Beach huts, Southwold, August 28 2005
[FZ20: 1/400, f4, ISO 80]

I don't like this shot particularly - it doesn't do anything for me but it's sadly one of the better ones from a disappointing day's shooting. I like coastal themes, but I ended up in Southwold at completely the wrong time of day for the shots I was after. I'm beginning to find that I'm a lot more comfortable working on abstract detail rather than opening the field of view right up and still creating a strong image - something for me to work on! I had read up, planned routes and was really looking forward to photographing the Notting Hill Carnival at the weekend but I wasn't able to go in the end, which was a real disappointment. I was hoping to be able to add some strong imagery to my portfolio (which feels light on subject matter right now) and post several examples here. I'm now on the look out for another cultural event that I can try to capture.

Carcassone airport roadsigns
[FZ20: 1/400, f4, ISO 80]

I was playing around with the camera and the telephoto lens whilst waiting for the ludicrously long hire car queue to disipate. Did a few basic contrast adjustments (and a slight straighten) in Picasa before posting.

Garden Flower, June 19, 2005
[FZ20: 1/60, f6.5, ISO 100, fill-in flash]

Exposure isn't great, but I like the detail of the stamen that got captured, and the little highlight's caused by the flash. Processed with the all in one "I'm Feeling Lucky" contrast/colour balance/brightness fix-up in Picasa 2, for a quick and dirty improvement.

Fountain, Carcasonne, France. May 2005
[FZ20: 1/500, f5.2, ISO 80]

Taken in the central square in the new town. I like the texture of the water ripples and the colour contrast with the red marble surround. A family of camels were stood next to me when I took this - bizarre!

Old friends, Barcelona, August 2005
[FZ20: 1/100, f3.7, ISO80].

I wanted to play around with some colouration effects on this shot, but can't quite get Photoshop to do what I want yet (PS novice!). I'll keep trying and repost if I'm happy with a final effect

B&W trunk and branches, Bayhurst Wood
[FZ20: 1/15, f/2.8, ISO80]

This shot was processed to b&w using the RGB channel mixer layer in PS CS2. The contrast is almost how I wanted it, but I'm going to try the highly recommended "Convert To B&W Pro" plugin to see if the results are any better.

Moss on felled tree, Bayhurst Wood, Hertfordshire, UK
[Lumix FZ20: 1/50, f2.8, ISO 80]

I played around (hopefully subtly) with the luminence to get a richer green highlight where the sun was falling on the moss. It's quite nice detail, but I wish I'd taken a better marco detail shot now.

A midtown New York breakfast, June 2005

This was taken on my (then) new Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone. I believe it's the first phone to market with a 2 megapixel sensor. It's a great little toy - I'm now never without a camera at my side! :)

Doves in courtyard, Boulogne, France. July 2005
[Lumix FZ20: 1/80, f2.8, ISO80]

Abstract leaves, Boulogne, France
[Lumix FZ20: 1/320, f4, ISO 80]

I like the highlights on the leaves in this shot. It's a fairly good exposure - better than any of the detail varitions I took at the same time.

I'm frustrated!

I have a bunch of things (hobbies I suppose) that interest me but I never seem to be able to progress with any of them. I've finally decided that enough is enough and I have to organise myself, otherwise I will wake up in 10 years time and I will have done of them! This seems to be a fairly common danger when living in large cities like London, where you commute for 2-3 hours a day, work for for 9-10 hours and just collapse for the 2-3 waking hours you have at home each evening. Not terribly healthy!

My principle interests are:

1) Flying: I've done some gliding in the past but would like to start learning powered flight in a microlight.
2) Photography: I have a couple of cameras, a Canon EOS and a Panasonic digital and I want to improve.
3) Guitar: Acoustic. I've not played seriously for a few years, but would love to pick it back up again - maybe with some lessons.
4) Model heli's: Now, I bought myself one of these babies a few years back, built it from kit and have never flown it (it's a common story!). I recently met someone who can teach me to fly it.

I figure that I can't do all of these justice at the same time, so I have to decide which I'm going to focus on for the next little while. I'll be doing some thinking on this over the next couple of weeks I guess...

I had a hard disc failure a few weeks back. No effective backups of course, which meant I basically lost everything. The disc was only 18 months old too - ah well. You live and learn. I now have a 1/3 terrabyte of space over 2 DiamondMax 10 discs, some imaging softare and a backup schedule! I even bought myself a Sony dual layer DVD burner to store the disc images on.

I really like the DVD burner. They seem to be pretty much there with creating a drive that means you can stop worrying about the various +/- formats. This thing handles them all - and it's fast!

Time to start again.

In a small way.

At least start small. The thing is, I feel bad about abandoning this thing forever. I want my blog to live - not just because it's the thing to do these days, but because it's an expression of me. A way for me to organise a small proportion of the million things that fly through my head every day. I admire those who are able to maintain writing these things day afer day after day. I want to be a better writer, to be able to express myself better. I want to record my thoughts. I want improved self-awareness.

That sounds narcissistic, but it's not meant to be. I'd hate that. For me, self-awareness is about being able to improve my understanding of my own strengths and weaknesses - not to navel-gaze and contemplate the big "I am...".

So here it is. February 23rd 2005. A new start. Let's see how I do...

Oh dear - I've not been doing very well with my blog, have I?! Life's been dealing more than a fair share of "downs" lately, and Vernaular hasn't reached that stage where I feel compelled to write about every detailed emotion I experience. I remember many blogs falling silent in September last year and I guess I feel similar to the way they may have done - just not quite sure what or how to write.

I'll be back though. Someday soon. I've not finished with blogging by a long chalk.

I loved this from the Gardian Round-Up this morning:

In a box marked "Westminster Bond" and bearing a picture of the Houses of Parliament, researchers believe they have found the gunpowder that Guy Fawkes intended to use to blow up that very building in 1605. The box was found in the basement of the British Library while archivists were sorting though the possessions of John Evelyn, a 17th century diarist. Evelyn had left a note in the box: "Powder with which that villain Faux would have blown up the parliament."

Can you imagine rumaging around in the cellars of London and stumbling across boxes of Guy Fawkes' gunpowder?! Just think - people actually get paid for that kinda thing. I need a career change!!

Well, I'm back. Sort of. The last few weeks have been really hectic for me and, I'm sorry to say, I completely neglected my blog. I'll make a few posts this evening to bring myself up to date, and then hopefully I'll be back to my daily(ish) routine.

So, what's been going on? Well, I've started back to work in the last couple of weeks after almost 6 months off sick. I have two prolapsed discs in my lower spine. I had my first operation to correct the problem back in October - but that wasn't a success. I've been through 3 months of physiotherapy, but that didn't cure me either. The next step was a much more invassive operation to remove the problematic discs but I've decided not to go ahead with it. Too risky. My surgeon gave me the odds of nasty side affects (like permenant dunbness in the legs) and I reached for the door.

Anyway, the upshot is I'm working from home for the time being...easing my way back into things whilst I undergo further treatment. I can't believe how hard it is catching up. I've spent the last 6 weeks doing lots of work-type stuff in preparation of 'coming back', but it doesn't feel like it's really helped me a great deal. Great! :o/

More soon...

One of my 10 month old kittens, brought her first mouse home this morning! I heard her mieowing in the kitchen, so went to investigate - expecting to see our old friend Mr Frog (Mr Frog has been brought home several time already). En route to the kitchen, the aforementioned kitty dashes past me with something in her mouth and drops it at the foot of the the curtains in the lounge. Our newest house guest then proceeds (fairly sensibly in my opinion) to climb the curtain, away from the immediate danger of salivating feline jaws (by this time sister kitty has woken and come to see what all the fuss is about). Of course, it is then left to me to catch the poor little blighter and remove him. Here, I'm left with the small dilemma of whether to throw our 'Daniel' back into the proverbial lion's den, or to show mercy and transport him to relative safety in the garden! I switch, briefly, between memory recall of some quote from the cat encyclopeadia, discussing the con's of depriving animals of their prey, and a visual inspection of my new rodent companion...

...It's at this moment that the mouse blinks at me! Such a small, involuntary (or was it?) reflex but it is loaded with so much humanity, I'm left with no doubt of what my course of action must be. No longer is this tiny mouse just another rodent prey - no! Suddenly he has become Mr Tiny-Mouse, my friend.

I'm such a fake!

I watched my latest dvd purchase, Thirteen Days last night. I've been looking forward to getting this disc for a few months, having heard good things about it in reviews and unfortunately missing it's theatrical release in the UK. On the whole I thought this was a very good movie, intelligently told with strong performances from all members of the cast. It was interesting to watch a movie about the JFK administration, told from a perspective other than Kennedy himself. Kevin O'Donnell (played by Costner) is the president's close political advisor and it is through his eyes that we see the terrifying events of the Cuban Missle Crisis unfold. Obviously, this is a Hollywood production and therefore the facts have almost certainly been glossed over and characters softened (or made more heroic) than their real life counterparts. OK, so you have to forgive the film that much. But still, they managed to bring the human element of the story through very clearly.

Following my gripes about PayPal's signup process, here's a site devoted to informing you of some disturbing truths behind PayPal. I can't believe BlogSpot is still using this outfit to process payments to rid sites of ads. Surely there has to be better, more reputable companies propviding similar services out there...? (here's a few examples!)

And just when you thought that site was enough - here's another!

I've been doing another trawl of notable blogs again this evening - more links to the best of them coming soon. One site that I did come across and could not wait to add a link to here was paypalsucks.com. This page explains "the evil behind the PayPal system", which made me feel a whole lot better about my previous moanings! I've been motivated to close down my account with them forthwith.