Saturday 12 January 2008

Daily Photo #35

This was taken in Stratford Upon Avon last Summer. I'm quite happy with the tones on this one and has an alien/otherwordly feel to it.

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Friday 11 January 2008

Daily Photo #34

Another from the archives, this time from one of our annual trips to New York. This is of the chimney stacks across Roosevelt Island. Did a little photoshopping with this one but quite pleased with the results. The smoke gives it a real industrial feel.

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Thursday 10 January 2008

Daily Photo#33

Took this one in Stratford 2007. I just like the colours and the motion. Reminds me of something in a dream forgotten an age ago.

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Wednesday 9 January 2008

Daily Photo #32

Pure and simple - the world needs more super heroes (and heroines!).

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That catwoman looks *hot* in this picture!

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Daily Photo #31

I chose this one because I *love* honey. It's perfect to sweeten cereal and porridge on a winter's day. But, there is one thing I love more than honey and it is cute or kitsch animal shaped containers.

Linda and I spotted these bad boys in the Union Square Farmer's Market during our annual trip to NYC in April. I just loved the phalanx of the bear overwhelming us with the cute.

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And the lady who owned the stall was fab, allowing me to shoot her bears, in a photographic kind of way.

Monday 7 January 2008

New Year's Resolutions

In amongst all the daily photo stuff I haven't really been posting my thoughts. Well, after the excesses of Xmas I am not functioning 100% and finding the actual process of engaging my brain and writing reports/recommendations to be quite taxing.

Anyway, in between trying to make my grey matter all functional I pottered around the subject of resolutions of the New Year variety and found that I have an inherent distaste for them so I thought of another way of making small changes without being all crabby and forced/coerced into them.

So, I present to you my bite size rules for the year:

A) Be nice. It costs nothing. Please and thank you go a long way, both with colleagues and people in shops.

B) Count to 5 before losing my temper with people - this includes the cats and Linda. Try and see the other side of the argument.

C) Speak my mind. If someone is messing me around or causing me unhappiness, tell them so (in a tactful way). (This may contradict the above but it's all about the balance).

D) Cut the dead wood out of my life, or at least limit my contact with it. I started this last year and cut negativity arriving from a certain part of my life. It caused some drama but it was worth it. It felt both liberating and meant I did not have to interact with toxic people for the sake of it.

E) Give compliments - boost the confidence and people around me by telling them if they have done something really wonderful or an action that has meant something to me. People cannot read your mind so tell them! I've started doing this and the feeling is so positive. I think positivity breeds positivity.

F) (Cribbed from Lynch and Frost). Give myself a gift everyday. Doesn't matter if it's a 5 minute break to stare out of the window, a cup of lemon tea or a DVD. It's still giving something back to myself to prove I'm worth it.

Now, these are pretty easy things to stick to and they work for me. I hope 2008 is a positive and inspiring one!

Daily Photo #30

There ain't any new Doctor Who for almost three months now. Bah. I've been a lifelong fan and love both the old and new versions of the show but one thing I didn't get my head around was the new cybermen. Brains in suits of armour are not scary but from an art deco perspective, they're a lovely piece of design.

For this shot Linda and I thought it would be fun to pay homage to the creaky sci-fi trappings of the old show but add in something of the new so this one was really inspired by the sleek silver lines of the original monsters but giving them a modern feminine twist with a touch of sci-fi styling with the layers added in using Photoshop.

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This cyberlady is powered by red wine and chocolate though, not batteries or radiation I might add.

Sunday 6 January 2008

Daily Photo #29

I took this one in the Summer of 2006. I'd just finished a contract for a private company and wanted a change so spent a bit of the summer just spodding about, shooting whatever I saw fit. I was walking through a local cemetary and the lighting was just right for this one and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. The slightly hidden/obscured face on this one adds the right amount of mood/unknown factor to the shot and makes it appear a little sinister, even in broad daylight.

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It's a real shame the left hand was missing on this statue as it detracts from it slightly.