Photo Every Day #31

Apologies for the rubbish post, we have no Internet and are struggling to get signal. Another quick pic for you through, we finally have food in! So we're cooking our first meal of fajitas!

Photo Every Day #30

Only a short one cos were still busy moving in! We did stop for a KFC break though!

Photo Every Day #29

Nearly completed my first month of photos, really enjoying it still! Some days photos are more exciting than others but its nice to look back and remember the little things too. Today's PED is of the Charbonnel & Walker chocolate reindeer I got for xmas. For some reason I've just not eaten it! So we're going to be eating it in a day or so when we move out! Can't believe it's tomorrow! It's come round suprisingly fast. But this does also mean that it's back to work tomorrow after a nice week off.

Chocolate Reindeer:


Song Of The Day: Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
Reason: Really love the lyrics, very easy to identify with. It's really strange to think that people come in to and out of your life so easily, once meaning something then meaning nothing to you.

Photo Every Day #28

Today's PED are more from the set of the Darktown Jubilee music video shoot. It wasn't a full day like yesterday and luckily the weather was a lot sunnier! I didn't get to see a lot of the filming as I was making a mountain of sandwiches this morning, but what I did see looked really good! Can't wait to see how it all turns out!

 Sandwich Mountain:


Green Screen:


Screentime:


Sunny Day:



Song Of The Day: Redlight - Get Out Of My Head
Reason: I'm slowly starting to quite like this one!

Photo Every Day #27

Today's PED is from my time on set today. I was a Production Runner for the filming of Manchester based band Darktown Jubilee's first music video. The video is being directed by Jason Wingard and Gino Evans, who won this years Virgin Media Short competition! Impressive! It also stars Steve Evets.

I'm not sure exactly what the concept of the video is as I've not heard the song, but there was filming of scenes reminiscent of the summer time looting and riots. The scenes were so realistic that locals informed the police! Luckily the producers had sorted out filming permits and let them know what was going on so no one was arrested! It was wet and miserable weatherwise, but all in all a good day.

Lights, Camera, Action:


Film Yourself:


Song Of The Day: The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
Reason: Heard it on the radio, still love it!

Photo Every Day #26

Today's PED isn't very exciting, but I'm not very excited by the current state of my room either! We've begun to start packing everything away ready for the move on Monday (excited!). We've nearly ran out of boxes and there's still all my clothes/shoes/handbags/make up/jewellery to be packed! Eek!

Boxes:


Song Of The Day: Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
Reason: Heard it on the radio a couple of times today, starting to like it!

Photo Every Day #25

Today's PED is a bit of a photo story. I've spent most of the day with my 'These Guys' crew doing some test shots for the storyboard. However, we also decided to bath the boy's doggies! They don't mind having a bath but don't really appreciate being wet for ages afterwards.

Luke is an old English sheepdog, he's huge! This is him sitting in the bath, he looks a bit sad but he did enjoy it!:


Whilst Luke was getting into the bath, Benji decided to get into the shower for a quick lie down:


Luke waiting for the washing to commence:


After Luke was soaped up and being rinsed, Benji was lifted into the bath to join in. This is them looking rather soggy:


Little Benji was a lot dirtier than Luke, who didn't seem that mucky at all:


After they were all clean and finished, they were both towelled down before running around like crazy mutts. Benji wrapped up in a towel giving the boy kisses:


Song Of The Day: Black Street - No Diggity
Reason: Heard it on the radio and it's still a great tune!

Photo Every Day #24

Today's PED is of my new favourite item! My lovely Yankee Candle! It's the creamy caramel scent and I've been after one for ages. I managed to find a large jar version for a bargain £14, so chuffed! Cannot wait to have it in our new appartment (5 days to go!)

Creamy Caramel:


Song Of The Day: Outkast - Ms Jackson
Reason:  It was played on the radio today whilst I was driving. Brings back a funny memory of when someone in my form in year 8 locked the form tutor out of the classroom, she went mental! When they finally let her back in people started singing this song (Her name was Ms Jackson obviously!). Hilarious!

Photo Every Day #23

Today's PED is once again, food related! We've spent the first proper day of our holidays sorting out stuff for the new place so we decided to treat ourselves with a lovely McDonalds! Not had one in ages and it was actually pretty decent.

Maccy Ds:


Song Of The Day: Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Reason: I actually really like her sound and think it's a bit unfair that she's gotten so much bad press recently.

Photo Every Day #22

Today's PED is actually 3 photos! We went to La Boheme Restaurant in Lymm with my family for a meal. The food and service were excellent as always. I shared battered, smoked haddock and pidegeon with the boy for my starter, had a duck dish for my main and a sticky toffee pudding for desert! Yummy.

Duck:


Sticky Toffee Sponge: 


Chocolate Platter:


Song Of The Day: Marina & The Diamonds - Starstrukk
Reason: Still loving this cover!

Photo Every Day #21

Today's PED is a photo I've been working on, rather than a photo I've taken. I've spent most of the day cleaning out the boy's room so that we're ready to move out. I took the photo when I was on a one day photography course in Manchester. We had an hour or so to go and take some photos and then bring our best ones back to show the others. The guy leading the course seemed impressed with this one as the water is so clear. It was my favourite photo from the day, I loved the little green plant in the middle of all the pouring water. I also heard about HDR editing programmes after going to my first meeting for the Warrington District Camera Club (WDCC) so decided just to download a free app on to my iMac to see what happened. I only adjusted the HDR setting a bit as I didn't want to go over the top, but I quite like the way it's turned out!


Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls:


Song Of The Day: Avril Lavigne - Fall To Pieces
Reason: Heard it for the first time today whilst driving and could really relate.

Photo Every Day #20

Today's PED in inspired by my favourite film ever in the world! The amazing The Shining by the equally amazing Stanley Kubrick. There is nothing I don't love and adore about this film; from Jack Nicholsons's Jack Torrence (my favourite actor!) and the rest of the cast to the grand, isolated location of the hotel to the whole plot. I've still not finished reading the novel version, but that's also pretty damn good too! The photo is of a poster which I got off Etsy from Claudia Varosio. I love the style of the posters and there's a Jaws one I have my eye on next!

The Shining:


Song Of The Day: Will.I.Am - T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)
Reason: Not really sure why, but it's quite addictive to listen to after a few times! Didn't realise that J.Lo was on it either!

Photo Every Day #19

Today's PED isn't the most exciting photo visually, but is an exciting project! We held our first production meeting for a while for our sitcom 'These Guys', which was productive and will see us taking realistic steps in the right direction with it.

Script:


Song Of The Day: Caro Emerald - That Man
Reason: They've added it to the 'radio' at work, I actually quite like it!

Life On The Net

I've been inspired to write this blog post after much thought about the nastiness on the internet. This is nothing to do with the Stop Online Piracy Act, which seems to be the news topic of the moment. Rather, its about human behaviour towards other humans via the internet.

There seems to have been a huge rise in 'internet trolling' and 'flaming' of late. I personally have witnessed it on many a Facebook page, YouTube video and Twitter tweet; all of which make it very easy to post any sort of comment as quickly as you can type it out. I don't want to slag off social networking sites, I for one enjoy using Facebook, YouTube, Twitter et al. They make communicating and sharing information really easy and fun, who doesn't love looking at photos that friends have tagged you in or receiving a dozen happy birthday tweets?!

Photo Every Day #18

The photo today is of my lovely slipper boots. I never would have bought them myself as I prefer to wear slipper socks, but they're really comfy! I got two pairs for xmas and they keep my feet nice and warm, which will be very useful when we've moved into our appartment and can't afford to turn the heating up! Its relaxing to put them on after a long day on my feet.

Cosy:

Song Of The Day: Stone Sour - Through The Glass
Reason: It's been stuck in my head for the last few hours! No idea why as I've not heard it in ages!

Photo Every Day #17

We've got an insect themed PED today. I'm not usually a fan either way of insects, I don't hate them, but I'm not their number one fan either! However, locusts are the main diet for my precious geckos; they love them! Yummy! I prefer to gut feed the insects that I feed to them to make sure they're all full of good nutrients, especially since the geckos don't eat anything other than insects! Having tried a 'love bug salad' which contained locusts and crickets and also a chocolate covered scorpion whilst in London (I even ate it's sting! Apparently tribal warriors eat them to prove how brave they are, crazy!), I can safely say that I am no insectivore! 


Locust Salad:


This is a photo of the actual 'love bug salad too:


And one of the chocolate scorpion:


Song Of The Day: Spinnerette - All Babes Are Wolves
Reason: I've been meaning to listen to Brody Dalle's latest band since I heard they existed, however, I've disgracefully only just got round to it!

Photo Every Day #16

Today's PED is once again food related; m&s salted caramel ice cream roll. Sooo tasty!

Song Of The Day: Marina & The Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot
Reason: Really liking Marina at the moment, wasn't sure at first what I though, but her style has really grown on me.

Caramel:

Photo Every Day #15

Today's PED features FOOD!! We went for the Sunday banquet at Butterfly Chinese Restaurant in Stockton Heath with the boy's sister and her fiance. Been a fair few times as it's really nice food for a really cheap price, plus you get loads!

Song Of The Day: Staind - Been A While
Reason: Just a really good song, very 90s!

Nom:

Photo Every Day #14

Today's PED is of my 'film shelf' which contains my vintage film cameras, both of my degrees, and a rather lovely photo of me in my BA degree graduation robes. I watched Of Freaks & Men today, a Russian film about the development of pornography from photographic stills to motion films. It is a bizarre film with strange characters but well worth a watch! It has stunning sepia tainted cinematography which gives it a really authentic feel. This has had me thinking all day about how to get my ideas surrounding creating my own 'old movie' style short.

Song Of The Day: Alexisonfire - Rough Hands
Reason: A really beautiful song with lyrics I can identify with.

"Sometimes love isn't about how much someone suits you
but how much you're willing to change to suit them"

"Well I'm not saying she's my last.
I'm just saying that she could have been"

Camera Collective:

Photo Every Day #13

Today's PED features the book I'm currently reading, When I Was Five I Killed Myself by Howard Buten, not really read much yet, but its awesome! In the background are my red reindeer pyjamas bottoms and my snuggly black skull fleece blanket.

Song Of The Day: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Black  Bubblegum
Reason: I've been listening to it on repeat since last night, awesome song, probably one of the easiest songs to listen to if you want to get into the band.

Snuggly:

Photo Every Day #12

Today's PED is entitled 'nostalgia'. I have one shelf of random toys, bits and bobs etc in my room. I'm debating whether to take it to the new flat or just leave it here. Is nostalgic stuff really just trash?

Also, feel like doing a song of the day to go with the PED, maybe it will last, maybe it won't!

Song of the Day: Queens of the Stone Age - Most Exalted Potentate Of Love
Reason: Josh Homme is the definition of cool! Adore QOTSA and think this is an underrated song!


Nostalgia:

Photo Every Day #11

The Photo Every Day challenge still hasn't beaten me yet! It's quite nice to think of a little something that describes my day, even if it has just been the usual get up, go to work, come home, wait for the boy, go to bed. This is one of my favourite perfumes at the moment, Diesel's Fuel For Life. Not worn it for ages and I love it!

Fuel For Life:

Things I Love This Week

Moving In - We have a date! 31st Jan and all checks passed and it's our new home!!

Extension Tubes - Hopefully I'll be able to put them to good use.

Gecko Babies - £75 extra so we can have them move in with us too, worth EVERY penny.

Fridge-Freezer - Most expensive thing I own which isn't technology or clothing! Very nice and will look awesome in our appartment.

Drakan - Old Playstation 2 game I used to love playing. Good times.

Healthy Eating - Trying to eat more fruit and its yummy!

Photo Every Day #10

Today's PED is of my new extension tubes for my beautiful Canon! I've only had a little play around for 15 mins on them so far and they're a little harder to use than I thought there were going to be. I've not really mastered the basics yet, although I'm usually not bad at composing shots, definately not motion shots anyway! But I have found a local camera club so I'll be going along to a meeting next Monday, hopefully I'll meet some new people who can help me learn!!

 My Camera Is Much Bigger Than Yours:

Photo Every Day #9

Nearly hitting double figures with PED now, so here's two photos from when we were waiting in the car for our friends to arrive!

Corsa:


Crazy:

Photo Every Day #8

The PED today is of an old Playstation 2 game that I used to love playing called Drakan. It's based in medieval times and you get to play as a girl riding a dragon! Very fun and reminds me of being a lot younger and trying to entertain myself on a weekend at my dads.

Drakan:

Photo Every Day #7

This PED is inspired by our recent looking to move out of home. We've found a really nice place, the estate agents have taken it off the market and its all ours providing we pass the checks! Fingers crossed!!!

Apply:

Photo Every Day #6

Today's PED is of a cute necklace with a panda charm on it. Steven's older sister got it for me this xmas and I wore it for the first time today, many people said how cute it was!

"Panda Cubs: How are baby pandas born?

When a giant panda is first born, it is tiny. It weighs between four and six ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. At birth, it is pink, blind, helpless and hairless. During this time, the mother cares for it closely, often cradling it in her paw and keeping it close to her chest. The cub doesn’t open its eyes until it is six week old, and it doesn’t walk until it is three months.
Cubs nurse for about nine months but they stay with their mothers for a long time after that. In fact, it can be up to three years before a giant panda cub strikes out on its own."
Source: http://www.pandaexpress.com


Panda Bear

Photo Every Day #5

Today's PED features Pixie. She looked so tired and comfy in her bed when I came down to go to work, adorable!!

Pixie & Friend:

Photo Every Day #4

Today's PED features one of my beloved geckos, Pebbles. She's started lying on her log when she gets bored of the rock cave, which looks really uncomfortable, but she seems to love it!

Eublepharis Macularius:

Photo Every Day #3

PED #3 is here, it's a photo of two mobile type things I have in my bedroom, they have on them various people doing traditional farm style work; they're all carrying things, lifting sacks etc. I think they are made from banana leaf, at least that's what I was told, but I really have no clue about them at all as I bought them very cheap from an antiques place!

The Hanging Dolls

Photo Every Day #2

Here is todays PED (Photo Every Day), it's of one of the elephants at Chester Zoo carefully balancing along the edge of their pool. Very cute!!

"Elephants are lovely guys,
They're good and true and tell no lies.

They don't take more than they can eat,
And always watch where they put their feet."

The Elephant Poem by Wayne Hepburn

Photo Every Day #1

I have decided to try to participate in one of those 'take a photo every day' type challenges. I'm not sure if I'll manage to find the most wildly interesting thing everyday, but it can't hurt to give it a go!!

So here's my first go (bare in mind that I'm still loving the novelty of Instagram) entitled 'Fresh Day, Fresh Start':

Top Ten: Moments of 2011

Here are my top ten moments of 2011, in no particular order:

1. 1 year anniversary with the boy - mile stone in our relationship!



2. Deciding to move out with the boy - Buying all the stuff that we'll need and fantasising about buying extravagant things we can't afford has been fun, just can't wait for the actual moving in day!

3. Finishing my MA - Finishing my MA was sad and I'm still gutted that I'm no longer a student after 5 years at uni, but I'm proud to say I've accomplished a lot in terms of education.

 

4. London - Our short break to London in May was one of the best trips to London I've been on. We got to eat at some amazing restaurants and to see things I've not seen before.

5. Riding - Starting up riding lessons again on a regular basis has been awesome to the point of making me seriously consider a career with horses! I've got an amazing teacher in Melissa, and get to ride some awesome horses such as Minnie, Dennis, Blue, Zack etc

 

6. Buying my Canon 550D and Final Cut Pro - Both have given me a chance to get that little closer to my film making dreams!

7. Citi Petts Music Video - Making a video that will actually see the light of day for a really good band with a class song makes me feel that all our hard work will pay off eventually.

8. Project Black aka Vanished - By far my best/most improved film accomplishment to date.





9. Longshot Film Festival - Having my work shown to a roomful of people was scary, but I can't wait to do it again.

10. Good Laughs With Good People - All the people in my life who I get to spend time with have also made my year bearable.