365 to 42

Happy Christmas to all my friends and visitors, I hope the holiday brings you all that you want. ---------------- Now playing: The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) via FoxyTunes

"41 today and to mark the occasion I have started this blog. The idea is to post a picture a day up to my 42nd birthday. " So started this blog, my first blog and my first attempt at a daily photo blog. When I started I had no idea that there was such a thing as a 365 photo blog, I had seen a few photo blogs but thought that my idea was quite unique, the reason I had not seen many 365 blogs was that I had started blogging in February, by which time the bulk of the latest crop of 365 blogs, started in January, had died. Ignorance is bliss So boldly off I went, starting off on the road that so many start but few finish, for me the result was life changing and to help others on the way here are a few tips. 1. Set your rules. It's your blog so you are in control, for me I posted pictures taken in that year, but did state that if the weather stopped play I would use old shots rather than miss a day. I used this get out only twice, but saved my self a lot of heart ache by alre...

I had seen this on a couple of blogs ( this one being the most resent Dreaming of open seas ) and found it fun to do, posting this for my mum who always encouraged me to read, thanks mum. Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt." 1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 2. Lord of the Rings – JR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman 10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14. Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolki...

A benefit of being my own boss, being able to go out and capture sights like this, wind blown frost on a grass stalk. ---------------- Now playing: Bat for Lashes - Siren Song via FoxyTunes

My new office on a Monday morning, life can be so hard at times. ---------------- Now playing: Pearl Jam - Alive via FoxyTunes

I'm free, just completed my last day as a paid employee, from now on the only customers to shout at me will be my own. A picture taken on Wednesday of light at the end of a tunnel! ---------------- Now playing: The Buzzcocks - Running Free Now playing: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Stone Free [*] - The Jimi Hendrix Experience Now playing: Ultra Naté - Free Now playing: The Soup Dragons - I'm Free (featuring Junior Reid) Now playing: Jimi Hendrix - Freedom (Live) Now playing: Erasure - Freedom via FoxyTunes

D Day looms, only a few more days of paid employment left and then I'm on my own! Spent last week using up the remainder of my holidays, time well spent attending business start up workshops and working on my web site, Brett Trafford.com . My next task is how to get the word out to the people of Leek and Staffordshire that there is a new professional photographer in the area. Brett Trafford .com is a first step, and adding my name to on line directories another, but after doing the work shop I have a better idea of what I am doing and once my plans are finalised I will let you all know first on here. Now a photo hot off the PC, taken only an hour ago!

In an attempt to build up my profile I have been logging on to loads of sites that advertise your services for free (a very important point)and find that the closer I come to being a full time photographer, the less time I have to take pictures! I hope that this trend will change once the business is set up fully, as I quite like taking pictures. I have also signed up to Linked in, so if your on there drop by and link up. Having spent so long on the web looking at other peoples sites and how they market themselves, my own site now looks in need of a rework, just when I thought it was nearly done. Photo today is from our run up to York, taken somewhere between here and York, very early in the morning. ---------------- Now playing: Howard Jones - Hide and Seek via FoxyTunes

So we have a royal wedding to look forward to, great news, I known a wedding photographer that not yet booked for that day (hint, hint. Although that might be just too much pressure. But the big news is that it is Kep's 14th birthday today, I was going to post a photo of him but the computer is playing up, as I type the system is trying to recover 500gig from my back up drive that just vanished this morning (its only got all my back up photos and all my music on!) Picture is from the weekend in York and is of York Minster.

With a new business looming on the horizon, my free time seems to have vanished, thank goodness for Caz she organised a weekend away in York, giving me two great days with her sightseeing and photographing. York has to be one of this countries best cities, compact, friendly and full of history. Here is one of it's more inquisitive inhabitants found in a local park just feet from the city wall. ---------------- Now playing: Dido - I'm No Angel via FoxyTunes

Making the step to being a full time photographer is a daunting one, I known I can do the photography bit (that's easy), it's all the other stuff that I'm trying to get my head around. Tax!!! Time management? Being my own boss (how can I skive off work when I will always known where I am? or worst how can I hide my mistake when I'm always watching!) Any self employ people out there with any tips on the above, or anything i have missed, I would love to hear them. Picture today is of the Cat and Fiddle, the highest pub in England and the starting point for one of Carolyn and mines favourite walks. --------------- Now playing: The Verve - Lucky Man via FoxyTunes

Writing this post on my new computer!!!!! To mark the occasion I have an announcement, As of the 4th of December I will be working full time as a photographer. If you are a long term reader of this blog, or a friend of mine reading this on face book, you will know I have been working towards this moment for some years and now it has arrived. My appeal against the decision over my job was successful and I have been offered redundancy starting when the call centre closes. All this would not have been possible if it was not for the support and encouragement give to me by Carolyn over many many years, I only hope that now I can make her proud. ---------------- Now playing: Blondie - Living in the Real World via FoxyTunes

Starting my computer rebuild over the weekend so won't be on line, blogging or picking up my emails!!!!! Pictures from my Norfolk set. ---------------- Now playing: Thomas Dolby - Radio Silence via FoxyTunes

As often happens when I sit down to write a blog post, I end up spending my time reading other peoples blogs, I log on to Blogger and right there on my dashboard are posts from my favourite blogs, its too much of a temptation for me to resist. So instead of an interesting and insightful blog post on the meaning of life, the universe and everything, which I was going to write, here is a list of links to the posts that took up all my time, it’s their fault not mine. First off the most inspiring story i have read in years. Green shoots Another post along the same lines, well close at least. A life in the day of me This is not just one post but a link to the blog, still waiting for an update in the on going saga, makes you realise how good your life really is. Life in Windermere And finally the return of one of my favourite bloggers. Ramsay daily photos Looking back maybe i have written an interesting and insightful blog post on the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Photos part...

Blogging, I’ve been doing this for over 2 1/2 years, that puts me in the top 5% of blogs (lots start and finish after just a few weeks) so I know all the rules of how to be a great Blogger. 1. Blog frequently 2. Stick to a theme 3. Interact with your visitors 4. Visit loads of blogs and leave comments 5. Link like mad to other blogs on your chosen subject. But do I follow them, well at first I did and success did follow, but now as other parts of my life take up more of my time I find that all my blogs are suffering from neglect. The obvious answer is to stop blogging on at least some of the blogs and that does have a bit of an appeal, but it has taken so long to build them up I would hate to waste all that effort. So I’m going to keep plodding along, posting infrequently, hardly visiting any blogs, commenting on even fewer blog and keeping my interaction and linking to a minimum. I know it’s not the best way to keep the blogs going, but I also know that when I have more time it will b...

I’m crap, I have great difficulty in organising my time, I’m messy, I forget to do things and I get easily distracted. For example, I had an e mail from one of Caz’s friends, I was really touched and determined to reply, that was 6 months ago and I’m still determined to reply! The desks I’m sat at is a mess, it’s covered with notes, photos, computer bits and camera equipment, I have about 3 inches to move the mouse in ( I’ve not seen my electronic pen and tablet in months). I have loads of up grades I have to do on the web site and cannot get the time to finish them off, even though most of the work has been done. Too top it all I am just about to start building a new computer, the whole process should take only a couple of hours to do, but then getting all the programs on and everything working as I want could take days and during that time I will be without a computer, at least I won’t get distracted. On a more positive note I’ve finished, all bar a little polish, the wedding album, ...

A top photo of Kidsty pike, the ridge behind is our route up from the last post, this was taken at the end of that day as we started our journey down. Computers aren’t they just the best fun, especially when all your work depends on them and at the most crucial moment they decide to develop a phobia about switching on, as mine has started to do. It can take up to 10 tries before it finally comes to life and after googling the symptoms it appears that something major is wrong, which I had already guessed, the solution, build a new one. Now the computer I’m using at the moment was one I built over 4 years ago and up to the passed few days has never been that much of a pain, so I’m not too concerned about building another one, a part from the cost, but a lot has changed in the intervening years and so I have had to re educate myself on the latest technology and kit. This re-education is a real pain as much of what is written is based on the fact that you already known what all the long wo...

Well as I said in the last post I’m back after a week in the Lake District, a week that gave us some very mixed weather and some very great walks. Since we both completed the Wainwrights last year I was worried that the motivation to drag my self up these mountains would wane, far from it, now that we are walking just for fun I find that it has opened up a whole new world and last Fridays walk was a great example of that. We started at Haweswater Reservoir and headed up Riggindale Ridge, the picture was taken at the top of the Ridge looking back along our route up, we then headed to our first top of the day High Street which at 828 meters is the highest top in that area. From this lofty vantage point we could reach 7 other fell tops with very little effort, which we proceeded to do over the next 5 hours, it was great fun bimbling along at high level with nothing to do but have fun. As we had already done all these tops and were familiar with the whole area, there was none of the worrie...

Just got back from a fantastic week in the Lake district and have just enough time to post one of the pictures i took. Ulleswater in the early evening.

Wedding photography, the one aspect of photography where normally prudent people fork out huge sums of money to someone they have only just met, to record their big day. On paper it seems like easy work, people dressed in their finest and all out to enjoy themselves, but on the other hand this is someone’s big day, it may have been years in the planning, would you really want all that responsibility. Last year I decided I did, I took the plunge and started to photograph weddings and 2 weeks ago tackled my biggest challenge yet, along with all the normal pressure this wedding had an added factor. The story starts over 20 years ago, I was 20 and had just been dumped by my girl friend and been replaced in her affections by my best friend of 15 years. Added to this the new couple had been welcomed with open arms by all my friends, leaving me broken hearted and with no one to turn to. After a number of lonely drunken nights at home I was rescued by my younger brother and adopted by his clos...

As my skills increase i sometimes find work i was happy with 12 months ago now falls short of what i want. This photo is a good example, originally done for the Leek blog when i looked at it this week it was just not good enough and needed reworking. So heres the improved images and a link to the old one

An old Dray wagon at a steam fair we went to last week, only posted it as i liked the shot so much, now i'm off for a beer. ---------------- Now playing: k.d. lang - Constant Craving via FoxyTunes

I’ve just started to invest in some high end photographic equipment, something that I have not done in a long time and so found myself having to research the kit from scratch. Now this is a new experience for me as I used to work in the trade and spent 4 years living and breathing the technical aspect of every bit of kit released, knowing its value, quality and its place in the market. All of a sudden I find that knowledge is 13 years out of date and everything has changed. The biggest difference that I found was the impact of the internet, not just in the number of places to buy things from, but the number of reviews you could find on each piece of kit, back in the day we just had a couple of photographic magazines and the blurb from the manufacturer (which you could not trust at all). Selection finally made the big question was where to get it from, EBay, Amazon, a local shop or even from abroad! The selection was as wide as the number of items I had to choose from, vast, and each wi...

1000th post across all my blogs, just in case you thought I had forgotten how to count. I had been looking forward to this moment for quite a long time, but now that it is here it’s a bit of an anti climax, I suppose that following the 500th post it’s just another mile stone to mark the passing of time. A quick update on the work front following on from this posted earlier this year; “As some of you will know I have 2 jobs, the photography, mostly a labour of love at the moment, but on the up and working for a local company. While away I was phone by my boss who informed me that my job, currently just 5 mins down the road is being relocated to Stockport, a town somewhere north of here and an hour drive away. To be honest this really was not much of a shock, the company was recently taken over and since then a lot of things have changed, but while this major change is underway I may have to use this blog the vent my frustration at the faceless bureaucrats that feel they have a god given...

“41 today and to mark the occasion I have started this blog. The idea is to post a picture a day up to my 42nd birthday. For me this is quite a commitment. I hope this will stimulate my photography and keep me off the streets.” So started this blog around 2 ½ years ago and now here I am writing the 500th post. I started the blog to mark an important year for me, a way of making the year stand out in my memory, it turned in to a life changing event, something I never envisaged when I started it. To understand what happened you need to known a bit about the old Brett pre the blog. I was always a photographer, from the moment I picked up my first camera I was hooked, it just took a few years to realise it and to learn to use my skills properly. Going to night school to do a photography course tipped the balance and set me on the road I’m on now, since then I have always thought of my self as a photographer. Other than the photography my life was pretty normal, I was (and still am) very h...

Just got back from a weeks camping in wonderful Northumberland and am trying to catch up on loads of out standing work, but thought i would post this as a starter to wet your appetite. This is the Angel of the North and was just off our road up and was well worth a visit. ---------------- Now playing: Alisha's Attic - Air & Angels via FoxyTunes

My first topless photo shoot and i'm the one topless (think i that that wrong somewhere). The shot is for my improved web site, brett trafford.com , and is one of the reasons i've not been here much lately. I've had loads of work to do and the computer has been playing up, but i will try and visit some of you and maybe even post a few more post. ---------------- Now playing: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army via FoxyTunes

I’ve had a busy week spent mainly working on photos taken at a bus rally held last Sunday. One of the hardest things for me to do is to get a consistency when producing a set of images taken under conditions that are out of my control and these pictures are probably my best attempt yet at this. I have put the last of these pictures here; the full set can be seen on my Leek blog. The other picture is from our week in the Lake District, it is take on Fleetwith Pike over looking Buttermere and is to my mind one of the best views any where in the world. What have these 2 images have in common, well to me they just sum up England, and hopefully by the end of the day I’ll still be a proud Englishman after our national team wins its opening game in the world cup, but I won’t be holding my breath as they do seem to like making us suffer and make the job harder for themselves. Now playing: The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down via FoxyTunes ---------------- Now playing: Honley Male Voice Choir...

A quite ship, on a quiet ocean, its 4am and out of the dark come a swarm of armed men intent on boarding the vessel. The passengers and crew fight a valiant battle to resist the invasion only to leave dead and dying on the decks. But this time it is not off the coast of Somalia but a lot closer to home, in the Med and this time it is not a group of drug crazed pirates but trained commandos from a civilized democratic nation. In fact it can all be explained in one word, Israel. Yes that wonderful country that covers some of the worlds most holy sites and was born out of the most horrendous tragedy in modern times, is back up to its old tricks of flouting international law and oppressing the free will of anyone who does not agree with them, if this had been Iran, US tanks would already be on their way. Our leaders need to act now, yes we known that Israel is not totally at fault, it takes 2 to fight, but enough is enough, stop the blockade of Gaza and help the poor people whose only crim...

Well after the Scooter show i thought i would have a play with some of the images. The first set starts with the standard photo, then the HDR and finishes with the scooter cut out. This second set are in the same order with a twist at the bottom, now i like this last images but would welcome some feed back as this type of image and subject matter are both really new to me. ---------------- Now playing: The English Beat - Twist & Crawl via FoxyTunes

A very quick post to go along with the pictures i'm posting this week on the Leek blog of SCOOTER-FEST. SCOOTER-FEST is organised by The Jesters Scooter Club and is the clubs 6th annual festival for Scooters and all thing related to the scene that turns the town centre in to a riot of colour and noise with 100's of Scooters from all over the country. For me it was the chance to take loads of pictures and as i had loads to show i thought i would put some on here as well. ---------------- Now playing: The Jam - The Eton Rifles via FoxyTunes

Holiday time again, although I’m not complaining. I have just got back from a fantastic week in the Lake District and to celebrate I have decided to post 3 photo’s and a video (I’ve not done the video, but I wish I had!). To start with this was the first week we have had in the Lakes since completing all the Wainwrights, so we had a whole week with no hills we must climb, but a selection of our favourite hills that we wanted to repeat. The first route that we tackled was the Newlands horseshoe, we started at around 11am on Sunday in Keswick and took the boat to the foot of Catbells, from there it was a low level walk to the foot of Robinson and then up into the hills. After 3 tops we came down to Dalehead tarn at around 5pm where we set up our first ever wild camp! The Sunday evening was wonderful, very still, with not a soul about. Two views of our camp site at Dalehead tarn. Monday morning all had changed; we woke to low cloud and snow, such a treat. After getting the tents away we c...

The exhibition is up and running thank you all for your good wishes i really appreciated them, for those of you that can not make it to Leek I’ve put the images on a slideshow, just to the right of this post. A while ago I had a feature on here called blog of the week, where I tried to highlight great blogs I had found, but with my lack of blogging time I found it very hard to read the old blogs let alone find new ones, so I have to leave finding great blogs up to others. Well here is a blog I found by way of Aka Polergirl , its called Green shoots and like most of the better blogs is written by a woman (probably because they have more time on their hands). The blog records the writer’s journey from where she is to where she wants to be, sharing not only her personal feelings but also any practical help she has picked up along the way in the form of links to web sites or reviews of good books. Having been a Blogger for some years I known how hard it is to post and post for those first...

Well the exhibition opens today, and I’m a little nervous. All the images are up and now its time to see what people think of them! The images are a mix of old and new shots, the old ones I now people like, but the new ones are the ones I’m most keen to here comment’s about and the ones I’m most concerned about. Today’s picture will be on the Leek blog next week but it is also one of the shots I’ve used to advertise the exhibition, I hope you like it. The exhibition is on display in the Coffee Clique, Getliffe’s yard from the 1st of May to the 31st of May. ---------------- Now playing: Queen - Queen - Dont Stop Me Now via FoxyTunes

For the first time in a while I have more photographs than I known what to do with, resent holidays and days off have left me with a glut of images to work on and no time to do anything to them, I need a few rainy days with nothing to do! So what’s been taking up all my time, well, the photo exhibition is my main concern at the moment, here is the information that has gone into the guide for the Leek arts festival, Leeks annual arts month which pulls together a wide mix of artist endeavours over the month of May and something I’m proud to be a part of for the first time. Bricks and water Inspired by the wonderful mix of water, light and reflections, comes a selection of images from the natural world. Juxtaposed with a collection of images from the man made world high lighting some of the fantastic buildings we have locally. Crafted by local photographer Brett Trafford and wonderfully display in the Coffee Clique, Getliffe’s yard from the 1st of May to the 31st of May. The title for the...

Forgive me blogger’s for I have sinned, it’s been nearly 2 weeks since my last post, and I’m starting to feel a bit guilty. Then I visited a few of my favourite blogs and they have not posted for weeks too, so now I don’t feel as bad. So what have I been up to, you ask? Well during the past 2 weeks we have had 2 bank holidays for Easter and seen the arrival of spring, although it is gray and dull out side at the moment. Most of my free time during the week end was taken up with housework and getting out enjoying the sunshine, the house work revolved around the garden, the dreaded first cut of the lawn and the getting out of the patio furniture, hopefully this year it will get a bit more use. On the photography front I have been out and about shooting for the Leek blog and collating images for my next exhibition. The good weather has revitalised my photography and I have got a good number of shots that I am happy with over the last few weeks, now all I need is the time to work on them. ...

Another long gap between posts, what a bad Blogger I am! But there is a good reason this time, I’ve been on holiday yet again, this time to sunny Devon, well I say sunny, I’m sure it must see the sun at some point during the year, but most of the time we got cloud and a little rain. Still the changing light gave me the opportunity to get some great shots and a week away is still a week away. The other reason why I have been a bit scares on the blogging front can now be revealed, over the last few months as well as planning and putting on my first exhibition, I was also planning a surprise birthday party for Carolyn. Now being a typical man, according to Carolyn, I cannot; 1. Keep a secret, especially from her 2. Organises anything more complex than opening a bottle of wine 3. Contact our friends and arrange time together. Surprise! I managed all 3, but the stress nearly killed me. My greatest achievement was putting her off the sent by skilfully hiding a menu from a local Mexican at t...

Tomorrow is the last day of my first ever solo exhibition and I thought I would share my feeling on having taken such a big step, both before and almost after the event. I have to say that first and foremost the comments received on this and my other blogs have had a very great influence on me and boosted my confidence in the images, to the extent that I felt able to put them on public display. Having said that I was still terrified that they would not be well received, even hated. Like any artist I love and hate my work, with the same eye I see both the wonder and the faults and am unable to see them as an outsider. So from a purely artistic side I was very worried; from the position of a business man, I had no clue of what was involved and that scared me. If I had thought it through properly I probably would not have done it, ignorance really is bliss. The moment I was faced with 35 framed images and yards of blank wall was the point I nearly became unstuck, it was only Carolyn’s int...