For the past few years I’ve been making my own calendars, as a Christmas present. As best I can I use photos taken in the stated month. This year half of them are taken by Mrs SomeBeans and half by me.
The cover image – A Caiman Lizard, living at Chester Zoo
January – our house in the snow, and the dark – a small amount of white balance fiddling required to reduce the orange cast from the sodium street lights.
February – ski-ing in Westendorf in the Austrian Tyrol
March – A hellebore, Mrs SomeBeans will have taken this one
April – some sandstone from the Sandstone trail, this will be from close to Frodsham.
May – Allium and a bee, bees are difficult to photo because they move around so much
June – The bark of the Strawberry tree
July – A lilac-breasted roller at Chester Zoo, a photograph from a works day out
August – A building at Trentham Gardens – for some reason this makes me think of India
September – Helenium, Mrs SomeBeans making good use of the macro lens she allowed me to buy!
October – A gilded water-buffalo at Biddulph Grange, every garden needs one
November – Witch hazel leaves taking their autumn colour
December – Frost, fog and weak sun by the Shropshire Union Canal




10 comments
The Gentleman Administrator
December 22, 2010 at 4:13 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Great photos, and a great idea using them in your own calendar. The bee one is particularly lovely.
SomeBeans
December 22, 2010 at 4:27 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks – I believe Mrs SomeBeans responsible for the bee photo!
I started doing this for a skiing website, doing the first designs in PowerPoint and going directly to a commercial print company. These days I get them done at Snapfish (other online photo printing companies are available!). I suppose the family might want to see pictures of Mrs SomeBeans and I but we don't like being photoed!
Laura
December 22, 2010 at 4:29 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
This is a really lovely idea, and some fabulous photos. July is my favourite. Thank you for sharing with us :-)
LadyCrafthole
December 22, 2010 at 4:31 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
What a lovely archive of your life if you do it every year. Beautiful pictures. Lovely idea :-)
SomeBeans
December 22, 2010 at 4:37 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
@Laura @ladycrafthole thank you both! I enjoy looking through all the photos for the year – I haven't got the stamina for the "photo a day" things.
Julia
December 22, 2010 at 8:23 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
These are lovely! And what a good idea.
The Virtual Victorian
December 22, 2010 at 9:05 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Just gorgeous – particularly love the lizard and the bee.
SomeBeans
December 23, 2010 at 7:34 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
@Julia – thanks! modern technology makes it easy to do
@TheVirtualVictorian – I like photographing lizards, they don't move around too much!
Phil
December 24, 2010 at 11:40 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Your picture of the Trentham Gardens building makes me think of India too. Lovely photos – aprticularly like thes 'texture' ones; the sandstone, the bark.
SomeBeans
December 24, 2010 at 2:35 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
@Phil – it's the joys of digital photography – I was useless with film, used to take me months to finish one!