365 to 42

  Yesterday was my birthday, it is also the birthday of this blog, as it started 13 years ago.  Little did I known that I would still be taking photos and blogging them 13 years later. Lock down has seen a change in how we do things, so yesterday I only had my wife and dogs for company, but ended the day by having a surprise birthday party with my friends from all over the country. This was of course done by zoom and made a really special end to what had already been a fantastic day. Now its back to work, sorting out my studio flash in the hope that I will be able to use it in the coming months.

 A scattering of snow over the last few days, so we grabbed a day to run around this side of the Peak District. It was great to get out and about.

 A quick run up in to the hills above Leek this Monday. One of the best bits of the job.

 Two online meeting today before 10am, thats around 3 hours of work and the day has not really started yet. Thanks to zoom I did not have to travel so could attend both, and good as they were it is still not as good as meeting in person, I am missing seeing people. The picture is from Grindon moor, Caz dragged me out of the house at sunset to capture this view for one of her projects, and I thought I might as well snap it too. Now to sort out a presentation for tomorrows breakfast meet, all good fun.

 Not really feeling it to day, trying to get some work done but cannot focus on anything. Picture from the storm this past weekend. So now I've at least done something this morning even if it is only a blog post.

I was a very good amateur photographer, by that I mean I did what the stereotype would do, I joined and then ran a camera club, I did model nights, I knew all about the latest kit and would bore people with my photos of very boring things. As an amateur I would shoot or work on photos about a 100 days a year, and would only shoot what I liked.   Then along came the idea to do a daily photo blog. What happen next was not planned, but in a little over 2 years my hobby became my full time employment and blogging was the reason.   As soon as I had committed to doing a daily photo blog I had made the decision to do an extra 265 day more photography a year, but in reality I had increased my work load by a lot more than that.   The 100 days as an amateur, would result in a small number of good images maybe around 20 that were worth exhibiting a year, I was now aiming on doing 365 good images, and at my amateur work rate of 1 good picture every 5 days I was lo...

 In the week running up to the first lock down we were away with a group of friends in the Lake district, little did we know that this would be the last week of total freedom that we would have for over a year ( I can not see the world returning to normal for quite a while yet). We spent the week walking, going to the pub, sharing hot tubs and doing what we wanted, when we wanted, it was great. On the last full day it was planned that the group would do a longish walk and stop at a pub for lunch, the only problem was me, I had picked up an injury and could not walk very far. The solution was simple, I would take the group to the start of the walk, make my own plans for the morning and meet them at the pub at the end of the walk to take them home. This picture was taken that morning, and then I headed to the pub and got my pint in while waiting for them. This was the first point in which I got a look at what was to be the new normal, the pub had social distancing, temperature checks...