…I can complain to about the weather. It’s flippin’ disgusting… the kind of rain that soaks you through if you’re in it for more than 3 seconds. Bored of it now.

I managed to snap these a week ago, but that’s it… I’m out of photos now ’til the weather starts behaving.

We’re going to County Durham next week, so I’m looking forward to a change of scenery… although it’s generally colder and wetter up there (do I ever stop complaining about the weather?)

Up in Paul’s part of the world there’s one of my favourites ‘The Angel of The North’ so I’m hoping to grab a few shots, though Ikea takes precedence ‘cos I’m in desperate need of a fix (and curtains).

In other notes, Paul’s working on some new Flash templates (I wish I was über geeky in that technical way), and I have utter faith in him that they’re gonna be delicious. I mean how could you not when you consider this conversation from last night:

me: what’s that you’re watching?
paul: just a you tube thing on anti-gravity.
me: ….cool.

I have no need for a website, none at all… but a girl’s gotta have some perks being married to the designer right?

I also keep entertaining these insane ideas of contacting local businesses to offer to update their website images in exchange for using the images in my portfolio. We have a lavender farm near here which sells gorgeous stuff and I’m looking at their website thinking ‘I can do better than that!’… but then I sleep on it and lose my bottle. Someone give me a kick up the arse please?

Same thing with unsigned bands… I review tracks on a scouting website and have noticed a few bands local to me in dire need of band pics… (why do most band pics look identical… they’re nearly all taken against brick walls, with a uniform expression). But anyway, again - I wimp out.

Anyway, that’s enough random rambling for me… ’till next time xx

…I shot Vicky’s Mother and Step-Father’s wedding. It was a case of mine and guest’s pictures or just guest’s pictures so I didn’t feel a massive amount of pressure and enjoyed the opportunity.

What I learnt above all else, was that if I ever decide to persue photography professionally… I’m gonna need to grow a set.

Technically they’re ok throughout (a couple of underexposures that were salvageable in PS (like #2, you can see the whites just have that underexposed dull look no matter what you do in PS)… but what lets some of the shots down can pretty much be explained by me not being assertive enough… either with other people, or even just with myself.

I’m not massively happy with any of the shots I took during the ceremony. Purely because there wasn’t an awful lot of light and to make the best of the situation, I should have been more confident and put myself in a more prominent but (uncomfortable for me) position.

Anyway, here’s a few shots:

They’re happy with them… so I can at least breathe easy with the knowledge that I didn’t completely screw up!

…how to use my flash, and I felt bad for forgetting his head yesterday.

…come free in a box of teabags.

… my blog’s turned into ‘weather watch’ or something, what’s that all about?

I think it’s ‘cos I just don’t have an awful lot to say at the moment… and people always talk about the weather in those polite little conversations that mean incredibly little.

I think I’m just trying to keep my hand in… I desperately don’t want to let this blog lie empty again for another month, it’s not a good feeling and I’m sure most of you know from your own blogging experiences how easy it is to let it all slide.

I’m so silly though, ‘cos I make blogging sound like a chore when it’s an absolute delight. Well… when I feel like I have something to say - be it for my readers or just for myself… plus I hate when I get all pity party, so if I’m in a grump… I’m even less likely to update.

Anyway, I wonder if you delightful lot would mind terribly helping a girl out? It’s a risk… ‘cos if no-one replies then I’m worried I’d be quite happy to let my camera bag take root in the corner of the room until it stops getting dark at 3.30 in the afternoon and begins to get warm again.

Please choose a location to force me into some kind of action…

1 of them I’ve been to lots of times with my p&s and I’ve always found it a little ‘blah’ photographically.
1 of them could totally bore me within 5 seconds of getting out the car.
1 of them is tourist central, and it’s hard for me to think outside of the box whenever I go there.

But which one speaks to you? Which one would you go to if you were me?

Winchester

Ocean Village

Royal Victoria Country Park

None of those pictures above are mine, so clicking them links back to their original locations.

The other thing to take into account is that I’ve fallen out with my 17-50mm (gonna send it back for some tweaking soon), so unless I get desperate, I’ve only got the 135mm to work with on a cropped sensor… I’m thinking there’s gonna be lots of detail shots and not a lot of context!

First location to get 3 votes wins and I’ll lever my arse out of this chair and find a use for that scarf I bought off eBay back when Winter seemed like a lifetime away.

Love from me xxx

p.s. If there’s anyone out there like me in need of a kick up the backside some gentle encouragement to go out and shoot for themselves, don’t talk to me… I’ll just encourage you to eat chocolate fingers and watch America’s/Australia’s/Britain’s/Kazakhstan’s (seriously it exists) Next Top Model. I’ll drag you down with me - bwuahaha.

meh, quality wasn’t this bad before youtube got their dirty little mitts on it. You can just about make out the chapel from this post if you squint a bit.

Anyway, looksee… the sun does shine in the UK…

…occasionally.

I’ll fill you in on all the uninteresting things that have been occurring as and when I can be arsed, which might mean that it never happens knowing my ‘heroes’-like ability to procrastinate.

Although I will say that we finally got our bedroom finished!

Well, when I say finished… of course I don’t really mean finished. We don’t have any blinds or a lampshade, or bedside tables or table lamps. But we do have 1 green wall, 3 pale sandstone-y coloured walls, freshly white glossed woodwork, a new carpet, new ultra bouncy underlay and beautiful crisp white bedding.

I sometimes wonder if it’s healthy to be so in love with your bed. Any semi-feasible excuse and you’ll find me lounging on it, sleeping on it or watching TV on it.

I wouldn’t mind so much, but it’s not even THAT comfortable. We bought it when we first met 7 years ago… so now it’s pretty tired (especially as it was a super cheapo one). Nevertheless, I hate to be away from it… there’s nothing quite like moulding back into the familiar dips after being separated for even a short while.

Oh, and if I were to win even a smallish amount of money… first thing I would buy? One of those super-king size orthopaedic ultra firm ones with a lovely thick softy mattress topper and beautiful Irish linen.

As that’s not gonna happen anytime soon… tell me about your favourite place to lay your head… do you like it hard? soft? firm but yielding? or just super squishy? *and don’t think I can’t see some of you smirking over there*

…………..

Oh, and here’s our new carpet:

Please excuse the ridiculously low ap throughout the pictures… the sun has completely refused to show it’s face for ages, so despite our room having lovely big windows, it’s like a soddin’ dungeon in there.

I am here, but I’ve got some shitty stuff going on at the moment - nothing major… just lots of little rubbish things that are getting in the way of my usual web presence or ability to pick up my camera. I’m working through it and I wish I could give all of you who have left a comment to me regarding my absence a great big hug.

I’m too scared to look at my bloglines as last time it was showing over 900 unread entries. I’m gonna get back into the swing of things… I AM, I AM, I AM (repeat to self 10 times a day)… but I just wanted to show some gratitude to my friends on here who are very much not forgotten, I’ve just kinda lost my way a little.

Love you all.