So playing around with ND filters is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, with a certain type of “soft n fluffy” water in mind… Well trying to combine tide / weather and location together isn’t as easy as I’d thought, but finally I managed to get something close to the shot I want…. I’ll still continue to look for THE shot I want, but for now this is a start…
So after 24 years working for my current employer, in various roles from Electrical Apprentice to Test Engineer to Product Designer etc etc etc, finally ending up as Quality Manager…. Well finally it’s all come to an end, as we found out after months on month of uncertainty, that the business has gone in to receivership. I’m now spending the next few weeks or so as part of small team slowly helping to wind the business up…
Most of my spare time however might now be spent trying to figure out how exactly I’m going to support a family of four, at this time of year, with a grand income of £0.00…. and pay the bills / buy food etc etc…That should be entertaining… Maybe I can sell a few organs…. or children…. or both….. lol… You CAN survive on just one lung can’t you…. Maybe I could sell a leg too, and just hop everywhere… That would save on shoes too, and if I can get my wife to sell the opposite leg we could share trousers too…. Actually, now I think of it, does anybody need a new wife !!!… I’m open for offers… lol… She comes fully equipped with all her own baggage, and pound for pound has to be good value for money… 
Still…. If nothing else it might give me a bit more time to concentrate on photography… All I need now is some decent weather, and to find someone who’ll buy my pictures for a few thousand a go too… lol…. So if anyone happens to know an eccentric millionaire or two….
Better still…. If anyone’s got a job going… lol… I don’t mind working for a living… I’d even be prepared to do stuff if I’m paid enough money…
Well it’s been a while since I last had the opportunity to venture in to one of my favourite fields of photography… And I’ll admit it may not be to everyone’s liking… But personally I can’t get enough of shooting something that others find totally uninspiring.. I also enjoy the test of making the unappealing kind of appealing… So this area is heavy industry, or urban exploring… or anything that looks decayed and gritty and mucky… Can’t get enough muck… lol… This is an old shot btw.. I really must find some new industrial material…
It’s definitely not the easiest of subject matters, but I enjoy the test of finding something unique… and I have to say it’s not quite the same 
as portraiture… lol… Here’s the original file too just to show that these shots generally take quite a bit of processing to make them look semi appealing…
I guess it’s pretty much like Marmite…. Love it or hate it…. Personally, I say spread it thick and savour the taste… 
Well there’s no area of photography that I’ll not attempt… Or at least I’ve not found one yet that is… But there are a few that I have to say chill me to the bone… lol… Well ok, maybe not that bad, but not something I’d choose in preference to spending the night in a bath full of worms…
Anyway… One such area is portraiture… I’ve 
done it, and will continue to do it until I improve… I’m a masochist like that… lol.. Maybe one day I’ll even enjoy it… (frantically trying hard to avoid the typical sexist attractive female model references)….
Today though I was asked by a friend to shoot her kids (as other forms of punishment weren’t working)… hehe… Great kids though, and a real pleasure to shoot (insert involuntary cough)… Yeah ok, maybe the last bit is pushing the bounds of reality.. lol.. It’s fair to say it was a trial… As one of them really really really did not want “her” picture taken, but I’m not telling on which one it was… suffice to say it wasn’t “him”….
We struggled for some time it has to be said to even get her to look at the camera, but once she did I just rattled off a few shots until I got a glimmer of a smile and decided that that was good enough… Phew…. lol…
Here’s a couple more though that I did 
of my own kids too… And again had a VERY similar experience with the youngest… The oldest really couldn’t get enough…. But the youngest… WHOLE different story… There were plenty of tears there too about 2 minutes before this shot… lol…
So if anyone asks me again to shoot their kids… Next time I’m going in with a Magnum… and I don’t mean the ice cream…
Well it’s been a pretty bland week with respect to the weather, and probably not helped either by the fact that I’ve been feeling distinctly under the weather… but yesterday I decided that regardless of weather or health I was going to get some Autumnal shots before it was too late… Errrrrrrhhhhh… Unfortunately I was too late… lol…
Ah well… Not to worry… I still managed to rummage around in the fallen leaves and muck and mud and stuff and found one or two things to shoot… So here’s pretty much a shot from the last of the Autumn… Bring on the winter… cos then it will soon be spring and we can start all over again…
So today was a visit to the zoo… London Zoo to be specific, and if I’m brutally honest I wasn’t too impressed. Although naturally they claim to do their bit, I really don’t think that, in todays more modern approach to zoo-keeping, that the space and environment these “wild” animals require to live a relatively content life is really sufficient at London Zoo… Just my opinion, but it kinda saddens me to see them confined in such a way…
On a lighter note though, I was impressed by one particular resident of the butterfly house… Initially I dismissed them (about 6 of them) as models, as they were HUUUUUGE….. and when I say huge I mean “HUGE”… The wingspan must have been 8 – 10 inches…. I was studying them all hanging there on these cocoons, when one of them moved !!!…. That was when I had to step back a few feet, not cos I was scared… lol.. but to take a shot, just so I could actually fit one in the viewfinder…
So they’re Atlas Moths, and regarded as the worlds largest moths….
Here’s the science (wikipedia) bit….
The Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) is a large saturniid moth found in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia, southern China, common across the Malay archipelago, Thailand to Indonesia.[1] In India, Atlas moths are cultivated for their silk in a non-commercial capacity; unlike that produced by the related Silkworm moth (Bombyx mori), Atlas moth silk is secreted as broken strands. This brown, wool-like silk is thought to have greater durability and is known as fagara.[2] Atlas moth cocoons have been employed as purses in Taiwan.
Atlas moths are considered to be the largest moths in the world[3] in terms of total wing surface area (upwards of c. 400 square cm or 65 square inches). Their wingspans are also amongst the largest, from 25-30 cm (10-12 inches). Females are appreciably larger and heavier.
Plain and simple just decided to make a mess tonight…. Guess I’d best go and mop up now before someone slips in it…
Well there’s not really much to be said about this one, apart from the simple fact that this is an amazing place for some really stunning shots… The architecture here is awe inspiring both inside and out, and the simple fact that they are welcoming of photographers is an extra special bonus…. Love this place…. Oh – it’s Canterbury Cathedral in case you were wondering…
Just could not think of an apt title for this one, so had to settle for something lame in the end, but hey… let’s just hope that no one actually reads the title anyway… Hmmm… Well I guess they might now that I’ve drawn attention to it… Well stop reading now and pretend I never mentioned it… Well, when I said stop reading now, I hope you didn’t actually stop reading then, or you’d have missed the bit when I said “pretend I never mentioned it”…. SO… Start again… reading that is….
Pretend I never mentioned the title, and just study the shiny droppy things…. Now you can stop reading….
Phew…. Got away with that I think….
So maybe it’s not quite tropical…. and maybe just maybe it’s not exactly what you’d class as paradise… And to be honest when you consider we’re looking at a power station, and an oil refinery and a steel recovery plant, then it’s not really worth even taking a shot of….
But when you slap a stunning sky behind even the most unappealing of foregrounds, then something amazing sometimes tends to happen…
I LOVE sunsets…. and if I can use them to make the unappealing appealing, then I’m a happy bunny…
