Day 121 - Eggs 1 (B&W)

Not a very inspiring picture as I've had one pig of a day! However, I do fancy playing around with eggs one day as a guy on my first course at Ffotogallery used them for his depth of field project and his pictures worked out really well with them!

Day 120 - Abstract lines 2 (B&W)

A little bit of creativity for todays picture. I quite fancy trying a fortnight or month of doing lines, patterns and textures to see what I can find. If nothing else it may force me to look at things a bit differently! This is a shot of a wicker basket in the bathroom which one of the few things staying for the new one!

119 - Moody Sky (B&W)

It is being predicted that this April may well be the wettest on record and I think this will be one weather prediction they get right! We were relaxing on Saturday evening with a lovely glass of red when I noticed how moody the sky had become. The sitting room had gotten very dark quite quickly, and once I noticed the sky, I hopped up with camera in hand to catch the sky before it became completely overcast. It was quite dramatic and looked even better in black and white!

Day 118 - Bathroom Ball (B&W)

Next weekend, as we head off to the sun for some us time, we have two bathroom fairies coming in to give us a new one! Literally everything is being pulled out to be replaced with something new. It's long overdue and it'll be so nice to come back from holidays to a new bathroom. Hopefully everything goes smoothly between now and then!

Day 117 - Springs (B&W)

I'm amazed that even though I did a bit of dusting my macro lens still showed up how dusty these springs in the lab were!

Day 116 - Wooden Palette (B&W)

Indoors inspiration came from a wooden chopping board as it was tipping it down outside. A little adjustment with levels and curves in Photoshop to bring out the grain resulted in todays picture. Hope you like it.

Day 115 - Chains (B&W)

A hunt around the lab and todays picture is the result. A macro shot of some silver chain links. It took some steady hands and a push up of the ISO but I like the result.

Day 114 - Showers, surprise surprise (B&W)

Self explanatory!

113 - Westonbirt Arboretum in Spring (B&W)

Today we went to Westonbirt Arboretum for a walk and to catch up with some friends. I started shooting in monochrome before returning to standard picture style (colour) and this was one of the shots taken in black and white before going back to colour for the rest of our walk. A delicate flower, which in colour is white and pink, actually turned out well in black and white. Though I don't think I'd do this too often with macro shots of flowers!

112 - Abstract Lines 1 (B&W)

Hmm, I think there may be some camera shake in this picture but I still like the effect I got from shooting our bamboo blinds in black and white. I can see how geometric shapes and lines can make interesting abstract pictures, particularly in black and white. I can see myself undertaking a personal project based on this genre. It may be something I do and develop over the course of a year. Now there's a thought!

111 - April Showers.......Again (B&W)

And yet again we have more April showers! However, I couldn't miss the opportunity to catch some of the rain drops in the puddle on our fire escape stairs and am rather pleased with the result so the showers were forgiven!

110 - Leaf (B&W)

On our walk this evening myself and the Black Beast passed a tree with waxy leaves so I pinched a few to take home for some macro shots and todays picture is the result of this thievery! I think I'll be trying some more shots like this as I like the effect and detail you get from the veins in the leaf.

109 - Fencing (B&W)

Not the best of pictures this week due to an uninteresting subject matter and some camera shake for good measure!

108 - Coal (B&W)

This picture definitely looks better in black and white. This week I've set my picture style on my camera to monochrome and since I shoot in RAW the picture is imported and shown in colour in Lightroom. Seeing it in colour made me realise how much better it looks in black and white. I'm also playing with depth of field while doing the black and white shooting as well for practise more than anything else, hence the sort depth of field in the picture.

107 - Fire Escape (B&W)

As I've hit a photographers equivalent of writers block, I've decided to do a few weeks of black and white photography to get over the hump. Today we have some fire escape stairs. I love the effect you get in black and white from the texture in the stair steps.

106 - I Hate Ironing!

Inspired a picture by Peter Fraser who loosely inspired my main project for my recent photography course, this is what my Sunday evenings are all about. Ironing shirts for himself for the week. It's one household job I don't think anyone enjoys!

105 - 3 weeks and counting!

3 weeks today we're off for a week in the sun. Cannot wait! Think I've gotten enough suncreams for the two of us?!

Day 104 - Aftermath

One of yesterdays victims.

Day 103 - Hail the size of stones!

Well the warm April weather is truly gone. Today we had thunder and lightening storms, rain and hail the size of peddles/stones that if hit by them would have stung! It was so ferocious that the hail was ripping off the new leaves on the trees beside our building today. Just had to get a picture of it though!

Day 102 - Easily Pleased

This evening my neighbour dropped in a parcel in my hubby's name and I opened it to find this little beauty inside! I am one very, very happy wife tonight! I've wanted this book ever since I discovered Thomas Hoepker and my hubby managed to source a copy all the way from New York. I can see hours of perusing it coming up!

Day 101 - What a difference a day makes

It's it just typical, that the day you go back to work after a long bank holiday weekend that was grey and dreary (both in Paris and Wales), the sun shines from the heavens! This was the scene on Llanfabon hill as I collected the Black Beast from her weekend stay in the kennels. Blue skies, sunshine and a warm evening!

Day 100 - La Tour Eiffel

A nice stroll around the back of the Eiffel Tower before we headed back to the airport rounded off our weekend nicely. Despite the clouds and grey skies, we enjoyed ourselves and are counting down to our next planned trip in three and a half weeks time. This was the last shot of the weekend and a little adjustment in photoshop with the levels (putting what I learnt on my course to practise) and we have a picture that sums up Paris in one.

Day 99 - 20 Year Anniversary

A little known fact about my hubby is that 20 years ago this year he was part of the opening crew for Euro Disney at Marne-la-Vallee. Despite not having children ourselves yet, we had to go to commemorate the 20 year anniversary for him (this was our second visit as a childless couple and we were very glad to see it wasn't just us who didn't have children with them for the day!). It was quite busy as you'd expected for Easter Sunday and we patiently waited in line to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! A few pics inside on the phone and voila, todays picture!

Day 98 - Advertising

Down in the metro on our way around Paris, I came across this collections of advertisments and just had to stop to take a quick snap on my phone. The mish-mash of adverts for all sorts of theatrical performances and concerts just caught my eye, as did the colours of the posters. And I thought it would make a really good picture for the day!

Day 97 - RER B

Every time we step off the plane it's like coming home! Off the plane, onto the RER B and into Chatelet to connect to the metro we need. It's good to be in Paris again!

Day 96 - Easter break

There is going to be another gap in the blog updates as my hubby and I are France-bound tomorrow for a much needed break and long weekend. While we're away we're hoping this fella will drop in and leave us an Easter egg or two for our good behaviour. He popped into work today to say hi, isn't he cute!

Day 95 - Food, glorious food

Last night I was out with work to celebrate one of our colleagues getting her visa to remain in the UK and hence with the company too. She's a lovely girl and has been to hell and back in a year and it was great news for us all when she got word she had her visa. So, after waiting until people were in work and not on holidays, we finally went out for a meal to celebrate. And boy did we enjoy it. It is a restaurant that does, as it says on the tin, foods of the world. I was rather pleased with myself that I managed a plate of starters, mains and desserts without going overboard as can often happen at buffets. Yum, yum yum!

Day 94 - What a change....

What a difference a couple of days make. From a full playground at the weekend to an abandoned one on Tuesday! We've had a mad turn in the weather from 18C down to 5-ish. It did make for a quiet stroll around the park with the Black beast though!

Day 93 - Dark Day

It's taken me a while to update this weeks blog pictures as it was a dark day for me on Monday. Our leopard gecko hasn't been doing too good of late with shedding and feeding and I decided to bring him to the vet on Monday. However, after hearing what was potentially wrong with him and how much weight he had lost, I decided it was kinder to ask the vet to put him to sleep rather than prolong any discomfort in trying to fight the infection he had or put him through any other suffering in trying to regain the weight. I was quite brave at the vets and in work until about lunchtime but then it hit me. I guess you don't really realise how much you care for a pet until you go through something like that. I still can't bring myself to look at his vivarium and that night even chocolate wouldn't cheer me up!

Day 92 - April Fools

A shaky picture to match the shaky photographer. Hungover from a late night meant April Fools Day has passed by in a blur today. Personally I've near really seen the point to april fools tricks but I guess each to their own and all that.

Day 91 - Empire Chicken

While watching a Jamie Oliver programme on tv, we discovered the new and fabulous alternative to a traditional roast chicken dinner. It takes a little bit of planning but the results are totally worth it. And this weekend we feasted on Empire chicken for dinner. Yum!

Day 90 - Wired for sound

I use my Ipod everyday in work and for Christmas 2010 my hubby bought me a really good set of in-ear headphones. However, they've given up the ghost and I've been using a cheap pair to get me through the day. I decided to pull my finger out on Friday and get around to ordering a new pair, and my hubby set me on a site where there was a deal on some pretty awesome headphones. I promptly ordered a pair from Living Social and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. It's the little things that make me happy!

Day 89 - Sunny Evening

A lovely sunny evening for walking the dog!