The sun is beautiful when it shines but have you seen what it looks like at different wavelengths? You are about to in this Youtube clip.
So today was my first day without having to take and post a photograph and I am afraid that I failed. You can't just switch off like that. Everywhere I looked there were photographic opportunities and subjects. The very plump young lady in a fluorescent pink top standing next to the Halifax ATM which boasts bright, neon blue lights was an enticing target, for instance but I didn't have my camera with me so she escaped. Still, I had other games to play and toys to play with. Parcel Force amazed me by delivering some ordered goods very early in the morning. So early in fact that I missed them and they went next door where the bride to be kindly signed for them instead. So that is another reflector and a large background stand to add to the studio equipment... Later in the day I was playing with my new flashgun radio transmitter remote switch and I snapped the shot above using a long exposure, rotating the camera as I took the shot and firing the flash at the same time. It made a very nightmarish image, don't you think? So much so that I felt that I had to post it for my colleagues. Oh dear... does that make me some sort of photographic junkie? The sun is beautiful when it shines but have you seen what it looks like at different wavelengths? You are about to in this Youtube clip. So that is it! My three hundred and sixty five days, one photograph per day has now officially finished and a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders but it has also left me with a very empty feeling. Not for long though! I will be going back to post more photographs and enter challenges and now comes the biggest challenge of all, taking the photographs for my neighbour's daughter's wedding. To that end and knowing that I will need to use flash, I have just purchased (at huge expense) a wireless flash trigger for my camera but having been ever so busy today, I haven't even had the time to open the box to see if it is OK yet! Park Cameras must have had a surge of post Christmas goodwill to all men, given the amount of cash I have been spending there of late!
Here's a heart warming story for you. "Metal bum" Seeing as my project is all but done now (just tomorrow to go), Donna thought that it would be nice if we went for a walk back to where it all started on December 31st last year (http://365project.org/steampowered/365/2012-12-31). It was a nice walk and the sun shone from a blue sky but the fields all looked dreadfully muddy and with the prospect of more rain to come these fields are going to look more like a morass than they do now. Where my photography goes to now, I don't know but I have just ordered up a chroma green muslin backdrop and a set of stands to hold it in place so when I do any video work (which is more than a distinct possibility) I will be able to do green screening more comfortably. Apart from that I am still feeling at a bit of a loss for what my final shot should be. Here's hoping that I will get some inspiration between now and tomorrow. Here is a scary little video that deals with overpopulation. It all sounds straightforward enough until you get to the crux of the matter right at the end. As I said... scary. With only two photographs left between now and the end of my photo project for 2013, I am at a bit of a loss as to how I say "Au revoir" to my photographic colleagues and friends. I am not actually going to leave the site but I will be taking a lot less of an active part for a while at least. I hate formal goodbyes because they have a tendency to make me tear up terribly. Come to think of it, I am not even sure what my ultimate shot, my final, my "swansong" shot is going to be yet. I have a couple of ideas but I am not sure what I can get away with, even amongst those of my colleagues who know me well! I'll let you know if I come up with an answer. Actually, I won't let you know because I am going to keep it quiet and you will have to wait and see for yourselves! Here's a gorgeous time lapse video called "Dreamscapes" (best watched full screen and with HD turned on if your broadband connection is fast enough to take it) Dreamscapes from Jonathan Besler on Vimeo. You know what it is like when something takes your breath away and you say "Well, I have never seen anything like this"? Well that was how Donna and I felt when we decided to take some exercise today. Yes, despite the leaden skies and the threat of more rain, we decided to troll over to the RSPB bird sanctuary at Pulborough Brooks. The first drawback was the fact that the visitor centre was closed due to a power failure but if you know where to walk then you can always get around and onto the reserve itself. That was when the first images hit the brain and said "Wow!". Although the River Arun floods and soaks the flood plain, we have never, ever seen so much of the plain as flooded as it was. A couple of years back, one of the main paths around the reserve was flooded and impassable. This time there was a lot more of the nature trails that was not available to the punter and so were three of the four hides. They were awash to the depth of a couple of feet. We have never seen flooding this bad. Fences were underwater and even the levee around the river Arun had all but disappeared and that is one deep levee which has singularly failed to do its job! Even some of the houses in Pulborough seemed to have water up to their doorsteps. Those people must be starting to get a bit concerned by now seeing as the forecast is for more wet and windy weather before the year is out. Fingers crossed for them but if they see me starting to build a large boat and taking animals in two by two then they need to be really worried! Very apt, here is an animation called "Damned" Damned from Richard Phelan on Vimeo. George Carlin, the American stand up comic once said in a monologue called "Some werds" that there were various words that you just wouldn't expect to hear. Words like "Hand me that piano" and "You can do what you like to the girl, just leave me alone!". When I first heard this monologue, on a marvellous, vinyl, "Long Playing" record (thirty three and a third revolutions per minute) called "Toledo Windowbox", I can admit to chortling a bit. The problem is that some forty years after I heard that track on that marvellous record I have, twice this week, uttered a string of words that I thought I would never hear myself say. These words are "No thank you, I don't want any more beer (or wine), I have had enough." Hang on a second... alcohol is one of the very few things that do good things to me and get me "high" and over the years if someone said "Have one for the road" or something like that, I would have said "OK then" and probably had several more for the road to boot. I think that I have just reached that age where, although alcohol still floats my boat and does nice things to the inside of my skull, I am old enough to know that too much is going to hurt the next day and that I just don't have the capacity to knock it back like I used to. I look down into my cellar and see the boxes of beer that I laid in for Christmas. It is going to take me a couple of months to down that lot and I didn't need to open my gob and say "those words". Sometimes I feel that I am getting too old for my own good. This is just plain weird but it does star a young David Bowie for the first thirty seconds or so. "Thin White Gelato" Thin White Gelato from Trunk Animation on Vimeo. I don't like Christmas. In fact I hate Christmas and this one didn't start any too well. At about one thirty this morning the local drunken youth thought to take Christmas cheer onto the streets very noisily which woke me up and then I couldn't get back to sleep again. I woke up grumpy as hell and Donna and I had a few choice words with each other. Thankfully, by the time our friend HH had arrived, late morning, I was feeling a little more chirpy. There then followed a day of talk, food and drink (mostly tea otherwise I would have fallen asleep!) and we sat around a blazing log fire (except for the time when we took a walk around the village to shake lunch down) and opened some of our presents. The day has now ended with out friend HH trundling back home and we are nursing the only stoned cat in creation - HH gave him a super strong catnip mouse as his present and he is totally zonked out of his feline mind! Now we are going to have a quiet evening around the fire with some small nibbles (maybe) and a glass of something alcoholic (definitely) before turning in. Let's hope that the local youth aren't in such fine voice tonight. Here's a nice little animation for you. "Blue Zoo Xmas 2013" Blue-Zoo Xmas 2013 from Blue Zoo on Vimeo. A brief history of time? There isn't enough of it. Just back from the Christmas visit to the in-laws and now it is time for me to do some Christmas wrapping. See you all whenever. Here's a short animation about a drab, grey town but things change when a colourful stranger walks in. "Down" town. "Down" Town from SHED on Vimeo. The title says it all (and it isn't a minor ailment that I have picked up!). The mighty storm is upon us. Well, so far the storm has been as impressive as comet Ison. That is to say... not particularly. Yes, we have high winds and yes, we have rain but I wouldn't rate it any worse than normal December storms. The only thing that we have done today is to pick up the final fruit and items we need for Christmas (yes, we forgot some things on Saturday) and to deliver the Christmas cakes to the monastery. Apart from that... and making the costumes for the toys (see below) oh... and to bake the Christmas Stollen... and deliver the final cards to folks in the village... we haven't done a great deal. That is the way I intend to keep it. So now it is time to hunker down beside the fire with a hot cat and a cold beer and contemplate supper. Have a nice evening wherever you are.
Today was the day when Donna and I visited my parents in Hertfordshire. Normally I dread this day because it is the time when my Mother tries her damnedest to get me to promise to talk to my sister but this time she didn't. In fact Mum just didn't seem to be herself at all. She produced a small bag of brass items for me. Let me fill you in with a bit of history. Over fifty years ago, we lived next door to a dear, little, old Welsh lady, Jenny Jones. She surrounded herself with brass items which she kept scrupulously clean. Today, whilst visiting parents, my Mother gave me some of the brass pieces that Jenny gave to her shortly before she passed away. I looked at my Mum and saw that she was a sweet, grey haired little old lady just like Jenny was when I knew her. It broke my heart because this last year my Mum has grown so old, both physically and mentally. Where is the fiery Suffolk lass with the shock of black hair who enchanted my father so much that six weeks after meeting her, he married her? Surely she can't have been replaced by this wizened old lady? Where is the fire breathing dragon of a mother who wouldn't stand for any nonsense from me but should I fall and skin my knee would pick me up, clean me up and set me off playing again? Surely this little wrinkled old lady can't be her? I just can't believe what the ravages of time have done to her. I waited until we got home before weeping (not that Donna knows about it). Time for you to meet a fish called Harley. Harley from Tom Teller on Vimeo. We made a point of getting into town reasonably early this morning to avoid the final "crush" of bodies in the shops. Wow! Were we wise to do that, or what? By the time we were leaving, the number of people pouring into the car parks and down the stairs at the multi storey was a veritable torrent. We legged it down to our favourite fruit and vegetable farm shop and did something similar there, escaping form the starving masses. You wouldn't believe the sheer amount of food that people are laying in. From the sheer quantities in their trollies at the supermarkets, anyone would think that there was a forthcoming famine or that the shops were going to be closed for at least a fortnight but in reality, they will be open for business as early as Boxing Day. Anyway, we got home, Donna iced the Monastery cakes while I tackled the bathrooms and then driven by fatigue, we lit the sitting room fire and we have been just sitting there soaking up the warmth. As far as Christmas goes, we are more or less prepared. I have a small amount of wrapping to do, two cards to deliver in the village and we need to visit with both sets of parents and then that is it. Yesterday I had a clip of Arnie's kills. Today I have one hundred pithy sayings from action movies for you. Personally I think they missed out with not putting Joe E. Brown's killer of a last line from "Some like it hot" in there but, then again, it wasn't exactly an action movie. Warning - some of the language is NSFW in this video clip. Things are still speeding up as we rush headlong towards Christmas day. Today was Donna's last day at the office so it is the last day of getting up at 04:15 in the morning for almost two weeks. It is wonderful! On arriving home I tackled the mountain of ironing and my goodness, what a mountain it was. A good two and a half hour's worth of frantic pressing and folding but that is now all done and airing nicely. I had to make a quick dash into Horsham to pick up one or two extra little things and was horrified to see the seething masses of yummy mummies and push chairs all over the place (sorry... "bay buggies"), getting in the way. I managed to drop the bag with my recently purchased photographic props in and there was s sickening crash but it did at least give me the chance for a slightly different shot (see above). Now that I have got Donna home for the holiday, we are going to treat ourselves to an Indian meal tonight and just sit in splendid isolation while we come to terms of being able to do more or less what we want for the next couple of weeks. It is a pleasing prospect and when that also includes a glass of wine or two then it becomes very alluring. See you all tomorrow. Now... How many people has Arnold Schwarzenegger killed in his forty four year movie career? Well, here they all are! Ah, the joys of having a cold... AGAIN! This is my fourth cold since September and it really sapped me yesterday. Today has been a day of recovery with the scratchy sore throat disappearing and the dry cough appearing but hopefully I will be over it for Christmas. I feel a bit sorry for those who are just contracting it today. I blame my recent trips up to London for this one. When one starts commuting by train ("The Rattler" as HH's father Tony used to refer to it) one begins one's commuting career by catching all and sundry sniffles and bugs but after a while you get salted in and the majority of bugs leave you alone. That is certainly what happened to Donna and me. However, after a period of not commuting, one starts getting vulnerable once again. In this case, I contract things from Donna or, if I do regular trips up to town by train, I catch my very own bugs. Of course matters aren't helped by the generous souls who don't seem to have heard of handkerchiefs, tissues or just the plain expedient of putting a hand in front of one's mouth when coughing. What did your parents say to you? "Put your hand in front of your face!" You rarely hear that expression any more and snotty nosed kids can snort, cough and sneeze in any direction they wish, over whatever and whoever they fancy, with no admonishment. That is enough whining for the day. It is time to have a meal and settle down for the evening and I intend to have another early night. Here's something to titillate your tastebuds. Jazz and pizza, "Brush with pizza" BRUSH WITH PIZZA from Dikayl Rimmasch on Vimeo. This day disappeared in a blur, rather too much of one. I was due up in London for Donna's Office Christmas party but overindulgence was the least of my worries. At some point in the last few days, I have contracted yet another cold - the fourth one this year so by the time noon arrived and the party was due to start, I was feeling more like "death-warmed-up" rather than "life-and-soul-of-the-party" so contented myself with one small glass of something and a tiny plate of nibbles before sitting in the far flung corner of the office and trying to sleep. We left early and Donna managed to get me onto a train. As soon as we got home, I hit the sack and slept eleven hours straight - that is why there wasn't a blog entry.
Ah! What it is to be whisked off into the past and relive childish memories! The day started well with gouts of rain and a flooded back alleyway at the house but never mind. Having dropped Donna off at the station I returned to the house and started organising wedding filler shots for my neighbours daughter's wedding. In the end I took about forty different shots but processed and used only half a dozen of them. These are going to be "in fill" alongside the real wedding photographs that I will be taking. Either that or I will superimpose suitable text on them and use them as titles and credits on any slideshow that I do. Anyway, be that as it may, it passed the time before the chap who was due to deliver logs arrived. He was fashionably late (i.e. ninety minutes late) but we got the logs, mostly Ash and Oak, off the back of his pickup with few problems, I paid him and he went on his way. That left me to stack the logs in the garage. As I started building the piles of logs against the inside of the garage walls, I was transported back forty six years to a time when my Dad was stationed at an RAF aerodrome in Germany. This was situated right in the middle of pine forests and for a growing lad like myself this was one huge adventure playground. Every so often the German forestry management people would come around and thin out the trees. They would leave piles of fragrant pine logs lying around and us young kids (I was ten at the time) would build forts out of them and indulge in battles where huge chunks of wood would be thrown at each others forts to see if we could knock them down. Invariably someone's head, face, hands or shins would get in the way of some of the flying logs and there would bloody noses and, in some cases, mild concussions and stitches required but it was fun. Good healthy boyish fun. I doubt that (a) kids would play like that any more and (b) German Health and Safety would allow the piles of logs to be left unattended without warning notices in a zillion different languages posted on them. Ah the joys of youth. Now for another painful experience of youth. Which sort of wallflower are you? Wallflowers from The Line on Vimeo. |
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May 2015
AuthorPaul Everest - Shining wit (at least that is what I think they said) |