2013 365 31

Ah week 31, my old friend, how are you? It seems (and I've checked) that at about the same point in last year's 365 project I ran out of steam and struggled for motivation. Then shortly afterwards, things picked up again. Lesson learned. Last weeks update was a couple of days late due to apathy; this week's update is late due to having too much to do. Shouldn't complain really.

29/07/13

I've taken this photo before - that's how low my creativity is this week. It's a bird. On a bird feeder. Big deal.

30/07/13

I know the photo makes this look huge, but it's a resin cast of my youngest daughter's hand. We came across a moulding kit (dirt cheap), took it home and tried it out. It was quite interesting and a lot of fun, although not for the wee monkey who had to hold her hand in a tub full of rubbery jelly for 15 minutes to form the mould. Next job is to finely sand down the rough bits and then figure out what we're going to do with it. And what other body parts we can make casts of with the remainder of our supplies.

31/07/13

Ok, so this is bit out of focus but it represents something really exciting in my house - a dinner made using mainly ingredients from the garden and greenhouse. I am awash with the tastiest baby courgettes, shallots and garlic at the moment and these were picked and made into a rather nice pasta sauce.

1/08/13

I was reflecting about last year's 365 project earlier and recall that I spent many shots and updates on the progress of my cucumber plants. Which ultimately failed to deliver a single cucumber. This year, the courgettes have been a big success with three very study and bushy plants producing loads of fruit. The flowers are amazing and I think they are edible too, but I haven't tried one yet.

2/08/13

......mind you, if the courgettes are a success, then the tomatoes must be the biggest disappointment. There are lots of little green tomatoes but nothing that remotely looks like it's going to turn red any time soon. Given the care, attention and love I'm lavishing on them, you think they'd have the decency to hurry up.

03/08/13

The relocation of the Open House Festival to Bangor was a bit strange in my opinion but any reservations about this were kicked into touch after tonight. Local band Farriers played in the amazing setting of Bangor Abbey, accompanied by the wonderful Arco String Quarter. I'll point out that sitting on a wooden church pew for two hours was not the kindest thing I've ever subjected my bottom to, but it was worth it. The band did suggest bringing a cushion with you - I declined. I was wrong. Only took a couple of shots, the main reason being I was enjoying the band too much. That's a compliment to them - they were that good.

3/08/13

I was out wandering about Belfast this morning, primarily to try a few shots of buildings with the new fisheye lens I'd picked up. Thus far I had managed to avoid any contact with the World Police and Fire Games being held here at the moment, and which appears to have turned Belfast into the biggest annual convention for Unformed Dating known to mankind. Anyway, as I walked along the Lagan I was rudely interrupted by the final of the dragon boat race. Swiftly swapping my fisheye for a longer lens, I rattled off a few shots, f which this turned out to be the best.

2013 365-27

Weather is here. Lots of it. Very hot and sticky weather. Have a few things lined up for this weekend, so hoping to get some good shots.

1/07/13

If you saw last week's post, you'll have seen one of the shots from the graduation shoot that I did with my daughter. Today was the big day (for real) and I could have posted up my photo of Sir David Attenborough who was receiving an honorary degree at the same ceremony. That's my very clever and hard-working daughter in the middle, with the dark hair and glasses.

2/07/13

It's time for Muffin the dog to appear again. Muffin has a collection of rubber chickens all of which have no heads. The average life expectancy for a rubber chicken seems to be around one month. Muffin takes this length of time to remove the heads and the squeakers. She seems happier with them that way.

3/07/13

Dinner with Sarah and Ellen at a new Indonesian restaurant called Happy Angel. The highlight of my meal (and that says a lot about the quality of the food) was my attempt at using the menu to make my own happy angel origami piece.

4/07/13

I've posted several of the roadside memorials photos that I've been taking on this blog. I came across this one on the Lagan Weir this afternoon and wonder if it is a memorial to a young man who fell from the weir into the River Lagan and drowned after an evening's drinking in the nearby Odyssey complex.

5/07/13

I came back to the Lagan Weir to take a couple of shots of the numerous padlocks which have been placed there - an homage to the whole bridges/padlocks thing that seems to go on in other european cities. I'm going to check these from time to time to see if the philistines of Belfast City Council cut them off.

6/07/13

I've gone along to spectate and photograph the annual Belfast Pride parade. This year I thought I'd do something different and actually take part with the Belfast Roller Derby squad. A fantastic day out and a real advertisement for the best that Belfast has to offer. My travelling companions gave me plenty of opportunities for great shots. I picked this one, as the ladies got painted with their rainbows before the parade began. This is Rachel and her face and eyes just look amazing.

7/07/13

Bridges skateboard park this afternoon for the 2nd annual Skateboard NI jam. It was hot with very little shade, but yielded some great action shots. No problem with shooting at high shutter speeds without lights today. Main discovery from the day was that skateboards are much more dangerous than both roller derby and BMX. I got hit three times by rogue boards; once in the chest and once on each knee. The last one to my left knee was the worst and needed icepacks, anti-inflamatories and painkillers in order to get my knee back to its original shape and size.

Flatland Jam at T13

I had the chance to spend last Saturday at T13 BMX and skate park in Belfast shooting the Flatland Jam. This was a competition involving riders performing tricks on the flat (hence the title). I used a variation on the off camera flash set-up that I've been using for Roller Derby, with two speedlights cross lighting the stage at 1/8 power and a third speedlight at an angle to provide fill light and set at 1/16 power. Camera settings were ISO 200, f2.8-f3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/200.

I've tried to pick one shot from each of the competitors on Saturday, ans a couple of people who weren't competing but could still throw some pretty impressive moves on the bikes.

Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

I had the pleasure of getting along to three events at his year's CQAF festival. The Cathedral Quarter festival has always had a habit of bringing over emerging and established artists and offering a very broad range of events, concerts and exhibitions. The Festival of Fools seemed to have become incorporated into CQAF in some shape or form, and it's regrettable to hear that this particular piece of street performance has had it's funding axed. The Festival of Fools is multi-cultural, cross-community. family-friendly and attracts really respectable crowds, many of whom are tourists. I think it is a little gem in the crown of Belfast's city centre. In the same week, our minister for finacne decided he was going to spend £10,000 on erecting five union flags over government buildings, a divisive and pointless act if ever there was one. I did suggest to anyone who would listen that he could use that £10,000 to fund the Festival of Fools which appears to already have been named in his honour.

Anyway, here's a selection of shots from the Festival of Fools, the Fawlty Towers Dining Experience, Amadou and Mariam and Mary Gauthier/Ben Glover.

Mary Gauthier and Ben Glover, St George's Church

Festival of Fools

Amadou and Mariam

The Fawlty Towers Dinner Experience

2013 365-18

Week eighteen ahoy.

29/04/13

I don't spend a lot of time taking photos like this and certainly don't post them on this blog. But this.....this is magnificent. And that's all I'm saying about it.

30/04/13

My greenhouse. It has featured here before but I spent most of today getting it weeded and cleaned, ready for a new growing season which I hope is better than last year's. Tomatoes, peppers, chillies and some other things growing away on the window sills inside at the moment, ready for transplanting to the greenhouse in a couple of weeks.

1/05/13

Taken some time ago, but embargo removed today. Technically I'm not 100% happy with this shot, but it turned out reasonably well. Orders are being taken as we speak for prints at very reasonable prices.

2/05/13

Another day, another monument although today I managed to find and photograph four of these. This one is unmarked and consists of a plastic ball of flowers and a t-shirt tied to the crash barrier on the A55 outer ring in Belfast.

3/05/13

 First day of the Festival of Fools today and this lady provided my first spot of audience participation for the weekend. This is Mooky Cornish who made me dress in a wig and frilly dress and sing and dance. The only consolation was that she also caught my 10-year old daughter as well. She did look better in the wig and dress combo.

4/05/13

And this fine gentleman is Grant Goldie, a fine juggler but even better with the diablo. I've seen pretty much all the juggling tricks there are to see, but this guy had diablo tricks that I had never seen, much less even thought possible. Breath-taking stuff.

5/05/13

These are the Chipolattas, whose speciality seemed to be musical theatre and barbequeing each other's testicles. As always, the Festival of Fools provides great entertainment, world class street performers and a great atmosphere. It's really sad to hear that the funding for the Festival has been cut by our local penny-pinching bureaucrats and this made me toss a few extra quid into the hats which were passed round after each act. It's surprising that we can't see fit to fund something that is genuinely cross community, family oriented, a draw for tourists and a mecca for local photographers. It's even more surprising to discover today that our finance minister Sammy Wilson has seen fit to spend £10,000 on erecting five flag poles so the union jack can be flown over some more buildings for designated days each year. Come on Sammy - sod the flags and fund the Festival of Fools. They've already named it after you.

Foy Vance, Farriers and Foreign Slippers

I was at the Mandela Hall last night to shoot this concert; Foy Vance's return to Belfast after way too long. Great support from Foreign Slippers and Farriers.

Foreign Slippers

Farriers

Foy Vance