Deep theological questions #1

From the guy in the picture above
" Does it count as cross dressing to dress up as a mummy?"

If you go down to the chapel today your sure of a big surprise

I'll get one eventually

My fruitless search for a name for my "photography" is well............. still proving to be rather fruitless as after coming up with another batch of possiblities for names I found they were already taken.

Grrr.....................

It wouldn't be nearly as frustrating if I was able to get at least one or two possiblities but everything is coming up as taking. I mean there is another "me" already doing photograph ( and I'm not talking about my evil twin from work :-). There's also another "me" running a dance school as well.

Which is rather strange.

Anyway, it's wednesday, which means it's the middle of the week where we are exactly in between last weekend and the forthcoming weekend. and of course it was it's usual "slump" day self in all it's glory and then some.

But then again it's like any job, you get some days where things seem to go very well, somedays when they don't and some days where you just want to hide under the darn table.

Still only two more days to survive until my week off.

Later folks!

Rainbows

For a change a sunset that isn't over geektown

On the road again

So it's now dark when I have to get up which never helps encourage you to get up in the slightest as lets face it, in a perfect world we would all prefer to get up when it was nice and light and it was as warm outside of the bed as inside.

I did wonder if it was a sign of how the day was going to go when I went to prepare my lunch and found that the cucumber had been pressed to the back of the fridge by accident meaning it had frozen completely and utterly solid. In fact so solid the only possible use it would have been was if we had to club somebody over the head with it!

Still despite early unpromising signs it's actually turned out to be a rather good day ( especially for a Monday) especially as I found myself struck with several bursts of inspiration for possible photo projects. I had been going through a little bit of a creative slump as lets face it, there's only so many photos of sunsets you can take before your attention starts to wonder a little bit.

It was also a good day as after putting up with a little bit of a creative slump with my photography I found myself getting several bursts of inspiration today for future projects and as I had my notebook even better I was able to quickly note them down so I didn't forget which was even better.

This is actually a reason why you will rarely see me without a notepad as I always try to carry one after reading a book where one of the characters always carried a notebook in case they got a idea because their opinion was " If you don't write it down it never happened" which I thought was a good philosphy to have.

Anyway,

Later folks

It's a hard life being a dog

Another Day, another sunset over geektown

Epic Fail!

Well the preacher who claimed that the world was supposed to end yesterday must be feeling rather confused right now. But I'm sure like last time he will go back to his calculations, decide he made a mistake and quickly forcast the new date for the end of the world.

Anyway in a effort to do something slightly different today, I decided to get some bitz and pieces when shopping to try and cook something a bit different for tea.

First up were home made potato skins which I'm pleased to say came out very well (even if I have a load of spare potato right now I'm not too sure what to do with) and were rather nice, especially as I used some pancetta and sausage for the fillings.

Second up were homemade potato wedges and at least I now know how to make a plain basic potato wedge.

However in this instance I wasn't making plain basic potato wedges as I had bought some flavouring from the shops to add to them. Now I followed the instructions but the results weren't quite as good as I hoped for.

Or to put it another way Grumpy tried one and his eyes more or less popped straight out of his head as the flavouring was just a little bit stronger then it probably should been.

Still one out of two ain't bad.

Later folks!

Dad! I broke my Ball!

The world is ending........ again

Well greeting loyal readers, I hope you've been making the most of your Friday because apparently is the end of the world. Now we haven't been given a specific time but we have been assured that the world will end today.

However considering this is the 4th time that the person has predicted that the world will end, I think that the odds will be in our favour tt we'll still be here when the sun comes up.

But of course theres the outside chance that it will be 4th time lucky and won't he be happy when he gets the chance to crow tomorrow about how nobody believed him. ...... oh wait no he won't......

Work today was interesting because well it's a Friday and work is always interesting on Fridays plus I was once again on the move as I changed desks. The slight downside on changing desks so frequently is that your denied that " Oh I forget that was there" moment when you find something you had forgotten was there.

anyway,

Later folks

Even to me that makes no sense

Well as I now have my camera and now a rather large selection of shiny extras to go with it, I have been concious that I need to know how to use all of the bits not just individually but together to get the best photos possible.

Or otherwise lets face it, I'll just be left with a set of rather expensive paperweights.

So I have been investing in quie a few photography magazines which in the same way as lot of things until you actually start looking at them you don't know just how many there are! Anyway this means that there are now quite a few photo magazines starting to appear around geek towers along with multiple dvd's of how to do various things in photoshop. ( which I really need to get at somepoint but as usual I am digressing.)

Despite most of my photos so far being either of landscapes or owen ( he doesn't complain, he's always around plus he likes it when the cameras appear when he goes for a walk as he knows it means he's going to get a long one!) I am starting to like the idea of doing portraits. However I'm finding myself with a lack of suitable or should I say willing subjects.

However in one of the articles on portrait taking it advised of a website which it recommended everybody should try out as it was apparently very good and for the simple reason that it had a very simple operating goal.

Basically the idea is that it provides a "networking site" for aspiring models, photographers, photo editors and make up artists to come together. For example if your a aspiring model and don't have lots of money for shots, why you simply contact a aspiring photographer who is looking to expand their porfolio. You both help the other out, everyone goes away happy and as the saying goes the"jobs a good un".

Sounds good right? especially as it's free to join?

Well a little too good as it turns out as the entry requirements for photographers turned out to be completely baffling. As remember the site is intended for aspiring photographers, i.e ones who haven't been doing it for very long. Yes in order to register on the site you have to provide four portraits of four adult "models". Which seems totally counter productive to the whole point of the site because lets face it, if I had access to that many willing volunteers to being with to take that many shots, I wouldn't be really visiting this site to begin with!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Oh well, time for plan B I guess.

Not that I have a plan B right now, my plan C is to get a Plan B.

Wait, now I'm confused.....

Later folks.

Maybe you can look that up on the internet....but only when you get home

Wednesdays are always difficult for two reasons. Firstly that as it's the middle of the week it's always seems much longer and harder then other days and secondly it really does seem to turn into a anything and everything could happen kind of day.

Anyway, one of the girls from my team ( who is the massively outdoors one, does rafting, canoeing and all sorts of other things ) was talking about that she had run into a old aquaintence from school on Saturday night whilst she was having a night on the town. ( she used a slightly different turn of phrase which I won't use as it was depressingly chavish.)

Which in turn reminded me of a time I ran into somebody in the supermarket who greeted me warmly, asked how things were etc all the time I was frantically trying to remember who he was. It was only later that day that I suddenly remembered he was in my form at college. But I digress which are regular readers will know is not uncommon in the slightest.

Right back to the story, yes the girl then started to relate how the guy she ran into was asking her questions about life etc, etc, before suddenly asking her if she was librarian. When she then related to us she could understand him making this mistake as she wears glasses, wears her hair up most of the time and can look quite nerdish when wearign a skirt and blouse at times ( those were her words not mine and that loud bang you just heard was probably nemesis's head exploding when she read that :-)

Anyway, the girl then added that it was the guys next assumption that really surprised her as he then asked
" Are you still a lesbian?"

Which really annoyed her ( she isn't one in case you were wondering) because as she explained " who meets a person after several years and asks them almost straight away if they are some kind of Lesbian Librarian?

And it was at this point one of the guys decided to interject with a question, and the rest of the conversation kind of went like this;

Guy: What would one do anyway?
Girl: What?
Guy: What would a lesbian librarian do as part of their job?
Girl: Why are you thinking about this?
Guy: Well if that's their job title, what must the job entail?
Girl: Why are you asking me?
Guy: Because I'm just wondering.
Saxon: If you really want to know I'm sure there's plenty of information on the internet.

Anyway,

Later folks

The spirit is willing but the sunset is not

Well the path to becoming a fantastic well anything is rarely a easy one and I was taught a lesson this evening that no matter how willing you are if the weather, sunset and landscape does not co-operate your not going to get good pictures no matter how much you try.

As I had anticipated that with the weather being very nice all day we were going to be in for a very nice sunset and we were. Which I'm sure I would have been able to see if I was on a hill, but I wasn't and after spending some time trapsing over the open fields round geektowers I was disappointed to find that my view was all but blocked but a rather sizable wood.

Leaving me with a viewpoint that only allowed me to grab a few disappointing shots thatw ere nothing new and not especially inspiring.

But still at least as Grumpy says there's always another sunset so I can try another day and at least it proved a useful learning experience in the sense of I discovered that the tripod I have inherited can not cope with my camera when it has the wide angle lenses on which puts a new tripod to the top of the "need to get" list of shiny new toys rather then the " would be nice" list of shiny new toys.

Yes I really do have both of these lists. Well it gives me something to aim for.

Not that my photographic kit isn't already approaching a impressive size. I now have my camera, a additional flashgun, three and a half lenses ( the half is one I went half's on with Tap Dance. There's a nice advantage is having the same camera as other family members) a remote trigger system for the shutter and flash, uv filters for all lenses, a polarising filter plus a large and small camera bag with built in all protection.

Which gives me the ability to pretty much takes pictures inside, outside, in daylight, in the dark, next to the camera, away from the camera. I can als take pictures of pretty much anything from a small flower, to rafts, to helicopters to portraits.

There's only one small problem..........................

I'm currently struggling to think of things to take pictures of. So any suggestions of ideas for shots or even any ideas for photo projects will be gratefully received.

Later folks

The sky didn't fall, the world didn't end and nothing blew up. Bring on Tuesday then I guess

It's been a interesting day at work, mainly as they introduced a brand new all singing, all dancing system that was supposed to make everything far more effective and easier for everyone.

However what everybody tends to forget with any ( it based ) system that is all new, all singing, all dancing and is intended to make life more effective and easier is that when it first goes on line it is far from the all singing, all dancing system that will make life more effective and easier. There is always one or two teething problems.

So this is why for the couple of hours we had a whole lot of technical people running back and forth trying to make sure that any issues which did surface were rapidly stomped on.

Which went really well untl one of the guys from our team asked a innocent question that not only confused one of the technical people, it managed to confuse 5, yes 5 of them in one go! Which did lead to a rather amusing moment when our manager came round the corner and almost stopped in mid stride with a sheer look of panic on her face wondering what one of her guys had done to need the attentions of 5 technical people!

However this was quickly followed by another amusing moment when a sixth technical guy arrived and promptly solved the issue within 15 seconds.

Still at least everything ( touch wood, cross fingers, etc, etc) seems to be running okay now and after all it did make this monday far more entertaining then a usual monday.

Later folks