February In Review

SPADE LIST ITEMS COMPLETED -

#12. Drink a can of Blue Bear.

(Completed 06/02/10)

PROJECT 365 PHOTOS TAKEN -

Day 59 - I Love Friendly People!!

Today I was at Exchange Church Belfast and met probably the nicest, friendliest congregation EVER. I walked in the door, and after being handed a little welcome note and being offered some coffee by a very nice welcomer person, another woman saw us, and knowing we were visitors said, "I'm not part of the welcoming committee... but I'm gonna hug ya anyway!!" and gave us a hug. Most surreal "entering a church"moment ever!

The service was good and at the end / beginning everyone just seemed to want to talk to us, and made us feel so welcome! =) I ended up having a great wee chat with the guy who did the talk! He's awesome. I think I've found the church I could happily go to for the rest of my life!

This is a picture of my fire in my house, there were really cool patterns on the glass! And so February has now ended too =/ that is rather scary, as it reminds me of the amount of work I have to do! Happy last day of February everybody!

Day 58 - Being The Inner Child

"When I grow up, I want to be a little boy" - Joseph Heller, Something Happened, 1974

This man has got his priorities straight. Today I relived a little bit of my childhood with some friends of mine =)

After buying stuff in Belfast to send off to an orphanage / feeding station / clinic in Peru (horay for good deeds!) a few of us went to the mighty W5 to relive our childhood! W5 (whowhatwherewhenwhy... W5... geddit?) is a science and discovery centre, and one of the most awesome things in this little country of mine! Science and discovery may sound boring, but this place is UBER exciting, and I hadn't been there since I was a kid so this was an awesome experience for me! I'll show you some pics with captions, maybe you'll get an idea! Seriously, this place is magic... the photos prove it, and they're not even Photoshopped! ;)

Mich uses her

Jedi mind powers / ninja skills to keep a ball floating in mid air... MAGIC!

Vikki discovers she can shoot lightning bolts out of her hands... MAGIC!

We go to Digiworld and play volleyball / converse with drinks cans... MAGIC!

So altogether? An awesome day with awesome people! Never be afraid to let that inner child out! =) you may find that you are more yourself like that, than like anything else!

Day 57 - Darn Faulty Blogger Template!

So you may have noticed I have changed the template of my blog... again. I had changed it a couple of days ago to a more personal one, which everyone seemed to like, but there seems to be a glitch, and the header keeps disappearing on me, so I need to edit the html stuff again. So I've decided to scrap that template and have reverted to my old template which I know does not have that annoying little glitch. My apologies.

This picture isn't great. It's of my sister and one of her cuddly toys.

Day 56 - Dream Catch Me When I Fall

Every time

I close my eyes

It's you

And I now know

Who I am

Yeah yeah yeah

And now I know

There's a place I go

When I'm alone

Do anything I want

Be anyone I wanna be

But it is us I see

And I cannot believe I'm fallin'

That's where I'm goin'

Where are you goin'

Hold it close won't let this go

Dream catch me

Dream catch me when I fall

Or else I won't come back at all

Day 55 - A Pleasant Surprise For An Unpleasant Day!

Today I got a message from my friend saying "look on your camera". I knew she meant my old one, because I had taken it to youth club on Saturday night and was so busy being a teenage loser that I left it there. My brother retrieved it for me on Sunday night. I was intrigued and turned it on. Apparently, a few of my friends, knowing the camera was mine, had left messages for me on it! I was pleasantly surprised! They're going to be my pictures of the day because they made me smile, and I know they were not taken by me or taken today but it was taken on my camera and I discovered it today and I'm gonna pretend that counts! =)


My friends will never ever fail to make me laugh!

Day 54 - *Yawn!*

Some ivy. ---->

Flip me, I'm tired. Although I am feeling quite a bit better today. I even got out of bed! Whey! Be proud of me, I even sat myself down to do some art! I woke up half an hour later with my face on the uncompleted drawing and the pencil still in my hand... it's the thought that counts!

Gonna take tomorrow off aswell. Hopefully I'll be back in school on Thursday! Hopefully you're all nice and healthy out there!! =)

Jo out!

Day 53 - Just Sick. Not Snowed In.

Too tired to type. Sick *vomits*. Off school. In bed. Dying inside. Took crap photo - what i've been staring at all day - ceiling. *vomits* Ew. Going. To. Bed. Now. G'night.

Day 52 - Sick And Snowed In...

Today I was awoken (too early on a Sunday for my liking) by my mother who proceeded to tell me to get my camera and go outside. I did. About 4 or 5 inches of snow had fallen last night... the heaviest I've seen since I was 8 (what an immense Winter that was, every child's dream come true!!) I was able to drag myself out of bed to stand on my door step and take pictures; using the telephoto lense so that I wouldn't have to step onto the snow. I'm pretty pleased with the photos I got, so I've uploaded a lot! I would have liked to go out into the snow with my little sister and build a snowman or something but I'm bunged up with the cold and feel so so sick its not even funny. =(

We're all back to school tomorrow... the joys eh? Ugh. Well it has been an awesome half term! Hope everyone else had fun! Now to get stuck back into the work... the sheer thought of it exhausts me. School. Ew. Why?!?!

I thought it was cool the way the blue sky was appearing despite the harsh weather that we clearly had last night. It gives me just that little bit of hope... I'll survive until summer... there'll always be that blue sky! =)

Day 51 - We Are The Losers Of The Teenage World!

I edited this photo (taken at about 3 oclock) to make it look like it was later on in the evening. Landscape photography is something I really need to work on.

Tonight instead of going out raving I played cards and drank 7up with a few other friends. We are the losers of the teenage world! =)

Day 50 - I Guess "Day 50" Is A Milestone! Wheey!

These are my favourite shoes =) my Converse... or as my American friends would say, "my Chucks". I was wondering what to take a photo of for today and I saw a photograph on Flickr that inspired me to do a shoot on my stairs. I couldn't exactly get the photo I wanted straight on, so I tried different angles. This one was from hanging my camera on the banister and wedging it between two of the poles! I guess you have to take the risk of your camera falling to its death to get the picture you want!

Day 49 - Slap Happy =)

Today my friend said she was feeling very 'slap happy'. I agreed, then asked if there was an actual definition of 'slap happiness'. She paused for a while, turned to me and with a huge grin on her face started slapping my arm shouting "SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP!!". That, my friends, is the definition of 'slap happiness'.

The opposite of 'slap happy' is FACE OF RAGE!! This is the face of rage... drawn by myself on a T-shirt (original face of rage copyright Sophie).

Today my friends Vikki and Corinne and I headed up to Belfast to go "shappin" as they say there. I wasn't looking to buy anything in particular so when I saw T-shirt markers in Urban Outfitters I was like "DONE" and ran to Primark and H&M to buy plain T-shirts and hoodies to draw on. I think I had a worthwhile trip!

After going to Belfast with those two I got straight back on another bus to Downpatrick to go to the cinema with my bezzie Sarah to watch the film Valentines Day! It was pretty good! Although the best bit about it was the fact that I got to hang out with Sarah =) love her!

Day 48 - Patricia The Pineapple's Day Out

This is Patricia the Pineapple. Today was her day out.

Today we were getting our photograph taken for the newspaper for donating £620 to the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund For Children, and we wanted to sabotage the photo a wee bit so Michelle held Patricia the Pineapple and I held a large ladybird umbrella... even though it wasn't raining. Nobody seemed to mind =) So the rest of the day we took pictures with Patricia the Pineapple! She had a good day!

Interested in this Cancer Fund? Seriously, it's a good cause. Here's a link to the website -
http://www.nicfc.com/

Day 47 - Happy Pancake Day!

Batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter PANCAKE PANCAKE!!

Today is Pancake Tuesday and I have had a good Pancake Tuesday! I was in town with my mum and sister and bumped into some friends so I ended up spontaneously having dinner out! =) It was good! I love my friends, they make me smile! Any ways, after the spontaneous dinner I was dropped home by my wonderful chauffeur buddy and made myself some crepes to eat! They were yummy.... I'm stuffed now though! Haha

I got some pictures of some pancakes mid air as they are being flipped but they weren't very exciting... hopefully some good pics soon!

Day 46 - My Deepest Apologies

I am disliking how boring and un-artisitic my photos have become... my deepest apologies. My mind hasn't really been on photography lately... I need to try and get some nicer pics. I want to get more portraity type stuff in here. This one is a landscape... the sky was pretty tonight in Newcastle. I was out with friends, just chillin' :)

Day 45 - The Most Adorable Things...

Today I went to my great aunt and uncle's house to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and also to see my new baby 2nd cousin... or 3rd cousin... or 2nd cousin once removed... family stuff confuses me! It's my mum's cousin's kid... whatever that is! The baby was adorable... I never got the chance to get any pictures though which disappointed me, I was hoping that little baby Max would be my photo of the day as he is really cute! But then my great uncle brought out his new 7 week old puppy, Holly. I have never seen a more adorable dog in my whole life! She was like a little teddy bear! So I got pictures of her... :)

Day 44 - I Am Hannibal!

Tonight I was at a formal, a masquerade ball to be precise, to raise money for Haiti. I'm not wearing my mask because it was a Hannibal Lecter mask (I wanted to be different) and so was slightly embarressed wearing it so I took it off! It was an awesome night I must admit.

I will admit I did not take this photo *face of shame*. Although you probably may have realised this because it is me in that picture. I don't know if you can tell but I am giving someone a dirty look in this photo. We were all playing that game where you have to run around with a balloon tied to your ankle and burst everyone elses balloon. I love that game, it reminds me of my fun times at karate! Anyway, Simon and Hannah were sitting down on the chairs behind me, not playing the game, and I had my back to them, trying to pop some one elses balloon (probably Matthew's... I haven't forgiven him for beating me last time we played this game... I was out for revenge... I failed at the revenge too) and then Simon stood up and popped my balloon, just to be mean. I turned around and gave Simon the dirtiest look I could, and Hannah caught it on my camera. I like this photo because I am the only still person in it, as everyone else is running about like a headless chicken, and so they are all blurred, and I am not. I would have been proud to take this picture... kudos to Hannah! It's okay Simon... I forgive you. Matthew... I'll beat you yet.

Day 43 - Why Are They Called Pipe-Cleaners?

Why are they called pipe-cleaners if they aren't used to clean pipes?!Today, when we were out at Oasis, we found some pipe-cleaners, and my friend Mich decided to make me some pipe-cleaner glasses. She is a very skilled glasses maker... they fit better than my actual glasses do! If I look down my actual glasses fall off... I need to get them fixed!

I got home from the Oasis and went onto the computer, was looking at my blog and realised I hadn't got a picture for today. Thankfully my laptop has a webcam so I got a shot of me wearing my new glasses! Being a webcam, the quality of the photo was crappy, so I edited it on Photoshop. I was kinda going for the old TV look... didn't take me long... I don't want to stay on the computer long!

So Jo out!

Day 42 - The Big Cat Walk

Today a few people from my year in school hosted The Big Cat Walk... a fashion show to raise money for their trip to Africa in the summer! There were lots of models and a great deal of dancing! It was funny watching some of my best friends RAVING on stage! =D

Anyways, blog buddy Corinne and I had to take pictures of the show for the school magazine, The Dunumian. Getting a good photograph was extremely difficult - the lighting was bad, my camera was swiftly running out of battery and Manual Mode was as mysterious as ever. But we managed it! These are some of the photos from the night.... and an awesome night it was by the way! The word is... if our photos are good enough they could get published in Ulster Tattler or Northern Woman, or both (quite well known Northern Irish magazines!!) so it's very exciting!

Well done to everyone who took part tonight!! It was FANTASTIC!

Day 41 - I Wish It Was Summer...

It was a nice day... but I edited the picture to make it look a bit more summer-y... roll on Summer 2010!

Day 40 - Today's Date Is 90210... =D

Camera
-noun
A box like device for holding a film or plate sensitive to light, having an aperture controlled by a shutter that, when opened, admits light enabling an object to be focused, usually by means of a lens, on the film or plate, thereby producing a photographic image.

So today we were deciding our themes for our next art project. The overall theme is "Progress". And so my theme will be - (drum roll please)

The Evolution Of The Modern Camera

So you may be seeing a lot of pictures of old cameras in the near future as I gather my photographs. Today my art teacher brought out a bunch of old cameras from the store. Coincidently, I had brought my own camera in today, to get photos for the school magazine, so I was able to whip it out and snap away at the old cameras! This camera is my favourite =]

Day 39 - Never Look Directly Into The Sun... Even Through A Camera.

Getting this photo killed my eyes just a teensy weensy little bit. I am aware that you're not meant to look directly into the sun... for some very odd and stupid reason I thought that it wouldn't matter if you looked through a camera. Believe me it does.

Day 38 - Thank you Mr. Bird!

Today I went on another 'stalk the birds until you get a decent photograph' adventure. I have decided that wildlife photographers are possibly the 2nd most immensly skilled people on the planet. The 1st most immensly skilled people on the planet are those who not only photograph wildlife... but film it too. That is pure talent. To get this picture I went upstairs (having the telephoto lense meant I could still take pictures from far away) and kept my camera focused on the bird feeder, knowing that soon enough some bird will come along and eat, and soon this little one did! I was immensly grateful to it for eating for so long that I got at least 10 pictures of it. Thank you Mr. Bird.

Day 37 - Putting Your Behind In Your Past...?

Pumbaa - It's like my buddy Timon always says: you got to put your behind in your past.

(The Lion King is a great movie)

There's a time when we have to put your past behind you. In a wierd way I kinda did that today.

#12. Drink a can of Blue Bear.

Another thing on the Spade List that may seem completely stupid to those who don't know me. I'll put it simply - for a long time the energy drink Blue Bear represented everything I hated. I refused to drink it and sometimes even got annoyed when people drank it around me. Yeah, I'm wierd, I know. Recently, it hasn't bothered me though, and so I decided to finally drink a can. In a way, by doing this it felt like I was putting my past behind me, and forgetting it. It may seem irrelevant to a lot of you, but I guess this is just me. I'm surprised at how open I am on this thing!

As awesome as that photo may be... it's not my photo of the day... it's just a pic of me drinking a can of Blue Bear! This is my photo of the day -

It's a clock. Not my best picture ever, but I didn't have much time today to get a good one. I fear that my photos are just gonna get worse.. hopefully not! =]

Jo out.

Day 36 - Congratulations!

Today I was being a wedding photographer! Wheeeeyyy!!








It was great being able to wander around after my boss, watching how he would set up shots and decide what makes a good picture. I got some good shots but I put these up, 'cause I like them, and I don't want to put too many shots up. Privacy and all that jazz!

I think it was a great way to end my work experience as a photographer's assistant. I have learnt a lot about working in a studio this week, and have started attempting to use manual mode... which I think is a big starting point for taking better pictures! Hope everyone else doing work experience this week had good fun!!

Jo out.

PS. I'm back at home now anyway, so uploads will become a lot more regular... sorry Sophie! ;)

Day 35 - Manual Mode Is Less Scary Than I Thought!

Today I faced my fear of the Manual Mode on my camera! Work Experience is good for me!! The problem is...... I can't remember what setting I had taken this photo on.... something like shutter speed 1/200 and f/... erm, f/ something. =P But anyways it turned out how I wanted it to turn out - all you can see are my gloves, the top of my head and my camera! I am proud of myself - I used my camera on manual mode and it worked!! Okay though I'll be honest, the picture is edited slightly. Only slightly! You could just make out the corner of my bed and my wardrobe in the corner, so I blacked them out. It's not like they were majorly obvious, they were heavily shadowed, white was dark grey. I just blackened it out so that your eye would not be distracted from the main part of the picture. I am thinking like a photographer.
Oh, if you're wondering, the camera I'm holding is my grandfathers, I put my camera on a tripod to get the pic. My Grandad was the one that introduced me to D-SLR photography. Without his enthusiam for cameras, I wouldn't have developed mine. I owe it all to him. Love you Grandad =]

Day 34 - Snowdrops Keep Fallin' On My Head...

It snowed today! Like a lot! Much more than I would have got where I live. The studio I'm working in is FREEZING though! Just edited pictures all day today... nothing really worth noting I guess! It's fun anyway.

This pic? It's of a street lamp, taken from a window upstairs. I focused on the rain (or snow) drops to make the street lamp go all circle-y. I like it!

Day 33 - Fujifilm S5 Pro

Yes. I used the BEAST that is the Fujifilm S5 Pro today to take pictures of my boss's kids in his studio. Photos will be uploaded soon.

Day 32 - Photography Day Much?

I am rather disgusted at how grumpy I look in this picture, the thing was, I wasn't even pulling a grumpy face, it just turned out that way! So this bedroom is where I will be living for the next week! I'm staying with my grandparents from today to Friday for Work Experience! It's a lot of fun!

Well today in Work Ex I went with my boss to watch some experts judge a photography competition. Some photographers are so darn talented its disgusting!! Hopefully I'll get there some day :) I spent the rest of the day cropping and adjusting some of his portrait session pictures for him. Hopefully I'll get the camera out tomorrow!

So I'm enjoying myself so far =D living with my grandparents is awesome. I love them. They're crazy, but I love them. When I say crazy I mean it. Here's a quote from Granma when she was watching JLS dance on the TV -

"Why do they insist on grabbing their crotches all the time? I mean, do we walk around and all of a sudden grab our breasts? Do they think it'll just fall off sometime or something? Haha, that would be funny, they would look down and it would be in their hand, and they'd say 'Oh! What's this?'"

I think I'm going to enjoy this week. =]