2018 – Page 2 – Boy, Interrupted

The holiday crafting week conclusion

8th July 2018 Red

My holiday ends today (boo!), so here’s the follow-on from the previous holiday crafting update. It’s been a really good week off, with good weather that didn’t get too hot for me until yesterday. Today I’m pretty sluggish and feel like sleeping all day. I may well do that anyway, I’m still on holiday and there’s nothing pressing to do. I achieved most of what I wanted to along with some things I hadn’t planned on. I ‘lost’ a day to that epic photography session, but that’s fine as I was still creating and I had fun (I’ve also got a whole bunch more photographs from yesterday, but don’t feel like sorting them today). In turn the watermelon hasn’t been photographed (though maybe later, the eating it part is tempting, so the photography will happen at the same time) and I didn’t get some planned drawing done. Again, that’s fine, I can do that in the evenings after work.

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Photography, 7th July 2018, wildflowers and a couple of bugs

7th July 2018 Red

I went into town to do shopping yesterday, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that I stopped off on a verge along the main road into town near the GP surgery to take a load of photographs of the poppies, daisies, thistles and teasels, I would have been very annoyed and regretted that decision. As is was, I got a new favourite photo out of that batch, the teasel with purple flower buds that’s set as the featured image.

Some of the images are from the garden, but the majority are from beside a main road and not, shockingly, on a verge next to a bridle path. As always, more up on Flickr, and by more I mean a lot more. It took hours to sort through these yesterday, which is why the blog post is today. Now I’m off to do things with glue and string.

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Holiday crafting update

4th July 20185th July 2018 Red

I’m halfway through my holiday, and I have been eating ice cream, and lounging in the hammock. I’m planning on going to the beach at some point, possibly tomorrow if the nice weather holds. I have also been arting and crafting as planned and generally having some fun. There are some photos on the camera, but I’ve not sorted them yet, and probably won’t get them posted today.

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Experimenting with photographing things on a purple background

30th June 201830th June 2018 Red

Playing with a light purple background. It’s just a sheet of card with my little LED globe lights to brighten things up a bit, I’m pretty pleased with the results so I’ll experiment with more colours at some point. I may also invest in a light box with LED strips as it’s going to provide better and more consistent lighting than positioning what basically amounts to night lights for kids. I have done peacock feathers in the past, but we’re talking 10 years ago with a lower resolution camera, so they were due a re-do. The feathers were cheap with the tops chopped off, so I might get some better feathers and do them again.

As usual, there are a whole bunch more up on Flickr, so head on over there. I’m also posting random stuff quite a bit on Instagram, so feel free to follow me over there for shots of goth as heck ice creams, views from hammocks, and Jake being fluffy (though he’s been hiding in his nests to escape the heat, so less of those right now).

In fun news, I’m on holiday for a week now, so hoping to get some art and craft projects done. After sleeping. And replacing the laptop fan (may the gods help me).

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Photos from the past few days and some crafty experimenting

26th June 2018 Red

It’s been a busy few days, but I did manage to take a few photos (I have a list of things to photograph that I haven’t gotten around to yet), and some crafty things (you can see those below the photo thumbnails). The photos are of a few triffids in the sky, mostly roses, more of which can be found on Flickr.

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Flowers in the Sky, 22nd June 2018

22nd June 2018 Red

Purple African Daisy petals on a sky blue background.

I wasn’t planning on taking photographs today. In fact, I told myself this morning that I wasn’t going to because I had other creative things to be getting on with. That resolve lasted for about an hour, until I went out to get something from the car and spotted new triffids, so grabbed the camera. Then I thought I’d take advantage of the bright, blue sky and sun to take some pictures of flowers in the sky, at which point I was doomed because there were a lot of pictures to go through. So, hey, another photography blog post!

The great thing about these photos is that they look epic but are really easy to do. Backdrop that doesn’t have shadows cast on it, bright natural light from the sun, hold a flower up with your fingers, snap a macro shot. The hardest part is that your arms ache after a while, and you need to wear a cap and/or sunglasses to avoid the glare. There are a whole bunch more up on Flickr, along with the few aforementioned regular triffid pics.

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Photography from 21st June 2018, strawberries and triffids

22nd June 201822nd June 2018 Red

I finished work, sorted some images, then fell asleep for five hours without meaning to. Clearly I needed the sleep, and now all the images are sorted and posted. There are the normal flowering triffids, and also strawberries. It’s a journey from the plant to ending up in my fruit infuser bottle filled with lemonade. They were delicious.

I’m going back to bed. More strawberry and flower pictures are up on Flickr.

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Welcome to Trump’s America (or the art of being angry)

20th June 20182nd July 2018 Red

It seems these days I’m always angry. Usually at various governments and Nazis, and often at ‘phobes of various flavours. Right now it’s the US government’s treatment of immigrants (not that the UK government is any better with this, fuck you Theresa May and your Tory puppeteers), in particular the separating of children from their parents and the subsequent mistreatment of those children. Angry doesn’t really describe I feel about this. Incandescent with rage is perhaps closer. Enough that my brain threw an image at me, and I felt compelled to actually do a piece of political art to vent my feelings. It didn’t make me feel any less angry, but I feel better for having channelled it.

Triffid photography from 18th June 2018

19th June 2018 Red

Way more triffids than I thought snuck onto my memory card, so it took a while to sort them. There are more here because there are a whole load more in this batch up on Flickr. Mostly flowers, some cherries that may never get to ripen because the birds will be on them like locusts at the first hint of being edible, and some faded wooden sign shots. The wooden sign was originally made by me about 10 years ago, and was eventually replaced a couple of years ago with a more durable one – it hangs out so delivery drivers can actually see it easily. It was printed letters on wood covered in sealant, so I’m genuinely surprised it lasted as long as it did and the sign is actually legible. The mock orange is a different variety to the previous photos I’ve taken, blooming later. Most notable for being under my bedroom window along with a wisteria (which is really late this year, the photos I’ve taken have all been from the one around the back) and a honeysuckle. Smells amazing at night.

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Blue sand photography

18th June 201818th June 2018 Red

It’s been a beautiful day, and yes, I took triffid photos, but I’m not posting those yet, I want to take a few more before the sun goes down. Plus, I need to do some sorting of the shed before I get to have fun. Bah. Instead, we’ve got one of those moving sand art photo frame thingies, and I thought they’d make some interesting photos. It also apparently glows in the dark, but we forgot to test that before we went to bed last night. A couple more on Flickr if you’re interested.

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