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I just cheated by updating with about six weeks worth of photos, all in one go. Oops. To see them, just keep on scrolling. At least I made separate posts for them right? Right. Moving on...

If anyone who arrives here wishes to use any of my photos for anything online, feel free, just let me know where they are being used please and if possible link to this blog!

To be honest, I am a bit (a lot) behind with my schedule. By March 2012, I wanted to be doing creative portraits for people. Before I can do this, I need to sort some lighting out. Maybe a flash. I have vouchers but not entirely sure how best to spend them yet. Want versus need. Want macro lens, need lighting! 

Also a bit concerned about location. Sometimes these will need to be done indoors, especially when involving body paint and whatnot. And at the moment, the only location I have available is... well, a corner of my living room. Not very professional. Would people mind coming to my home for their portraits, providing the end results made them happy? Eh, this is something to think about I suppose. I think too much as it is, though. Ahhh!

Last week I went to the beach. You know, that excited optimism when you see the first rays of golden sunshine in many months. Turns out that it was bloody freezing. But ho-hum, a good time was had.

03

First things first, I have made a discovery – I need to invest in a monitor for post-processing photos. The display on my laptop is very vibrant and so when I see my photos on another screen they look a bit flat. It’s basically misleading trying to PP photos on such a vibrant display – they will inevitably look better to me than they will to others. This explains why prints come back darker than I anticipate.

If anyone reading this can recommend a good but reasonably priced monitor with this in mind, then it’d be much appreciated if you could leave a comment. In the meantime, I have tried to compensate but it is difficult to do. So for now, I will just have to accept that all images are going to be a bit offish. 

Several times a month, I go and stay in Southend-On-Sea, for that is where my mum and the majority of people that I know live. Between the train station and my mum’s house, there are quite a few office buildings – some in use, some not. The whole area from A to B is a mini concrete jungle. As imposing as it all is, I find something quite beautiful about it. I’ve been meaning to take photos there for quite some time and finally got around to doing so on Thursday:

Southend's answer to Stonehenge.

"There's a little bird that somebody sends / Down to the earth to live on the wind."

As I mentioned during the last post, I am not a fan of water. I make an exception at sunset though. When I eventually upgrade my camera, I look forward to getting some decent sunset photos. As much as I have loved the Canon 450D, it gets so grainy in low-light situations and my hands are not steady enough to keep the ISO set below 800 in such lighting – grainy is at least better than blurry. Still, my photos would be improved by being able to up the ISO and shutter speed as and when required. Yes yes, I would carry a tripod if it were practical. I should probably try spot metering also – that I can do with the 450D.

My mum as a silhouette.

Aside from blabbering about cameras, I can tell you that my router has died. Thus I shall be spending a lot less time online until it is replaced. Not a bad thing at all. Perhaps I will have an epiphany. Or at least make a start on the book pile that sits here beside me.