Photographic Eye Challenge!

So what do you do when 2 miles out from home, on the way to a "Lovely day out in the sunshine, lets go on a drive for a few hours and take some photos!" the car breaks down, is totally unable to move and you get stuck by the side of a dual carriageway......? Well.... you either freak out OR see it as an opportunity to "see the beauty and truth in the everyday" as my  blog strap line says! So all I had for inspiration was a patch of scrub land next to the lay by with a "no rubbish dumping sign" which had been ignored! So lets see what I managed to capture....(The photo above is the fiancee calling the rescue services team in!)

I first of all decided to use my long lens as a macro lens and up close to some wildlife, I do LOVE a ladybird or two! And then a close up of a beautiful feather in the sunlight.

Then some textural shots of a fence post and a lamp post against the sky.

Then I found out how to use the spot metering on my camera to capture the effect of sunlight through green leaves looking like some amazing nature fairy lights!

And then I looked for colours and found a whole spectrum as long as I looked up, down and everywhere possible (and not at the grey tarmac road!)

Then for patterns: in a stone wall, in tree branches like webs against a blue sky.

And also giving a new compositional twist to familiar subjects, we are all so used to seeing daffodils in Spring, but from the front of course, and yet how beautiful they are from behind as well.

So even though after six, yes SIX hours of waiting for the tow truck to take us home my patience was wearing a bit thin, I got home and looked through my shots and was really happy with them! And I think to myself how often I think "Oh I'd love to take some photos, but I don't have time to go anywhere / I'm not inspired" and yet here I was with nothing of interest in sight, with a dozen shots I love! Just proves a little more my belief that it's not the equipment,  it's not the subject, its not the money you throw at photography. Instead its cultivating the photographic "eye". Learn about your camera, learn a few photographic rules, and then use them or break them to fit what you want your shot to convey. I think some of it is learnt, some of it is practice, and some of it just is, and by that I mean a combination of the right light, intuition, patientience and creativity! :)