A strange day today. I'm not sure if it was media fed, that I should expect a weird day, or whether there was an air of weirdness because of the date. People in the sea in October is weird enough, but then I saw a wedding couple (fully dressed) swimming, and after that to be honest nothing seemed odd. I made the most of the sun, for an hour or so, played 16holes of crazy golf with Fin, had a cold drink, and headed back home, bumped into some friends, and spent the rest of the day in the sun, drinking coffee and chatting.

This image is a chance moment of fun with their daughter. I like moments like that.

I don't know whether to be happy, sad, expectant, duck, or run for this momentous date and time, but here is a picture I shot last week, and not at 10.10.10 @ 10:10:10am ..... I just posted it at this time, sorry but its Sunday, and I cant get through the bathroom queue before this time on an average weekend.... Enjoy.

So I've had the G10 a while now, but haven't had that many personal opportunities to let it loose. I have mostly shot family and parties so far. That said I have sold a few frames, which I rattled off at some PROMS I recently photographed.

I love its compact form and power. If I had any complaint its that the sensor has a noise issue above 400iso, but I am still very happy to blog those images at 900px max on screen so expect to see a few.

Those of you that know my work will already realize I'm not a sunshine person, I would actually prefer a shot of something in the rain than a chocolate box picture if I can help it (I mean I have a few, we all do). But give me bright and overcast any day of the week. Sounds terrible to wish the summer away, the kids love it. But I can't help and wonder that the interesting characters just melt away during the summer, and crawl out again during the winter down here in Poole. I prefer autumn / winter street photography anyway, and I think this is where the G10 will come into its own. Well I hope so anyway.

This image was caught of my daughter whilst we were out picking some fruit (trying to kill time on a long weekend), and whilst it looks all happy and shiny, the underlying issue here was that she had trodden in wet mud up to her ankles and was having a hissy fit at us for making her go fruit picking. She stomped off to the car straight after this frame.... happy times....

Thanks for stopping by ...... CSJ

I'm tired, really tired, and its mainly because I've been working my man bits off on the i-Printroom, albeit that most of the effort seems to go unnoticed, and every thing we do, has a minor impact. Its a long slow climb to get it finished, remember that whilst its been a refit, and business remolding, the friendships have been stretched to the limit, and patience and tempers have come to the surface. We have been trying to finish the job, but as it stands the funding has run dry, and we are a roll of red carpet away from completing. But I have far to many other things on over the next couple of weeks to overly worry about it. Its over to Pete and Jane now to try and promote their business and make some money over the next few weeks to pay bills, and afford this last piece of the jigsaw....... its the difference between having the backing of a large corporate and the tiny budget of a small studio.

I have to keep telling myself that at the end of the day, i offered to run the studio and that alone, I've done that bit, the rest of the building is down to them to get sorted. We are nearly there tho, so mustn't give up.......csj

Oh and the model here, is Matt, my longterm buddy, and the proud owner of the alter ego "Crap Elvis", you can read all about his worldwide exploits to be the worst elvis, on his blog, click here

Every hour of every day since my last post has either been spent working, working, looking after the kids, or working. Not a minute in the day goes past that I don't think about photography, or something related to photography. Somedays its painful, the thought of producing another crispy print that pings (a term only a few people will understand) or the thought of not posting an image (it kills me) is pretty much what has taken over the spare areas of my thoughts since I started this whole blogging thing.

My excitement in producing a picture that I like is as much a personal thing as it is a means to show people my art. I use that term loosely because quite clearly not everything I see or indeed photograph is art, but I enjoy it anyway.

The Studio Vinyl floor went in last night, looks ok, works well, and I am excited about shooting on it, but there is an element of energy lost in the main core of the business and whilst its not really down to me to 'spur' them on I feel that this responsibility has firmly landed on my shoulders. I now have a respoinsibility to make this work, in my head at least.

And whilst I seem to preach to most about getting more printing done, or that people should remember that no storage medium is forever, that an important lesson not to rely on RAID'd storage 100% was learnt by my good friend Dave at Chromasia. The ReadyNAS NV+ boxes that we both own, seem to come in a couple of different flavours, one of which has a temperamental power supply. This led to an almost catastrophic loss of data for Chromasia, but luckily the overall contigency worked and a simple power supply recovered the data set in whole. However a few days of mild panic meant that whilst Dave who is moderately folickly challenged, was ok, I am sure the panic of maybe loosing the entire set of Chromasia RAW files meant that a few more dropped out over night or turned grey. Which brings me back to PRINTING, if we'd had our masterpieces printed and put to one side, you could almost say panic over. ;-)....almost

Oh and the Kirby Cleaner on the white out, was the only thing I had to hand for a quick test shot.

Come on Pete and Jane, I need you back onside......

Cousin Kevin, thankyou for your devine intervention ( I assume it was you) RIP.

And Mary you are in my thoughts, we as a family wish you well through this incredibly difficult time in your life...... csj

Happy Birthday Mum, get well little Finley (Daves' son), and to my friends at the i-Printroom.... we can do it. Heres to the future, and all the possibilities that lay ahead. I'll help you guys out anyway that I can.

This picture, whilst a blatent crop, has a feeling of hope, well in my mind anyway. Good or bad, young or old, we all have to have a little hope to get through this quagmuire of life.

Oh and I did it, I finally found a way to get my grubby little mits on a new camera body, I haven't shouted about it too much, but it goes without saying, I am very very happy indeed....

Just need to find a window of opportunity to get out with it now! ;-) ho hum.....csj

Could'nt resist a quicky on a Saturday night to inject a bit of love during this Valentines' week.... night off tonight from the kids, going for dinner with me wife.... cya csj

Mel says (my wife) its funny how when she looks at an image of mine, that she knows exactly where it is, even tho shes never been there in her life, but I guess from just second glancing things as we go out on walks and being familiar with our surroundings. For all its down sides, Poole has quirky little shops and eateries, to some they might seem a little backward or old fashioned, but they are what they are, and they make up the landscape of what I guess Poole is all about. I hope some of it doesnt change.......ever.......

Now that I've posted this image I'm not as happy with it as I was whilst editing it...... uhm mental note, to try harder............. csj

Ok applied some artistic licence at 20:18GMT and changed the tonality, I'm a little happier now..... phewww.

Interesting looking back through the image archive, especially now that the Drobo is making life a lot freer on the desktop. Between that and Adobe Lightroom they have changed the way, or should I say are changing the way I work with images. I no longer have to worry about backup and it is incredibly fast for a USB device.

So here is the second of the London shots, that I grabbed whilst having a print and tell with a couple of photographer friends a while back, the original image is here ..../archives/_MG_1701-Edit-2.php

Like I said today to Suz who commented on my previous entry, "Not sure I feel awkward (about taking people pictures). It is difficult tho, but generally if you size up the situation, most people are ok with it. It depends on your location, the social climate, and the current general acceptance to photography, and how upfront you look. If you look confident in taking a picture, have a camera bag, and act positively most people actually expect or at least think you know what you are doing and that you are doing it for a purpose, that's about as far as their thought processes go.

Some people will of course ask what the hell you are doing, and I just say, I'm recording local people for a local archive (my blog) and I hand them a moocard. www.moo.com 100 cards for ten pounds ($20 appx) with photos on and your details on the back, it works a charm, and you get people on your side in a matter of moments.

For the rest of the time I shoot through people, and look in a different direction the moment the shutter has been released, people think I am photographing something entirely different. Also work close to people and smile. All of the above seem to work for me."

As always let me know what you think.......csj

In support of Chromasias' recent archive digging, I have also been looking through the files and found two from a trip to London that I originally couldn't work with and to be honest couldn't see anything in them, after a little of the tutorial knowledge from the link on the right I was able to rework them, and I am really pleased with both of these.

They were from when I met up with Al and Matt whom I hope to catch up with again next month at Focus In Birmingham. The images were from pretty early on in the days when I hadn't had the Canon to long. I shot a couple or three frames of a chair that had had a regular turnover of sitters and managed to get tonights' entry and tommorows' within a half hour gap. I prefer tommorows shot, but you can see the original of tonights' image here ..../archives/_MG_1710-Edit.php

I have no idea who either of the 'sitters' are and unlike a good portrait I have no empathy with the subject, and I know nothing about them, but for me there is a little story in each image. This one for me, makes me hope that he is listening to the early cut of GOD SAVE THE QUEEN by the Sex Pistols, but I imagine he's not.... ;-)

As always and with portraits I'd like to know what you think..... csj

On a side note, just pop over to a new blogger, and close friend of mine, Craigs' Site here we all know how hard it can be to remain inspired and I'm sure a quick comment or two from outsiders will spur him on.....

We grew up together.

Not often I post a 1x1 image, but it can be a rewarding format to 'see' in and I have found it tricky looking through an SLR viewfinder and trying to see square. I have friends that are extremely good at doing this, not just by rescuing otherwise rubbish shots (likes me) but actually shooting in a square, and making it work from their minds eye. Its definatley something I'm going to try more of.

However in terms of an image I find it has to be with intent, like peering down through the viewfinder of a Hasselblad or Twin Lens and you need a purpose or good subject to shoot 1x1. Often portraits work well, and some landscapes / seascapes, close-ups look fantastic. I will try hard to get this right over the next 12months. Another plan, and an idea for subject matter - shoot square!.... csj