How it burns...

The Great Yorkshire Show was indeed a great show in Yorkshire, so no complaints on how it was advertised. It was a fun day, if not a tad early a start, but a wonderful experience. If Im honest I only went to look at the animals, and even though there were no zebras it was rather lovely. The sunburn, alas, less lovely. My arms and hands seem to be wondering just what have they done to deserve the pain they are im. This is why I shun the sun. A briht sunny day you say? No good can come of this, bring me the rain...

Lean Back Until You Feel It Touch You...

What a rather good day it's been. Had a hair cut, a rather long relaxing bath, and spent the afternoon taking pictures of Laura and Gabriel, some of which are up on the facebook page now. The complete set will go up on Flickr in a day or so once all the editing has been completed. Physically, I feel like I've run a marathon today, including more chair balancing than I would have liked. On the whole though, good days should come around more often, they are much much better than bad days, or even average days.

To sum up the mood of the day, I feel this is appropriate :



On the whole though, I am starting to wonder where I can go with the studio set up as it is. I feel the need to stretch myself more than just being the black background guy. I should try more outdoors work with people, perhaps grander set ups, something more theatrical. Well, thoughts for another day anyway.

It's Hard To Satirise A Guy In Shiny Boots

I am not the most frequent of bloggers, no one would ever argue against that I think, so before anything else perhaps a little catch up is in order. I have a Facebook page set up for photos now, please to be finding it here. I've shot a couple of sessions with some fun people and had an enjoyable time taking pictures on nights out. So all good on the photo front :)

It's kind of late, ten to one, but as I'm on holiday from work I can be a bit of a rebel and stay up past my bedtime. Have Woody Allen's Manhattan on, one of his finest works, and all I can think of is how beautiful a well done blu-ray HD transfer of this film would be.



Make it happen, movie people. Make it happen.

Addendum To The Previous

Fantastic video, very entertaining and informative. Youtube has many great videos that can help you learn as a photographer. Will write a post up with a "viewing list" that I would recommend for anyone interested in photography.

Tardiness And The View From Mount Self-Reflection

I shouldn't be here tonight. I was supposed to be with a group of friends doing what we do every Saturday night - saving the world from evil/causing chaos. Due to a complete cluster-fuck of reasons, I am here and they are there. At this point I can do little to fix this therefore I will try with the greatest vigour to make the best of tonight.

I bought two albums tonight from iTunes. This is unusual for me as I tend to look at music in the same way that I would look at paint. Handy, makes the place colourful, but not necessarily the most important part of the room, at least not for me. The first of the two is an album by a Finnish singer, Johanna Kurkela. Below is one of the songs from the album Dolores Haze.



The second is a singer called Emily Barker And The Red Clay Halo. The Beeb used her song Nostalgia for the opening theme of Wallander. Lovely lovely stuff.



So my plan for the rest of the night in what remains, to relax and feel good about the world. There is a lot to feel good about if you think about it. Most of the time it is far easier to feel shit about the world, I'm quite the seasoned hand at it. Tonight though, I will feel good and think of things that make me feel calm inside.

Have Been A Wee Bit Ill...

As it turns out, if you have tonsillitis for four or five days and you don't realise then it really does knock the shit out of you.

I've never had it before in my 31 years, and as such did not know what to look out for. I figured that last wednesday when my throat started to really hurt that it was just the onset of a cold, so I began to swallow lemsip (or non-brand alternatives) by the gallon (or cupful with correctly spaced intervals between). This did very little, besides make the back of my throat be in great pain but with the hint of lemon freshness to amuse the vileness that was knocking six shades of hell out of me.

Naturally I kept going to work, naturally. By Saturday night I was in a rather large amount of unbearable pain and trying to talk had become a comedy exercise in vocal gymnastics. Also, if I'm honest, the prospect of another night of no sleep made me want to vomit from my stomach, so called up NHS Direct and a nice man made me an appointment to pop in to hospital and see a doctor. The Doc was a lovely chap, very gentle, prescribed me with some nasty-away-pills that I've been taking since and seem (fingers knees and toes crossed) to be doing the trick.

Am off work for a couple of days now and am trying to rest up today to let the pills do their thing. Hopefully will get some snapping done tomorrow, but shall see. So for the rest of today, I think the couch and blanket shall be my friends, the tv my only companion as no doubt Gail will shun me when she realises I can't let her chase me around the living room, bless her she is so loving :)

The Bootman Cometh

My feet are warm at last, booted up and as white as the Snow Kings throat which I can now crush under my heel. The other pair, in a gorgeous cherry red, are still missing in the wild. I am confident that they will show up soon. It is perhaps safe to consider bootgate finished, at least for the moment.

It's about two weeks until one of my pictures should be used as the main image of an advert on the front of a newspaper in the local area. Much as I can't wait, I'm not going to believe it until I see it. The shoot for it took place a month ago, some of the shots for it are up on my Flickr (clickr for flickr). Have kept the image that was chosen for the advert off flickr for the time being as it seems more right to wait until it has been published first. No doubt when I see it in all its papery goodness I shall be on here squeeing like a high school girl who just got asked to the prom by the quiet rebel who says so few words but you just know you will be safe within his arms *sighs*...

En-Eee-Whay, what with the shoot having been a month ago I am now itching to do some more. Have spent the last couple of hours editing a couple of the other shots just to keep myself occupied.Mostly playing with the lighting in black and white. Need to shoot more before the withdrawal sets in heavy. Due to work the last few days being so manic still have not managed to get out and do any snow pictures, chances are it will all be gone before I get to go click. Ah well, such is life, if you don't get the picture when you are in the moment then its gone. At least I am prepared for the next time it snows and everything looks fluffy.

Been listening to a lot of "easier" sounds tonight. Had some Cat Stevens on, some James Taylor, Buffalo Springfield, Simon & Garfunkel, Johanna Kurkela, and this which I am particularly fond of right now,

Hopefully listening to this kind of thing will let me sleep a little easier, fingers crossed. Have another two days at the grindstone, and then I can get some rest and try and try and recharge. Getting a good nights sleep would be a good start perhaps.