Pierre's 365

7th November - Stag do

2010-11-14T14:32:00.001Z

A beautiful crisp autumnal day for a walk in Richmond Park.

31st October - All Hallow's Eve

2010-11-14T14:30:00.002Z

OK, so it's not a Halloween photo but it was taken on the day. This is one of the pictures I took to title the sculpture page of my art sketchbook. It's nothing more complicated than nine bits of Blu-tak lit by a couple of torches but it's got more relevant impact than me writing "Scultpure" across the top of the page.

27th October - Lots of me

2010-11-14T14:18:00.003Z

Does this count as a photo in your book? It actually took less effort than my pirate. It's a tricky one. Manipulating pictures in any way more dramatic than brightness and contrast can cause all sorts of people to get het up about how it's cheating and not really photography. Who knows?

Unsurprisingly, I took this for my art sketchbook, to go in the ICT section (also a convenient way of incorporating a few examples of work I'd produced in three of the previous tutorials). I don't think it's going to make it into the book, though.

26th October - The Very Hungry Tortoise

2010-11-14T14:17:00.003Z

Another art sketchbook photo. Are you sick of them yet? This one was taken for use in the 'Collage' pages and is part of a lesson plan inspired by Eric Carle's collage techniques.

25th October - Blobby patterns

2010-11-14T14:15:00.001Z

Make of what you will of this photo. I'm not going to say what it is, but I will say that I really quite like it.

15th October - Give him a hand

2010-11-14T14:11:00.002Z

Another art sketchbook photo. This time it's not of my own work but a couple of my peer's. It has been created by wrapping on of their arms in clingfilm, then sellotaping the clingfilm up so that it takes on a hard shell. The shell is then cut off and taped back up to create a free-standing sculpture.

I took my camera into the tutorial, knowing that we'd be working on sculpture and therefore unable to take my work home with me, but on seeing the Canon 450 the lecturer pounced on it and made me the official group photographer, responsible for cataloging the group's work!

10th October - Leaf me alone.

2010-11-14T14:09:00.003Z

It's been so long since I've written on the blog that I've forgotten if I've made that same bad pun on any of the other photos.

We took a little trundle up to Wimbledon Common, which was in the throws of beautiful autumnal colours and I captured this coloured fern standing out nicely against its green backdrop.

5th October - Marbleous

2010-11-14T14:07:00.001Z

Another art sketchbook photo. This time a macro detail of a painting I made during one of the tutorials. It was created by covering a marble in paint and then rolling it across the paper.

3rd November - Have I got news for you?

2010-11-14T13:59:00.003Z

As part of my PGCE, we study all the National Curriculum foundation subjects and have directed tasks in each of them. Art is no exception but, instead of an essay or a presentation, we have to produce a sketchbook. Some of my collegues have been less than keen but I've been enjoying making it. It's a nice change of pace from reading academic texts and writing essays. It also feels like a throw back to my GCSE Art lessons. I can also work on it while watching The Apprentice.

This photo serves as the backdrop for reflections about working as a team to make clothes, for one of your group, from newspaper.

25th September - Another wedding, you say? Lovely!

2010-11-14T13:56:00.003Z

A quick weekend trip to Glasgow for a friend's wedding. A lovely day but I didn't get as many snaps that I was as pleased with as I would have liked. C'est la vie! This is a nice picture, though.

21st September - Drippy

2010-11-14T13:52:00.003Z

I don't know where I took this picture as I don't really remember it but the file properties tell me that I took it at 18:25 on the 21st September, which suggests that it must have been in our garden, after I had got back from University that day.

It must have rained.

8th September - Ahoy there! I'm back!

2010-11-14T13:47:00.003Z

I'm not going to keep up the pretence that I'm not writing these entries retrospectively, as it's clearly over two months since I took this picture.

"That's not a photo!" I hear you exclaim but you'd be wrong. I did the drawing, took a photo of it and then coloured it in in Photoshop. It is a photo. I made this for a thank you card for the class I'd recently done a school placement with, who had pirates as their half-term's topic.

5th September - Ghost bug

2010-09-20T18:43:00.002+01:00

Sitting just above the window frame, caught up in a spider's web was this gaunt looking fellow. He has obviously been there for some time and withered up somewhat, left with quite a pallid colour and his big black eyes. The web is also so faint that it makes it look like the bug is just floating in mid-air.

4th September - Swirls

2010-09-20T18:40:00.001+01:00

We were in Sheffield for the weekend, on in-law duty. As usual, when we stay there we get my sister-on-law's room. On her mantelpiece is an interesting blue vase of red swirly sticks.

3rd September - Colourful

2010-09-12T19:12:00.003+01:00

A quick snappette of one of the flowers in the garden. Nothing fancy, just a nice striking redish purple.

2nd September - Dead bug, dead blog?

2010-09-12T19:08:00.002+01:00

As I've been saying, I'm going to be far too busy to keep up with this blog on a daily basis. Considering it was three days since the last photo, I think I can safely say, the drop off has already begun. It is a shame as I do enjoy this. Maybe I'll start putting pictures from my archive up in the absence of new pictures...

30th August - Must get new batteries

2010-09-12T19:07:00.001+01:00

The batteries from our electronic scales has died. I'm not quite sure where to get a new one.

29th August - Pedestrians

2010-09-12T18:59:00.002+01:00

I suppose you could consider this one of the non-project that I mooted here. It's got an arrow in it after all.

The above is a photo of the work they're doing outside our flat. It's something to do with a new place to put our rubbish. Who knows if our disgusting neighbours will actually be able to work out how to use it, or if they'll just carry on using the back step instead?

28th August - Hometime

2010-09-03T15:14:00.003+01:00

Taken in the early hours of the morning before heading home, I'm pleased with the composition of this one; with a nice moment of Natalie, fitting in perfectly between the the foreground's hips and bums.

27th August - Don't Stop Believing!

2010-09-03T15:10:00.003+01:00

For a change, we went to a wedding today.

It seems harsh, when including a photo from a wedding, for it not to be one of either the bride or groom, but it was such a dark reception venue that this was the best one I got from the night.

Sadly, it's just rocking out to Don't Stop Believing by Journey.

26th August - Blob

2010-09-02T18:42:00.001+01:00

A pleasing abstract. I'm not going to say what it is a picture of, but I will admit to making it a bit more interesting by ramping up the levels in Photoshop, thus increasing its contrast.

25th August - Keep moving, there's nothing to see

2010-09-02T18:41:00.001+01:00

This really was a tick the box photo, taken purely to try to use up the battery, in preparation for the wedding we're going to on Friday.

24th August - Tick tock

2010-09-02T18:38:00.001+01:00

I'd originally seen a picture like this on someone's photo blog and thought it was quite cool - and fairly easy to replicate - but then I realised that Flickr is littered with pictures like this; probably because it is so easy to replicate.

23rd August - Welcome home

2010-09-02T18:27:00.004+01:00

The tent needed airing, something I put off doing all morning while there clouds were circling. Eventually, having conceded that actually, maybe, it wasn't going to rain after all, I went through the rigmarole of unpacking the tent and working out how to hang it out to dry. As soon as I got it into position, it began pissing down. With vengeance.

I quickly shoved the tent into the shed. The tent was now wetter than it was before I put it out.

Eventually the rain stopped, I gave it a bit of time to see if it would start again. The coast appeared clear. I hung the tent out again. As soon as I got it into position, it began pissing down. With vengeance.

I quickly rammed the tent back into the shed and slammed the shed door. I was not pleased.

22nd August - Old habits die hard

2010-09-01T17:59:00.002+01:00

On the way back to Calais we came across this accident. Ironically, it had happened right next to a sign that said We wish you a pleasant journey.

When I see something like this, despite being in a different country, I still have a slight urge to phone up my old work and say "Rolling roadblock on the northbound A16 due to overturned caravan in lane two of two."

21st August - What horror happened here?

2010-09-01T17:52:00.003+01:00

There is something sinister about quiet children's playgrounds in the dead of night. Like the scene of a horrific crime. I think it's just because a silent playground in the middle of the night is the polar opposite to what most people picture, when they usually imagine them.

I'm impressed with the (eintirely untweaked) colour that the sky has turned out.

20 August - Monkeying around

2010-09-01T17:48:00.003+01:00

Our penultimate day in France, so we took a trip to the old walled city of St Malo. Looking back, I'm surprised how few photos I took that day (I took more of the dead insects on top of the kitchen light than anything else). I did snap the above though; a bit of graffiti in a Twelve Monkeys style.

19th August - Zoom!

2010-08-29T00:22:00.002+01:00

The night before this we'd all been out on the razz in a nearby town and had to walk a couple of miles back home, in the dark at the depths of night. The road has no streetlights, so formed a picture like this, in my mind, for the following day.

The lining up of the bollard and the moon is purely co-incidental and I was lucky enough to capture a convoy of three cars passing us quite slowly, thus giving me several light trails.

Long light trails are far from original or groundbreaking but they are cool.

18th August - I love crappy graffiti

2010-08-29T00:15:00.002+01:00

I love crappy graffiti but unfortunately don't seem to see it so often. On the 12th May, I've since rued not using a photo of some pure graffiti that simply said "If you read this you are gay." You can't argue with that.

The above was spotted on a costal walk where we came across some quite lame graffiti sprayed onto the rockface. Aside from the above, there was a line drawing of a bloke smoking and the words "Smoke weed" and "Cannabis".

17th August - Christmas time again!

2010-08-29T00:04:00.002+01:00

Continuing my irregular series of festive pictures at the wrong time of year is this photo.

We took a trip into Dinan and wandered into St Malo's Church. There was no sign barring photography and a few other people taking some pictures but I didn't think it would be light enough to get anything usable. However, these candles were situated directly below a large stained glass window, which provided just enough light to get this.

It's the smaller tea-candles in their red glass holders, in the background, that give it a festive feel.

16th August - Are you nuts?

2010-08-28T23:58:00.002+01:00

A tricky choice today.

I got a really nice photo of the shadow cast by an ornate gate that I was pretty sure would be my photo for the day, then, having a wander around the garden I spotted this shell and snapped it, without really giving it much thought. It was only when looking back that I found it strangely pleasing to look at. It's got a decent hue, it's nice and soft and the position of the branch in the background complements the shell sweetly.

15th August - You wait ages for a copulating insect, then four turn up at once.

2010-08-25T15:39:00.003+01:00

Sorry to anyone who is sick of insect macros, but I love them.

As for the photo title; we went for a wet costal walk this afternoon and looking down at one point, I spotted these two romantics at it. Once they finished there were no cuddles, no cigarettes, the one on top just wondered off.

I was pleased with my Attenborough-style Life in the Undergrowth photo but then, a bit later on the same walk, I spotted a full on beetle bacchanalia. I did get a few of them but they were all shot from above, whereas the black & yellow insects sitting on the pink & white flower, contrasting with the green background just makes for a more astheticly pleasing picture.

14th August - The relentless march of the insects

2010-08-25T15:35:00.003+01:00

After we'd packed up the tent, in preparation to leave the campsite, I was about to shut the car's boot when I saw this little fellow sat on the latch. Closing the boot would have crushed him to death. He posed for a few pictures before I was able to usher him away and we were able to head of to our gite for the second week of our holiday.

August 13th - Birdy

2010-08-25T15:33:00.002+01:00

I'm usually a bit against a somewhat boring picture like this but the rest of my photos from the day were a bit uninspiring and I think it was my least photographed day of the holiday. We're allowed an off day once in a while, aren't we?

12th August - I'm a fun guy.

2010-08-25T15:24:00.001+01:00

Next to our tent were a few little toadstools. We decided not to eat them.

11th August - Cockles and moules

2010-08-24T12:57:00.003+01:00

After finally getting some sun, we spent the afternoon in a market town. While Ros perused the bargains on offer, I trundled down to the beach and captured this sea life.

10th August - Brown droplet

2010-08-24T12:55:00.002+01:00

A strangely subdued fly, that didn't object to be photographed. What raises my interest in this picture - and something I only noticed when I opened it on the computer - is the random brown droplet below the fly's 'bum'. Is that was fly poo looks like?

9th August - Stock flower macro

2010-08-24T12:47:00.003+01:00

For the first wek of our holiday in Brittany we were camping on a farm. In the middle of the site was a lovely bubble of flowers in bloom. I spent quite while snapping all number of them, but I think this fairly standard-issue flower macro wins out.

8th August - Bugging me

2010-08-24T12:40:00.003+01:00

We spent the day recuperating, after yesterday's wedding, in Plymouth. We were able to get a decent shower (after the previous night's camping) and eat some lovely comfort food. When we got there, though, this dead fella was waiting to greet us.

7th August - A wedding, you say? Well, why not?

2010-08-23T17:13:00.002+01:00

We were guests at another wedding today. I was also charged with taking some photos, including the speeches and the cake cutting picture, which you can see above. I'm dead chuffed with this, first of all, because it is lovely but secondly, I did the rare thing of actually planning the shot and it worked out exactly as intended.

Having worked out the framing well in advance, I knew I didn't want to use the on-camera flash, so the shutter speed was dialed down to allow some other people's direct flash to light up the couple, while I shot on continuous mode. In the end, I think I got about 20 pictures, mostly too dark, but it was worth it for this one.

6th August - Congratulations

2010-08-23T09:25:00.002+01:00

Appologies to anyone who has been itching for an update; I've been away for two weeks, during which I took 1352 photos, so the next couple of week's of entries are going to be written through a retrospective filter...

As for the above, hot on the heels of getting my P45 I got the 100% official confirmation of my acceptance on my PGCE.

5th August - Bugs and beasties

2010-08-05T18:25:00.003+01:00

I took a trip to Kew Gardens today, specifically to see the butterfly house that they have in place over the summer. It is lovely, with 100s of butterflies fluttering by. Add that to the rest that Kew has to offer and I was spoilt for photo choices today, which is always a pleasure.

I don't know what it is about the above photo; the butterfly is out of focus and it's moving, so it's far from sharp but I still really like the picture. There is something a bit painterly about it.

4th August - Breaking Dawn

2010-08-05T17:59:00.002+01:00

After a couple of showers, the garden was mottled with raindrops. In retrospect, I'm slightly ashamed that this looks like it should be on the cover of the latest Twilight novel.

3rd August - UB40

2010-08-05T17:56:00.003+01:00

This came in the post the other day; it's my P45. That means I am 100% out of the hands of my previous employer. The next stage really begins now.

2nd August - Knitty Nora

2010-08-04T00:00:00.002+01:00

After a bit of a hiatus from knitting her blanket, Ros is back on the project with vigour. The needles are out once more and a whole raft of new balls of wool have come to stay.

1st August - Expolsion of colour

2010-08-03T23:56:00.004+01:00

The in-laws' garden has exploded into bloom. I spent a while photographing some of the plants; including this flower, which had a single amazing petal that was half yellow and half pink. I took loads of pictures, all of which I was pleased with, and all of which seemed to work, irrespective of focus or framing. It's lovely when that happens.

31st July - Baa

2010-08-03T23:52:00.002+01:00

Today we did the pub walk that we've been planning for a few months. I could have published a half decent landscape photo or a nice picture of one of my friends but, instead, I went for the one of the sheep with a comedy expression.

30th July - Christmas time!

2010-08-03T23:49:00.003+01:00

On the train back from the West Country, we pulled into the Reading station, where, evidently, the Christmas decorations remain up all year. While that is understandable, it is a bit of a depressing sight in the middle of the summer.

29th July - 'ello cheeky!

2010-08-03T23:43:00.004+01:00

A visit to Paington Zoo today. While my macro lens does a decent job as a pseudo-telephoto lens, in truth it's only really good at a distance of no more than three feet. There are not many animals in the zoo that you can get that close to, except this fellow, who, rather kindly, perched himself infront of a pleasant uncluttered background.

I've looked through the zoo's website to try and work out what type of bird he is but with little success. A smarter photographer than I would have noted it down at the time. Are there any ornithologists that know what it is?

28th July - Water water everywhere

2010-08-03T23:41:00.003+01:00

We spent the day at Blackpool Sands, which we were sold as being a great beach to build sandcastles on. It is not. The beach is made of stones.

A lovely day, though, and I was able to get a number of these very 'me' style photos.

27th July - Tor tour

2010-08-03T23:37:00.003+01:00

We took a family trip out to one of the Dartmoor tors. I got a few nice family pictures but went for this one because, while far from the best photo, it's at least framed as a decent landscape shot should be. There is a bit of foreground interest (Ros) and your eyes are drawn into the picture (following Ros' eye line) to where the larger interest lies (the moor).

26th July - Dead

2010-08-03T23:35:00.000+01:00

Insects are far easier to capture when they've already been caught.

25th July - The midnight murder

2010-08-03T23:26:00.005+01:00

We are down in Torquay for the week; the birthplace of Agatha Christie.

After watching Die Hard (which I had not seen until then) I spotted the amazing full moon beautifully lighting up the sea and the cloudless sky. The night's light was streaming in through the house's huge windows, and creating a lovely silhouette of the lamp in the window. A grisly gothic scene, suitable for the backdrop to a Poirot case.

24th July - The summer of weddings continues with gusto

2010-08-02T16:16:00.002+01:00

We attended a couple of chums' wedding today and I took about 450 photos, most of which I was pleased with, even if they were mostly of the same ten people or so. This is probably my favourite one; a fairly classic shot of the happy couple walking back up the aisle.

23rd July - Fruit tea

2010-08-02T16:12:00.001+01:00

I can't even remember why I was too busy to take anything other than this photo today, but it probably had something to do with the fact that the following day we were off to a wedding and then away for a week. Suffice to say, this really is just a snap to tick the "I took a photo today" box.

22nd July - Bedtime

2010-07-23T11:26:00.003+01:00

There was definitely no time for photos today. After school we went for a birthday curry (I'm now 31) and by the time we got home, it was pretty much time for bed.

21st July - Lunar

2010-07-23T11:23:00.002+01:00

Another snatched photo. I could explain what it is but I'd prefer not to. I just like that it looks like it could be a backdrop in a science fiction film. A low budget science fiction film.

20th July - English country garden...

2010-07-23T11:18:00.002+01:00

...well, maybe English Urban Garden.

Due to my current educational commitments I've not really had time to take any decent photos that I'm particularly proud of and it's really just reiterating what I said in that post about how I'm not going to have time to keep the blog going, come September.

19th July - I can sing a rainbow

2010-07-23T11:15:00.002+01:00

The landscapers out the back of the flats have laid down some turf, which makes our grass seem somewhat scruffy and ragged. When I got home today the sprinklers were on and the sun was catching the water at just the right angle to make a rainbow in the spray. Unfortunately, it didn't show up too clearly in the photo but it's the thought that counts.

18th July - Buzzbee

2010-07-23T11:10:00.003+01:00

Another potter in the garden on a sunny afternoon and another bee shot. This one is not half bad.

17th July - Smile!

2010-07-23T10:03:00.002+01:00

We had a big clear out of junk this weekend. This large chunk of sponge has been sitting on top of some other bits for months now. When I moved it, there was this smiling face looking back at me.

16th July - I only like orange food

2010-07-22T18:17:00.003+01:00

When I lived in an earlier flat, I used to have a depressing picture of a meal I once cooked for myself, when I was home alone. It consisted of a bit of breaded fish, some carrots, a bit of tomato ketchup and a glass of water. I remember looking at the meal and thinking that it was such a depressing sight that I had to capture it for posterity. I put the picture on my food cupboard as a reminder to myself to always try to eat better than that.

This meal is far from the same but it does have a similar hue.

15th July - Weedy

2010-07-18T19:17:00.003+01:00

There are a few plants that have been uprooted, sitting at the end of the garden. I don't know what they are, that's Ros' department, but they have cool round heads.

Shot from above, they look somewhat incongruous, the still attractive flower contrasting against the backdrop of dead weeds. Because the plant's stalk is still rigid, the head appears to almost be floating in space.

Addendum: Ros tells me that the plants are leek seed heads.

14th July - Raindrops keep falling on my window

2010-07-18T19:13:00.002+01:00

The weather was a bit crazy today. It went from cold to windy, to cloudy to sunny and dry to wet. This was taken just after what felt like a month's worth of rain cacked down. About a hour later the sky was as blue as can be.

13th July - Crushing inevitability

2010-07-18T19:08:00.002+01:00

So, no picture today.

I preparation for beginning my PGCE in September, I've been doing a work placement at my old school. There were two reasons I wasn't going to take my camera into school; 1) it might get damaged or nicked and 2) I don't want to look like a paedo.

While it's a great being in school, it has confirmed something I've long been suspecting; I'm not going to have the time to keep up the daily photos when I start my course properly. I think, come September, it's going to be reduced to one photo a week, or something similar. It's all about priorities.

12th July - Rimshot

2010-07-18T19:07:00.001+01:00

A quick snap, grabbed while sitting at my computer. It's been made a bit more interesting by being turned black and white and sharpened up a bit.

11th July - Zee little gray cells again

2010-07-18T19:01:00.002+01:00

On the way back from Florence I finished my second Poirot novel (just watching the TV adaptations seems a bit lame, now); The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's Agatha Christie's first Poirot novel and very enjoyable. It seemed appropriate to follow it by watching the tellybox adaptation. I'm pleased to say that the ITV version does remain fairly close to its source material.

10th July - Cheese alert!

2010-07-13T16:53:00.002+01:00

The heat was just too oppressive to even think about taking a decent number of photos. When it's so hot to even consider getting your camera out of your bag, then it's probably too hot. Word was it that it reached 38 degrees at one point. That is oppressive.

In the evening, after the edge had been taken off the heat, we were crossing the River Arno (on the Ponte alla Carraia, fact fans) and I caught sight of this canoeist and realised he was shortly going to line up perfectly with the sun. I had to completely under expose the shot, otherwise you'd just be looking at a big blob of white with some golden edges.

I do acknowledge that it's a cheesy photo, though.

9th July - Churchy-chops

2010-07-13T16:47:00.002+01:00

It's probably a fallacy to go to Florence and not see Michelangelo's David but that's just what we did, choosing instead to wander the streets. The problem with cities like Florence is that they're full of tourists, unable to speak the language and constantly standing in the way while they take pictures of the local architecture. Oh, wait a minute...

8th July - Why were the wedding flowers cold? The bride froze the boquet.

2010-07-13T16:39:00.002+01:00

The wedding itself was a grand old occasion. It took place in an, almost cliched, rustic Tuscan church, before moving on to a hilltop castle for the evening reception. The meal was eaten in the open air courtyard, lit only by candles and the band played some lovely jazz until 1am.

I'm chuffed with the above photo. It was quite pleasing that I saw what was about to happen and was able to position myself appropriately to capture it, fortunately at pretty much the peak of the bouquet's arch. Unfortunately, the focus feel on the trees instead of the bride but I've countered that by sharpening the picture, and it's probably not too clear on a photo at this resolution, as it is.

7th July - A light here for Florence

2010-07-13T16:34:00.003+01:00

Our Florentine adventure began with a pre-wedding drinks reception, the light before the wedding itself. It took place on the roof terrace of a grand hotel in the centre of the city. The sunset gave all surrounding buildings a lovely golden glow, but it was these lamps (and specifically the way the cane-roof was distorted through the lightbulb) that caught my eye.

6th July - mmmm, beer!

2010-07-12T10:44:00.001+01:00

A quick one of the beer I had, before packing up to head off to a wedding in Florence.

5th July - Are you a bee?

2010-07-06T21:47:00.001+01:00

Pottering around the garden this afternoon, I spotted a couple of bees sipping on their amber nectar and I managed to get a half decent snap of this one.

4th July - Photo post failure 2!

2010-07-06T21:45:00.003+01:00

I think it's quite good that I've not failed to take a picture since 14th January. It only didn't happen today because we were out all day and were quite zonked when we finally got home. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

3rd July - Rememberance Saturday

2010-07-06T21:41:00.002+01:00

Another one of the flowers in the neighbour's garden. I'm quite pleased with the back-lighting and striking red of the withered petals.

2nd July - Christmas

2010-07-03T18:49:00.002+01:00

When watering the garden I noticed how the droplets were happily sitting on this one plant's branches. I am quite partial to a water droplet photo and I'm quite pleased with how this one looks. I think it has a festive feel, so maybe I'll put it on some Christmas cards this year.

1st July - The horror!

2010-07-03T18:36:00.003+01:00

I have no idea what that piece of meat is. It looks like something not from this earth. It is disgusting. It was probably about a half a foot long and the shape of a king prawn. It even appeared to have little legs; although they could have just been bits of entrails hanging off its body. Even the pigeons weren't going near it.

I'll tell you what it looks like; it resembles a decapitated Alien Chestburster. What on earth is going on behind the closed doors of Smithfield Meat Market?

30th June - Menagerie

2010-07-03T18:33:00.002+01:00

Due to the landscaping work that is going on out the back of the flats, it is now possible to wander the whole stretch of the gardens. Our neighbours have a wonderful array of plant life in theirs (don't worry, I wasn't trespassing, just photographing the stuff on the fringes). I have no idea what any of the plants are called but they should offer plenty of photographic opportunities in the weeks to come.

29th June - Weave

2010-07-03T18:31:00.001+01:00

You'd think that by now I would have conditioned myself to ensure that I'd actually taken a photo before bedtime. Evidently not. I rushed this one out before going to sleep.

28th June - Bin and gone

2010-06-30T19:49:00.003+01:00

The preposterous rubbish collection problems have been trundling on through the month. Since that photo on the 8th June we had one unscheduled bin collection and that's it. I've been pushing my Daily Mail style bin-collection emails to the council into overdrive, CCing the local councillors in on the conversation.

I don't know if it was pressure from them or this, slightly patronising, sign that I put on a neighbouring flat's front door that made the difference, but this morning we had a collection! It is amazing to be able to walk out of the back of the flat and not have to navigate a Crystal Maze of weeping carrier bags and maggots, just to get into the garden.

Sadly, I'm not convinced that there will be the scheduled collection on Monday.

27th June - Ho Chi Min

2010-06-30T19:47:00.002+01:00

We have a number of tatty old lanterns in our garden. They've been there since before I moved in and, as a consequence, are somewhat weather beaten. I've never been there, but this evokes in me, feelings of faded Vietnamese glamour.

Does that sound a bit pretentious?

26th June - Pedstonbury

2010-06-30T19:44:00.003+01:00

My mate Ped had his 30th birthday do today, on the same weekend as Glastonbury. His party was, instead, named 'Pedstonbury'. Amongst others, his cake features Glastonbury's stone circle and the Pyramid Stage.

25th June - The flowers are looking away

2010-06-30T19:41:00.003+01:00

Taking my own advice, dished out here, I took this alternative angle of the clematis in the garden today. I'm pleased with the way the light has caught the stems.

24th June - Play me, I'm yours

2010-06-25T16:31:00.002+01:00

A piano has appeared in the little space I go for lunch. It is part of Play Me! I'm Yours: London 2010. It's a lovely project and the pianos are something to look out for, if you happen to be passing through the City of London.

I can't play the piano at all but I did plink a couple of the keys.

23rd June - Starburst

2010-06-25T16:27:00.004+01:00

On Jessica Sweeney's Quotidian Photography blog (listed to the right under 'Interesting reading') sometimes includes photos with little starbursts, like in the above (created by putting the aperture down to something along the lines of f/22). So far, I've failed to emulate them to a degree I'm happy with.

22nd June - Flowers are looking up

2010-06-25T16:16:00.003+01:00

I think the instinct, when you first get a macro lens and start taking pictures of flowers, is to shoot directly from above and get the flower's 'face'. Recently, though, I've started approaching the flowers from different angles and I think it can make for a more interesting photo.

21st June - New balls!

2010-06-25T16:14:00.001+01:00

It seems fitting that on the first day of the Wimbledon tennis Championship, that I present you with a photo of one of Ros' home-grown strawberries. They taste amazing.

20th June - Come fly with me

2010-06-25T16:09:00.003+01:00

Another lazy Sunday, another trip to Canizaro Park. Sadly, most of the flowers have passed on, so there is not as much interesting foliage to capture but I still got a few things I was pleased with; including part of a flower that looked like something out of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. I went for this one though because I'm always trying to get decent insect macros but unless they're docile and obedient, it's notoriously difficult to get a sharp portrait.

19th June - Over a barrel

2010-06-21T17:01:00.002+01:00

I was a bit short of choice of photos today. We went to a friend's birthday do but it wasn't as boozy as I was expecting and there weren't that many people there that we knew, so I didn't take any pictures at the event. I was left with 30 minutes on the bus home, before the end of the day. And even that was cut short because I managed to take six photos before my batteries ran out.

I did have one of the above in focus but a) I don't know how Rachel would feel about featuring on here, and b) in retrospect, I prefer the defocussed one.

18th June - Monster! Monster!

2010-06-21T16:55:00.002+01:00

This mean looking fella was discovered skulking around our bathroom today. I presumed he was dead because he was so still and at one point he fell into the bath and didn't move. Then, just as I got in this close, I jumped a mile because he suddenly scuttled off down the side of the bath.

17th June - Plantation

2010-06-20T18:43:00.003+01:00

The walk from the station back home, although it's a dull road, is peppered with interesting bits of flora and fauna, including this little plant.

16th June - Layzee gray cells

2010-06-18T00:49:00.003+01:00

You might think this picture looks a bit familiar. You would be right. What bugged me about the original was the presence of the cloud in the sky. I knew I wanted a picture with a clear blue sky and less of the building in shadow. The perfect moment dropped by during today's lunch break.

15th June - Experts

2010-06-18T00:31:00.007+01:00

This is part of a billboard poster that is up at the moment. It makes me chuckle because of that rediculous claim; "As recommended by experts in the Daily Mail". Like a true scientific fact, they've backed up their rash claim; "Source: Daily Mail, November 24th 2008"

I have saved you the hard work and tracked down the in-depth scientific study for you. It is here. If you don't want to go and look at that, the entire study consists of the following:

The active ingredient in this supplement is celadrin. 'This helps maintain healthy joints by reducing cartilege breakdown and has an anti-inflamitory effect, which reduces pain,' explains Norris.

I can't claim for certain that I am right, but it looks suspiciously like an advertorial to me.

Aside from all that fluff, does anyone actually take any Daily Mail health-related stories seriously? I really think it would be a far louder ringing endorsement not to touch the paper with a barge pole. Sadly, The (New) Daily Mail Oncological Ontology Project appears to be long dead but its archive is worth a peruse.

14th June - Iron deficiency

2010-06-18T00:27:00.002+01:00

About 20 minutes before bedtime I realised I'd not taken a picture today. It's times like that that can make this project seem a bit like an albatros around the neck. With minutes to spare, I took a few macro photos of some bits and bobs, finally settling on this shot of the bottom of the iron.

13th June - Ingerland!

2010-06-13T18:12:00.002+01:00

It was a friend's birthday last night (the above picture was taken at 1:30am) so he combined his party with an screening of England's 1-1 World Cup draw with America. I was quite drunk before I even took my camera out but, even by my standards, the pictures turned out extraordinarily rubbish. I got it into my head that no flash in a dark room, coupled with lots of movement was the order of the night. I was wrong.

12th June - Flower

2010-06-13T18:10:00.003+01:00

I can't think of a clever title for my flower macros anymore. This is one from our garden; I think it's slightly past its prime but it still looks quite nice at this proximity.

11th June - Zee little gray cells

2010-06-13T18:07:00.002+01:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm partial to an episode of the David Suchet Poirots. Down the road from my office is this apartment block, where Poirot lives in the TV adaptations.

10th June - Glory hole

2010-06-13T18:03:00.005+01:00

Another nook of Farringdon Station. Admittedly, I only took this because I thought of the rude-sounding title.

9th June - The decisive moment

2010-06-13T13:41:00.005+01:00

When describing his 'decisive moment' Henri Cartier-Bresson is quoted as saying

"There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative."

While it is pretentious and cliché to reference someone like Cartier-Bresson on a hobbyist photo-blog, how can you look at the photo above and not think that it encapsulates the very nature of what he was trying to convey about the power of photography to capture one beautiful moment that, once passed, will never occur again?

P.S. Apologies to the poor woman who is the subject of this picture. I don't know who she is and I'm pretty sure she would be horrified to know I've put this on here. Mystery tongue-lady, if you ever find out that this picture is on here I will be happy to take it down.

8th June - A rubbish photo

2010-06-09T23:35:00.004+01:00

I'm in the process of having a very Daily Mail style conversation with the council at the moment. They've not done a bin collection for two and a half weeks, which is not helped by the fact that a number of our neighbours evidently don't actually appear to know what a bin bag is. Instead, they prefer to just fill up a carrier bag to bursting, partially open the back door, and chuck the bag out.

Unsurprisingly, foxes don't find it too tricky to get into them and spread the contents of the bags all around. I spent the afternoon the other day picking up all my neighbour's crap (quite literally in one case; there was a dirty nappy in one of the bags), which included having to get a sheep's skull into a bin bag. Why did our neighbours even have sheep's skull?

At the time of writing, it is not actually possible to get out the back door of our flats because there are probably about 20-30 bin bags worth of rubbish out there. It's rancid.