At home today after working some silly hours this week for a pre Stage E coordination deadline. Feeling a bit better after a good old sleep this morning. Going through some shots from the last few weekends and processing and sending to Flickr. Might try and get into the habit of updating this site again soon. IN the meantime coffee and a stroll beckons.
Going all minimal again. Nice to be using the camera in hand and without a tripod for a bit.
So I’ve been in my current job for that long. Today is a good day because all the time I’ve been here I’ve had a planning application waiting to be submitted. It’s taken all that time to get to the point where it can go in through lots of negotiations and a series of large documents being submitted. Today it’s going in and I get to work on another project for the next year or so.
A think a beer is in order.
Read MoreSo I finally had my first encounter with the law, or rather a Police Community Service Officer, whilst taking photos in a public place. I spent a fair bit of time last Tuesday in Hammersmith taking pictures of a building for some CGI renders. I was there during the afternoon with a tripod, dSLR and a fairly large shift lens as well as remote shutter release. About 30 mins after I had set up I was approached by a PCSO. Uh oh! I was told that I had been “seen” on CCTV and he would like to know what I was doing. Now, I’ve been through this scenario in my mind a number of times in anticipation of this situation. Most of them revolved around a smart arse reply such as, “…there’s a reason you haven’t made CID yet isn’t there?”. However all I could muster was an apologetic explanation of what I was doing. I was on work time so didn’t really want to cause a fuss. I needed to get these shots for the next morning and being arrested wasn’t on my list of things to do that day. I was asked for my details, name, date of birth, contact number etc. He was polite enough about it all. I did make the quip that I couldn’t have made it any more obvious what I was doing, it’s not exactly a discrete set up.
So I got my shots delivered for the next morning but I still felt as though he had no right to inquire about what I was doing. It was fairly obvious and it is a public place. He also had no right to have my details. Annoying but next time I think I’ll try and stand up for my rights a bit more.
Anyway, here’s the shot I came away with later in the day.
The shot is a horizontal stitch of three images taken with the amazing Nikkor 24mm PC-E lens. Each shot has the lens shifted up higher each time then assembled in Photoshop.
Read MoreOn my ride home yesterday I was thinking just how nice it was riding my bike during the winter months. the roads are relatively clear and it’s been fairly peaceful on the roads. a few things have really made a difference this year though. The first has been buying some proper winter tights. Having something thicker underneath as well as more material over the knee area has made an enormous difference. The other has been fitting full length mud guards to the fixed. Ok it doesn’t look too cool but it gets me to work relatively dry. So winter commuting isn’t so bad if you have the right kit.
Read MoreWell I’ve been up all night and I am about to go an get something to eat and then go and hand in my final 10,000 word career appraisal and PEDR log sheets recording all my professional experience to date. It’s quite a milestone for me so it seems like a good time to reflect on the cost of getting to this stage. So the vital stats are as follows.
11 years overall. Sept 98 – Sept 2009
5 years full time in University.
2 years part time at University.
7 practices worked for.
15,500 hours of professional experience recorded in PEDR sheets.
£45,000 debt (give or take a few k)
And a bit of a belly…
Fingers crossed they let me in. Just got to wait for the interview in September now.
Or Log Sheets as they used to be called. I’ve just finished all of mine… Never again do I want to fill another one out in all my life.
So 27 x 3 months = 81 months recorded which is almost 7 years of working!
So for the first time in about 5 years I’d say I actually got my hands dirty and made a model! I spent all weekend in work doing it but actually enjoyed it. I’ve forgotten how fiddly 1:200 models are. I’m sure my fingers were slimmer at uni. Fingers crossed it does the job.
Here’s the aftermath…
Expert witness lecture today. What I hadn’t expected was having the Construction Act and Statutory Adjudication explained through a play!
Highly entertaining to say the least.
Read MoreVisit to Kew this morning to have a look at a lift that had been installed in Kew Palace. Very exciting.
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