16th June 2013 - Dovedale

We got up early to finish packing. My dad had offered the yesterday night to take me and Jason to the peaks if we (I) was packed and ready early enough. We misjudged how long it was going to take to get everything done and we were in a bit of a rush, but we managed to get everything done by half eleven when we set off for Dovedale.


We found a nice rock to sit on and eat lunch when we arrived, and Jason and I spent some time taking photos. It was pretty busy since it was a) the weekend and b) a nice day. We had ideas for photos, but there were too many kids running around for some of them to be feasible. Nevertheless, Jason decided to give it a go anyway. When he's uploaded some photos I'll link them. I didn't bother to try some things as I didn't have the patience to wait for people to get out of the way.

I attempted to use the Brenizer method a couple more times, this time using my 55-250mm to see how it would turn out.

The second one I tried has too many photos and kept crashing. I'm going to try doing it in smaller batches but I haven't sorted the photos into these smaller batches yet.

After a while we had to head back in order to make it home at a reasonable time. On the walk back to the car, we passed a man (fly?) fishing in the river/stream and I stopped to take a photograph. He saw me and gave me a big grin but I used autofocus and the camera decided the people behind him were more important so it's all out of focus... my own fault really, even though I selected the focus point right on top of him. Stupid camera. Oh well!

We took a couple more photos just before we reached the car park and then headed off.

Messed about a little bit with my camera on the journey home and looked through Jason's shots.

We made it back in good time. I showed off my huge tv (the only reason I didn't get a train home for summer) and we watched tv for a while.

14th June 2013 - The Botanical Gardens

It's been fluctuating between rain and blue skies all day. When the rain cleared up, Jason and I took advantage of the sunshine and walked down to the botanical gardens. Of course, shortly after we left it started drizzling again, so we took a look around the pavilions first.

I took him to the bear pit and as we were leaving it a squirrel jumped out and started running around us. We'd brought some nuts with us so we stopped to feed it and take photos. I decided to use my 50mm as the clouds and trees made it quite dark and I wanted a fairly high shutter speed seeing as the squirrel didn't want to sit still.

I decided it would be better if I was shooting at the squirrels eye level and seeing as the ground was fairly dry since we were under the cover of some trees, I decided to lie on the floor. I looked pretty stupid - Jason took some photos of me. I think it was worth it. I got a couple of decent shots. Though as soon as I laid down, the squirrel decided to disappear for ages and when he did appear, he didn't come very near me.

The sun came out again so Jason and I took made the most of it and walked further into the garden. He attempted to use the Brenizer method to take a portrait of me, but we still haven't quite mastered it and it didn't quite work. After a little while we decided to go back home. We walked back through the garden where I saw another squirrel trying to eat a plastic bag so we stopped so I could take it off him and took some photos at the same time.

12th June 2013 - A Day In Derby

Went to Derby with Jason to pick up a few bits from his he'd left behind. But first we walked to Derby Uni to take some photos. There were a few damselflies amongst the reeds at the side of the pond.

I tried another shot using the Brenizer method, but again it didn't quite work out... I will get it right one day!

Jason continued to take pictures of damselflies and red spiders and I sat in the middle of the nearby road taking more photos.

Jason started taking photos of me sitting in the middle of the road and attempted a Brenizer style photo himself, but the light changed halfway through he shots so his photo has random lighter patches on it. I decided then that I wanted to try and take a selfie (despite choosing not to pick up my tripod before we left) and made Jason sit in position while I set up the shot.

At this point it started raining pretty hard so I abandoned the shot in fear of damaging my camera and we sat inside for a while where we met a couple of Jason's friends. When it died down, we left to go to his and on the way out I saw a snail and decided to photograph it.

We passed a church on the way and I took photos of the roses outside it.

We got his stuff and headed back to Sheffield.

8th June 2013 - Last Day In Scarborough

Today was my last day in Scarborough with Leigh-Anne. We had a lazy start to the day. We slept in late and then lounged about in our pyjamas for a few hours. After lunch, we decided to go down to the sea front to take some photos.

I stood in front of the sea and flipped my hair about for Leigh-Anne - you'll be able to see this soon, once she's fixed her laptop - and I took a few pictures of her and the view. I attempted the Brenizer method, but I didn't have enough crossover between my shots and Photoshop couldn't knit it together properly.

I'll be giving it  another go soon.
On the way back to her flat, we stopped by in a park and took some photos of the flowers.

Had a hell of a journey home. My train from York to Sheffield was delayed by an hour and half after a fatality on the track literally five minutes in front of us. I ended up taxi-ing across Wakefield to get a different train. It stopped at literally every stop and was full of drunk people. I eventually got into Sheffield about 11pm, where I met Jason. He'd been waiting there for me since half 8...