May.

I have just been accepted onto the 'Fine Art Photography' course at the Glasgow School of Art.

Go me!

With a reputed odds of 9 to 1 against, a miracle has occurred and someone, somewhere has lost any sense of, well, sense, and given me a place! So now my ideas will have to be bucked up a little, which sucks, but then, i won't have to go and find a real job for another four years, that is, if i ever find a 'real' job!

My pessimistic self has been having a field day over the last couple of months, but now he has been silenced, at least for the time being, and the new task of finding out how i am going to survive over the coming years should really begin... I am still maintaining my stance as an anti-student, i don't have anything against students, of course not, most of my friends are students, i just like saying, 'Bloody Students', every time something money related is being talked about, i shall simply continue in my current status as a financially deprived member of the community.


Aside from this remarkable forthcoming, I still hate my digital camera, I've still taken no decent photos with it for a long time. Instead I am continuing to love the Mamyia. It is my friend. Most of my recent uploads have been taken by it, it's hard to explain, it's just nicer. I feel more attached to any photographs it produces, not quite sure why, perhaps because it takes so damn long to do anything with them? Time is a luxury. My recently visited location, the ruined cottage, which is lovely, requires another visit, the end product could have been a lot better, the best one is certainly 5.10am, i rather like the colour shift, but the exposure could have been better....

Blah.....


Either way, all of this will have to wait, for i am off on my travels in search of more benches, firstly to Glasgow, and the to Leeds, where I will be also seeing a man, about a van. What fun!


Ciao!

Still Film all the way. I have had a new thought concerning film over digital, and the reasons for choosing each. I have started to prefer using film for more standard shots;

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like those, and i've taken to using digital for photos i know will be composited together, which is going to be what i'll be doing over the coming days (photos to follow). It all makes sense in my head.......

I shall talk further later on, i've had a sudden urge to go and find some food...... flapjack, here i come! one with cerries in, and a yogurt flavour topping...... mmmmmm.......

Christmas is over then...

I feel unhealthy. Not fat, but unhealthy. Too much chocolate, and cake. But not so much alcohol. Odd for our house.

I've hardly taken any photos, compared to the usual, so far, other than a few of family members who have stopped by, using my digital! Instead, i'm using a Mamyia RB67. Lovely. Just lovely. i've shot three rolls on it so far, and can honestly say i feel contented. Its just better. having everything backwards, having to take a reading, having to bother yourself to not only cock the shutter, but also wind on a film and retract a dark slide! and then spend a further unspecified number of minutes finding the composition you want! HASSLE! and wonderful. I go out on a wander, and where i might take 50 to a hundred digital shots (mostly of crap, just to see what it might look like) i'm taking 4 or 5 pictures! this morning was an exception, where i took a whole 12, 10 colour, and 2 B+W, but then, I made two exposures for each colour composition, so that only really makes 7 photos! Using some lovely sparkly new ND grads helps too, its all so simple! *sighs* Of course, this hasn't turned me into a film man, just a medium format man. Unfortunatly, using medium format means using film. due to a lack of funds for a phase one..... :-S

Digital versus film..... = ....... film camera + digital file. The best of both worlds.


A.

Thought, for no particular reason, i would write a list of the chocs i get in my advent calender. yum.

Day1. a cracker
Day2. a sack of pressies
Day3. a christmas tree
Day4. a snowman
Day5. a robin
Day6. a christmas pudding
Day7. another cracker!
Day8. another xmas tree!
Day9. another robin!
Day10. another christmas pudding!
Day11. another sack of pressies!
Day12. Another snowman!
Day13. Yet another Cracker!!


Lucky me huh!

How very pathetic. I did notice that none of these things have any, even close, connections with christmas, in terms of its roots, the birth of christ n'all. Wierd, don't you think? The dogs' calender, full of doggy chocs, had a donkey on day 15, which is closer than a robin. Not that we're on day 15 yet, but dad never bothers to find his glasses to see the numbers, so they are a bit random. He claims that the numbers don't matter, so long as only one per day gets opened. Which makes sense, but why put the numbers on if you pay them no attention? Which, in it's own little way, is proof that christmas no longer has terribly much religious meaning to many people. We all know what it's there for, but it's become a new breed, like a seperate celebration held on the same day.

Thinking that, in the past minute and a half, has just reignited the argument over tinsel in my head. The fact that 4 out of 5 (i think that's right) shopkeepers are NOT decorating their shops with tinsel, and trees, and generally sparkly things for FEAR of offending people! My question is, who is tinsel suppossed to offend? Obviously the majority, otherwise why bother? Tinsel does not offend me, christmas CD's offend me, but only my hearing, not any moral or ethical stance! So who finds these things offensive? The first groups of people i thought of (and i'm afraid to say it, buts its true!) were religious groups, muslims and jews etc. But then, why would they be offended? tinsel has nothing to do with religion, so far as i know Jesus was probably dressed in a sack in his little stable, not a christmas hat! Something equally christmassy, crackers, if you went into a shop, and there was a little man there waiting to pull a cracker with you, and you won a prize, would you be offended to go in? I don't think so. unless they made you wear the paper hat, which may be a tad embarrassing.....

Either way, it's stupid. Two weeks until christmas day, and walking through Leeds city centre there were barely any shops with something shiny in the wondow! I don't remember it being like that last year! This year, i think it is slightly more of a ginger christmas, than a white one.....


Good-day to you.

A.

24 days until christmas!

A random number, until you remember that 24 means that i've eaten the first cute little chocolate in the advent calendar! yay! Part of me says that i'm getting just a wee bit old for them... At 21 i should really have forgotton about little doors with chocolate behind them, but then, why would anybody do that!?!?! If you are unfortunate enough not to have an advent calendar, i implore you to go and find one! Yes, i know, its cheaper simply to buy a block of chocolate and eat it, but the satisfaction just isn't the same as finding out what cheesy little picture is printed on the inside of the door, and whether your chocolate is shaped like a cracker, or a tree, or a mini santa! Even Murphy (the dog) has one in our house, with special doggy treats behind each foor, and if a dog can look forward to it, everybody should! Many people would agree with me when i say "it's the little things". This is one such 'little thing'.

Not only that, when you get to 24, that means it's christmas! which is where eating chocolate comes into it's own, and you start to thank yourself for 24 days of practice!

On a seperate subject, the latest deviations, or rather, the last god knows how many, covering a wide array of things, what's there... some multiple composites, my suicide, fireworks night, some modern dancers, a random portrait session, some real life film images! shock horror! A triptic, if thats the right word? Some macro needles, which people seem to like, isn't it wierd how what you think are your better photos people don't bother with, and some you think less of, people like?? and lastly, four photos using darkfield illumination, new to me, which is rather cool, and has alot of potential for the future, i shall be doing some more of that.

On the darkfield illumination subject, i was talking to Claire (gf<3) about it, who then sent me an e-mail. I opened it, Gmail said, "scanning for viruses", only to open up two photomicrographs, as she called them, of, well, viruses! i thought that was amusing, apologies, i really am that pathetic sometimes..... It seems that she is, in her veterinary way, already familiar with them! Only really small ones, in response to this, i'm going to do a really big one! hahaha! Possibly next week, if all goes well i'll post it, if not, i have failed, and she will have the last laugh! lol!


Happy December!



A.


Update: It worked! and very well! the four new photos, 'Darkfield 1, 2, 3 and 4 are some samples. Comments would be appreciated, because i don't often do stuff like this!