Bonus Day 15

During the winter months I had to be quite creative! These mini figures definitely tested my macro skills - the mug is about 2cm high! Macro improves manual focussing skills as well.

Bonus Day 14

Macro! Quickly realising that I would never get a decent macro in the garden of a snowdrop, I had to bring it indoors and taped it to black card! I'm really pleased with this - it's exactly how I imagined it would be, and I love the stark contrast of black and white with the green accents.

Bonus Day 13

Close up work, tricky lighting and bringing all the elements together...thank goodness for our freaky figures, which came in handy on a number of occasions!

Bonus Day 12

My first foray into macro - and it's outside! sunny morning with dew on the grass. I'm so pleased with this one, another in my top 5!

Bonus Day 11

Representing Christmas! My goodness the reflective surface of the baubles played havoc with this shot! I had to really think about where I was and where to place the camera. Also, I'm indoors, so it's all about adjusting to use a tripod...

Bonus Day 10

I'm starting to get adventurous with light now, breaking rules and shooting into the sun! I love the solar flares and the feeling of late afternoon in the light.

Bonus Day 9

Vegas Baby! What symbolises Las Vegas more than Elvis? What do you call a group of Elivses together?! This was when I began to realise that candid shots can often produce the best images - it's luck that brings all the elements together to make a good shot - this is in my top 5!

Bonus day 8

There were so many great places we visited on our American Adventure last year, it was hard to pick a topic for each day of our stay! Monument Valley was awesome, and I think the picture doesn't show the full vibrancy of the rocks.

Epic Western scenery!

Bonus day 7

A similar subject to yesterdays' favourite, but quite a few days and weeks apart!
I went full studio, with a sheet tacked up and decided what Sean should wear.

I wanted something that was quite raw and this was taken a way into the session. Sean was only partly posing, the novelty of it all was beginning to wear off I think! 

Bonus day 6

I had so much fun with my Parents in their garden. The posed photos weren't working and then Dad started mucking about which made Mum crack up! This was one of those moments. The colours of the garden and their clothing were all battling for attention so I opted for black and white. This is adjusted from the original published, to give more depth to the tones.

Possibly my all time favourite photo of my Parents.

Bonus Day 5

An 'artistic' close up from the garden - I like the clean colours and it's slightly given a painterly feel in photoshop

Bonus Day 4

A hint of the big adventure that lay ahead! Pre macro close up too!

Bonus Day 3

I have decided that these recaps over my personal top 20 will be in date order - hopefully there will be visible improvements as we go forward!

There is no way I would leave Hobbes out of the top pictures - always a willing 'poser'!

Bonus Day 2

The first photo where I had to give my subject direction...

Bonus day 1 - my favourite 20!

I really tried to narrow my personal favourites to 10, but I ended up with 20!!
These will appear in no particular order, however my first choice is the very first photo I took!

Day 366 - 16 July

So today is the last day of my year long Daily Clicker Project!
Without telling anyone, I set out to improve my photography skills by challenging myself, both from a creative and technical perspective.

Not all my photos have been good, but I can honestly say I learnt something from each day. I also learnt more about myself, some good, some not so good!

To every person who commented, critiqued or encouraged me along the way, many thanks - I had you all in mind often, knowing that I had an 'audience' waiting to see what I would do next!

A big thank you to those who agreed to appear in the photos - especially Mum & Dad - we had a great laugh in the garden!
A special thanks to my brother, Simon, for his technical knowhow, and for letting me play at macro, before I committed to getting the gear!

I really would have not finished this experiment had it not been for Sean pushing me on the days when my enthusiasm was less than 100%, holding the kit and tolerating my artistic hissy fits when things didn't go exactly to plan, as well as encouraging me every single day, so a massive thanks and big love to him.

So 366 days later, am I a better photographer? I think so, but you can decide that yourselves.

Over the next 10 days I will revisit my personal top 10 - and after that, I may occasionally publish the odd photo, but first I might have a rest!

If I have achieved nothing else, I hope I have encouraged you to maybe try something new, improve something you already do, or just given you something to talk about. Thank you all for your support, and for now, ciao!

Mariano

Day 365 - 15 July

"Is your project nearly over?"
"One more day Sean, one more day!"

Day 364 - 14 July

British Summer time...

Day 363 - 13 July

With a nod to the Tour de France...

Day 362 - 12 July

Another image of Kent...

Day 361 - 11 July

With a slight 'nod' to Turner who painted the Thames on many an occasion...

Day 360 - 10 July

The final in the textures series?

Day 359 - 09 July

Jerry was very protective of his Tarantino/Rodriguez playlist...

Day 358 - 08 July

Visitors to the lavendar...

Day 357 - 07 July

There will be tomatoes...

Day 356 - 06 July

Abstract gems...

Day 355 - 05 July

One of my all time favourite cut flowers, now in pots in our garden! Fragrant bliss!

Day 354 - 04 July

A new technique...adding text!

Day 353 - 03 July

A feline presence...

Day 352 - 02 July

Orange marigolds...no good for doing the dishes!

Day 351 - July 01

Another addition to the garden...