Passage of time...

I wish I'd bought my new camera years ago. A lot of my photos were taken a while ago with my old camera which was a cheap point and shoot digital camera that came free with the video camera we bought, and it's that little cheapie that got me hooked on photography. When I look back at old pics knowing what I know now, I often think I could have done better had I done this or that. But I suppose that's what it's all about, getting better all the time.

light@night

I feel bad for using today's pic because I took it a while ago. For me, the whole purpose of HS:MS:HS is to challenge me to think daily about how I'm going to shoot something so that my photography improves. It's shouldn't be a case of pulling out something I shot a while ago. But I couldn't resist using today's pic because it's so appropriate and it's one I really like so you'll have to forgive me today. That being said, here's today's 'Light'.

Glossing over things

Boy am I thrilled with this pic. I had actually given up on today's prompt and was getting ready to leave for work this morning. I was moving the car out of the garage when I noticed the 'glossy' part of the gear lever. Needless to say I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera, got as low as possible in the car, and snapped off four or five good shots. I'll admit I played with the contrast a little to get the shadows a bit darker, but overall, I'm very happy.

An Apple a Day...

I really enjoyed shooting today’s pic. As soon as I saw the prompt I thought of photographing my computer, which has the Apple logo on the side. It’s not exactly colourful but I still think it makes a great subject. It was either this or a can of Appletiser in the fridge, but I thought this one would be a little more original. Usually I snap a few pics and choose the best one to upload, this time however I took the first pic and was happy with it straight away.

Letting off Steam!

You'll have to forgive me for today's boring pic, but because I was stuck at the office all day, I really didn't get a chance to invest any thought into today's HSMSHS word of the day. And because we're an ad agency where everything is industrial and mechanical, there's nothing 'moist' to shoot, except for our very loyal and somewhat abused kettle, our faithful caffiene provider!! This shot is a close-up of the top of the kettle where a bit of steam seems to escape and condense on the lid.

Reflections on life...

As I'm sure you're aware, we recently returned from a week away in the Drakensberg, which is a beautiful mountain range here in South Africa. While we were there it snowed which was totally out of charater for this time of the year, and it was the first time ever that my kids got to play snow. There's a small lake in the resort which is the subject of today's pic. I would have loved the water to be still so that the reflections could have been more visible, but sadly it wasn't the case. I'm still pretty pleased with the resluts.

Dump the whole lot!

I often worry about whether or not to compose a shot to make it look as natural as possible, or to leave it as I found it, which is probably more natural, although sometimes it doesn't look natural, make sense? No! Today's HSMSHS word is 'set' and last nigh I thought about some tools, either a set of spanners or a socket set. The problem was how to spread them on the kitchen counter to shoot them. After much fiddling about I eventually just dumped the whole lot and shot them where they lay.

Serendipity

I don't usually take part in SOS prompts, not because I don't want to, but because weekends usually consist of soccer in the mornings, shopping before lunch, working in the garden after lunch and church in the evening, ie not much time for practicing photography. However while working in the garden this time, I saw this HUGE drogonfly, easily the largest I've ever seen, and he was quite happy to let me take a few shots.

Baked (not fried)

On a recent trip to see family in Johannesburg (about 5 hours by car) we decided to take the kids to the zoo. If there's one thing South Africa has that we're really proud of, it's our wildlife. We have what we call the Big 5: Lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, as well as many others like giraffe, hippo, cheetah, etc. But the one I'm not that fond of is the crocodile, and even though I don't like them much, I couldn't help shooting these two 'baking' in the sun.

To have and to hold...

If there's one thing I'm learning through photography, it's that I'm beginning to see beautiful things in everyday life that ordinarily I would have missed. In the past I would have seen my son pick a flower and I would have thought 'how sweet' and carried on doing what I was doing. These days I'm constantly thinking what a beautiful shot it would make. Again, I can't claim the credit for today's pic, thanks go to my ever alert wife (who's already claimed my old camera. This hobby could get rather expensive).

Sorry Stripes

The HMSHS word for today is 'Stripes'and I've been battling to find something different. I'd love to spend some time on today's prompt in order to come up with something good, but with this week's workload, that's not going to happen. So after giving it a bit of thought I finally thought of shooting a barcode. Colourless... I know. Boring... yes, but sadly, this is all I have. Sorry.

Taking a Dip

Boy, has life been hectic!! I've really missed taking part in our daily prompts these last few days, but I'm making a conserted effort to keep up to date. The new HSMSHS site looks great by the way, it's nice to have a male reference in the title too! Anyway... on to today's prompt. The word for the day is 'Dip' and I couldn't help thinking about this pic my wife took while we were away (I can't claim the credit here). I think she did a great job catching me 'dipping' my fingers in the water, just before taking a dip in the stream! Needless to say there was still a little snow around and the water was FREEZING, but tons of fun nevertheless.

I'm Back!!

I was so excited to be able to take some awesome pics while I was away to show all the non-South Africans how beautiful our country is. The sun always shines and it's always perfect beach weather. How ironic then that while we're away South Africa has freak, once in a lifetime weather including six inches of SNOW!! This NEVER happens!! At least today's prompt fits my holiday perfectly. And what's with this secretive surprise in a few days?!? Maybe one site where we all upload our pics? Perhaps taking turns to provide prompts? Will have to wait and see...