Coming Up

Up early with leg pain despite a late night watching Heroes last night. Got the last bunch of episodes on DVD from Steve and planning on gorging myslef on them all this weekend. It's a treat not having to suffer the usual annoying adverts.

Some contact re-established with the Siemens organisation during the week. I'm hopeful that Phil is in line for a contract position that's coming up. It will be a good strategic move to get back in with them, especially as they should be able to support a working arrangement outside of IR35. It's good just to make contact to let them know I can be available and interested.

Reminded this morning that today is the 24 Hours Of Flickr so I'd better get my camera out and take something. Not expecting much though as I intend to continue decorating Dylans room and have all painting jobs completed this weekend. Stated the big Link picture soon.

Jacq has taken Dylan down to swimming this morning as she hasn't seen him swim for ages. I'm pottering around the house tidying up before getting my painting clothes on. Tomorrow morning is Spiderman 3 and we'll be there for the early showing. Me and Dylan are looking forward to that. Not sure about Monday but as it's a bank holiday it'll probably be chucking it down.

Lunar Eclipse

After swimming, the afternoon was spent over at Marys house for Jodies birthday. Good to see everyone as it's been a while.

Waiting in the drive-thru on the way home, I rambled on about how great our new car is. The improvement in space and functionality for the family is a joy to me. I think it suits us really well.

It was a lunar eclipse last night. The sky was clear so we got a good look at it. Although Flickr is full of moon shots this morning (no, not THAT type of moon), it wasn't worth pointing my camera at it as I just don't have the lens.

Now I Can Love My Car

So glad to report that I've got the car back from the garage and it's running like shit off a shovel. What a relief that is, I can now allow myself to love my car. I'd been holding off getting too attached on the off-chance that I might have to return it should the lack of performance in the engine become too much to bear. But all is well, the car drives nice now and it's here to stay.

A Flickrmeet tomorrow with the Black Country group, having a walk around Walsall. Looking forward to this as I've never had a close look at the town. Jacq and the kids are coming too and they will mostly be hanging around the New Art Gallery which I hope to check out as well as it's been ages since we've been there. Hope they've still got Noddy Holder as the voice of the lift announcer. That's the best bit. An art installation in itself.

The Old School

Yesterday I took trip to see the Smethwick Photographic Society in Oldbury and came away unimpressed. There's a thread on flickr where I discussed this so I won't duplicate, but suffice to say, it re-enforced my rejection of the 'old school' of photography I remember from the eighties. And it seems a couple of people in the Birmingham group have had a similar relationship with photography to me, being re-inspired by the arrival of digital and the very wonderful world of flickr.

www.flickrmeets.co.uk

Aeiou from the Birmingham Flickr group has setup a website called Birmingham Photographers to showcase the work of those in the group. And what a nice website it is. The clean and simple design shows off my composite photo beautifully (see screenshot). Now my problem is choosing which photographs of mine I wish to submit. Looking over my photostream it seems that most of my photos are family or gigs. I think I need more 'art' photos in there.

Moving Through The Photograph

After bitching on about photographing Artsfest 2006 in my previous post, tonight I uploaded the last of my efforts to Flickr and the panorama above I'm quiet pleased with. You have to look at it full size and pan along it to really see it. That's what I like about composites, moving through the photograph. Like Deckards Esper in Bladerunner.

Of the other photos in the Artsfest pool, I'm increasingly attracted to the Through The Viewfinder (TTV) pictures. The square format and the grungy scratches and distortions are really appealing. I've got my eye on a Kodak Duaflex on eBay at the moment. Watch this space.

Update: Just looked at the Flickr Blog and right there is a post about TTV complete with a photo from the Artsfest pool! Nice one.

Jacq had a meeting about another IT initiative at the school. This one is just for Dylans Year 3 kids and is focussed on Music Technology. Apparently it's all being done on Macs using Garageband. How cool is that? We'll be able to play with it at home too, when the MacBook comes back from repair.

In pet news, Sparky the hamster died yesterday. But hold back your tears, do not fret, for a new hamster was already installed by the time I got home from work. Her name is Chunky.

Artsfest

The weekend just gone was dominated by Artsfest 2006 which was taking place all over Birmingham city centre. As part of the Birmingham Flickr Group, I was photographing the event as an 'artist participant'. Saturday afternoon involved a LOT of walking, trying to get around all of the venues across the city. As I was walking around I started to get the feeling that actually I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. By the time I got the bus home I realised I had taken far fewer photos than expected. What had gone wrong?

Having thought about this since, I've come to the realisation that the Artsfest as a photographic subject holds very little interest for me. Photos of performers or portraits of visitors are all very nice but they just don't really do it for me as interesting images. Which leads me to question the reasoning for being part of the Flickr group. I think that most of the members in the group are interested in all sorts of photography whereas I feel more and more that only particular aspects of photography interest me and other leave me quite cold. For example, I usually find a single image much less interesting than a composite of multiple images. For me an interesting photograph attempts to represent more than just reality. The distortion of a 'lo-fi' approach, multiple perspectives, representations of movement and time, these are the areas that interest me right now. So what am I doing taking photos of people at an arts festival?

On Sunday I went back into town for some more Artsfest but this time with the family. It was more fun to just consume the festival rather than document it. I was also a bit burnt out from the ammount of walking done the previous day. Met up with Steve, Mary and crew. Didn't bother with the Flickrmeet at the pub at the end of the day. Not much to say.

Having said all that, I DID take some pictures. Check the photostream. My favourite thing at Artsfest was an installation called Bangmingham by Surasi Kusolwong in an old chapel taken over by Ikon. The sight of a wall-mounted drum-kit being bashed at really raised my spirits.

The Birmingham Flickr Group Artsfest photos are here.

Tiredness

Life goes on as normal but I don't seem to want to blog about it much. Am I coming to the end of this experiment? I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired.

Well, I am tired. I've stayed up much too late, too many times this week. It's ok for Jacq as she's on holiday, but I'm still getting up for work (and the dog) at 6 in the morning. Last night I went to bed early but it hurt not having any 'fun-time'.

And another thing. I'm struggling with my eyesight at the moment. It might be tiredness but I think it's more likely that I need some glasses. Must get that sorted out soon.

Missed out on a Flickrmeet last weekend. Weather looked grey and I couldn't be arsed. I'm not that fussed about the meet itself but I really have an urge to photographs at the moment. Must try and get out with the camera this weekend. Maybe some Bearwood shots, I've not really done that yet. Fergus uploaded a bunch of shots from his recent NY trip. Jealous. I bet you don't even have to look through the viewfinder there to take an interesting shot. Just walk about clicking.

Current talk is of a meet-up next Saturday for the Chancers. It will be great to see them. I just hope I can pace the drinking. Afternoon starts always end messily in my experience.

Walking The Dog

While out walking the dog tonight I took some shots with my phone. I took quite a few with Dylan on my shoulders and Harriet and Jacq walking behind. Although they are just casual phone pictures they really capture the moment for me. Watch the slideshow here.

Flickrmeet

Yellow,
Photo by Aeioux.

A walkabout in Birmingham with a bunch of Flickr people. Most enjoyable it was. It's been a long long time since I walked about taking pictures purely for the art of it. Got me looking at my surroundings again with a fresh eye. Aeioux took this picture and I reckon it must have the only one he took where I wasn't smilling like a fool. Thanks for not making me look a fool Aeioux. He seemed like an interesting character who's into loads of creative stuff. And here's me moaning constantly about getting a creative moment to myself. Must try harder. Roll on the next Flickrmeet.