OK, not really.

But it was another pleasant day of rest. Originally the plan was to see Emma Rugg at the Lamp this evening. Then D found out that it was an early afternoon ('Sunday Roast') gig, so I met him down there after a midday bacon sandwich. It was a nice little gig, though I don't think that Emma was really in the mood for playing in the middle of the day, daylight streaming through the skylights... Still it was nice to have a chat afterwards while Puplet took pictures.



Here we can see a selection of interesting footwear, including Emma's little black tall shoes and the loafers of DJ Scalliwag. Emma told me that playing standing in such shoes is trickier than it looks.

The rest of the day was mainly spent eating. When D and I got back to his house we had an avocado, coffee, a cold trout and some cookies and cream ice cream. This was followed a few hours later with a beautiful Sunday roast of our own that lovely Mikol made for us. Life in Hull is nice really. There are things to take pictures of, friends to do that with and though the winter is long and dark, spring is on its way again today.

D sent it, so to close I should really post it. It is the shoe picture to end all shoe pictures. There will be no more.


...unless I get some exciting new shoes anytime.

There has been a rumour on a certain blog that I might have this thing for taking pictures of feet. Or even footwear and suchlike.


So I can see where that comes from. But I am not so sure that I am the only one.


Anyway, don't shoes tell such interesting stories? Where someone has been, perhaps more to the point where they would really like to be going. I think that any shoe is probably worth a thousand words.

(or Convincing Murray - part One)

Well it has been a funny old day, but perhaps the Perfect British Bank Holiday. It started late. It has been a long week with Mikol away so I had some lying in to do before I felt at all ready to take on the day. But what a glorious blue skied sunny one it turned out to be once I had got going (coffee on, shower, eventually toast and honey...).

I decided that having proved a faithful companion through much winter comuting and having suffered abuse, foul weather and a terrible lack of real singletrack, that the Inbred deserved a bit of a going over with a greasy rag. At least.


So that was the next four hours happily filled. And a few of you readers will know that there is little more therapeutic than a day spent faffing around with a bike, a bucket and various types of grease, oil, and a large tool box. So from grime encrusted to as clean as can be expected we went. It became obvious on the way that it has been far too long since I have done this kind of thing... removing the chain was a painful experience that went through the destruction of my suposedly bomb-proof Park Tools chain tool before I got the old pin out of the chain. In the end though, the bike looked and felt a lot nicer as confirmed by the obligatory spin round the block. I don't know what it is - certainly purely psychological - but clean a bike and it feels taughter, smoother, more responsive. Like rattle free cable runs, squeaky clean tyres, like an altogether different bike.


That is a thing of beauty.

And meanwhile D & J had been round for coffee. We sat in the sun in the back garden and it wasn't cold. We had cheese and biscuits, we took some more pictures, Tobias showed off and - quite possibly inspired by a message from Kenny - we decided that it was the sort of spring bank holiday that would soon involve drinks at the pub.

So just a little while and a stroll down the road later, that is where we found ourselves. The Gardeners Arms for the second time in a week. But this time in daylight, outside, soaking up the sun (OK, so it did get too cold eventually, but this is Yorkshire in April...).


And after that D was kind enough to take pity on our hunger and offer to share the Barnsley lamb chops that he had waiting in his fridge. So I gladly played sous-chef to him and we had great food as usual. The short walk home at the end of the evening, past trees in blossom, the scent of a new spring, under a clear sharp sky was all that we needed to round a perfect bank holiday. And there are three more days of this weekend to go.

It is a while since I have posted about photography (I think). Then I guess that it is a while since I have blogged at all. Today I have been trying out a new custom tone curve now that I finally managed to get the Nikon Capture software running. But I was also thinking about having taken plenty of pictures through my past few months of D100 ownership. Now I am even posting a photo a day on this other nearby blog... and what I realised was that although fancy cameras, tweaked with clever software and even a taste of better, more optimistic weather have all helped me take nice pictures, what really made a difference has just been taking hundreds and hundreds of images over the past months.



Carrying a camera as often as possible is the best way of starting. Looking through a viewfinder, the world through the lens - even a shabby third party zoom - is a different place. And actually looking about and observing what is special about the everyday or the essence of what you see comes with that. The simple act of lifting a camera to the eye and shooting over and over again and thinking about aperture and where the light is and composition and timing. And then not thinking about aperture or where the light is or composition or timing and just letting instinct take over... all add up to images that mean something.

I am not that interested in photography really. I just like pictures. Especially pictures of places or things or moments. I will let you know how the Fotogenetic Point-and-shoot curve goes. It should improve the detail and colour saturation of my midtones and shadows. It could be the answer to some of the muddy colouration that I have been getting with this camera... it could win me prizes and make people tell me to go professional - yeah right. But I don't think that it will tell stories like shooting day in day out will.

I get far more satisfaction and indeed excitement from a picture shot randomly from arms-length, focus and metering entrusted to clever Nikon boffins I guess, but the real quality of the picture in the hands of something altogether harder to define, than I do from a carefully composed and considered photo. The nature of a still photograph seems to fit far better this chance grab at capturing something of a moment in time. But doing it every day certainly seems to help get luck on your side.



Thanks to Puplet's friend for sending this shot of me, taken at the weekend on top of the Wilberforce Building.