Shiny Chairs

When we get good weather we can have a stab at café culture. Even in Hull. And we do have some very shiny chairs to sit on.

Bristol Pic

In Bristol for a few days. Of course I've taken the camera.

Bristol Smoking Bridge

Some time back they must have had a meeting in Bristol where someone said "Why don't we make one of our bridges emit smoke?". Or something. Anyhoo, the idea was approved, and today we trudged through the rain to see the results.

The picture is in Black and White because today the weather has been in black and white too.

Capturing the Students Union

We've had a few lovely mornings on campus over the last week or so, and I've become kind of obsessed with getting a decent picture of the Student Union building in the sun first thing. After a few sweep panoramas that didn't turn out very well I've managed to stitch the above together out of six different photographs. It's not quite perfect, there is a bit of weirdness right at the very top of the roof, but will do for now. 

Konstructor Camera Shots

Portrait of the artist...

Some time back I made myself a camera. I've just got some of the pictures back and it's worked. Yay!

When I dropped the film off to be processed I said to the girl in Jessops that it was quite possible that the pictures may all be black, or white, or on the same frame. But I took 25 or so pictures and got 22 back, which is great.

We don't have a word that describes that feeling you get when you go to get something from the place where it is usually stored and it isn't there.  If we did have I'd be able to use it now. I thought I'd been clever by having all my photographs transferred onto a CD when I had them processed. But of course when I got home I couldn't find my CD drive. Fortunately I'm an inventive soul and managed to use the PS3 to move the files somewhere I could read them.

Turns out that they have not been scanned to very high resolution and there are some nasty scratchy artefacts, but I'm very pleased with the results. They have a nice "other worldly" feel. I'm definitely going to put a few more rolls of film through the device. 

Is this the way to Amaryllis?

Number one wife got an amaryllis bulb for Christmas. It has just produced these lovely flowers. 

Pictures from Rob

Someone was kind enough to complement me on the desktop background that I used for the Linx tiny (and very good value) tablet. I took the picture a while back in Melbourne. After about 50 years of taking photographs I've got a bunch of pictures that I consider quite reasonable. I've made a album of them on Flickr, which you can find here.  Enjoy.

Seattle Tourism

I thought I'd spend some time today as a tourist. So I took the 550 bus from Bellevue to downtown Seattle. This is one of the best ways to spend $2.50 around here. You get a lovely drive over the floating bridge, a spectacular view of the skyline and then a ride in the tunnels underneath the city. 

I got out at the Westlake Centre and slipped down to Pike Place Market for a look around. Took in the Comic Book store in the marketplace, along with the craft stalls down there and then headed back up to Westlake and the monorail terminal

There I bought a return ticket to the Space Needle and then I just waked straight into the lift (no queues) and rode up to the top where I enjoyed a coffee and took some snaps of the view.

Then back to Westlake and Barnes and Noble for a look at some books. Finally I got the bus back to the hotel and spent a happy hour or two playing with the pictures I'd taken.

Wonderful.

Lunch at Thieving Harrys

While I was up town yesterday I wandered past Theiving Harry's, a place I've always fancied visiting. Today, with some unseasonably nice weather we headed up town again and had lunch there. And it was great. We were sitting upstairs, with a view across the waterfront. The food was splendid and the ambiance was lovely. There is a great feel to the place, the formica tables and hard working decor remind me strongly of Lowells in Pike Place, Seattle. 

Another go to place if you are a Hull student looking to impress visitors with your local knowledge. And you can wander over to the Oresome Gallery just across the way and buy some earrings after you have eaten. And if you are me, you can take some more pictures.

I took a picture of this yesterday. What a difference a day makes...

I never get tired of taking pictures of The Deep. 

Hull Pics

Please note that this picture was not taken while driving. As if.

This is my first Saturday off for a few weeks, so we drove up town and had lunch at McCoys. New students, if you are looking for somewhere nice in the city centre to take mum and dad when they come and see you, well worth a visit. Great coffee and much more Hull authentic than Starbucks or Costa (although we've got those too).

My advice, try the Beef and Stilton sandwich. Number one wife likes the Tuna on noodles. And number one son pronounces the coffee as good, which means it must be great.

And I had time to take the camera, plus fat lens, around the waterfront.

I don't think they ever fire this...

You do get the most amazing skies this time of year.

University Pics

One of the many nice things about working at the university is that it is just such a nice place to be. And when we get some autumn sunshine I can nip out of my office and take some pics.

This is the front door of our building.

..and this is the view the other way.

Panel Picture

I'm quite proud of this picture. I took it in the Post and Telecommunications Museum in Copenhagen (well worth a visit and free). The panel was used by coastguards who were talking to ships apparently. I took three photographs, made an HDR version using PhotoMatix and seriously tweaked it.

I've used it as the backdrop to the Festival of Daring and Excitement poster, but I think it makes a good standalone shot.  

Make a Photobook

If you've just had a wedding, christening or some other noteworthy event, then you might want to think about making a book about it. It's never been so easy to take pictures these days, most smartphones have pretty good cameras built in, but I rather miss the experience of seeing my work on paper. I can print out pictures if I want (and I do) but I'd never really thought about making a book.

However, last week I uploaded a bunch of shots to photobox, clicked a few buttons (a surprisingly small number) and paid a few quid for what has turned out to be a very nice souvenir of the occasion.

The book arrived today and I really like it. The printing quality is just like a "proper" publication, as is the heft and feel of the item itself. I paid a little bit extra for the "lay flat" spine, which means that we can use it in a proper "coffee table" role. The cost was not excessive. I judge the price of everything in video-games, and we managed to get two books printed and posted to Hull for less than the price of a game. 

If you have done something special, or interesting, then making a book about it is actually very easy. The company we used also has an amazing repertoire of pictures, posters, phone cases, mugs and the like which can be customised with artwork.

If you are a student who is not sure what to get mum for christmas, a personalised book that tells the story of your last semester might be a good plan. Although I'd not advise you to put every picture you take into it.....

The Forbidden Corner Rocks

One of the many lovely gardens spread around the site. 

Today we headed off into the Yorkshire Dales to take a look around the Forbidden Corner. This is part theme-park, part country gardens, part awesome place to explore. We'd heard good things about it from numerous different sources and so we were expecting a good time.

We got one. The weather was kind to us and we had great fun wandering round. Admission is by pre-booked ticket only, which means that the place is never overwhelmed by visitors, and there are lots of things that scare, intrigue and amuse. Plus some things that squirt water at you or, better yet, the people with you.

There's a cafe with nice food and a gift shop with sensible prices and Yorkshire memorabilia. I enjoyed it at my age. If I'd been six I would never have wanted to leave. 

There is actually some blue sky in this picture. No. Really.

Dredgers and Docks

This is Orca the dredger. She'd make an awesome Lego model.....

Today we celebrate 100 years since the King George Dock was opened in Hull. To me this means a chance to go and take some pictures. We got the first bus out of Hull to the dockside and were there at the very very start. Which was nice because we got to go straight onto the boat and take a look around. I was trying out the ultra wide-angle lens.

I'm very proud of the fact that I didn't touch any of the buttons or levers....

The dredger was huge. It is basically a floating container that they take out into the estuary and fill with mud. Then they sail somewhere else and drop the mud off. The cabin was massive and had lots of interesting consoles and controls. I took pictures of all of them.

On the way out I did something by mistake that I plan to do again. I changed the colour temperature on the camera settings. This is the thing that makes colours look "right" in different lighting environments. Normally I leave it on automatic, but by pressing the wrong button I changed it to "incandescent". This is not really a problem, I can fix it later, but it does mean that you get neat colour effects sometimes.

Interesting. But wrong.

I'm not suggesting that you do this as a matter of course, but if you want to get a strange "other worldly" effect on your shots it is definitely worth a try every now and then.

We wandered into a massive warehouse that they'd set aside for exhibitions and bumped straight into Warren and the Seed crew. They were there to show off what Seed can do (which is quite a lot).

I'm not sure what Warren made of me, what with the Autgrapher pinned to my T-shirt and two cameras round my neck (actually, I am quite sure what he made of me - I just don't want to think about it) but it was nice to see them all there. At the time we turned up things were just getting going, so I think they were in for a busy time of it.

Waiting for the flood....

I had some lawns to mow and stuff to do at home (no - really) and so we had to head back to Hull. After a game of "hunt the bus" which went on for a bit longer than it really should have, we got to sit on the top deck at the front. Which was nice. 

Bee Pictures

The Buddleia had a whole bunch of bees on it, so I set my little camera in macro mode and fiddled around until I got the picture above, which I'm quite pleased with. Then I got out my Lovely Lumia 1520 and got this by pointing it at the flower and pressing the shutter button:

I'm finding fewer and fewer situations where I need to have a proper camera with me....

Nice Sunset

We are having some quite nice sunsets at the moment.

Tiny Camera

In preparation for the Imagine Cup World Finals in Russia I've got myself a tiny camera that I can carry round at all times. It seems to do a good job of the Union Building.

My First Tomato Festival

I don’t know much about tomatoes. Mostly red, different sizes, used in bolognaise and on pizza, some discussion over whether or not they are a fruit. Oh, and in New Orleans they have a festival for them. It was a bit warm, but you could always cool down with a Bloody Mary drink. We took a wander through the French Market and I took a whole bunch of photographs.

Including this one. We have to head home tomorrow, which is rather sad as I’m just about getting the hang of “The Big Easy”.

Day off in New Orleans

If you are going to have a day off, I can recommend New Orleans as a great place to do it. First we went off to Audobon Zoo, which has to be one of the best zoos I’ve ever been to. We expected to spend a few hours there, but we ended up finding a day’s worth of stuff to keep us busy. There were all the usual zoo favourites (pictures of which will filter onto the blog over time I’m sure) along with some local specialities.

There’s an alligator lurking in this picture somewhere, I suggest that until you know where, you should rule out any swimming.

In the evening we went on a riverboat cruise which was rather splendid. There is something extremely civilised about sitting drinking a cool beer while they move the scenery past you and tell you all about it. The Mississippi is a very busy river, with oil, sugar and all sorts of other things moving up and down in huge ships. 

Today we also had a rather good sunset as well.