Todd's 2009 in pictures

[Bob Todd]

I thought I was being really original when last year I decided that I'd take a photo every day in 2009... heh.

I'm an amateur not looking to become a professional (it sounds lovely, but I know my limits), but I'm still serious about getting better. I started this project because I'm hoping that it will be a journey, with my photos towards the end of the year showing much improvement over the ones taken now.
I use a Canon EOS 400D. Thus far I've limited photomanipulation to just colour tweaking, because I want to train myself to select a good composition when shooting instead of just cropping afterwards, but I may change my mind about that after having seen what a good crop has done for some of the photos in this board.

Attached is today's picture. I was hoping to photograph the cows that are sometimes in the meadow about 4 miles from my house, but they weren't there (wrong time of year, maybe?), so I settled for this little plant instead. I had to kneel down in the mud to capture this.

If you're interested in what I've taken earlier this month, I have a Flickr set (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34048530@N08/sets/72157612063496739/) and (oh dear) a deviantART folder (http://bobtodd.deviantart.com/gallery/#Photo-a-Day-2009) showing them. Criticism is very welcome; it'll help me get better much faster than on my own.

Thanks for looking.

[Grumbledook]

for subjects low to the ground, try and get down to the same level of them, rather than shooting down onto them

[Bob Todd]

Thanks for the tip. I might very well have tried that if the ground hadn't been muddy.

This was an experiment with depth of focus on an ammonite. I'm not terribly happy with it -- do you think I should try it again with more of it in focus?

[ukanfoff]

play around with it. 2.8 , 4.5 , 5.6

[ukanfoff]

definitely ask purplerose for some tips on this matter, shes the one with the eye for macro.

[Bob Todd]

Thanks for the suggestions, Ukan. I don't know if mine can go as low as 2.8, though.

I'd like to take more outdoor shots, but winter means that I get up for work when it's dark and come home when it's dark again, so I've been trying indoor macro shots instead.

First one is yesterday's picture, the second today's (it's an acacia thorn). Both of these were experiments with multiple light sources. I desaturated the first one for effect, as it's essentially a black and white object anyway.

About the second one, does the focus look too unappealing like that? I quite like it because it's weird, but I think it might look as though I didn't mean to do it.

[Grumbledook]

yer the focus is off

also both could do with a larger depth of field (use a smaller aperture and a tripod to keep it steady)

also need to read up on controlling specular highlights so you lose that highlight on the PS badge

[purplerose]

Like the first one. Agree about the highlight though.

In the second one, the focus is the back of the photo. If the focus was shifted to the thorn closest to the camera, I think the image would be a lot more interesting.