March Roundup & 365

Paper (60/365)

Though I titled this 'March Roundup & 365', I have to admit this post is mostly about, 'here are the photos I took for my 365 Project during March' rather than 'here are the things I've done'.

Unclothed (61/365)	Flying Leopard (62/365)
Drooping (63/365)	Fresh-faced (64/365)

I started off the month with the intention of doing a lot--another daytrip to Portsmouth (this time with my sister), a trip out with a friend from college, some local events and several trips out on my own to go to some museums, or just to wander around and take photos. That is alongside writing one piece of flash fiction every day this month!


Unfortunately lots of things happened within the family that meant plans got cancelled, or changed, or postponed, and my brain ended up so fried that I forgot the events I wanted to go to, so didn't organise anything, and for the most part stayed at home!

In fact, the only thing I did do this month was go bowling with one of my sisters!

We both played really badly, but in a shocking turn of events, I actually won! I never win, I'm usually last!
Although it was cold and misty where we went, it was fun to get out of the house and make idiots of ourselves, haha!

Spacedust (65/365)

Lights (66/365)

Moon Magick (67/365)

Photography-wise, I'd initially planned to do something similar to February, and pick a theme to focus on for each week (or partial week, as it was at the start of the month!)

Hence flowers for Wednesday 1st-Sunday 5th, and then for Monday 6th-Sunday 12th my theme was 'shot through something'!
Above are photos shot through a faux mercury glass jar, a cheese grater, and the bottom of an old bottle.

Gin Queen (68/365)	Ice Shroud (69/365)
High Volume (70/365)	The Closeness of Mother and Child (71/365)

After my first three more abstract 'shot through something' images, I ended up focusing on more of a distorted portrait theme, and shot the image through an assortment of transparent objects.

16:58 (72/365)

For 13th-19th March I looked ast sky photography. I'm always photographing clouds anyway, but by this week the month was already taking its toll on my energy levels (not to mention mental health!), and snapping pictures of the sky seemed much more appealing than anything else. I just had to hope that the weather stayed reasonably good all week...

14:22 (73/365)	13:22 (Wings) (74/365)	Blurred Edge (75/365)
Flight Paths (76/365)	14:13 (Moody) (77/365)	13:46 (78/365)

...how silly of me to think that March in this country would have daily blue skies!
Blurred Edge is the odd one out here; it's a photo of a hill. But you can't see the hill. There's a sea threat in the way. I shot this out of my sister's car on our way back from going bowling, as we neared the ege of the aforementioned sea threat.
It was really spooky to drive along country roads that had nothing to see either side but dense whiteness. That darkness in the photo above is just the shadow of the hill; on flatter land there was nothing but white!

Goldfish Comet (84/365)

From the 20th onwards, I was back to taking an 'anything goes' approach with my photography. I spent the rest of the month doing some experimentation, playing around with some ideas, and also snapping things randomly that I thought looked nice!

Like A Queen (80/365)

Cinderella (81/365)

Coin Trick (86/365)

One idea I played with - which I'd like to improve upon - is taking portraits where the subject's head is covered by a different head. I took these ones of family members, though they didn't turn out amazingly well.
They might have been better if I'd taken two shots and edited them together so that everything was in focus, but I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to photography and feel that doing that steps over the line from 'photography' and into 'photomanipulation'.
...but who knows. At some point I might say 'to hell with it' and do some photomanipulation. It would make a change!

Pressed (88/365)

Another idea I played with very briefly was trying to catch the rainbow patterns on the bottom of a CD. I did this to get the picture I manipulated for my flash fiction Green Triangles and Yellow Trees, but took this shot with my DSLR. If I hadn't been afraid of snapping the disk, I would have bent it a little to try and get some more interesting patterns!

Study of a Hanging Planter (79/365)

Where Earth Meeds the Sky (85/365)

A couple of times, I revisited the idea of shooting through things. For these two photos, I used chandelier crystals and shot with my iPhone, because it has a tiny lens--I couldn't have done this with my DSLR!

Parliament and the Colony (83/365)	Departed (89/365)
Black Diamonds (87/365)	Footsteps of our Ancestors (82/365)

Of course, nature is always a fun thing to photograph. I found that a log near the owls I photographed at the beginning of the year had been carved into rabbits, snapped the impression of an ammonite, took a photo of my very insistent cat, and also one of a dead spider.

End as You Began (90/365)

Finally, I finished the month's photography a I began, with a shot of flowers! This time, tulips in the early evening sun.

So, once again I have done very little this month, which makes the name of blog a bit of a joke, really.

Despite that, here's a progress report:
Goals completed in March: 1 (goal #26: one flash fiction per day for a month)
Goals continued in March: 1 (goal #65: complete a 365 project)

For April, I definitely have to get myself organised and do things. And if life is thinking of throwing cr*p at me, it can damn well forget about it.