Some "Everyday Photography"; The high and Lows, it's been an odd week since my last blogpost. Some things have stayed on the level however, the weather has been awful and my burning desire to go out and shoot some "Street'. Apart from the torrential rain and/or freezing conditions that have gone on and on, the children are on their half term break from school. That means I need to do my "bit" and some "Everyday Photography" has to take place. In the midst of this trough, I've been hit by man-flu, I spent a couple of days walking around in a haze, death was imminent, I literally could have been an extra in "The Walking Dead". It would have killed a lesser man I'm positive, strangely enough though my wife had similar and yet was able to operate in a normal manner, swanning around as if nothing was wrong with her at all. Evidently she didn't have it as bad as I did. Okay, it's a scientific fact that the male of the species suffers more because of some prehistoric need to take some rest so that survival of the family can continue once he's repaired and hunting again. Well, 95% of that is true and as we all know 87.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot! Anyway, no energy coupled with total boredom adds up to me drifting around the house taking shots of the children. Photography remains a constant in my life and there's always something to point the camera at. They were busy reading, playing guitar, conducting experiments (with the need of goggles??) -
After a while even the dog was looking at me as if say "come on man, get a grip of yourself, it's just a cold, let's go out" -
Nope, I'm not well enough yet, although I am totally bored. I know lets have a look at some light, a silhouette shot, perhaps I'll fire up a remote flash -
That's quite enough of that, I'm a natural light photographer nowadays, idle hands and all that! I continued too shoot whilst the children busied themselves. Amélie with her painting, Louis found a roll of caps and went out to the garden, picked up a stone and tried to make them go bang or preferably for him to catch the whole roll and garden on fire!
Today, I decided that enough was enough, Louis and I would visit the Landsdowne Monument. Amélie sprained her ankle so she stayed at home with her mum. The monument stands high, adjacent to one of the many Wiltshire White Horses carved into the hillsides, looking down onto the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. About a two and half mile walk (there and back) it's uphill all the way to it obviously. My iPhone tells me how many steps I've done, usually it's quite a few with the dog walking etc, it also provides what Apple call "Flights Climbed". Now, it doesn't matter what I do, everyday it shows 3 Flights Climbed... that isn't correct because I'm up and down stairs at home like a yoyo without considering the fields I walk in everyday. Today it showed 26 Flights Climbed. I thought I'd show you a series of photos from our walk, you can see (hopefully) the beauty for yourself. Firstly on our way up -
Still plenty of energy, though we stopped half way up and made base camp so Louis could eat some chocolate biscuits, I of course could have carried on, but had to make allowances for a six year old boy :-) Here we are at the top -
The views are breathtaking and taking breath was welcome for one of us! The dogs and Louis were absolutely fine, running around like maniacs, I stood there and clicked away. Time for the descent which personally I was looking forward to, downhill all the way. There's one shot here where Louis has his head in his hands, in case you're wondering, he was talking away to me quite normally and suddenly said "I'm really, really tired daddy". I gave him the same sympathy as I received from him a few days earlier when I was on my deathbed, none whatsoever ;-) Alright, I gave him a cuddle, we were nearly home.
Well as the title suggests we finished the week on a peak, literally. The dogs and Louis enjoyed it and so did I, we were all on a high. A little bit of effort and your spirits soar. Nothing standout here, after all it's just everyday photography. It does show that there's always something to shoot, no need to be lost for inspiration. I'll leave with you with my favourite shot which is the same as the place holder at the beginning of this post, except you can enlarge it if you wish and make out the human interest -
A couple of quick points I'd like to make. Firstly, the newsletter should now work, so if you go to the Box titled "Subscribe To The Leica Biker Blog" hopefully you'll receive an email each time there's a new post. Secondly, if you wish to follow the comments thread on any post all you need to do is click "Subscribe by email". I know, it's a little confusing, but my provider tells me that it can't be customised.
As usual I would be delighted to read any comments and my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read my blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with a Noctilux 50mm lens fitted.