Benchmark...

I was over in Sicily in November for the birth of my girlfriends niece.  Great opportunity to get some family shots as well as get out and about in the city.  Here are a few that I though worked quite well, but really this is just to show where I am technique and ability wise now.

 Saw the sun setting behind us as we drove through the city and just quickly snapped this shot as we came up to a set of traffic lights.

 Vespa PX150.  The quickest method of transport when things get gridlocked.  Using 1/60sec shutter speed to get the motion blur in the background while keeping the subject in focus.  

I thought this looked like a nice shot with the long footpath running into the background, for me it makes the Vespa look really bold in the frame. 

I'm not really that fussed about photographing buildings, but these arrows really jumped out at me.  I also quite like the lens flare which was totally unintentional.  Perhaps the bottom left portion of the picture is a bit washed out, but it's not a deal breaker for me!

Mission Statment!

Over the next twelve months I'll be trying to improve my photography with my main goal being to create a portfolio of lifestyle and portrait work.  I have been taking photographs with a point-&-click camera for years, but recently started to take pictures more seriously after buying a Canon EOS 450D.  I will enter some competitions unrelated to lifestyle photography, but just with the aim to gain experience and find out what I really want to shoot. 

Right now when I take my camera out, I'm just pointing it at anything that catches my eye.  No real direction or pre-determined ideas.  I feel like an amateur (which I am), but I've been taking pictures so long I feel like I should have more of a feel for what I'm doing. 

So this is my late week coming up in work and I fully intend to make 3 mornings to the gym and the other two I won't lie in bed until the last conceivable minute to get up and have a shower!  I want to get out and take some pictures and try to make something of the slightly misty mornings we've been having this month.  I think I'll try to get some people walking in the city center then head over to the Lagan Weir and see what I can come up with.

Really this blog is so that I can keep a track of my progress and have something to reflect on at the end of the year.