Abstract

It's been too long - Hello internet! I recently bought myself a new lens, can you guess which one? Anyway these abstracts were taken with it because I had to christen the latest addition and there will be plenty more to come in the near future - though unlikely before Christmas.

As per - best/favourite 'til last... Merry Christmas and to quote tiny Tim 'God bless us, every one!'

Title font used 'Neogrey'

Bokeh

If your memory serves you and you have been following this space for any length of time then you will know I'm a pretty big fan of the unpronounceable Bokeh caused by out of focus light sources so it is about time I posted on it.

Why is it that only now a post is being made you ask? Well if ever there were a season for Bokeh - this is it. Christmas lights are the go to Bokeh source for their numerable sources, convenience and variety. Perfect. That and I also came across some inspiration recently (I would have linked the 'inspiration' but the artiste does not yet have a web site (if you're reading this get on it! (also brackets within brackets within brackets!?) ) so suffice to say it's a fellow photographer that used it to great effect.)

The above is also inspired by a shot I saw and this is a fairly poor attempt at a reproduction, though there are enough pictures of this concept on Flickr for it to have a category of its own anyway.

So I raided the Christmas decoration supplies in my flat (whos' existence I was completely oblivious of until today) and forked out the lights as well as a couple of focal points.

About 2/3 of the way though the shoot my flat mate arrived home - I don't think he has come back to the flat before while I have been mid swing in a session so I think he got a bit of a shock when he realised I had rearranged the living room to take some photos - which is surprising cause it happens fairly often ... He will get used to it I guess.

I also found this in the box and thought it rather lovely so needless to say I got on the case despite the need to utilise yet another piece of living room furniture to suspend it from, totally worth the effort.


Also - a particularly unhelpful shot of the setup ...

Title font used 'Neon 80s'

Chip

I saw this graphics card and instantly knew I wanted to take pictures and post them here. That was about 8 months ago so naturally I just got round to taking pictures of it yesterday.

Microchips do make me think of a miniature city, what that thought tends to lead me to the Tron movies, which is pretty random so I will move on now...

Taking these pictures made me really want a macro lens - quite a specific one which I have made a lot of mention in this space about before. having limited focussing distance with my current I actually only took 5 photos which means I have only the title picture and this one:

I will probably come back and add more later if I can find a good angle in a second attempt.

Updates - here we are ...

Title font used 'Atari Kids' 

Coventry

A week ago I went to Coventry with a friend to visit another friend who we hadn't seen in too long. It is good to catch up with long standing friends even if for a short time. We partook of the famous Coventry curry, made use of the most opulent bathroom ever, watched a film and in case you hadn't already guessed it visited Coombe Abbey...

Title font used 'Coventry Garden'

Home

If you know me then you know I have recently moved out of my parents and in with Dave (the living legend) Hewer. This transition has been just about as much fun as I had anticipated and also just the amount of effort I had been expecting but it all comes with the territory.

One of this weeks discoveries: the bright side to dampness. The flat we are in is prone to some pretty bad damp as it's in an old building, we knew this before we moved in so no big deal but one thing I had not foreseen was the view of sunset from the bay window in it's overly condensed state.

The above is looking down our street from the window at sunset with the drops of water setting off the bokeh.

Oh and as promised :- the pumpkin scones turned out beautifully ... Well done Helen

Halloween

I can't remember ever doing Halloween, I have never been over keen on eating my own body weight in sweets and generally fancy dress is not my thing. That and my parents saw no point in it, not that they discouraged me from celebrating it but more that they just never encouraged it.

Any way carving pumpkins is a pretty novel thing for me as I had never done it before now (at least I don't recall ever doing it) and to be honest seems pretty pointless when you consider the time and money put into it (really not a lot) and the amount of time it serves it's purpose (maybe 4-5 days?)

So you may be asking "Why did you do it then Ben, why!?" well let me tell you ...

Pumpkins - strange as it may sound - are actually edible and it happened to come up in conversation that my new flat mate Helen had always wanted to make pumpkin scones. So, not being one to hinder an entrepreneurial baker I seized the opportunity to produce a flat bonding session that combined perfectly with me being able to eat and purchased 3 pumpkins at 80p a piece.

(which makes me wander how much they are when it's not Halloween because those prices have to be inflated or the person running the veg shop has no business sense.)


So if you're thinking "Wielding a knife with no particular skill in an attempt to carve a scary looking face out of a fairly tough vegetable with 2 other people doing the same thing in close proximity is a recipe for disaster endless entertainment." Then you are on about the same lines as me.

This one was Daves' first attempt (he is my other flat mate in case you hadn't picked that up) and I think it's rather wonderful. Interestingly, upon completion of this creation Dave notified me that the good thing about carving pumpkins is that you can pop a face on the other side if your first one wasn't so great. which he promptly began to do ...

This was my first attempt and yes that huge slice down its face which I have tried to carry off as a scar was actually my first cut which was meant to be the length of the right eye ... yea, moving on.

No points for guessing who designed this. This was actually Helens second attempt - I didn't even take a picture of the first, in fairness she was using a blunt knife. For this one she drew the face on at which point I offered to do the cutting in the interest of everybody involved.

So in both of the above from left to right it goes Ben - Helen - Dave.

The pumpkin scones have not yet been made but an update will follow on that one, hopefully soon.
So far Plan Pumpkin - Success!
Happy Halloween everybody.

Title font used 'October crow'

Birthday Celebrations

Last week I got freshers flu - hence the lack of activity in this spot but I am now (only just!) pulling out the other side though I still have to blow my nose pretty regularly. Moving smoothly onward, last weekend saw two birthdays and a leaving party all rolled into a very short space of time.

For the first birthday a wild river swim was organised at this point you might be thinking - 'seriously? swimming in a river isn't that just unpleasantly cold' and you would be absolutely correct, being ill didn't help so I only ventured to waist height and even that was painful the rest of the day consisted of an elongated picnic, Irish snap and ninjas. there weren't loads of pictures taken - I was too busy enjoying myself but it was quite the scenic location.

This birthday also happened to be the leaving party, as for the second birthday my illness hit a peak so I wasn't even going to bother bringing the camera but if you're that interested she blogged about it herself over here.  

Random Ramble

You may be able to remember a couple of weeks ago we had a spot of particularly unseasonal weather which now seems like an age ago- anyway a group of us decided to hit Saltford and go for a walk followed by drinks. Unfortunately so did the world and his wife. I didn't really take many pictures and the walk was a bit of a non-event but you can't really go wrong with drinks.

Josh & Sarah

My immediate older brother Josh married my now sister in law Sarah. These photos are largely our holiday which was fused into the wedding preparations/ celebrations and I was occupied as a grooms-man for the entirety of the actual day but I was the only and therefore official  photographer of the legal wedding which took place in the Guadalupe river- literally. So here we have a taste of Texas, the stag do, the rehearsal dinner and the legal wedding :

 

 It may not look like much, but this is was the legal wedding taking place in the Guadalupe, followed by a celebratory dance:

Title font used 'Respective'