52 Photos in 52 Weeks - an update

The last few weeks I haven't really had a lot of spare time for my camera. Weekends have either been frantically busy, or deliberately empty, so there hasn't been much opportunity for daylight and outdoor photography. As I much prefer taking pictures of natural things, this has severely restricted my options for the weekly photo challenge submissions!

Both of my last two photographs have been crochet-related cop-outs, with the Tiramisu Baby Blanket close up and the Crochet-a-Rainbow squares taking star turns on my Flickr account.

I think I have also shot myself in the foot somewhat by structuring the weeks so that they start with a weekend. That means, if I don't get a chance to go out and take some decent shots on a Saturday or Sunday, I am stuck with trying to find a photo on a work day. As work days currently consist of longish commutes in the dark or early morning gloom, and being stuck on a boring business park all day, there isn't generally much opportunity to take great photos!

This week, I have been more successful. It started on Sunday afternoon, when I realised I hadn't even attempted to consider photography over the weekend. I was about to jump into a nice hot bath. I picked up my camera, and had a play while I was waiting for the bath to fill.

I love the shapes the bubble bath creates. However, I wasn't entirely convinced with how the shots came out. I did have a play in Photoshop, but I am lacking in skill in that area (I really don't have much experience with it at all), but I didn't like how they turned out there, either.

When I have more time, I will play more with the program and see what else I can do. But for now, it left me with no real options for a photo of the week.

On Wednesday, I made a serendipitous discovery. I was walking back to the office from town at lunchtime, and along the route was a patch of grass which had been planted with spring bulbs. Bright yellow and purple crocuses were everywhere. A wonderful, colourful signal that spring is on it's way. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me!

So yesterday I made sure to bring it, and went for a walk at lunchtime through the park behind the office.

They are planted all across the park too. The building in the background is the office block next to mine, we're just to the left of this shot. You can see the main road too, that runs between the business park and the park itself. It's kind of awesome having this lovely area of nature to wander around in so close to the office.

The bulbs seemed to be planted rather randomly. Yellow ones in clumps, but the purple and white ones were just spread out in places. It did lead to some lovely juxtaposition of colour.

It wasn't all that sunny, but this particular patch of crocuses was on a bank facing the sunlight that there was, so I had the perfect opportunity for some macro shots of the more interesting flowers.

I took an awful lot of pictures. A selection of the best are on my Flickr photostream. I was certain I would find a photo of the week inamongst them all.

I was so cheered up by the flowers. The arrival of spring after a long, cold winter never fails to put a smile on my face. So imagine how cheered up I was to discover, on leaving the office, that for the first time this year it was still vaguely daylight when I left work! So much so, I was able to get this awesome shot while I waited for my train.



Look at that lovely pink sky! I thought maybe I had another contender for picture of the week on my hands!

When I got home, and uploaded the shots to my laptop, I had a proper look through. As much as I love the above train station shot, I had to go with one of my cheerful spring flower shots for my 52 week challenge. I hope it put a smile on everyone elses faces too, when they saw it in the group pool.

Here it is: