Darren

I stayed round Darren's gaff last weekend when I went to London. Here are some pictures.

The light in the kitchen in the morning was awesome. It was coming in indirectly through a window on the right, and bouncing back on the left off some white tiles, wrapping round his face nicely. Then the back wall was lit through a glass door, giving a nice separation effect. Unfortunately Darren was eating a load of toast as if his life depended on it, so this is the shot I got. I bet this kind of thing happens to Annie Liebowitz all the time.

In the kitchen again. You can recreate this effect at home by stuffing a flash in a mug of tea, or by waiting for the sun to backlight the steam.

Darren plays guitar like Tiger Woods plays golf. With a club, har har. Anyway, here are some photos with an off camera flash. Not much to say, really.





Clay has rather selfishly taken his digital SLR back. This means that I have to wait 4 months to finish a film and process it, so you'll be damn lucky to see anything on this blog in a hurry. In the meantime, go and read Pertinax.

The Chronicles of Pertinax

Some say it is the greatest work of literature ever conceived.


Some say it doesn't actually exist, that something of such power and awesomeness could never be written.


It has caused grown men to weep, and babies to detonate.


It will never be published as an audio book, because not even James Earl Jones has the vocal power to carry it.


All I can say is.....

Judge for yourself.

Edinburgh


Bronach and I spent a week in Edinburgh looking for a flat. Here are some pictures. If you want a funny blog, go to Alex's, if you want an intellectual post go to John's.

Clay was good enough to lend me his Canon EOS300D, in return we let him stay at ours for a few days. That was a mistake because the place was trashed when we got back. I can't believe one person could have smeared that much excrement; he must have had teams of illegal immigrants working round the clock while we were gone.

It was autumn when we arrived, and ball-freezingly cold. If Scotland could export bitter weather they'd make a fortune.

Bronach in black and white

Here are some pictures of Bronach on they way to Dean village, as we walked along the Water of Leith. It's possibly the most scenic part of Edinburgh, helped by the fact that you're down in a valley, out of the wind so your eyelids haven't frozen shut. Photo fans will note that these pictures were taken with the awesome Canon 50mm 1.8 MkII, truly the Razor's edge when it comes to sharpness.





Back at the flat I tried using a flash to artistically light the background. I asked Bronach to sit there and ignore me, so she did.



We bumped into Steve, who recommended a Mexican restaurant to us. Steve was heading to York to see his fiancé Kate, another Phd student and a friend of Bronach's. We were starving by the time we got to the Mexican restaurant, and salivating at the prospect of fajitas and quesadillas. But it was shut. Nice going, Steve.



Easyjet internet café was our only link to civilisation. But it came at a price. The place was generally rammed with farting, swearing Scots and swearing, farting exchange students, who were either trying to make contact with their relatives on the other side of the world, or huddling in the warmth and trying to coax circulation into their frost bitten extremities.


Stelios is watching.....

-FIN-