2018 Picture A Day

20181114 - Harbour Lights

318 / 365

20181113 - Heron

317 / 365 Another shot from our walk through St James's Park on Sunday.

20181112 - St James's Park Squirrel

316 / 365 These things are so darn tame. Why bother foraging for food when you can take it from the hands of tourists, eh?

20181111 - Remembrance

315 / 365 Sunday was thankfully a sunnier day and we made our way to the Cenotaph via St James's Park (and the Lego store...). It was nice to be there for the 100th anniversary of the armistice - if nice is the right word. I have an uncle I never met because his RAF plane didn't make it back over the channel one night. It's an odd thing. I don't remember Joe, but I have very strong memories of my mother remembering him. She always planted one of these poppy crosses for him and I remember how much it mattered to her. When I saw this cross on the Battle of Britain Monument by the Thames, it seemed a fitting shot for the day. More about this monument: http://bbm.org.uk/ It's a stunning piece of sculpture.

20181110 - Tower Bridge

314 / 365 Most weekend plans go swimmingly. This weekend wasn't one of those. It took us the best part of an hour just to get to the railway station. Fortunately (?), the trains were also delayed by the inclement weather and we just made it onto the 15-min-delayed 3pm train (which was diverted via Havant & Guildford due to engineering works at Basingstoke). London was also rather damp. We got drenched walking to the hotel and drenched again walking across Tower Bridge to the theatre. I'd like to report the play ('A Very Very Very Dark Matter') at the Bridge Theatre was worth the effort, but it really wasn't. It's the first time I've ever seen anyone fall asleep during a performance. The rain had thankfully subsided by the time we left and I had the chance to take a few shots before and after we attempted to have dinner at a Pizza Express - which didn't go well either. The waiter forgot to put through our order and by the time they deigned to serve us, they decided it was too late to also do dessert or coffee. We weren't even the last ones in the restaurant... Oh and did I mention one of the reasons we booked this was to see the Lord Mayor's Show fireworks... which were cancelled this year.

20181109 - Pointless

313 / 365 I dropped my jumbo multi-coloured pencil. :( This is a rather pointless overkill stack of 20 shots captured using Magic Lantern and stacked in Helicon Focus - which I'm still trying to learn how to get the best out of. At least I can go sharpen my pencil now. ;)

20181108 - Five

312 / 365 A quick focus-stack of my new bluetooth numberpad - which is huge! It's probably twice the size I was expecting.

20181107 - Grill

311 / 365 A quick bit of light-painting.

20181106 - The Bee on the Bench

310 / 365 He's just inspecting that leaf *really closely* - honest. Absolutely not dead. ;) Had totally the wrong camera with me for a macro shot, but managed to get something as he was standing very still. ;)

20181105 - Clean-Up

309 / 365 Alternate Title: How many marshals does it take to clean-up an oil spill? ;) Busy first day back at work and I'm fading fast so here's another pic from Brands Hatch. One of the little Legends cars managed to leave an oil trail half way around the track. In this instance, it took lots of marshals to clean it up with cement dust. There were groups like this all the way up the hill to Druids. Huge shout-out to race marshals. They're all volunteers and we'd literally have no motorsport of any flavour without them.

20181104 - Truck Racing at Brands Hatch

308 / 365 Went up to Brands Hatch for the final meeting of the British Truck Racing season. Didn't really enjoy it as much as we did last year. The evening fireworks were very good, but it was poor light for photography. We had grandstand seats but our view was marred by people wearing huge over-sized-bobble hats in front. It was like sitting behind someone wearing a top hat at the cinema. Bizarre. They were all around the track and who ever was selling them did a huge disservice to people at the event. Yet again I find myself at an outdoor event utterly amazed at the lack of self-awareness of some people. I don't remember motor-racing being like this before. I really must be getting old because between those people and the 'stand up to Facebook Live it to their three Russian bot followers' brigade, it's making me not want to go anymore. Our view: https://twitter.com/humphrey_hippo/status/1059082339006013440 (really not kidding here)

20181103 - Outbound

307 / 365 A bit of in-car silliness on the drive up to Brands Hatch.

Advanced Creature WUP

306 / 365 Have moved on to the Advanced part of my digital sculpting course. I've got as far as the mid-level details on the dragon thingy. The luggage and figure are just place-holders for now. Course Link: https://www.udemy.com/mastering-sculpting-in-blender/

20181101 - Redbridge Sunset

305 / 365 The sky lit up rather prettily on our drive into town for coffee and cake. We made a quick stop at Redbridge and I managed three shots before the sun dipped below the horizon. I was going to try fix the leaning pylons but decided I sort of like how silly they look. :)

20181031 - Witch's Night Out

304 / 365 Went down to Ferndown for coffee and cake in rather uninteresting light. On a detour home, we stumbled across Horton's Folly and I took a few shots in the fading light. And then edited the hell out of it when I got home. ;) Happy Halloween. My last shot of this tower was way back in my first year on 365 - and had a much nicer sky!: https://365project.org/humphreyhippo/365/2012-11-18

20181030 - Fair Rides

303 / 365 Had enough of computers today so here's another shot from Beaulieu fair on Saturday. This was taken after the fireworks when most people had started to leave. We took a few pictures of the rides before heading into the National Motor Museum to see if they had any new displays.

20181028 - So That Happened

301 / 365 Went up to Guildford to see some former Bison players ice for Manchester Storm. It was a scrappy game and Storm have serious discipline issues. It really wasn't worth the journey and we left to the sounds of a long-expected bench clearance with a minute and change still on the clock. Storm didn't even score once.

20181027 - Beaulieu Fireworks Fair

300 / 365 Went to the fireworks at Beaulieu tonight. The fireworks themselves were very good, but a lot of peoples' view (including ours) was sadly marred by a combination of people putting kids on their shoulders and the 'Facebook Live' iPhone brigade. I know I'm getting old but it gets worse every year. It seems every outdoor event we go to now, we have to watch it through the phone screens of the people in front. Tried to get a few long exposure shots of the fair afterwards, but there really weren't any good compositions due to inconveniently-placed (from my pov!) generator trucks. Still, I got a proper hot dog so it was a good night out. :)

20181026 - A Walk in the Rain

299 / 365 Tried to make the effort to go for a photo walk today, but it started to rain as soon as the camera came out. You might be able to see the rain drops in this shot. The chap walking his dog was all nicely framed but sped up as soon as the rain begin. Oh well. I still like the bokeh leaves all over the path. My other half has since pointed out he likes the 'face in the hedge eating the guy' - which I cannot unsee. ;)

20181025 - Southampton Civic Centre

298 / 365 Bit under the weather today so I'm posting another shot from our walk back from the theatre. It was almost today. ;) This is Southampton Civic Centre. Inside here is the library and the art gallery amongst other things. The lower walls are a bit burnt out due to the spot lights but I still like it anyway. Don't think it survived the edit, but there is the very faint ghost of the actor who played King Philip II walking through the shot. I know it's there. ;) The camera was balanced on a parking meter way over my head.

20181024 - NST City

297 / 365 Went back to Southampton's new theatre, Nuffield City, to see Don Carlos... which was... long. Lots of dramatic lighting and moving of light stands, but I didn't find it particularly engaging if I'm honest. Also was somewhat bemused to find they have stopped serving Diet Coke and tried to fob me off with that scourge that is 'Coke Zero'. Had a quick play with the RX100 balanced on a Miggo Splat balanced on a post outside. It was fun trying to time it with the buses going past, but a bit of a nightmare when I got home and found how bad the lens flare was. Much over-editing ensued.

20181023 - Towards Dover's Hill

296 / 365 Still reviewing my shots from the weekend. This was taken just outside Saintbury when we stopped to clean all the bugs off the windscreen. I liked how the drystone wall and trees framed the view across to what I think is Dover's Hill - named after Robert Dover, founder of the "Cotswold Olimpick Games", which was the precursor of the modern Olympic Games according to Wikipedia. ;) Dover's Hill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover%27s_Hill

20181022 - RSC by Night

295 / 365 The RSC's Royal Shakespeare Theatre by the River Avon in Stratford. Taken on our post-show walk on Saturday night.

20181021 - Broadway Tower

294 / 365 Enjoyed a lovely sunny drive back from Stratford via the Cotswolds. Saw lots interesting sights - gliders, a small airfield, big birds of prey, a lady in a pub garden with a cockatoo on each shoulder (not even kidding). Then we stumbled across this folly - which is clearly very popular. Parking was a nightmare and so was trying to get a shot without 15 people standing in front of it. I settled for trying to get a series of shots with people covering different bits and have tried to merge them in Photoshop. I've left the people on the top for scale. ;) Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Tower,_Worcestershire

20181020 - Tamburlaine

293 / 365 Popped up to Stratford-upon-Avon this weekend to see the RSC perform Tamburlaine at the Swan Theatre. It's a very interesting space and I'm sure we'll be back. The play itself was really well done, with - perhaps unsurprisingly for Tamburlaine - buckets and buckets of stage blood. Literally. They also managed to sneak in a Tommy Cooper reference which got a round of applause. ;)

20181019 - Ears

292 / 365 Had a day off work and spent it being lazy at home. Worked on the 'mutant squirrel' Blender digital sculpture course a bit more too. I'm at the stage where I spend ages fiddling with something and then realise it doesn't really look any different. Still, I quite like the ears. ;)

20181018 - Evening Lights

291 / 365 A not-terribly-exciting shot from the balcony walk around West Quay shopping centre. The light faded surprisingly quickly - as did the temperature. The red building is Southampton's geothermal plant, which I think was the first one in the UK. Still getting the weird artefacts in the starburst/bloom around lights with the RX100. Not sure if it's a setting or just the way this camera is, but I don't like it.

20181017 - Waiting for Wicked

290 / 365 A diary shot from our seats at tonight's performance of Wicked at the Mayflower in Southampton. It's the first time we've been back since the £7.5mil refurbishment. It only reopened at the end of September and is looking rather lovely - all resplendent in its new red and gold colour scheme. It was a good show. Not my usual sort of thing but it was a fun night out. It was somewhat less fun trying to get out of the multi-storey car park afterwards though...

20181016 - Beaulieu Abbey Church - South End

289 / 365 Having one of those days, so here's the other shot I took on Saturday at Beaulieu Abbey Church. It's another long-exposure fish eye shot, with the camera balanced on the church wall. This is the 'car park' side, and I took the shot before we went inside whilst there was still some light left in the sky.