Seven Deadly Sins

I've decided to change the style of my blog after the New Year, I'll hopefully be posting every Monday and posting new stuff each week, going to make the effort to take my camera everywhere with me!  But for now, my last post before Christmas, I am going to share my photo's for the original QUB Photography Society Exhibition theme, the Seven Deadly Sins.

Envy

Gluttony

Greed

Lust

Sloth

Vanity

Wrath

Animals

A day late with this post, thought I'd share some of my favourite animal shots I've got over the years.  I love taking pictures of animals, even though it can be pretty tough when they won't. sit. still.  But these are a few I'm pretty proud of.

This wee meerkat is soo cute! 

In Belfast Zoo the prairie dogs usually get out and make their way to a hill near their enclosure.  It's really difficult to get close to them, this is about as close as he'd let me get...keep in mind I have a massive lens!

I have loads of butterfly pictures I'm proud of, they're so beautiful, but unfortunately I'm terrified of them flying around me.  This was taken in the Butterfly House in Seaford.

This is a really old photo; this was my cat Jones after he'd grown up a little bit and became pretty curious!

I took this one at the World of Owls in Templepatrick.  Another old one, you can tell I developed a bit of an obsession with colour popping..

My favourite picture of wee Jones!

Belfast Zoo

Today I'm sharing my photos from Belfast Zoo that I took at the start of the summer.  I entered a few of them into the annual Zoo photography competition, but unfortunately I didn't win anything.  I'm still really proud of these pictures, I feel they're the best I've taken in a long time!

 This shot looked really good in black and white too

Ring-tailed Lemur that I entered into the competition

I adore this little monkey with a crazy beard =)

I just love the detail in the feathers on this eagle

I find bats are pretty difficult to photograph, they just don't stay still and usually they're kept in dark conditions, so I'm pretty impressed with this shot

Newcastle

This weekend I took a little trip to Newcastle with my boyfriend to stay the night at the Slieve Donard hotel.  We headed down on Saturday and arrived to some pretty miserable weather, so we made the most of the spa facilities and I kicked his butt in the arcade.  I didn't take any pictures on the Saturday, but Sunday turned out to be a lovely day, the sun was out and the sky was blue.  We went to Silent Valley, which is a huge reservoir in the mountains, and it was beautiful!  

We realised we don't have many pictures together, so I took this in a huge, shiny sphere! 

 If you look closely you can see a tiny point on the mountain between the two spikes, this is the tallest point in Northern Ireland.

Silent Valley Reservoir 

 In real life this mushroom was huge! So it immediately drew my attention

This is cropped in a good bit because I'm easily stressed out by insects and couldn't get very close to it

Belfast

For this post I'm going to share some pictures I've taken round Belfast on different occasions and my next post will be Belfast in the snow.  I'm not that fond of cityscapes, I'm trying to come round, but it's pretty difficult, I just think most buildings are quite ugly.

This is Queen's University, this is where I go to school!

The wheel that was beside the City Hall, which has been removed.

I like to try and get shots with the Harland and Wolff cranes in them somehow.

The lady with a hoop which stands beside the River Lagan.

Ormeau Park, it's so beautiful and got the cranes in there too.

Star Wars By Night

A few QUB Photography Society Exhibitions ago the theme was 'Urban Photography', so I thought about this and living in Belfast it provided the perfect setting, but I wanted something a little different.  I asked my friends in the Emerald Garrison if they wouldn't mind putting on their costumes and posing in my pictures, I knew no one else would have the same shots and they'd be pretty unique, but still sticking to the theme.

 An Imperial Officer in front of a wall of graffiti

 A Stormtrooper aiming across the River Lagan

Biker Scout at the River Lagan, this is probably my favourite picture from the night

We are the Knights who say... NI

A few years ago I had a friend from France come to stay for a couple of weeks in the Summer and on one of our many trips we visited Carrickfergus Castle.  The day we were there we got to see a fighting display performed by some knights.  It was a great day, we watched them fighting and then went to see their equipment, their chain mail and weapons etc..

These are a few of my favourite shots from the day.

Christmas Holiday in Jersey

This is my last holiday themed post and it's my trip to Jersey for Christmas a couple of years ago.  Usually we have Christmas at my granny's house, so it was very strange going to Jersey, but my aunty lives there and wanted to host that year.  The weather was great, as you can tell from some of my photo's.  We stayed in a cute wee hotel that reminded me of Fawlty Towers, it was great!  I'd love to go back and see more, we did a car journey round the island and it's just so beautiful.

La Rochelle

To keep on the theme of holidays I've decided to post about my trip to La Rochelle in France, which I visited last summer.  I had such an incredible holiday thanks to my lovely French family I met through my secondary school!  There was so much to see and do in this part of France, it's absolutely beautiful too.  The photo's I've posted are only a handful of my favourites, there are so many more I wish I could share, but I think you'd be here all night reading and looking. 

I was really happy with this shark silhouette I got in the aquarium in La Rochelle, it was the most incredible aquarium I've been to yet.  Just south of La Rochelle near Royan is the Zoo de la Palmyre, which is the most incredible zoo I've ever been to.

 This picture was taken from one of the 3 Towers in La Rochelle, the Saint Nicolas tower.  

 I took this photo after our little boat trip through Venise Verte (Green Venice).  There were four of us in one of these wee boats sailing down the canals trying to follow the map, but after a few wrong turns we ended up nearly stuck, we managed to get back on track and I can say I enjoyed our adventure.

My favourite place we visited during the holiday was the fortified town of Brouage.  I'm really proud of this picture I took of a beautiful vintage bike in the town, if I could go back I'd definitely visit here again.

 I'm fairly certain this picture was taken on the Île de Ré when Caroline and I went on a little adventure (and nearly got lost).

I really loved this beach we visited on the Île d'Oléron.  It could only be accessed by a little train that runs round this part of the island =)

There's so much I wish I could have shown, some of my pictures from the Zoo, our visit to Île-d'Aix, the most incredible fireworks display I have ever seen or the building of The Hermione ship in Rochefort. I highly recommend La Rochelle as a holiday destination, the food is amazing =P

Prague

The next three posts I'm going to do are all from holidays I've had, starting with the oldest, Prague.  This was a family holiday, which was also my birthday present that year.  I fell in love with it as soon as I got there, despite the 30 degree heat.  It's such a beautiful, old city and I'd love to go back for winter to get some snowy shots of the Charles bridge.

An interesting performance by this homeless man, his dog and rat.

Inside the church within the castle walls, beautiful.

This is a photo taken from the Charles Bridge.

The astronomical clock up close and personal.

I have a funny feeling this little river street has a name with the word Devil in it...