367-50 Week 43

Week 43 starts with me feeling worse than I've felt for a long time. The anti-allergy drugs I have to take to counter-act an attack of my eczema have left me feeling completed wrecked. I've been tired and sleepy all day and my mood has been very low. I suspect that the shots from early in the week will not exactly be "keepers" as they say.

3/09/12

It's a crap shot, but the effort was made. The inside of my greenhouse at night on a long exposure. Peppers to the left, tomatoes to the right. The white light trails at the rear are the tracks of the torch I was using to light up the plants.

4/09/12

If i was feeling bad yesterday, I was feeling worse today. Full blown 'flu descended last night and it was mid-afternoon before I was able to crawl out of bed and even then I only got as far as the sofa. I only took this shot because the dog came and sat on me while I as lying on the settee and my camera was sitting beside me. This is Honey, she's not mine (before you jump to conclusions) and her owner had kindly called in to make me something to eat and a cup of tea. The Jameson's was a bonus.

5/09/12

Tonight's post-dinner fun was provided by everyone trying to programme a mini-BigTrak to run through a slalom course made out of our shoes. A test of geometry and logic if ever there was one. I failed. This was the first time for many months that I had all 5 of my children who live in Belfast together in the house for dinner. It was noisy, hectic and there were (as always) dozens of not always linear conversations going on over the dinner table. I'm aware that a lot of the talk between all of us is in some bizarre form of code ("Barbourspeak?") with frequent references to things, events and people that no-one else would ever pick up on or understand. And I just love it. Probably the best pick-me-up after a bout of the 'flu you could get.

6/09/12

First full-blown school run of the year today, and this was breakfast. I'd forgotten the complexities of getting two girls ready and out to two different schools and the painful experience of driving through Belfast at that time of the morning. No-one died or was late for school - have to count that as a success of sorts.

7/09/12

Don't know what to think about this shot; I'm not even sure that I like it. It's an HDR'd shot of Parliament Buildings at Stormont. I was bored after working at home all morning and needed a bit of fresh air, so took a walk up the big lane at Stormont. Took my wide angle lens to take this and when I got home and had processed it the lamposts were doing that "converging verticals" thing and looked a bit like bananas. A bit of a youtube search later and I worked through fixing it in photoshop. Worked out all right. Or as George Formby used to say "turned out nice again."

8/09/12

The 3rd annual Belfast Zombie walk was on this morning in the grounds of Stormont Estate, as part of the Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival taking place across the street in The Stormont Hotel. Poorly attended this year compared to last but fun none the less. On the left is George Clarke, main man of Yellow Fever Productions who will forever live in my memory as the man who brought us Battle of the Bone, Belfast's first (and only) kung fu zombie movie and the only film where I was able to attend the international premiere. I also had my picture taken with two Start Wars Imperial Troopers. Just saying - not that I'm a Start Wars geek or anything.

8/09/12

But seriously - this was the dashboard of someone's car. I must have looked a bit suspicious standing pointing my camera in through the windscreen. These were blowing around in the breeze but think I've got them sharp enough. Loved the colours - couldn't resist taking this picture and just saw it as a nice wide crop right away.

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.