2…

The number two…. The only even prime number… A couple, a brace, a duo, a pair, a duece… People have two legs and two hands and eyes, feet, thumbs, ears, nostrils, kidneys etc… Some people are even two faced… lol.. Two sides to every argument… Two blades on a pair of scissors… Two timed… Two sexes… Two dimensional… Two’s company… 2+2=4, as does 2×2…. Two wrongs don’t make a right… The number of polynucleotide strands in a DNA double helix… lol… The atomic number of Helium… Two wheels on a bicycle… Two sides to every coin… Two sides of the road… A dichotomy… Good and Evil… Adam and Eve… Sodom and Gomorrah… Samson and Delilah…

All in all, 2 seems to be a pretty useful little number… What has this got to do with this picture…. Errrrrrrhhh….. Absolutely nothing is the simple answer…. There are two sides to every story you might say… The relevance ?!?!… Well exactly two years ago today something very special happened… and that’s about it… lol… Time flies….

I think this pictures a bit warm actually, so I might tone the reds down a little bit when I get home…. Two different screens show it completely different… lol..

A Bit Windy..

Well there’s a few more still from the “hospital” shoot, but I thought I should throw something slightly more refreshing up…. Can’t be doing with too much “grunge” in one go…. lol…. This was the last shot from the same day, when we actually did the Derelict Hospital,  a Castle and a Windmill…. You have to love this County sometimes…

I have quite a few shots of this windmill, and still can’t decide on which one I prefer, so I’ve gone for this one now as I got bored trying to decide…. Hope you like…

Part Deux…

So here’s another one from yesterdays hospital visit…. Processed with an altogether more gritty ominous feel…. I may have a few more up my sleeve too…

Hospital Visit…

OK, so I have spent most of my day today in hospital…. And what a great day it was too… I have to say I’ve never spent such an enjoyable time in hospital…. Yeah ok, so maybe it wasn’t your conventional visit to casualty, although it could very easily have ended up being which you’ll appreciate from the pictures…  And the pictures that you see here of the interior were taken in almost complete darkness due to the boarded up windows…. Made for an interesting time…. lol…

The Babies Castle

And I’m sure in seeing said hospital you’ll understand exactly why a visit to casualty was a fairly high probability…. lol…. So today Night-Stalker McGowan and Me paid a visit to the slightly infamous, and ever so strangely named “Hawkhurst Babies Castle”…

Another Room

The babies castle was officially opened in 1886, and was initially for the reception of babies but became a mixed home for children under the age of 8, who owing to their physical condition, were not suited for boarding out… The “Babies Castle” officially closed in 1965… when it then became a nursing home for the elderly…

I’m unsure when this closed… but the upper floors were in an appalling state of repair with very few floorboards remaining and most of the windows boarded up, making it very risky and extremely interesting to move around safely…. and I use the phrase “safely” in its loosest sense…

Hmmmmm…

Well ok… I know it’s not pretty…. But this was more an experiment with lighting than anything else, and in the absence of a better looking model I had to resort to the only option left….

It was either this or a pile of old laundry…. That’s my excuse anyway….

EDIT.. Ok, so by special request, here’s the maniacal grin version… with different lighting and processing… See, I’m nothing if not accommodating… lol…

And I even have all my own teeth and hair (or some of it)… for now at least… I’m just growing too tall for what’s left of it….

Guitar Hero…

Well ok… Maybe not… lol… Truth is I DO own a guitar… but I have to confess to not being able to play a tune on it… Zip… Not a thing… Naught… Nada…

Actually I don’t even know any chords… lol… It was bought many years ago on a whim when I knew I’d be good at it… Ummmmm…. Actually I wanted a saxophone, but it I was sure I’d need far to many fingers to play it… so opted for the natural alternative… and chose to buy a bass guitar as it only had 4 strings… Ummmm…. But I couldn’t find one so bought a lead guitar instead…. lol….

So anyways…. That’s the story behind my meagre “guitar hero” beginnings… Double ummmmm…. Actually I’ve NEVER played guitar hero either as I’m pretty sure I’d be cr*p at that too… I think I’ll stick to my triangle… Well I would had I not lost my dinger stick…

Ooooh… I have another confession actually… I CAN play a note.. I can play a C major… but only cos I googled it tonight so that it would “look” like I knew how to play a guitar.. lol..

SO.. My question now is “Does anyone know a song in C major??”… and when I say in C major, I mean JUST C major… ALL the way through… ONLY C major… As I’m determined to be able to play something and I’m pretty sure I can handle that… Suggestions welcome…

Rail Way 2

So this is what it has come to… It’s a choice at the moment (because of work and the winter weather) of re-working some old shots, or taking photo’s of the kiddies toys… and tonight the kiddies happened to be busy with their cardboard boxes and paper bags (they are so spoiled), so re-working old shots was the only option…

Fortunately I still do have a couple of old favourites that I can use a smidge of the extra familiarity I now have of photoshop since processing the original… I was going for a slightly more natural feel here than with my original processing…

In addition to spending an awful lot more time on the processing, which involved countless colour filters / blends / layer masks / overlays / blending of the original RAW / secret sluggy sauce / chewed finger nails / eye of toad / lesser spotted mermaids tail…. etc… I also adjusted the crop too, which hopefully balances it a bit better too… So the original image probably took me about 15-20 mins to process just over a year ago, and the rework probably took me a good hour or so more… starting completely from scratch again… I guess to appreciate the difference though you’d need to see the original images… Hopefully the extra work was worth the effort….

The SOOC untouched shot

The original processed shot

The Original

Ok Ok, so I know this is kinda a lame post, but then the weather hasn’t been so hot around here recently, and getting out and about with the camera has been a wee bit pointless with all the wet grey mush… So in order to prevent my camera shutter from seizing up through lack of use, I had to find stuff indoors to photographamise (it’s a word… kinda… Just MY word)… And what better excuse to break out some drinkies…

Well it’ll do for now at least, hopefully… and I’m dedicating it to another definite “original”… You know who you are… lol… Who doesn’t love originals… and Guinness…

Last of…

… the winter snow… or at least this crop of snow shots anyway… maybe… lol… Unless it snows again and I find somewhere more interesting to go… No real story to this one apart from the fact it was EXTREMELY cold out there when I took this…

And yeah I’m afraid it’s another black and white, but then I do think snow looks better in black and white…

Winter Rules

So we still have plenty of snow, and this morning I was determined to get up and try to grab a snowy morning sunrise… Well the sunrise didn’t exactly pan out, but I spent at least an hour or so stomping around in the snow searching out various picturesque locations… This was quite tricky though as there isn’t much to choose from within walking distance…. but I found a few…

I have to confess though that there is nothing quite so pleasant as tromping through fresh undisturbed snow with camera in hand…. although it was BITTERLY cold… for here at least… The windchill was supposed to be -7°C…. which is 19°F for my strange foreign friends… lol…

I couldn’t quite decide either on the portrait or landscape version of this shot… Nor was I sure about colour or black and white, what with the wonderfully blue skies…. I “think” b&w portrait though is my preference… more for the contrasting cloud formations. But just in case, here are the other options… More snowy shots to come I think…

HEY PRETTY…. Love this track… First heard it almost 2 years ago, and with it came some wonderful memories… (No !!… Not the sort you’re thinking of… lol).. ‘Scuse the lyrics though, for those of you with a sensitive disposition… lol…