone break, so now I am in agony from climbing down very steep muddy banks desperately protecting the camera. It doesn't matter if I fall as long as the camera is ok. But I did survive the twitchy bum moments and I'm sure I will do it again.

Voluntary work

The day started today with myself heading off to meet the Blackburn Circle of Friends and take some photographs of the activities they do. They are a local group of volunteers, whose main idea is to support getting involved in volunteering by people who may not be able to take part because of their disability or other support needs. They meet weekly to socialise & discuss voluntary work. Today they were learning the use of Microsoft Publisher to be able to produce their own community newsletter. The group is supported by the Blackburn With Darwen Community Volunteer Service.

To finish off the day I was hopeful of getting some good pictures down the local canal. It was promising on the way there but alas the cloud and fog blocked the sun rays coming through the mist. However, I did get one or two I did like so here they are.

Well here goes for the first of many posts. The last couple of weeks have seen me spend many hours researching the business of photography and gaining inspiration from the many fantastic photographers around. Many would be daunted by the superb high standard on view. I take confidence from the fact that my first nine entries in the SWPP & BPPA (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers & British Professional Photographers Association) monthly competitions gained 1 Gold award, 6 Silver and 2 Bronze awards. The gold award coming in the Bridal Portrait category. But it's not all research this week, I have also had my camera out to get a creative shot. Using a rose as my subject and a plain black background, I turned the living room lights off and lit the rose from differing angles with a Maglite and created the spiral by twirling the light around the flower. Photoshop was then used to layer and blend the pictures together to create the end product.
That's all for now folks.