Spring ,post about some stuff...

Well, it is definitely here.

I know because I had to do some work in the garden today.

Today started though with a phone call to invite me to join in with some heavy lifting courtesy of my father in law.
He was moving office and needed some help.

Then, some shopping; I treated myself and bought "Mingus Ah Um" by Charles Mingus, Aliens on DVD and Betty Blue on DVD. I'll be watching Aliens in a wee bit with some dinner.
I really like Betty Blue as a piece of cinema, it has a feel about it.No it isn't because I have the hots for Beatrice Dalle, nice though she is. Jean Hughes Anglade being a damn fine actor not withstanding . It.... has something. I like the soundtrack, I read the book. Translated for the USA market which jarred somewhat for me.

I'll watch it this coming week sometime.

I hear there is a blogmeet type thang next Saturday in Bilfast. I shall not be there as I am retaining some anonymity ( who am I kidding....?)

I am an introvert and the very idea gives me hives.

I spent an hour or two chopping up what was left of a cherry tree that has been adorning the back garden all winter, today. More to do over the next day or two and then get the logs into the garage to dry for next winter, waste not want not etc.

Dinner calls........

Olympus OM1

My sister inlaw is getting into photography as she is now the proud owner of an Olympus OM1.
She has finished one roll ( give her time- she'll be a film junkie soon enough) and started on another.
I get to see her first efforts soon. Hope they are better than mine were.
I have only spent about an hour explaining exposure to her so far. This process was speeded up by using my gossen lunasix F meter (analogue ) and the LCD on the back of my D200.
I swear you could the lightbulb above her head. More lessons to follow.

Young people nowadays don't know when they've got it good.

Learning on a digital would be so easy, compared to learning on a film camera. I know that you can soup film quickly but an LCD on the back showing you in a second what you have taken is a revelation.

some pics

Well, I've been prompted to get off my ass.

Cheers, Sandy.

I'll only get up for a second , proper posting of photos will happen over the course of the next few weeks. The back catalogue will be hunted through and scanned and new shots with the D200 will be put up.

On the flickr page are some pics taken with my employer provided pocket digicam. Just to get things started, ya know. These will be taken down when things get up and running properly.

Oh yeah, the pic of the guy holding up the primal scream album is from my youth. He never liked having his picture taken, ever.
I love this shot though. Shows off my bad scanning technique.
Will blitz this one later then.

All those other kids can go out and play.....

I am going to a work function this evening and will be one of the very few (2 of us) not taking advantage of a night out to get drunk. I wish there was only one person not having a drink and that it wasn't me either.

I have come to the conclusion that we human beings need to "let off some steam" or otherwise ingest a foreign substance that affects our consciousness once in a while.

I feel like I have been bouncing off the metaphorical walls for the past two weeks. It was all so easy before that. Ah, well I might fall off the wagon after easter.

I reckon we need to "get high" in some way or another. I do not have "religion" so that is out.
It was usually too many beer that had me speaking in tongues. As for anything else, well, I couldn't possibly comment. Though I do see the lancet has published a litle report on durgs (sic) with a harm table included. I see that alcohol and tobacco are included (at bleedin' last).

I had some real tobacco once, in south america. NO it wasn't marijuana it was honest to goodness tobacco. The wild uncultivated strain.

Oh, boy...... No one and I mean NO ONE would be on a pack a day if it was these leaves used to make the cigarrettes.

After two puffs on a pipe I was feeling rather strange indeed, my extremities had become numb. I felt a bit disconnected from my surroundings. I was as high as a bloody kite and no mistake. I asked if it was "just" tobacco and I was told, yes, just tobacco.

This ingestion of tobacco (I don't smoke) was a prelude to an ayahuasca ceremony. Two puffs of tobacco and I was really loaded. What was the ayahuasca gonna do?

I got scared. Not for long though.
I realised I had steel myself and not be afraid, ach who am I kidding.
I was crapping myself.

I was loaded to the gills and feeling a bit woohoo, a bit wahaaay and was about to drink a bitter liquid that would shift me sideways into another dimension.

Oh blimey.

I drank when the cup was passed to me and, in the vernacular, it was boggin'.

Not so much that I wanted to throw up though. Thankfully.

I had read about this stuff for years and was fully prepared for the voiding from both ends that was said to accompany it.

Within about.....heck , who knows, my perception had been bamboozled by that damn tobacco...things started to feel a little more odd. That was disconcerting in itself.

The cup got passed again 3 more times and at the third time it took real effort to drink it.
I and the people I was with were encouraged to lie back. The ayahuasca was working.
The curandero had been whistling softly for a while and then started to shake a handful of large leaves over us. A rustle more than a rattle, if you understand.

My my, this is taking me back...ah youth, where did you go?

To try and describe my experience after this would be akin to using the medium of flatulence to describe a goverment document. The lexicon of any spoken or written language is woefully inept to even begin trying to explain my experience.

Not something to be undertaken lightly, I reckon I'm due to do it again.

Maybe I'll just have a beer instead

I hate those meeses ta pieces.

Being a placid, peace loving type ( you know, the type that'll not react too much to abuse but then some eejit will take it too far and get stomped type, yeah, that type).

The inner monster very, very rarely sees daylight. Life is better that way. Really.
This post is not about me sprouting another head and turning into the hulk. No.
This is about having to deal with a problem that Mrs M freaks out about.

I found mice droppings in the garage the other night.
This morning I threw out some mouldy bread for the birds onto the garage roof. A couple of pieces fell on the ground beside a pile of cherry tree logs I have waiting to be sawn up into firewood.

I went back into the house and started fixing me some breakfast. As I sat down to eat, something moved outside and I looked round. At first I thought it was a bird, then as it hopped out fully from the logs I saw it was a mouse.

Ah, I said to myself. This is not good at all.

This means war.

I watched the little beggar grab a piece of bread and skitter back into the logpile.
I opened the back door , closed it and sat down outside and waited.
Sure enough after a few minutes it came out again. I stood up and it ran back rather quickly into the logs.
I went back into the house to get my catapult and some ball bearings. Yeah, I know, what's a grown up doing with one of those. Well, I have had it since I was 16 yrs old and I bought new bands for it last year and a load of ammo. I have had some target practice away from the house (no broken windows) and I am getting better. Lots of fun actually.

Back to my story...

I got back outside tooled up and sat and waited. Again the little whiskered beggar appeared and skipped over the logs heading towards a piece of bread. I had my aim in the right direction to minimise movement...I pulled back the bands slowly....took aim.... and fired.

Shite.

I missed by about an inch at a distance of about 11 feet or so.

The mouse leapt in the air and skited back into the logs really fast.

Feck.

Much as I would have liked to have sat all day waiting on my prey I had to go to work.
Small moving targets not so easy to hit.
I got a hold of some rodenticide today and will be setting it inside containers so that only the mouse/mice, for they never work alone, can access, so no birds or cats will mnuch on some death.

My comment at the start about repressed rage is directly relevant as I only lose it when absolutely necessary. My experience with the mouse was that of the red mist being applied with some thought. Heck that all sounds like I need an outlet doesn't it.

I have to get rid of the mouse/mice. Disease vectors and all that, cute as they may be.

We had rats in the compost bin last year, poisoned those buggers. Never saw them, too wiley.

I would rather end the mice quickly rather than have them die slowly.

A friend had mice inside and laid sticky traps for them after they kept raiding the mouse traps and not getting caught. Sticky traps meant screaming mice stuck and scared out of their wits having to be despatched with a blunt object. Messy, distressing, not nice.

A direct hit from the catapult ( .38 cal ball bearing ammo) should be instant death. I would much prefer that.

I would rather that I didn't have mice about the place but problems must be dealt with as they arise.

It's a dirty job etc etc.

Procrastination will turn me blind

Yet again, last night I got nothing done of any import. Huh.

I have some time at the weekend for photo shenanigans and I am off on Monday too.
Can't be fartin' around doin' this 'n that when I should be doing something constructive. I am not feeling particularly with it this week at all. Forgetting things and the like. I don't like it. not one bit.

I just found out that zoomr are rejigging themselves and giving 2.5gb of storage a month for free, this may be for 1 year only though. They are also offering the service of selling photos with only a 10% commission. Wow...that is 40% less than traditional photo libraries !!

I like those numbers ,yes I do.

Upload lots of photos with the option of people buying them for useage ( gotta check the terms people ). If it all works out then this is the future, only now.

Digital camera and widgets

I have used my D200 for two kids birthday parties so far and the results are excellent. I bought myself a cheapo wireless flash trigger kit and a well used but working Nikon SB25 flash gun. This makes for great lighting indeed. Two flashguns ( SB800 and SB 25) and no wires makes for nicer lighting.
Mostly bouncing off the ceiling or an adjacent wall so far. Gone are the days lugging two prolinca heads around. Well, unless I really need them that is , like all day work in one place with AC power and no-one tripping over the power leads.

My main problem is time management....I have so much film scanning backed up and a camera to clean up and reseal this week. AAAArrgghhhh.

I need 45 hour days please.

I digress.

Anyone with a digital camera out there with a flash hotshoe, get yourself a couple of flashguns with adjustable manual power settings and a set of those wireless flash triggers off ebay. You will be able to creat a myriad of lighting setups.

One tip. DO NOT put a flashgun that isn't designed specifically for digital cameras on the hotshoe on your camera. It will FRY the circuits and you have a dead camera.
Why d'ya think I stumped up the cash for a SB800? I already had a Metz 45 CL4 and a Vivitar 283 but they would have turned my D200 into a paperweight with a faint whiff of burnt circuitboard for added effect. now some people may argue that some iterations of the 283 are digi safe.....I don't gamble, better to be safe than sorry.

I may try some lighting lessons on myself tonight.

I have set up a flickr account so expect some posting soooon.

Ebay and film cameras

I have bought a few cameras off ebay. I have a Zorki 4 (don't really use , just a nice thing to have) Magpie, me?
I have a Yashica Electro GT 35 (cool name and cracking wee camera) and a Canon Canonet QLIII 17. Great camera, small, easy focussing quiet. A great carry anywhere camera, pity my 283 is bigger than it. I missed out on the canon flash for it. Rats.
I recently aquired an Olympus OM1 with 50mm f1.8 lens and a T20 flash gun. I thought I got it at a good price even though all the bloody light seals need replaced and the mirror damping too.
I have the foam kit at home and shall spend this evening scraping the gooey knackered light seals from the camera. Maybe tomorrow night I'll get to put the new seals in. I also had to order a new battery .

My sister in law is working in TV production and will be filming a programme about learning photography. She is wanting to take advantage of this, hence my purchase of the camera for her. I may have spent the money but I win all round. If she gets bored I can get it for myself. Magpie definitely. If she really enjoys it I have helped another human to make images. Ye cannae buy that.

I have always wanted an Olympus set up......

Still getting to grips with the D200, New post for that.

I hate Amy Winehouse !

I love her really.

She is selling T-shirts on her tour with I HATE AMY WINEHOUSE as the slogan.
Nice marketing that ( Bill Hicks is spinning as I type this.....) ;-)

Me, the missus, the sister in law and her friend all went last night to the Ulster Hall to hear Ms Winehouse make love to our ears.

We were not disappointed.

The only niggle would be that it was a proper album/tour.
No songs off the 1st album then. Damn.

Still, the 2nd album is just sublime and they more than pulled it off live.
What a band and what a voice, that girl has a gift, she really does.
Needs a good feed though. She looked wild skinny and it does not suit her. She is only doing it to appease some wankers in the press who said she was fat. Fook 'em I say. Be yourself, girl.
I yelled my appreciation, especially after my fave songs like Back to black, Rehab and Mr Jones.
Bloody marvellous.
Can you tell I enjoyed it?

2nd highlight of the night was realising there is a noodle bar in Bradbury place called---
FOO-KIN Noodle bar. Fantastic.