I'm a sucker for a nice shadow

I can't resist a nice bit of shadow play. And that's a nice colour too - maybe one to bear in mind when (if?) I get round to painting our front door.

The front door has needed a coat of paint for about seven years now. I've resolved to do it at least a dozen times in each of those seven years and, of course, it remains unpainted.

This year though...I can feel it. It's really going to happen this year.

New year's day on the pier

I've just realised I've not posted here this year! Shockingly bad form. There's another blog taking my attention at the moment (on road.cc, about my big bike ride) but that's no excuse. I might find a few more photos to add today to make up for it.

In any case, this was taken on the pier on new year's day. We have a tradition of meeting up with friends and drinking beer on that day each year. We're usually nursing thunderous hangovers but this year was different. This year Madge and I spent new year's eve together on our own, just watching telly and eating rather indulgent party food from M&S - it felt right to do that for a change. The usual model of trudging off to some party or other just didn't appeal. For a few years now new year's eve has been a disappointment - there's too much partying in December to go for a big blow-out right at the end of the month. Perhaps we're getting old - perhaps we're growing up.

It was a beautiful day this year - as it often is. We walked to the pier, drank a few pints of Guinness in the pub whose name I always forget, ate fish and chips, then walked home again, ready and eager to begin January's healthier regime. No booze, healthy food and more exercise: the degree to which this appealed speaks volumes about how overdue it was.

The big freeze

Can it really be nearly a week since I last posted? Good Lord...

Brighton has been hit by a lot of weather lately as I've mentioned in previous posts but this weekend we really struck the jackpot with two days of proper snow and barely an overnight thaw between them to ruin it all. Actually, that's nonsense, we've actually had just one night and half a day of snow, it's just stuck around for longer than it usually does so it feels like we're in the Alps all of a sudden.

I've been out seeking nice photos, obviously, and you can see the fruits of my labour over on my Flickr pages. Capturing the one you can see here was a perilous affair. In order to get the sunset colours in the background I had to climb onto the bench of one of the seafront shelters and cling onto a protruding design feature (I think it was some kind of flower) with one hand while operating the camera with the other. As I stepped onto the bench my foot slipped in the snow and ice and I very nearly did a dramatic lunge into the shelter that would certainly have ended in tears - particularly as I was unfortunate enough to go completely arse over tit last night on my way to a boozy Christmas party. My legs went from under me and I landed heavily on my back, which wasn't much fun (even though I'm sure it was actually quite amusing to watch) and left me with a very tender back, so the last thing I wanted today was another injury. Ah, the things we do for our art...

Come on in!

Perhaps it was the imminence of my 46th birthday that prompted me to pause by the entrance of a local graveyard the other night to capture this delightfully cheery image. There's something about the circle being broken by the open gate and the blackness beyond that really grabbed me - rather to the bemusement of the several passing pedestrians who peered past me to try and figure out what I was looking at.

For someone who's spent so much time over the past decade thinking about death (long story - perhaps for another day) I dwell on it remarkably rarely when it comes to any kind of creative outlet. I don't read about it, I don't write about it and I don't usually take photos inspired by it. Perhaps that's because I'm scared of it and, like the small child who will cover their face when found doing something naughty so they won't be seen, I'm hoping that it will leave me alone if I leave it alone.

Christmas lights

I had the wrong camera with me when I took this shot (there I go blaming my tools again), but the point 'n' shoot did a reasonable job of capturing the Christmas lights in the North Laine yesterday. What I really needed was the Nikon with a fast telephoto of the type I'll probably never be able to afford, and ideally a tripod too. I wonder if I'll ever turn into that kind of photographer. A fairly large part of me sincerely hopes not - the paraphernalia and the patience and the perfectionism are all a bit beyond me I think. But oh how I'd love to come up the sort of images that all those Ps produce...

Sea, sun, bird

There's been nothing fabulous enough to post with pride over the past few days so you'll have to make do with this, taken the other day on a squally seafront. There's something about a stormy day that really makes me relish the prospect of heading out with my camera but the results are, more often than not, disappointing. Trying to photograph big waves is rather like trying to capture a rainbow - easy enough to commit to a photograph but borderline impossible to make interesting. Anyway, take it from me, this looked brilliant in the flesh.

Fishfingers, chips and mushy peas

I had lunch with Madge in the pub yesterday. My choice was fishfingers, chips and mushy peas with a homemade tartar sauce. I had high hopes because this was the Earth & Stars in Brighton and they do know how to make a good lunch, but they outdid themselves yesterday.

The fishfingers were more like delicious stubby little fishthumbs with a hint of tarragon, the chips were thick and crispy on the outside and fluffy within, the mushy peas were minty and mouthwatering and the sauce was just right, piquant enough to make a difference but not overwhelming. To wash it down I had a pint and a half of Arundel Ale, which is a gorgeously nutty dark beer that never gets cloying in the way some of those winter-warmers do.

All told it was a triumph, and if your mouth isn't watering by now I would suggest you have some kind of eating disorder.

Cheap jumpers

It's odd how I can walk through Brighton on one day with a camera and come home completely empty-handed and depressed and then take the same camera around the same route the following day and return with a memory card bulging with promising shots. Odd and rather frustrating.

Saturday was a thumbs up day. I was with the family and we were on a bit of a mission but I seemed to see nothing but photogenic gorgeousness all around me. Perhaps it's because I was in a hurry. Perhaps I only thought I saw loads of good shots but walked away happy because I didn't have the time to stop and make a concerted effort to make the most of any of them. This leads me to think I might be able to guarantee my most satisfying photographic experience ever by leaving my camera at home and just ambling around muttering incessantly about marvellous light and shadow play.

I'll mull that one over. In the meantime, here's a snatched shot that I really like of a clothes rail in the North Laine area. Marvellous light and shadow play, no?

Yellowman

Nothing much to say about this little chap, seen this afternoon outside a shop in the North Laine. I couldn't tell you what the shop sells because I was so diverted by the paint job on our friend here. It's a horrible colour, badly applied. So why does it work so well? Search me.

Raspberry throwback

I'm cutting myself a little slack here. This photo was taken at the end of August but that was a quiet month on Bah! Humbert so I'm allowing a little nostalgia to creep in. I'll let you decide for yourself whether or not this has anything to do with me feeling photographically uninspired at the moment, life being as full as it is of things that happen to be diverting me rather more.

This shot was taken in an old-fashioned Italian café at the Marina, in which one of the largest and most beautiful coffee machines I've ever seen looms like a church organ in the corner, manned by the owner of the establishment, a man who obviously takes great pride in making a damn good cup of coffee. It's the kind of place in which apron-clad waitresses swoop from table to table dispensing good cheer and amazingly dangerous looking cakes, all bathed in a golden glow produced by many spotlights hitting many beige surfaces. It reminded me of a long-gone coffee shop called Buttery One in the middle of Dover, where I used to go as a teenager with fellow public school ne'er-do-wells to sip the same cup of tea for three hours, smoke countless Marlboros and try desperately not to say the wrong thing in front of my mates.

So we sat there for a while, me and my two kids, as I remembered my adolescence and they worked their way through vast piles of home-made ice cream. It was a good afternoon.

Seafront kip

It felt a little intrusive taking a photo of this couple snoozing on the seafront but it made for such a delightful image that I snapped the buggers anyway. For all I know they could have been blind drunk after an epic pub crawl or a three hour lunch, but somehow I doubt it. I prefer to think they'd been strolling around Brighton for much of the day, sat down on this seafront bench and before you know it the sea air had got the better of them. Moments after this was taken one of them probably jolted awake, gently shook the other and shared a joke about not having quite as much energy as they used to. Then they'd have helped each other to their feet and walked slowly home.

Bra in the gutter

It's impossible, when seeing something like a discarded bra in the gutter, not to reflect on how it got there. There are many possible reasons, none of which are particularly edifying, but all of which are quite entertaining. I'll leave you to make up your own...

Wide-angle bandstand

The newly refurbished bandstand on Brighton seafront has already become something of a photographic cliché so I approach it with some caution. But the sunset was beautiful last night and this couple were in just the right spot taking pictures of each other and the wide-angle lens just happened to be on the camera so I went for it anyway. Clichés are clichés for a reason after all (how clichéd was that?)

65daysofstatic

Good gig last night - 65daysofstatic at Digital. They were very noisy but the system at Digital is so good there were barely any after effects, thankfully. 65days are post rock or math rock or experimental or any one of a dozen other labels, but the bottom line is that they're really quite good (how's that for a new sub-genre?) I must go to more gigs during this little career hiatus of mine...

Someone described the gig thus: "...fucking phenomenal... for half an hour. Reckon they should play really short sets. It's a bit like being wanked off by someone with a death grip without achieving orgasm... feels fucking great, then a bit sore, then you wish they'd vary their grip or something. But yeah, brilliant for 30 minutes or thereabouts." Nigel liked this description so much he nicked it for his review. I like it equally so I'm nicking it for here.

090909 cooking skills

A small audience mainly consisting of reasonably well to do late middle-aged women with quite fancy hairstyles was entertained this lunchtime by some cooking demonstrations at a stage outside the Churchill Centre in Brighton. I think the chefs pictured came from The Arrogant Frog.

The demos were part of the Brighton and Hove Festival of Food (or something like that), which I applaud, but which I think has some way to go before it registers on the global gastronomic calendar. Still, the food looked nice and I found some interesting looking sausages for supper, so I left happy.

A tough life

Today was the first proper day of my career hiatus. Since I left my job at the end of July I've been surrounded by family, kids, holidays, festival and a lot of noise. Although the kids went back to school yesterday Rach was here for half of the day - most of which I spent on a huge bike ride in any case, so it really didn't feel any different to the holiday days that preceded it. But today was different - the family were all otherwise engaged and I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted with. So what did I do? Filing, laundry, grass-cutting and bike-fettling. It was a day of blissful mundanity. To celebrate the glorious hum drumness of it all I went for a swim in the sea before picking up the kids from school. The water's still warm enough for it not to be a balls-out masculinity test every time you jump in and the sun was beating down when I got out, so I dried myself on the beach and took photos that made my feet look odd. It's official: I'm happy.

Tweaked subway family

I won't make a habit of this, promise, but I'm reposting a picture I used on here just two posts ago because I'm so gobsmacked by the effect a few Photoshop tweaks have made to it. I'd taken the colour out of the original shot on a whim. Then I tweaked the levels a bit and reposted it on Flickr. My mate Dave (the legendary Disco Dave 2000 that is) saw it and made a few suggestions: clone out this, tweak that, add a shadow here... And I thought he might have a point, so I went ahead and made the changes. This is what emerged - suddenly I think I have a new favourite photograph (of my own I mean...let's not get carried away). I particularly like the converging curved lines, the texture on the walls and the mystery that lies beyond the bright light...

Subway family

This is what you want from a point & shoot: the confidence that you can just point it and shoot without stroking your chin for ten minutes over white balance and ISO settings, and still get something serviceable at the other end. I'm sure the D90 could have handled the challenging light conditions just as well on auto mode, but then so it should being twice the price and all that - and that's without a lens. So all told I'm pleased with the Ricoh so far - even though I'm still half convinced I should have gone for the RX200. But then I may have just got tied up in the purist photography options it offers and missed this shot altogether.

More aerial shenanigans

It's not every day you get the chance to take some photos from a basket hanging under a crane nearly 200 feet above Brighton beach so I'm sure you'll forgive me for using one more from the weekend's bungee shoot (get me, I'm calling it a 'shoot'). In fact I reserve the right to use more of these if the mood takes me and I don't find anything fresher to offer. I very much look forward to spending some time really getting to know the new camera properly and then practising with it. Right now I feel somewhat out of my depth - both with the camera and the new wide-angle lens - but I'm seeing this as an opportunity to learn stuff, once the pesky job is behind me.

One Giant Leap...

I took something like 450 pictures of a sponsored bungee jump on Saturday, which sounds a bit excessive until you realise that I was there in a semi-official capacity at the request of the organiser. It felt strange and quite nice to be referred to as 'Martin the photographer' but it reminded me of my early days as a newspaper reporter when my toes used to curl with embarrassment whenever anyone referred to me as a journalist. Eventually that became as natural as breathing. Perhaps the photographer thing will too eventually.

I was never going to do a jump myself, obviously (sometimes a dodgy back makes life nice and simple) but I did go up in the crane to watch a few brave souls hurl themselves into oblivion at close quarters - like the one pictured. It's a very brave thing to do I reckon - there's a moment where you just have to swallow the madness and the fear and do the most counter-intuitive thing in the world... Except I'm not sure it is. I was talking to the chap in the basket who does the encouraging and, ultimately, if people agree, the pushing, and he reckons there's something in us that really wants to hurl ourselves off tall things. It's the same impulse that makes vertigo so sickeningly irresistible. And I know what he means...kind of.

By the way, yesterday's craziness was all in aid of an interesting initiative. The Thinking Men's Project is a charity geared towards helping men who need help, in a nutshell. There's a much more sensible explanation on this web page.