bikes and things

Just back from a trip to Swinley Forest with my good old mate Matt. Whilst the last thing I felt like doing this morning was getting up early it was well worth getting out and going for a spin. A gentle ride out to the jump gulley to get some air under the wheels then over to the other side to play on some of the trails round there, then back to the jump gulley then back to the centre. Really enjoyed riding the full suss down some of the swoopy trails and also getting comfortable clearing tables in the gulley. The trails were dry and in immaculate condition and with very few riders around. It seems that people drive from miles around to sit in the play park with their kids yet few venture out into the incredible forest that surrounds.

A couple of crap photos below. Should have taken a proper camera rather than just my phone on such a beautiful day like today.

And also a nice little shot of me actually clearing a small double – wonders will never cease.

Here’s Matt riding the same section.

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a while now as it was such a superb weekend. We left London on the Friday after work and headed up to Abergorlech where I had booked a holiday cottage for the five of us for the weekend – Vaughan, Matt, Marc, Graham and myself. The cottage is owned by the guys who run the Black Lion which is just a few doors up.

Our trip from London was fairly epic, but a lot easier for myself and Matt, as Vaughan had kindly offered to drive in his newly converted VW van. After escaping the Hammersmith traffic we headed up the M4 leaving icy cold London behind, cue impromptu singalong to The Smiths, Hatful of Hollow as well as a few old 90s rave tracks. We reached the end of the M4 by around 10pm and the route I had plotted with my phone was sub-optimal at best crap. I managed to take us the back route which included a a snow covered peak with drifts of snow and ended in sheet ice on hills we were trying to climb and not forgetting a narrow ford crossing with sheet ice either side. The van handled it all with ease with the only concern being that we might miss last orders. Fortunately we made it just in time to sink a pint of Guinness and meet up with Graham and Marc who had travelled earlier – and taken the main road route which was far less exciting.

M4 – lots of it.

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Just back from a superb long weekend in Northern Ireland with Emma and Jane. A great day in Belfast with Jane’s sister and daughter, and then two days in Portstewart. Lovely weather bizarrely whilst London was freezing we were walking along the beach in relatively warm sunshine. Couldn’t resist running a few shots through Lightroom before bed.

It was my Birthday yesterday and as usual I took the day off work and Emma and I went for a wander around town. Emma bought me some of the Impossible Colour film for my Polaroid. It’s a bit of an expensive luxury and I definitely have a love hate feeling towards the stuff. Here’s two shots I took yesterday. They haven’t developed properly and the chemicals have started to blister but I quite like them – there’s something quite nice about the imperfections.

Last weekend was a “re-introduce myself to my family” weekend which involved lots and lots of driving, coffee, chats and meals. The occasional dog and cat bothering too.

Friday down to Bath (Corsham/Box really) then down to Bristol IKEA with Mum then onto Weston-Super-Mare to see Grandma, then further down the M5 to Brean Down way to see Granny then back to Corsham to see Dad then next day back over to Bristol to see Nat, Cath and family. Around 450 miles of driving, one nail in a rear tyre, one engine light on and plenty of stops at motorway services. Think we’ll space it out a bit more next time. As usual a few photos were taken, all have been sent off to Photobox to print and put in my shoe box but here’s a few I like. Rest of the shots are on Flickr.

Tesco, Weston-Super-Mare. One of the only colourful things I could find to take a picture of.

Dad’s cat whilst we were on the way out to the pub – she even has her own chair.

Grandma’s House – nothing has changed here for years which is perfect.

Sweet shop in Weston-Super-Mare, next to Diva’s premiere strip club and a chip shop.

The GRAND PIER. Burnt down a few years ago, now resurrected. Used to come here with my Grandad and ride the train up and down the long run to the fun fair at the end.

Nat, with my old D70. Hope he learns as much I did from it. Bit knackered but still just about works.

A conversation about cats and their whiskers ended up with this scene demonstrating with plastic forks. Elsa made a far better model than I.

I found a few printed photos the other day, nothing special, just a few snap shots, but I really enjoyed looking at them again. This got me thinking about how I would never go back more than a week or two on my Flickr stream and ever look at any of my shots from the past – partly the whole reason for taking pictures surely? iPhoto doesn’t cut it either as it’s so bloated and slow and currently crashes constantly – it suffers from the same problem as Flickr I guess, I’m not going to sit there and go through them. However I have a shoe box of 6″x4″ prints (matt with borders) from the last few years beside my desk are all from film cameras I occasionally use like Dad’s OM20, my lovely LC-A, Nikon F801 or the Olympus Trip 35. A lot of the pictures are rubbish but they remind me of being somewhere or doing something which I’d probably forgotten about. I guess I find a bit more of a connection with the printed version

Flickr is obviously my main online store of photos (some people use Facebook or Picasa etc). I’m always uploading new stuff of course but this seems to only enhance the transitory nature of these images, it’s always about the next image. I’ve also become a lot more critical of what I upload, so snap shots of friends don’t always make it. Do these go on Facebook instead? Hard to say.

In terms of digital storage this lot all sits in a big folder on my external drive titled “The great JPEG dump”. Paid work is all organised neatly but it’s always been hard to know what to do with the personal images. I was going to use Adobe Carousel but I can’t see that working out.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to go back to printing out actual photos and buying a box for each year. Some physical objects that I can look back on – maybe at Christmas each year and remember what’s gone on. I’ve found a cheap online printers and will do a set each month, I’ve even found somewhere that does a nice shoe box (yes you can find anything with Google). A bit like the 365 project but longer, maybe one box for each year. I’m going to go back and do all of 2011 and keep going as long as I can.

Updated: It’s working out quite well printing all these pics. Just sorting out the 2011 box now.

Relaxing day with Emma. Not much happening, some reading, a walk and some camera fiddling. Love it. Not in the office tomorrow so nice and relaxed.

Sat seems to be my only day off at the moment so has becoming fairly precious. Not much photography but working hard on a project at work and been in every Sunday for at least six or so weeks so I’m trying tomake sure I actually do something rather than just sleep or look at the internet. Hopefully its all over now (after Thursday night) and I can start to get my life back a bit.

So we went into town to quickly grab a look at the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait gallery. I’m still amazed that it’s another ginger girl with ginger animal. It’s getting beyond a cliche now. At least there weren’t any massive vaginas to stand in front of this year. It was set in a tiny gallery and rammed with people which made the whole experience pretty grim. Maybe I’ll go back during the week sometime. I really liked a couple of the shots but I was pretty disappointed with some of them. I guess I’m not a photography critic though.

After that we headed out to the Royal Academy with the aim of seeing the Russian Constructivist exhibition – again too many people with a massive queue. So we had a look at the Tatlin’s Tower in the courtyard and then went to the ICA for a couple of drinks. Good chats with Ed and Emma and then home. All good.

Last Sat Emma and I ventured out into town to catch the last day of the Edgar Martins exhibition at The Wapping Project – Bankside. So glad we made the effort to go as the work is simply extraordinary. Emma also wrote a few words which I won’t repeat here but suffice to say she’s far better at the words than I am.

The work is rather neatly summarised by Robin Wilson over at the Architects Journal.

..perspective views onto monumental turbine halls, ‘portraits’ of specialist station equipment, control panel displays and empty waiting rooms with potted plants, alien, isolated, yet flourishing in these sterile environments.

It was great to talk to the gallery owner and understand some of the technical details behind them. All shot on 10×8 view camera with up to and hour long exposure also with selective flash added to fill in dark spots or balance overall lighting. The effect is one of an almost painterly like hyperreal quality where shadows don’t always exist. There also seems to be an amazing sense of perfection in the spaces that he’s working in which is constantly engaging when stood in front of the enormous prints. Some of the images feel timeless, or 70’s or even slightly futuristic. It’s hard to really get a handle of their context. Fascinating but ultimately too expensive to afford a print. I came away with a £30 book of his which is just as enjoyable.

This is my mate Gav. He’s gone and left me and decided to go off round the world for a year instead of living the rat race in Bath and furthering his property empire. Must admit that I haven’t seen him much this year which makes me feel pretty guilty – especially when I saw him at his leaving do. So when he gets back I’m going to give him a massive man hug (as it makes him feel awkward) and go riding with him and spend some time catching up. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone I guess.

He even posted me a birthday card before leaving – my birthday is about 8 weeks away!

Happpy travels Gav! Looks like you’re off to a good start.