http://surreal.istic.org/gallery Daniel Hulme's photography and art en-gb copyright 2006 Daniel Hulme Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:56:30 GMT st@istic.org Winterstorm <p>Yet again my family and I went to France: this year, the village of Houlbec-Cocherel in Normandy. It's in the middle of nowhere in the Eure valley, but conveniently close to Paris and Versailles.</p> <p>Paris being one of the most photographed places in the world, I didn't think it was worthwhile to take my camera. Versailles was full of tourists taking photos, so I concentrated on the tourists rather than the architecture or the art. I had my long lens and tried to get some 'candid' shots, but I fear my inexperience at photographing people shows. This is something I hope to practise.</p> <p>Houlbec-Cocherel is also very close to Giverny, where Monet spent his later years going blind and painting water lilies. His house still stands, and houses a museum (which I didn't get to see). The gardens are beautifully kept, but like Versailles the view is somewhat spoilt by the crowds. All the same, I managed to get one or two shots that I think show the Impressionist spirit without having to go blind.</p> <p>There's the usual pictures of the family too, but unusually I didn't manage to sneak in one of myself. Usually the karting day provides a good opportunity for that, but we didn't find anywhere to kart this year.</p> http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/110 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:49:08 +0100 I don't take pictures of myself often, because I'm not that much of a poser. But I am a little bit of a poser, and I've had my hair cut for the first time in seven years, so I felt the need to take these out in the Spring sunshine. While I was out I got one or two of the 'iron tree' erected at the building works round the corner. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/108 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:54:44 +0000 In Honfleur, near the waterfront, there is a tropical butterfly house. It claims to have the largest collection of live butterflies in France, maybe in Europe, and for a few measly euros you can join the mostly families in there chasing around after the creatures which are so tantalisingly beautiful but don't like to stay still long enough to photograph. The people with cheapo compacts, with glacially slow shutter lag, go home disappointed, but continuous-mode shooting and my macro lens allowed me to pick up some striking pictures. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/101 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:28:06 +0100 This year my family went to Honfleur, Normandy. As you can see, we did a bit of karting and some crazy golf. We also went to the beach a lot - the weather was glorious - but I didn't photograph that: for a start, I'm afraid of getting sand in my camera, and also, walking around a beach with a serious camera is likely to get one into trouble. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/99 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:35:41 +0100 Since everyone has been writing so much about photography lately, I thought it was a good time to go out and do some. I am a bit out of practice at judging the exposure of sunlit scenes, as many of the swan pictures were shockingly over-exposed. Despite that, I still managed to get some real corkers using my macro lens. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/94 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:30:02 +0100 I have caught sight of a few squirrels already, darting around looking for nuts, but this weekend I found one on the roof of a nearby house, and I present it here as evidence that if you blinked, you missed the Summer. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/89 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:08:19 +0100 While we were in France we were fortunate enough to be in St. Martin de Landelles the day of the Polynormande bike race. Although I do a lot of cycling, I don't follow the sport because to be honest I don't find it very interesting. But at St. Martin there was a party atmosphere despite the threatened rain (which materialised on the last lap). I had my wide-angle lens with me, which turned out to be for the best, and of course there was a strong turnout from the pro photographers, who had longer lenses. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/88 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:57:35 +0100 This year we went slightly further East, into Normandy. I didn't take as many photos as in previous years, but I still got some good ones. Thanks also to Sally for getting one or two nice pictures of us karting: skip to the end of page four for these. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/87 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:57:32 +0100 No, I haven't been going around photographing monarchs from behind. Queens' backs is the area of grass between the back of Queens' College and Queen's Road, West of the river. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/86 Thu, 15 May 2008 22:15:43 +0100 After the rains and hails of late March, April has so far been quite seasonable, and the skies are overcast much less often. The birds are very active at the moment, though they are a bit nervous as the local cats are similarly active. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/85 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:39:31 +0100 Spring is here again, and sunlight illuminates all. (On some days, anyway. The rest of the time it is still overcast.) March blows and April showers bring forth May flowers, they say, but never mind the flowers: the squirrels and birds are increasingly bolshy. I caught one of the local cats out of my window a few days ago, and this squirrel was sitting in the car park as I was on my way out today. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/84 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:40:35 +0000 http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/81 Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:34:16 +0100 The weather has been patchy recently, to say the least. This has led to some rather striking skies, but also to some clear spells that brought the birds out. I'm actually quite impressed with some of these: the simplicity of the bird compositions is much more effective than I would have thought possible. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/80 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:01:01 +0100 I took this on a warm weekend that threatened rain the whole time; all of them out of my living room window. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/79 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:47:40 +0100 Today I took my camera out for the first time in yonks. I got lots of pictures of damselflies, but most of them were out of focus: the things are hard to focus on, especially when they're flying over water and they don't stay in frame long enough to focus. Be careful while browsing the thumbnails: many of them aren't large enough to show the insects therein. http://surreal.istic.org/gallery/78 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:58:29 +0100