00286 Jersey egg

Went to Jersey for an "overnight holiday". Weather was very overcast and so the light was flat as a pancake. It's strengthened my resolve to get a strobe kit to light things like the eggs when the light is so soft. Eggs need a little hard light to bring them out. Well, that's what I think anyway.

This was taken at Greve de Lec and what amazing sand they've got there, it's coarse, but smooth. Weird, huh?

00285 Staff Picks

So I looked at the list of books picked out by the staff at Blurb and mines on it.

'Course, I don't know if it's any good, seeing as I haven't got mine yet.

But it's on the way.

Tee hee.

00284 Ordered

I put up the book on Blurb and ordered a copy. I'm obviously obsessing too much over this, otherwise I'd have time to do and write about something interesting.

Here's the book's page.

idle hands

Sand and water cre...

By Lenny

Book Preview

00283 Stand back! I'm pushing the button!

It's coming. Any time in the next three weeks.

Any moment.

I'll just wait here.

Now what am I going to do.

I know I'll drive my family crazy.

Let the pacing begin.

00282 Booky booky

It's getting close to the time when I can hit the "order book" button, which is proper nice.
I'm just struggling through the last bits that bother me, like whether the images will print out as I want them to, what colours (if any) to use and what words to put in.
When it's all done, it'll be 160 pages long. That might be too big for most people, but for a cheap hardback photo album, it'll suit me just fine.

00281 Egg on the moon

At last eggs have been discovered on an off-earth environment

And soon after, the children came (as they always do)

Meanwhile I'm going through all my old images (no mean feat, there are literally tens of thousands) to find the original egg, rakeart, pooh stick and KAP images for a Blurb book that I've been meaning to finish. Using the basic premise that you have to have all the material (i.e. text and images) ready before "assembling" the book, I'm almost ready to send off the order for the first copy.
We ordered a book for the grandmothers' birthdays and, although the books were fantastic (and well priced), it became very apparent that the printed image likes contrast. With that in mind I've been re-jigging all theimages for this new book in the hope that when it arrives, most of the images will be what I want. Tricky thing, mind, trying to guess what the print will look like without actually seeing it.

00280 Another KAPer

So I was out with Kev (aka Ningaloo on flickr) yesterday. He's borrowed my flowform while he waits for his. We headded up to Fort le Marchant and this is the result of his first outing:

Darn site better than my first attempt. He used a Pentax Optio S10 hung using a Brooks KAP kit (really nifty piece of gear) and he's waiting for the arrival of a "Becotized" Sutton 16 (flowform).

Oh, here's mine:

Man, I picked a bland subject - Hackney Marshes. Those were the days. Those were the days of boring KAP shots.

00279 Class with Daves

Maybe this is just a fad I'm going through after thinking about buying equipment, but I was suddenly seized with the idea that I should be using my camera for more diverse applications.

So I joined up with the "Class with Daves: The Audit Group" Group on Flickr and did the weeks two assignments. The first was "duotone" and the second was "nails". I took my time over these and the results are OK, not amazing, but OK. The main thing was that it was really enjoyable and it always feels good to have an assignment to apply yourself to.



The nail image was a bitch to get anywhere near right because trying to get a nail in focus with the hammer in there too proved to be a little tricker than I thought - they were about a meter and a half apart. The one of Cara came about when she suggested that she take an image of her doll. Dolls are weird.

00278 Cameras, strobes & lenses

I don't usually post up links just for the hell of it, but Strobist has really got me thinking that I might like to start taking image capture a little more seriously - if only because years working on film sets never really taught me about the magical world of "painting with light". This seems to be a good place to start and the "101" he's got going is making me think of buying a strobe, stand and 'brella. The only downside is that I like my photos to be a little more spontaneous and however you slice it, you're going to have to put a bit more time onto setting up before shooting. On the other hand Mr Strobist does point out that there are more important things than lighting and that an open mind is key.

Two nice phrases I never came across before (perhaps I need to get out more):

"To a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - about keeping an open mind

and

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" - on the benefits of repetitive practice in setting up.

Love it, Strobist.

Which leads me onto cameras. D300 or D700. Like I can chose which one. It seems that there's a debate running as to whether there's a debate to be had. It's simple, either you fall into one camp or the other, or you fall into both (or none). Oh. hang on, that's not simple at all.
Fotunately fiscal pressures leave me with no choice anyway, so that's handy

00277 Dan & Lizzie's Wedding

So we went to North Yorkshire for Dan & Lizzie's wedding and along the way I stopped to float my boat(s):

Which was cool, as it was on a proper river and everything. So that meant real pooh stick racing, rather than letting them drift with the wind. As usual the really nice looking ones lost.

Then there was the time-lapsey stuff of the wedding, which worked out pretty well:



And lastly there was the KAP (sadly no wind on the wedding day). This was the place we were staying:

Reasonable productive, I'd say.

Oh ... and Dan and Lizzie got married, of course.