25/06/12
After deciding to just get the hell out of Belfast for the day and drive north, I ended up at Mussenden Temple and The Dark Hedges, two of the most photographed places in Northern Ireland. I came away with very few good shots, but this is my shot of the day. I've seen better pictures of The Dark Hedges, but at least this one has a story to go with it. Standing in the middle of the road, camera on tripod, neutral density filter attached and so on. A little Nissan Micro drives up and stops; out get Pearl and Margaret, both elderly ladies and absolutely charming. We talked about the hedges and they offered to walk up the road to give the photo "a sense of perspective." Those of you who know me will know that that is something I've always lacked. Off they went, up the road to the bend you can see in the picture and then back again. And then Pearl produces her e-mail address and a book of oral history stories from Rathcoole which she had worked on. That was absolutely golden.
26/06/12
This week's cucumber update - there it is - a little cucumber. I've now quite a few of these growing although I was fairly sure I spotted a mouse darting away from the plants when I went in to take this shot. Do mice eat cucumbers? Was it one of the frogs that live in the greenhouse pretending to be a mouse? Bugger.
27/06/12
Again, set up in the back bedroom with the bare minimum of kit and shot with cable release/timer delay and using tethered capture via Lightroom on the Macbook Pro. Tethered capture with Lightroom 4 seems to work a lot better on the Mac than on my previous windows-based laptop. Used the aged photo preset in Lightroom, dodged my face to lighten it and applied a little dark vignette. And got a haircut. Jesus - you'd think I knew what I was talking about.
28/06/12
Thursday and the work "end of term" outing. This year it was karting in Broughshane. I know it doesn't sound too attractive, but I couldn't recommend this highly enough. Nice staff, good equipment and pretty fast karts. These are two of my female colleges. Number 1 is Clare who started off slowly and gradually got faster over the morning. Number 7 is Fiona who just flew from the beginning. She was somehow able to zip around the track without spinning, sliding or screeching the tyres (all of which I did). However, for sheer mindless stick-the-pedal-down-and-sod-everything-else I think I came out on top. I am somewhat sorry to report that I lost out on the last lap to a man who gave up psychology to become a Presbyterian minister. One can only assume he had god on his side. Or in his petrol tank
29/06/12
Evening flight out of the City Airport over east Belfast, travelling with number 1 son Conor to visit number 2 son Rory in Nottingham. There's a aerial view of Forestside Shopping Centre for you.
30/06/12
That's Rory - the last of my kids photographed for this project. We had an interesting afternoon, doing a photographic scavenger hunt around the Market Square in Nottingham. Three of us armed with cameras and a list of shots to get. I was very impressed with some of the pictures that both Rory and Connor came up with - we need to find some way of posting them up for everyone to see. On a more personal note, I find visiting Rory difficult in many ways. We haven't spent that much time around each other and I feel that we're pretty much strangers to each other. More recently, even getting to talk to him on the 'phone has been a challenge. Having Conor with me is a bonus though - he's good company and an excellent travelling companion.
Sunday morning, up too early again and walking round Nottingham with the camera. I love being somewhere different in the mornings, before every one is up and about. I took some shots of buildings in the morning light, which turned out OK. But early morning photowalks also mean coffee and smokes. This was the most welcome cup of coffee in a long time. Big, black and strong and accompanied by a Marlboro Light.
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1/07/12
Sunday morning, up too early again and walking round Nottingham with the camera. I love being somewhere different in the mornings, before every one is up and about. I took some shots of buildings in the morning light, which turned out OK. But early morning photowalks also mean coffee and smokes. This was the most welcome cup of coffee in a long time. Big, black and strong and accompanied by a Marlboro Light.
Cheers and thanks for reading this far. If you like the blog, feel free to share if with the Facebook button up above and on the left.
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