Dogs, frogs and other stuff

There are times when I wonder what I'm doing. Taking photographs for one's own pleasure seems to me to be a strange sort of thing to do. I'd feel a lot more confident about it if I had an end use for the pictures I take. As I don't I often don't bother taking any because it feels silly. Then again there are times when I can't stop myself taking a photograph. Although I was looking for pictures to fit my Dog Town project I still took the one below. I think it works as a standalone image. Amazingly the two main figures and dog are in focus. Quite an achievement for me with the Fuji and wide angle lens.

I even managed a couple of pictures in the two hours I wandered around which do fit my Dog Town style. The way the dog has lain in the shade makes this one for me.

All this bright sunshine and hot weather makes being outdoors taking pictures both tiring and testing. Harsh shadows are a pain in the bum. It also makes shooting backlit subjects hard work. This was all brought home to me at a vintage tractor auction. Who's a thunk such things would not only exist but be well attended? There was all sorts on offer, from boxes of what looked like junk, through the rusting skeletal remains of tractors, to gleaming fully refurbished models.

I had a semi-plan in mind to make a series of pictures in portrait orientation. It almost came off. I also entertained the idea of using (shock, horror) black and white to suit the vintage theme. That didn't last long because colour seemed important for a lot of subjects. Making abstractions worked quite well. Even if it is a cop out when there are people about, but I wasn't in a people-picture mood for some reason.

There are some people pictures in the gallery I've put together.

Leaving the auction early it was into the forest to photograph a hogg hole I had found earlier in the year but not managed to get close to because the ground was so wet. I photographed it from both sides, but the harsh light wasn't helping either way I tried.

I also photographed some sheep along the way. Just for the sake of it really. This one nearly works as a sheepscape. If only the sun hadn't been quite so bright. Or the sheep would have looked to the right of the frame...

Later, when I stopped to photograph another string of dead moles (I see them everywhere now I have them on my radar!) I tried my hand at a landscape picture. The light on the tree's twisted form was what caught my eye. In fact that was what I photographed first.

I'm not so sure that the early and late light favoured by so many landscape photographers would work for this tree. It's the way the light dapples from above through the leaves on the bark that makes it what it is. Looking back down the road I saw the potential for framing a broader vista. If I could have been bothered to move my car (just out of frame camera right) I might have made a better picture. But as it's only for my pleasure that doesn't matter!

I almost forgot. Yesterday I was so down on photography that I took some pictures of a frog in my pond. Why? Because it was there and it was easy. A technical challenge to get the blasted thing in focus and no more. The composition was a piece of cake. Oh yeah. I used flash as well. Froggy is now my computer desktop picture. For the time being.

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