Hi, it’s been a long time since I last posted anything here or indeed on any of my other sites. This is just a quick update to say ‘hello’ once more and I hope to have more to post soon.
This is the view of Whitby Abbey from the church of Saint Mary graveyard, taken just after midnight with a 4 second exposure time.
I had a three day break in Whitby during the Easter holidays spending just over a day with friends and the other two on my own doing whatever I wanted. As I really needed to save money (having just spent over £1000 on car repairs and a cracked windscreen!) I almost backed out of the trip, as the cheapest hotels were over £70 per night which would have been £210 before anything else, fortunately Google became my friend and I found a great deal at the Youth Hostel for just £15 per night in a shared dorm. Even better it was right next to the abbey. Walking back at night meant a slog up the 199 steps and then through the church yard in darkness, this wasn’t half as creepy as I thought it would be and on the last night couldn’t resist the urge to go wondering around with my camera taking some long exposure photos of the abbey and town below. I will post more in the next few days but this is the first one on the camera.
The hostel is located just behind the visitor centre on the left. The image below is the view from the hostel gardens taken using my rather basic phone.
A fibre optic lamp taken with a 5 second exposure. I’ve wanted to play around with different exposure settings using this lamp for quite a while. In the short amount of time I had this is probably my favourite, though I hope to try again one day when there is more time to spare.
With the sun setting behind me, my silver lava lamp looked as though I had an alien experiment trapped inside. While editing I also created a black and white version which I love just as much, maybe more. As space is slightly limited here I’ve only posted the colour version. To view the b&w version please click here to visit the Flickr page.
Today I attended the funeral of a great man I used to work with. It was always a pleasure to talk to him and I enjoyed every day I worked in the same section. He also loved photography.
Gen loves to sit at the gate and people watch, as well as making sure none of the neighbors cats step onto her drive. She can sit for hours here and I often wonder how she manages with that thick coat on as it’s a suntrap**, though the walls of the house and fence help to create a mini wind tunnel.
**She always has access to water just a few feet behind her and there is plenty of shade just around the corner. She is also free to go inside at any point.
This is a video of my 14 year old collie, normally she plays for around half an hour now and that’s enough for her. However this weekend she’s found a new source of energy and has been playing for hours, I can only assume her freshly cropped coat is making her feel a whole lot better. This was recorded 2 hours into a 4 hour play session. When I stopped the recording she chased me back inside and started the game again, this girl really loves her tug toys! The television wasn’t actually that loud which is why I didn’t turn it down, though I do like that music as a backing track.
Due to working on other projects over the last few months I’ve been neglecting this site recently. I thought it was time to share one of my favourite pictures of Gen in collie mode. She was sat in my car waiting for me to set off when she spotted a neighbours cat strutting across the bottom of the drive. Just after I took this Gen growled and managed a half bark to warn it away (naturally from the safety of my car!)
Taken May 2012
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Early September it was my pleasure to do a photo shoot with Rocket. He was the winner of the ‘best in show’ class at the Inkerman Buzz fair this summer, the prize was one hour photo session. He’s a very cheeky fun filled little pup with a personality of dogs twice his size, within minutes of meeting him he was bringing me toys to play with…it was quite hard not to give in and play with him!
Pet photo sessions are available please visit the Pet Photo page for more information.
Day 202 – The forecast for this weekend was for torrential rain and thunder storms lasting just a few hours with the high possibility of local flooding, my building is built at the side of a river (see here – Nov 2012) I spent most of the day indoors reading or watching tv. Day 203 – It was bank holiday Monday and I’d failed to go shopping so it was time to raid the cupboards. I cooked up chicken meatballs in tomato sauce with Yorkshire puddings, and it was very nice! Day 204 – Beautiful sunset. As August draws to a close and the temperature starts to dip in the evening, the sky still has a few stunning views left. Day 205 – Once again it’s time to read something new. On day 200 I decided to reread Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, this only took 2 days (to make it last) My flatmate suggested I search through his collection, this is only a small selection.
I was bored today.... 