Thursday 31st July 18:42
Having spent a lot of time in and around Emsworth of late, I decided that it was high time to concentrate on some of the images I had taken recently and, more importantly, update my recent additions, adding each image into its relevant gallery category.
The shots here have been taken between 06:30 - 21:00.
Wednesday 30th July 07:23
Today, I thought I'd talk about another stunning advert that's gracing our television screens at the moment. I first saw this when Tanya and I went to watch 'Bourne Ultimatum' at the cinema last August.
The advert, developed by JWT, directed by Daniel Kleinman and produced by Johnnie Frankel, is called 'Sea' and it advertises Smirnoff Vodka. It runs for a minute and features Latinate chant music by Peter Raeburn. It took several weeks to film, the majority located in the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand, with further sequences filmed at the While Cliffs of Dover and Auckland Harbour.
The special effects (VFX) and other post-production work were taken care of by Framestore CFC, using a variety of software programs, namely Houdini and Flame.
Please click on the graphic below to view the advert (opens in a separate window).
Tuesday 29th July 21:21
After some fairly heavy rain last night, it turned out to be a sunny, yet quite windy day today. As much as I love it being sunny, a good downpour of rain from time to time is very welcome with me. I'm not really a fan of intense heat and the last few days (and nights) have been uncomfortable.
Once we were both home from work, we took a trip to Emsworth because we needed a couple of things from the greengrocer. Before we bought what we needed, a walk around the Mill Pond was on the agenda. On our way though, we decided to pop into the library to look up some local history and ended up becoming members.
Tanya is looking to create a website devoted to Havant, Emsworth and Warblington where it includes interesting local history along with her photographs... since she became interested in photography, the face of this area has changed within a short space of time.
Some of the books we've taken out are:
Images of England, Emsworth - Linda Newell ISBN 0-7524-3823-9
Emsworth, A History - Robert Whitfield ISBN 1-86077-346-X
Havant, The Golden Years - Peter Rogers and Steve Jones ISBN 1-84114-182-8
If you live within the Hampshire area, please click the rather cool logo above to locate your nearest library.
Monday 28th July 09:15
At work, I regularly operate a cutting plotter made by a company called Graphtec. It's hard to explain how they work but they are truly amazing. You can cut virtually any form of graphic, even down to incredibly small sizes. This allows you to create amazing designs for all types of clothing and even vehicle livery, depending on which substrate you choose to cut. The material is supplied on a roll, roughly 500mm in width and you can order different lengths, whether it be between 5-30 metres.
Once you have loaded your roll, you then output your design via Adobe Illustrator to the plotter. The material is then pulled back and forth under some runners whilst the cutting blade moves from side to side. The best way of describing how it works is by comparing it with an Etch-A-Sketch. The blade is able to cut the material at any point due to its movement from side to side and the material's movement back and forth.
The UK Head Office is based in Wrexham where they employ an incredibly helpful team who are willing to answer any questions you might have about the process. Please click on the company logo above to visit their website.
Sunday 27th July 15:21
Since we had a very busy day yesterday, we decided to take it easy today.
I started the day by going out just before 6am so that I could take a photo of the Blue Bell Inn's pub sign and redraw it for yesterday's blog. Whilst in Emsworth, I took advantage of the glorious morning by combining my trip out with an early morning stroll around the Mill Pond. I ended up having a very interesting chat with a local fisherman after spotting that some idiot had uprooted a litter bin and discarded it in the Mill Pond. We spent a good half an hour putting the world to rights, as you do.
Later on in the day, after we both got a little restless, Tanya said that she wanted to go to the garden centre. Rather than get in a boiling hot car and waste petrol, I suggested that we walk there since it's within a mile of where we live.
Whilst there, we bought three plants; Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sonata Pink', Polemonium coeruleum 'Bambino Blue' and Campanula carpatica 'Bressingham White', my photographs of which are pictured above.
Saturday 26th July 10:58
Well, what a fun-packed day we had today!
After designing a logo and catching up with my blog, we headed for Chichester city centre because Tanya had ordered a top via the New Look website and it was damaged - rather than wait a day or two, she suggested that we headed for their store in Chichester (it also sells men's clothing).
Please click the logo below to access their site.
Once we'd returned home, we went ahead with our day as we had planned. Our first port of call was Emsworth Museum for we'd never been there and although Tanya has lived in this area all of her life, she'd never set foot in the place! It was incredibly interesting, particularly seeing the Emsworth of old and how the face of it has changed over the years. Having said that though, there were still many photographs that you could instantly recognise where they had been taken.
For more information about the museum and the history of Emsworth, please click the logo below or to find out more about the MLA, please click on their logo.
From there, we then walked through the centre of Emsworth down to the Mill Pond where we were waited an hour in the blazing sunshine for the solar-powered catamaran that takes you around Emsworth Harbour and along to Warblington. We'd tried to catch it yesterday and missed out by one space (the vessel only holds 50 people). We'd arrived in plenty of time to avoid a second day of disappointment, regardless of the fact that a group of people didn't even have the courtesy to ask whether we were waiting and just strolled right to the front of the queue.
The catamaran arrived on time and it was a lovely hour-long journey with the 'captain' of the boat pointing out a lot of very interesting history about Emsworth and neighbouring areas.
After the trip, I took a photo of the catamaran, just for posterity's sake. To find out more about the trips and departure times, please click on the logo below.
Having had an absolutely fantastic day, I'd decided the yesterday that we should treat ourselves by having a meal at the Blue Bell Inn in Emsworth. Out of all the pubs in the area, it's by far our favourite. The friendly atmosphere, superb mix of great real ales (Sharps Doom Bar being my favourite at the moment) and the exceptional food help to make it that way. The landlord always has something to say to me, due to me being a Bolton fan in a foreign place!
I've recreated the pub sign as a vector-based graphic - please click on it to view the pub's website.
Friday 25th July 10:30
I'm not one who can last long periods of time without having something to eat and, as healthily as we keep our diet, it's nice to have the odd bit of snack food. I've got to say, I love crisps with several different brands being very high on my list, along with the odd chocolate biscuit here and there.
Original Hula Hoops and Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Biscuits are high up on both lists (which is what I snacked on today). The websites that accompany both are quite good fun as well!
We had yet another brisk walk around Emsworth Mill Pond and, with it being so hot, decided to stop off at the Blue Bell Inn in Emsworth for a quick beer. I noticed they'd added a new ale called Doom Bar, by Cornish brewery, Sharps.
The name, 'Doom Bar' actually comes from an infamous sandbank at the mouth of the Camel Estuary in north Cornwall which is at its most dangerous between low and high tides. Legend has it that a sailor shot a once friendly mermaid there and since then her curse has wrecked a few ships over the years.
As I've said before, I will always try a new bitter and give my verdict on it. This one is 4.0% and it's just as well because it's certainly more-ish. I'd rather avoid describing its taste and let you make up your own mind - I can tell you that it has won several awards - one of the most prestigious being that it was within the top 50 world's beers at the International Beer Challenge in 2006.
I would like to thank James Nicholls, a sales and marketing manager at Sharps, for kindly providing me with a high resolution logo of the Doom Bar pump artwork - please click on it to access Sharps' website.
Thursday 24th July 15:05
Had a very busy day today and with the weather being as fantastic as it is right now, we took full advantage of it and had yet another walk around Emsworth Mill Pond. Variety isn't always the spice of life you know!
I'd taken my camera with me this time, in the hope that the Muscovy Duck was still around... guess what... it was! Although it was in exactly the same spot for the third day running, a local woman said that it wasn't there this morning so that's encouraging news.
It seems as if it's now reached celebrity status for it has been drawing in the crowds! It was still stood in the same spot so Tanya and I decided that we'd 'phone the RSPB so that they could come out and check that it had a clean bill of health (please excuse the pun!) I took a few photographs of it, although the harsh sunlight wasn't helping with the exposure at all.
Whilst we were there, several people had stopped to take a look at the newcomer to the pond and then lo and behold, a woman from the RSPCA had specifically made a trip after a resident had made a 'phone call. It appears as if the bird is healthy because when the woman from the RSPCA tried to capture it, it flew off and then preceded to swim back to the same spot that it had become accustomed to over the past three days!
Tonight, I've been creating the artwork for the latest HTML email for Montague Bikes. They have a crazy mid-summer sale on (as of noon tomorrow) with 10% off their entire range of bikes - it's a bargain NOT to be missed and you only have up until the end of the month to take advantage of this excellent offer. Please click on the image below to find out more.
Wednesday 23rd July 20:49
Had a busy day today work-wise so once home, Tanya and I had our fairly frequent walk around the Mill Pond... bizarrely enough, the Muscovy Duck was in exactly the same place as it was yesterday! Now then, either it's injured (although it looks in perfect health) or it's just a really flukey coincidence that it was in the same spot - it may be worth checking tomorrow (and taking a photo this time).
Anyway, on to distant relatives of birds now... dinosaurs. Ever since going to the Odeon in Bolton to watch 'The Land That Time Forgot' (1975) with my Dad whilst my Mum and sister went to an Easter Bonnet parade at my old primary school, have I had a major fascination with dinosaurs. The film is a fantasy/adventure film based upon the 1918 science fiction novel of the same name by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In 1993, when Jurassic Park first hit the cinema, I had to see it on the day of its release. I don't care if the storyline had many flaws, it was seeing 'real' dinosaurs moving in the way that scientists have imagined and seeing their behaviour that grabbed my attention. Brilliant.
The two sequels were rather good too - I still find them utterly fascinating to watch and at long last, I have the trilogy on DVD. Please click on the graphic below to access the official Jurassic park website.
Tuesday 22nd July 15:03
As part of our fitness regime, Tanya and I went for a walk around the Mill Pond at Emsworth. Okay, for those of you who aren't familiar with the area we live in, the Mill Pond is approximately a 1 mile round robin, plus it's just an idyllic village - there's a website devoted to it, 'Friends of Emsworth Mill Pond'.
Our usual route is pictured below - aerial view, courtesy of Google Earth.
Whilst walking around it, we stumbled upon an unusual feathered visitor, something that neither of us had ever seen there before, a Muscovy Duck. It must have attracted numerous onlookers, because when I checked my web stats last night, I noticed that someone had 'Googled', "unusual duck emsworth mill pond" and in the process, they'd ended up on my blog because of how often we visit the Mill Pond.
Later on, we watched Gordon Ramsey's 'The F Word'. I think this programme is great, and for many reasons. He's a great chef, he's blunt, honest and down to Earth. Some see this as arrogance whereas I see it as someone wanting to better himself and to pass on his knowledge. I always gauge a celebrity's credibility by the company they choose... there's a particular circle of people, all of which I think are just very witty people: Gordon Ramsey, Janet Street-Porter, Joe Brand, Jeremy Clarkson, Chris Moyles, Jonathan Ross... I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture.
To view The F Word's website, please click the graphic below.
Monday 21st July 22:52
My taste in music has taken many a path since I first witnessed the Stray Cats performing 'Runaway Boys' on Top of the Pops in 1980. What a song, what a hairstyle!
Roughly ten years from then, I'd enjoyed the New Romantic age and came out of the other side, only to discover an act that have remained one of my favourites ever since. The San Franciscan band, Jellyfish, split up a good few years ago, having only released two albums, 'Bellybutton' and 'Spilt Milk'.
Not only do I love their music, I also think that their logo was great, to the point where I had to find out who'd designed it. It appears that both Mick Haggerty and Kathy Philpott were responsible for the Art Direction and although I found nothing about Kathy, I did find a fantastic website of Mick's work... a very illustrious career to say the least! Please click on the Jellyfish logo to visit his website.
Sunday 20th July 11:06
After yesterday had been a day of doing very little, we decided that we should at least get ourselves out of the house for a few hours.
We discovered a church on the Selsey Peninsula some time last year, and ever since then, we've been trying to locate it. All that we could remember about it was that it had a road all the way around it, as if it was on an island. When I say road, two of them aren't roads as such, although you are able to drive all the way around it. At the time, we thought this to be rather unusual and the fact that neither of us had photographed it at the time, we were particularly drawn to find it again.
I'd tried to locate it via Google Earth whilst Tanya chose to scour the whole of the peninsula on an Ordnance Survey map that we have of the area. Having examined the whole map, Tanya had pinpointed a place that we hadn't visited for some time... we were hoping that she'd found it...
It turned out she had! The place in question was called Earnley (Grid Reference: SZ815968), just east of East Wittering and we were delighted that we'd finally found the place again. Once there, we took several photos and then went on a long walk, a walk that took us the wrong way (there were two routes, we took the overgrown one that led to nowhere in particular, unless you wanted to repeatedly sting yourself with nettles are impale yourself with thistles). When we realised we'd gone the wrong way, we had no alternative but to go through the whole stinging and impaling routine once more.
Later in the afternoon we chose to watch yet another film via FilmFlex (click their logo to access the list of films available), this time it was 'Butterfly on a Wheel' starring Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello and Gerard Butler. For some reason (of which I've been unable to find out), the film has been renamed to 'Shattered'. This is an excellent film about a couple who are kidnapped and put through a certain number of tests with the threat of their daughter being killed if they are not fulfilled. There's an unexpected twist towards the end...
Saturday 19th July 12:12
Having spent all morning designing a logo with a view to possibly rebranding a pub in Petersfield, Tanya and I felt it high time to take a brisk walk around Emsworth Mill Pond. Apart from that, we did little else, except watch two films... the first one had been loaned by Stan, a crazy American dude at work.
The film, 'Brazil' is actually 23 years old and surprisingly, neither Tanya nor I had ever seen it. It's written and directed by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) and stars Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro and Bob Hoskins (to name a few). The film is very deep and farcical in places, which is one of the reasons why it has become a cult film. Set in a retro-future, a bureaucrat tries to correct an administrative error and, in turn, becomes an enemy of the state.
The second, 10,000 B.C. was easy-viewing. No particular storyline as such but nevertheless, it was entertaining and the special effects were excellent. It stars Steven Strait and Camilla Belle and is a prehistoric epic about a young mammoth hunter's journey through new territory in order to secure the future of his tribe.
Friday 18th July 17:08
Tanya and I had a Friday Matinée and decided to watch a film that had been recommended to us by some friends. 'The Bucket List' stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman (two of my favourite actors, by far) and they both play characters who find out that they have terminal cancer with literally months to live. It's a very touching film... just thought I'd warn you!
To find out more, please click on the movie poster below.
Thursday 17th July 20:33
Received an HTML email this morning from one of the image libraries that I submit work to. Wherever you are on July 20th, they want you to Shoot! The Day in the hope that it will revitalise stock photography.
Thousands of photographers worldwide will connect, take pictures and make the stock photo supply fresh again. To find out more about taking part, please click on the graphic below.
As a matter of interest, the 'Shoot! The Day' font is P22 Vincent™ and can be purchased here.
Wednesday 16th July 22:19
Whilst doing my research about The Fox Goes Free, I accidentally stumbled upon two very informative websites and thought that they'd be perfect to include on today's blog.
The first, Pub Utopia, is a great site for anyone who likes going out to pubs, clubs, or both. All the information has been provided by the members of the website and you can add your own ratings for each particular one you visit. You can also let fellow members know if you're going to visit somewhere, send messages and chat to members. The site covers the whole of the UK so feel free to join in!
The second, I accessed through the Pub Utopia site - it's called Café Press. Launched in 1999, the e-commerce online marketplace now has a growing network of over 6.5 million members who have shown and shared their creative artwork and ideas into unique merchandise. The privately-owned company is based in Foster City, California and visitors to the site will find over 150 million unique products created by members from every corner of the globe.
Tuesday 15th July 18:00
We met up with Tanya's brother Alex and his wife Gill at 'The Fox Goes Free' pub and restaurant in Charlton, just down the road from Goodwood Racecourse. Alex and Gill are the couple who had the Quaker wedding at the end of May. It was great to see them both and we had a lovely relaxing evening sat in the good-sized beer garden at the rear of the establishment.
The food and drink was excellent - Tanya and I shared a paté starter and for main course she had a pea risotto and I had pan-fried chicken with leaks and seasonal vegetables. I also managed (not that I found it particularly difficult) to sample two local bitters; the pub's very own 'Fox Goes Free' along with Ballard's Best Bitter.
A very good night was had by all.
Please click on the logo below to find out more about the pub.
Monday 14th July 23:06
Don't know about you but I'm sick and tired of spam and particularly the idiots that send it. I really do hope you burn in hell. The question I have for you is "why send it?". What do you achieve? There isn't an end result, except pissing people off.
People behind spam are idiots, imbeciles, cretins, asses, blockheads, dunces, ignoramuses, dullards, simpletons, morons, halfwits, nincompoops, chumps, dipsticks, goons, dumbos, numbskulls, airheads, lamebrains, nerds, dweebs, jerks, twits and twerps.
To combat spam, please register here and report it. Let's crack down on them.
Sunday 13th July 16:13
Having had quite a busy day yesterday, we decided to have a more relaxing one today. Mid-afternoon, we went for a brisk walk around Emsworth Mill Pond just to loosen up after the huge amount of walking that we'd done yesterday.
Once back, we sat down to watch the first of two films... called 'P.S. I Love You' (2007). I was slightly apprehensive about watching it as it did seem as if it was more of a 'chick flick', saying that though, I quite enjoyed it, even though I did end up snoozing through a major part of the storyline! A young widow (Hilary Swank) discovers that her late husband (Gerard Butler) has left her ten messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life. More about the film can be found by clicking on the poster below.
The second film, 'A Good Year' (2006) was brilliant - I loved it. The filmography, locations and humour within the film were top-notch. It's about a British investment broker, Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) who inherits his uncle's (Albert Finney) chateau and vineyard in Provence. He spent the majority of his childhood there and, after a good deal of sheer arrogance, he finally discovers a new laid-back lifestyle. More about the film can be found by clicking on the poster below.
Saturday 12th July 14:09
As much as Tanya and I revisit places that we like, we also like to venture into new territory. Since moving down here over two years ago, along with becoming accustomed with the area a good year before, we're having to expand our location radius.
Today, we'd decided to try and take some shots along Hamble River. There's a particularly idyllic view that can be seen whilst driving along the M27 from Portsmouth to Southampton. Tanya and I had tried once before to find the exact location but lost our bearings somewhat once we'd come off the motorway. We almost lost them again today, until I suggested a different direction and it was correct. The view we wanted could be accessed via Manor Farm Country Park... please take a look at the website...
Here are a few of the images I took whilst we were there...
Friday 11th July 22:00
On Channel 4, in between the announcement of who is being evicted from the Big Brother House and the actual eviction is a half hour comedy quiz programme called '8 out of 10 Cats', hosted by one of my favourite comedians, Jimmy Carr.
The programme has had a few team captains since it was first aired and its present ones are Sean Lock and Jason Manford, who replaced Dave Spikey. Jason Manford studied Media and Performance at Salford and won the Northwest Comedian of the Year award in 1999, making good friends with Peter Kay along the way. To find out more about the programme, please click on the image below.
Thursday 10th July 23:48
Time for another one of those very useful sites. I became a member on here some months ago after I searched to find out the music used in the latest ING Direct advert and a link to this site appeared high in the rankings - ever since then, I've found it a great source of finding out the answers to questions you wouldn't necessarily find anywhere else!
As the site states, 'ask questions, get answers'. Your question may be outrageous or practical, either way, you will get answers from other members. To get started all you need to do is register with a valid email address, making sure you take a look at their site rules and terms of use.
Wednesday 9th July 11:41
Since the internet became the major source for advertising in every respect, copyright infringements of design have increased drastically. As a graphic designer, I have to be very careful of replicating any sort of design, to the point where I now find it easier 'Googling' particular words or company names within the Image Search, so as not to accidentally use another's idea.
Whilst trying to find a particular company's logo on the internet today, I stumbled upon this helpful and useful site, ACID (Anti Copying In Design). It is a membership trade organisation, set up as a round table action group in 1996, by designers for designers – now a hard-hitting "not for profit" trade organisation created to combat the growing threats of plagiarism in the design and creative industries. To find out more, please click on the logo below.
Tuesday 8th July 08:01
As a child and teenager, I vividly remember a great BBC television programme called 'Superstars', presented by David Vine. It was a simple enough idea; find sportsmen/women who have excelled and are classed as veterans in their field and get them to compete against each other over a series of different heats. Ex-judo star, Brian Jacks, sticks in my memory, particularly as he seemed to have a plethora of oranges around him.
Anyhow, the series is reborn and starts this Friday over on Channel Five at 8pm. It appears as if they've kept the same logo (the font is a modified Battlestar) and even the same theme music which is called 'Heavy Action' by Johnny Pearson. If you click on the logo below, you'll be able to find out more about the stars who will be appearing in it and even catch a snippet of the theme tune.
Monday 7th July 14:03
I've always been a huge fan of location shoots and today I was asked to take some shots of the Montague Paratrooper within the grounds of Queen Elizabeth Country Park, mainly to show the foldable mountain bike within its 'natural environment'. Please click on the image below to find out more about the bike...
Sunday 6th July 13:30
We'd put most of the afternoon to one side so that we could sit down and enjoy the eagerly-awaited 122nd Wimbledon Men's Single's Final between five-times reigning champion, Roger Federer and his opponent, Rafael Nadal, who was meeting him in the final for the second year on the trot.
Predictably, the start of the match was delayed, due to rain. I shouldn't really be too critical though, the weather has been extremely kind compared with that of previous years.
I'm not sure as to what the odds were with regards to who would win the match but I'd imagine that they were very close. Federer was aiming to make history by becoming the first modern-day champion to win six titles in a row, whereas Nadal was aiming to match a 28 year old record held by Borg by winning both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. As you can imagine, the pressure was on both players...
Regardless of pressure though, both started off very strong and it was difficult to separate their willingness to win but eventually Nadal managed to break Federer's serve and take the first set 6-4. He then managed to break Federer's serve early on in the second set and with another 6-4 set under his belt, he was one set away from the title. Federer had other plans though...
The third set was tough-fought and went to a tie-break which Federer won 5-7. You'd have thought that Nadal may have suffered a blow, yet he came out fighting once again in the fourth. Once again, the two players couldn't be separated and at 6-6, the fourth set ended up as another tie-break. This time, it was even more tense than the third, with Nadal gaining and missing out on two Championship points. Federer managed to dig deep and came out victorious in the fourth, eventually winning it 8-10. This sort of comeback hadn't been accomplished since Henri Cochet came back from being two sets down against fellow Frenchman, Jean Borotra back in 1927!
Both were level-pegging again and it was then the fifth and final set. Who would prevail?
After 4 hours and 48 minutes of sheer grit and determination from both players, along with having two cope with two rain delays, the Spaniard Nadal beat the Swiss champion, Federer 9-7 in what had to be the most amazing Men's Final of all time.
Brilliant!
Saturday 5th July 10:30
Today, we'd decided to visit Boxgrove Priory, since it had been featured on BBC's South Today. The area actually comprises of both a church and a ruin, the church being officially known as The Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Blaise. More about the priory and its history can be found by clicking on the logo below.
From there, we visited a couple of other churches, namely St. Andrew's Church at Tangmere and St. Wilfrid's at Church Norton. Neither of us are religious in any way, however we have immense admiration for the architecture of churches, there's something about them that can send a chill down your spine. Many churches seem to be going to rack and ruin and whenever we visit a church we always give a small donation, I'd rather show my appreciation of the architecture than attend a service!
To find out more about the conservation of our country's churches, please click on the logo below.
Having travelled all around the Selsey Peninsula (which covers some distance), our stomachs had told us that it was time to eat, so we stopped off at The Lion Inn at Pagham for an early evening meal.
We managed to get back home in good time for the last in the latest series of Doctor Who, aptly named 'Journey's End' where Davros and the Daleks threaten the entire universe, whilst the Doctor's companions join forces. But the prophecy declares that one of them will meet their end... click on the image of Davros to watch the final episode via the offical Doctor Who website.
Friday 4th July 21:12
It's quite strange how you 'discover' websites on the internet. Earlier on in the week, there was a feature on BBC's 'South Today' all about Boxgrove Priory, located just outside of Chichester. We're thinking of having a trip over there during the course of the weekend so I decided to find out a little bit more about it and stumbled upon the 'Qype' website in the process.
Founded in 2005 by German entrepreneur Stephan Uhrenbacher, the Web 2.0 startup centered around social networking and local reviews solely for the German market. It soon extended to include most European cities, being awarded the Red Herring 100 Europe award in March 2007 and in June of the same year, Qype.co.uk was launched. The organisation now has offices located in Hamburg, Paris, and London.
I also felt it time to talk about yet another music artist who I think is exceptional... this time it's Fink who lives in Brighton (about an hour up the road from here). The band have released three albums to date, 'Distance And Time', 'Biscuits For Breakfast' and 'Fresh Produce'. One of their singles, 'This Is The Thing' is currently used on the television advert campaign for MasterCard.
To find out more, please click on the graphic below...
Thursday 3rd July 23:09
After our recent visit to London at the beginning of May, I decided to have a look through some of the images I took whilst in the British Museum. I have a problem with them though, they're nothing particularly new, not only that, I'm sick and tired of seeing images of it over and over again.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with seeing different interpretations of the same location but after a while it gets unbelievably boring, particularly when that work is by the same photographer. I've always been a photographer who aims to produce different work each time for I believe that entering the same or a similar shot into competitions is not only cheating on the other entrants, it's cheating on yourself.
Anyhow, I have decided to use this image but in a totally different way to anything I've seen of the British Museum... I shall post once complete.
Wednesday 2nd July 15:10
Arrived home from work to find that our internet connection was down, not only that, I had a huge amount of work to do and to email to a client. Rather than spend the afternoon in a frustrated mood, I asked Tanya whether she fancied watching 'Atonement'. It's an Oscar-winning wartime romantic drama starring Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, to name a few. I found it quite entertaining but would have said that it's aimed more at females... having said that though, the Dunkirk scenes are stunning in places.
Later on in the day, we sat down to watch Andy Murray's Wimbledon quarter-final tie with Rafael Nadal. The Scot put up a good fight but was outclassed in every respect by the in-form Spaniard.
Tuesday 1st July 07:06
I started the day by entering into AP's (Amateur Photographer) First View. It's all just a bit of fun but it's great to see so many images of most peoples' 'first view' of the day. Obviously the entry title isn't taken literally for we'd be viewing some awful sights, no doubt!
Anyway, I was quite taken with the morning light streaming through some foliage in our back garden and decided to take a deliberately out-of-focus shot of it, just to be different..
Later on in the day, I received a text message which tickled me and felt the need to share it on here...
People can be quite like slinkies, they don't really serve any sort of purpose yet bring a smile to your face when you push them downstairs.
This particular anecdote reminded me very much of one of my favourite writers, an American who goes by the name of Jack Handey. Rather than me explain just how funny he is, take a look at his website...
I also found these continual scrolling quotes, the ten quotes change each month...
