Yes – I’m afraid all my paranoid fears are coming true. I was filling in time whilst changing trains at Birmingham New Street station by taking some photos of peoplle moving around the station, when I was ‘picked up’ by two undercover police officers interested in what on earth I was doing documenting a potential terrorist target like Birmingham New Street station. They took down my credentials and had a look at some of the photos. I didn’t even have time to edit the images and apply all the necessary filtering and cropping to make them look good – so slightly embarrassing on that score. I was a bit upset that they didn’t find my photos suitably controversial to censor them. Thast would have made me a more robust and convincing artist, but at least it means I’ve formally struggled to defend my art in the eyes of the law. Sort of.
A visit to see the Hughes family at Ripple
A great weekend away from the manic DIY ! Had a great stay with Andrew, Denise and WIll (Thanks!!). Also a couple of pics from a snowy weekend in Helmshore and of Olly on Sally’s birthday.
Frozen barbed wire
Strange things afoot in Helmshore today. Ice winds and driving sleet and snow combined with a temperature above melting point – all the trees and fences had this layer of ice on them and thre trees made a crackling sound in the wind. Chilly. Background is our house in the distance.
Cycling kept me sane, says Gerald Ratner
Great story. Profiling Gerald Ratner (the jewellery entrepreneur), the Telegraph newspaper accused the entrepreneur of being “borderline compulsive-obessive†because he rides a bike in racing kit. Here’s the
full article
Why the Chicken Didn’t Cross the Road
Ace photo on my friend John’s Flickr site. I seem to be having a bit of a Flickr intensive revival at the moment. John’s travelling around the world (again – twice in three years!) and sending some ace shots back. Have aloot at the set if you’ve got time…. gorgeous snaps.
San Francisco, the model city
A lovely bit of photo-tweaking and a nice Photoshop tutorial showing you how to make normal cityscape photos look like those architectural cut-out models.
Snowd-on ia.
A perfect weekend of walking in dream-like conditions with brother Phil, cousin Adrian and five otherlucky people. Can’t wait til next year! Day one; Carneddau – including the second highest point in Wales, Day 2; Moel Siabod and a good ridge and great views of all the 3,000 footers from the summit.
Driving me mental
Microsoft’s Virtual Earth: “Now you can have maps that don’t just have satellite views: Microsoft’s Virtual Earth now lets you walk or drive around the streets and see a street-level view”.
Hmm.
You can explore street-side views by ‘driving’ (with your mouse or with the arrow keys on your keyboard) our ‘Sports Car’ or ‘Race Car’ along streets in the map or you can also ‘Walk’ along the street. When the car is on a street that has street-side images, the car headlights turn on and you can view the front, right, and left views through the car windows above. When there are no available views, a ‘no view’ screen is displayed. Simply drag (or ‘drive’ with keystrokes) the car to a different place to continue browsing.”
It’s just dreadful, but young technology always improves. It looks like the bastard son of Google Earth and a bored tourist’s photo album.
That feels good
My hamstrings hurt. Three of my toes are blistered, one of them badly. My calf muscles feel like they’ve been pummelled by a steak tenderiser. What a lovely feeling to have the running season back! I came 13th out of 190 in the Radcliffe 12 mile trail race – not the usual fell race but a much flatter course. It was a challenge and sufficiently vaired under foot to keep your mind occupied. i went off from the start like a bullet and knew I was likely to suffer after the half way mark, but suffering’s good, isn’t it.
Special mention to the only uphill section of canal in the whole world, which went on for about a mile. No locks, just ‘flat’ water. The tow path felt like it was about one in ten. Maybe it was just my imagination.
When Minnellium intorduced Boards of Canada to Eminem
I know the mash-up stuff went on a good few years ago now but I still love the idea of combining two bands / styles. This one was fun to put together anyway – give me any comments – hope you enjoy it….. Stan (mp3, 5.1 mb)
Near my office window
Sixteen panning mini photos of the NCP car park on Whitworth Street as seen from the third floor of Bridgewater House. Tell me you’ve seen this before, and I’ll be surprised.
Click here to view this and a series of other photos all taken within about three hundred metrees from my place of work on the new work camera over lunch time. All tweaking done in piccasa.
Feb 06 – Welsh Trip with the Greenwoods and Sheridans
A lovely three days in a shared cottage near to Montgomery. Brilliant time from start to finish. Can’t wait ’til next year.