367-50 Week 52

Technically, the last full week of my 365 project. There's a lump in my throat right now, I can tell you.

5/11/12

So Monday opens with my big girl Siobhan exhibiting her cross stitch at the Oh Yeah centre in Belfast. No free drink, no nibbles and the exhibits were hung in the hallway outside the toilets. No-one was there which was a pity since much of the work on show was really very impressive. Vonnie's stuff was (as always) top notch and I was well impressed with the pictures submitted by Mark Reihill.

6/11/12

Almost forgot to take a shot today. Maybe this should be a competition - identify what this household object is and you can win a prize. It's a macro shot, taken with a Nikor 60mm and the object was found in my kitchen. Rude answers will be ignored.

7/11/12

Been a while since I went orbing. Had a spectacular shot planned but due to rain Sarah and I headed off to the tunnels which run under the railway tracks at Holywood. We both got a few half-decent shots and Sarah even managed to make her first ever circular orb, using her own camera on self-timer, tripod and using a long exposure.

8/11/12

Larne today again, but I think someone might have been trying to send me a message. This was the sight that greeted me as I walked out to my car at lunchtime.

9/11/12

I'm tempted to make this another "what is this" question. This is the contents of my daughter's coat pockets, emptied before I put it in the washing machine. There are: 12 assorted sweet wrappers, six doggy poo bags, one empty tub of sweets, three christmas crackers, 27p in small change, 5 used tissues, 2 hair bands and one elastic band. There was also some other stuff that can only be described as "unidentified."

10/11/12

The wee  men have been absent for a while. Today they came out to do some mountaineering in the kitchen. At one stage I managed to superglue my hands to the kitchen worktop and also glue lengths of thread to my hands.

11/11/12

Last batch of head shots for Belfast Roller Derby this afternoon, and this is the wonderful Trixie Toxin. All shots are now processed and available on dropbox for use on the BRD website and in the programme for the next bout at the end of the month. This was a big job. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks there will be a feature in the Belfast Telegraph on the team and it looks like they will be using my shots for the article.

So there goes the last full week of the 367-50 project. Four days left to do, so the next and last update from the project won't be that hard to do.

367-50 Week 33

A relatively busy week this week. Photo trip arranged for Monday, go karts on Thursday and over to Nottingham to visit my son on the weekend. Shouldn't have a problem filling this week.

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

Ok, it's been months since I've had to wear a suit for work. Court today and a suit that fits me. This was my excuse for a self portrait. Something old, classy and sharp. The photo, not me.
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.

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.

367-50 Week 30

Silence descended this week, a silence I can only best describe as "uneasy." It's strange, but when you're shouting/being shouted at you yearn for silence and then when you have silence you yearn for shouting.

What's that you say - this is a photography blog - get on with it? OK. I've made a slight change to the look of the blog over the last couple of weeks. I think that the black background works better with photographs? Double Bank Holiday this week for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Guess I should get out there and record it. My arse. As a fervent anti-royalist and republican (not the IRA-type, the not having a Queen type) the whole thing just seems like a monumental waste of time, money and energy.

4/05/12

I did however take the dog for a walk this morning to discover the Family Fun Day at Stormont. Lots of families, very little fun. They'd even wheeled Uncle Hugo in to present his show live just to make sure that no-one enjoyed the day. Had a nice walk, met a an old friend from University days and we had a bit of a natter and a cup of coffee. I still can't figure how she looks twenty years younger than me when we were in the same year at Queens. Damn. Anyway, I started thinking about doing something with the wee men - it's been a while. I also started thinking again about Slinkachu's approach where he creates "installations" of a kind by gluing the figures in place and leaving them there. That evening, armed with a box of random wee men and a tube of superglue, I returned to Stormont, a plan hatching in my little brain. I set about six scenes up around the paths and they turned out really well. I also made sure to take the type of establishing shot that shows the placement of the pieces a little more. I love the depth of field in this shot, but I got some other pretty good shots too. Shall we try to make it a wee men week? I think so.

5/06/12

I visited Stormont this morning, to find that five of my six set-ups from the previous evening were still there. On the way home I saw the empty bus shelter and had this idea. I waited until it was late afternoon/evening and the light was dimming before attempting this shot - the car headlights are a nice addition.

Later that evening, on my way home around 8pm, I passed the bus stop and there were two people waiting for a bus. And the wee men were still where I'd left them.

6/06/12

Took the box of wee men and my tube of superglue to work today. At the side of our wonderfully named office ("The Chalet") is a wall which is in the process of falling down. There is a line of bricks standing out from the main wall, and it looked perfect for two little walkers to stand on an survey the landscape. I sort of envisage the lady saying "one day son, all of this will be yours......." of maybe "I can see your house from here."

7/06/12

Ok - it's not a whole week of wee men, my apologies if you're devastated. I was working in Slemish College, Ballymena this afternoon when the whole school emptied at 2.30 because the Olympic Torch was coming along the Larne Road. It was raining and not the warmest, but I took my camera and took a few shots. One of the school staff (bear in mind I've only worked with the school for four years) asked me what paper I worked for. Every bloody togger in Northern Ireland seems to have taken a photo of the torch on it's travels, so I guess I didn't want to be left out. Once in a lifetime opportunity and all that.

8/06/12

Damn if I'd didn't sidetrack myself from more wee men shots. Went off to shoot the Fresh Meat intake session for Belfast Roller Derby this evening. Fresh meat means new recruits, by the way. Great fun was had by all, and coming from someone who does Aikido, falling over has never looked like so much fun. There's a real family feel to BRD and seeing daughter number 2 giving it a crack this evening was amazing. The session was run by the extremely able Lil' Miss Guttersnipe, who even had a hug for me at the end of the evening. BRD travel to Dundee tomorrow for a bout - how I wish I was going with them!

9/06/12

Back to my photographic desecration of Stormont. This slightly germanic-looking mom-and-pop set up has lasted the longest. It was still there today, and this must be due to them being placed under a barbecue stand on a picnic table. The fact that it's rained all week might also have something to do with it.

10/06/12

This guy has a certain something - the confident stride, the way his head is turned, the path bending and fading out of focus behind him. I'm not sure what it is but I do like this this shot. The colours work quite well - greens and blues seem to be quite pleasing for some reason. I've enjoyed getting back to the wee men this week. The idea of actually putting them somewhere and then leaving them has also been an interesting exercise. By today (i.e. Sunday) of my original seven pieces, only two remain in place. What happened to the others? Guess thats why it gets interesting.

Post-script
I think that one other thing that I've learned from this week and the wee men shots is that my previous preferred macro lens (Sigma 105mm f2.8) is not as good in terms of sharpness and colour rendition as the second hand Nikkor 60mm f 2.8 I picked up about a month back. Anyone interested in a second-hand Sigma 105mm give me a shout (michaelbarbour902@btinternet.com). It's in a nice zippy padded pouch and hasn't see much abuse. Pretty good condition all round - make me an offer.

367-50 Week 20

Wow - week twenty and heading for the halfway mark. This week it's a lot of stuff from my trip to Havana. The phrase which served me well was "puedo tomar photo" which means roughly "can I take a photo?"

26/03/12

On Monday, we had booked a day trip out of Havana to see some of the countryside along the coast between Havana and Varadero. Accompanied by our driver for the day, we saw many things such as the highest bridge in Cuba, an old coffee plantation, had a boat trip on a river, went to the beach and swam in the Carribean and also visited the decayingly beautiful city of Matanzas. One of the highlights was a stop at at the home of a couple of local farmers, Maria and her husband Yanqui (pronounced yankee). Their home was a clapboard shack thatched with palm leaves. This is a shot of Yanqui through the chicken wire windows. Lovely people who I could write an essay on.

27/03/12

This is a local hood/spide called Lazaro who I met at 7am in the morning. He insisted that I take pictures of his tattoos before joining him and his mate William for rum in a local bar. I was then taken on a tour of the local slums of Centro Habana in search of cheap cigars and ended up in the flat of a gentleman called Raul. Cigars were purchased. In hindsight, none of this was clever.

28/03/12

Walking the streets of Havana Vieja is one of the most interesting things I've ever done. There are photographs to be taken everywhere. This gentleman offered to give me a trim until I lifted my hat and displayed the rather short buzz cut I had before leaving Belfast.

For more of the same, check these out on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_mick2009/sets/72157629704330715/

29/03/12

As well as street shots, there are so many old and eccentric cars in Havana that you could fill your memory cards just with these. Old american cars, some pristine like this one, some held together with polyfilla and paint. Again, there's a lot more here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_mick2009/sets/72157629697485539/

30/03/12

This was the old theatre across the street from our hotel. It appeared to be advertising films which I have bever heard off (even in Spanish) although Willem Defoe also gets a mention. Old car, old theatre, old style processing.

31/03/12

Back to freezing cold Belfast. Bollocks, but at least I have returned armed with cigars, duty free rum and fags and 1200 photos of Cuba. Had a quick gander at the Lockdown festival at T13 this afternoon and was impressed. No more so that with this chap Verse Chorus Verse, formerly with the NI band ASIWYFA. Solo acoustic set that sounded like Springsteen at his best (Nebraska, Tom Joad) and Billy Bragg. Mind you, I'm a sucker for acoustic guitar and mouth organ. 

1/04/12

My three big uns came round for a BBQ Sunday lunch and to get their Che-related presents from Cuba. The berets seemed to have gone down well, although Conor's insistence that he was doing a Charlie's Angels shot was a bit misplaced. He then bettered this by asking if "philanthropy" was "that thing in hospital where they stick a tube up your bum." How we laughed.