Woolly hat

Wooly hat, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Taken in Paris as part of a college "street photography" assignment.

HP5+, Olympus Trip on "manual": f/11 @ 1/40s

Portrait

Portrait, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

A portrait in the style of Anton Corbijn taken for a college assignment.

Originally shot on FP4+ with a Mamiya 645.

Mum

Mum, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Following from finding an old picture of my dad, here's one of my mum. Taken using either a Ricoh KR10 or a Pentax Super-A. Or it may even have a been a Zenit TTL.

Dad and rock

Dad and rock, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

An old photograph, taken with a Yashica 635 twin-lens reflex. Scanned from the original negative and firtled with in Lightroom a bit.

This is from 1990, somewhere in Wales.

WEEE man

WEEE man, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Another picture taken at the Eden Project in Cornwall. This is a statue made up of various bits of waste electrical and electronic equipment (hence WEEE).

Nikon D200 + Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR @ 62mm; 1/90@f8; ISO 100

Lobster pots

Lobster pots, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Seen in Port Isaac, Cornwall.

I like photographing textures: take the subject away from the image and just leave detail. Like here, I wanted to display the texture of the string and cracked plastic, rather than just produce a picture of lobster pots. I'll often process "texture" pictures as black and white, but the little splashes of red and cyan persuaded me to keep it in colour.

Nikon D200 + Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR@56mm; 1/250@f4.8, ISO400

Bacchanalia

Bacchanalia, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Part of an installation in the Mediterranean Biome at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. The spiders obviously like these statues...

Nikon D200 + Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR@75mm; 1/80@f8, ISO 400

Derelict warehouse

Derelict warehouse, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Spotted in Bradford-on-Avon, I liked this image for the texture and colours. I also like to incorporate a bit of biology into my urban pictures (where possible), hence the deliberate inclusion of the tree to help break up the slightly boring right-hand side.

Nikon D200 + 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm; 1/400@f6.3, ISO 400

St. Materiana's, Tintagel

Tintagel church, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

This 11th-12th century church sits on its own near the cliffs at Tintagel in Cornwall. I wanted to try to emphasise its isolation and to introduce a slightly dreamy, ethereal quality.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6@20mm; 1/40th @ f5.6, ISO400

Clouds and beach

I managed to get several decent pictures from a recent trip to South-West England, so I thought I'd post them over the next few days.

This was taken in the late afternoon at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. After what had been a pretty nice day, the weather took a turn for the worse and we arrived to cold, wind and rain. Not perfect for a trip to the seaside, but it does at least make for a dramatic image.

From The west Country

Lying in wait

Time to resurrect this blog thing, I think.

Since I'm hoping to get on a photography course in September, I thought I'd post some of my favourite photos.

I came across this little chap in Frankfurt a few years ago. Apart from the great design of a functional object, I just liked the way it appears to be hiding in the entranceway, waiting to leap out on some unsuspecting passer-by. It's interesting the way we so quickly anthropomorphise just about anything.



Nikon D70 + 18-70 f3.5-4.5 @65mm; 1/80 @f4.5, ISO 200

Proof reeding? Wassat, then?

I submit this without comment…

What do you do when…

…you find yourself on the scrap heap at 50+?

Write about stuff, I suppose.

Recession, credit crunch, blah, blah, cash flow problems, bye-bye.

I get home and the overwhelming feeling I have is—surprisingly—relief. Later, the “oh, bugger, no income” kicks in, but still the feeling of relief remains. Relief that, after thirty years as a software developer, I don’t have to do it any more. The realisation that I really don’t want to do it any more. It’s lost its allure; I now hate the 9-to-5 grind, driving the same old route to work every day, in the same old traffic jams; I hate the way life gets crushed into the gaps between the demands of work, so that just sitting down for a while leaves you feeling guilty that you’re not living.

Can anyone say “mid-life crisis”?

Career change. Those are the magic words. I have pretentions at being a photographer, so—go pro? Risky. Hard to get into and I could spend a long while scraping around building a portfolio. Better to just try to sell a few pictures as and when, rather than see it as a primary source of income. Teaching of some form sounds appealing. I’ve been told by those who’ve been subjected to me talking at them that I do it reasonably well. But not kids, though—if I’m going to teach, it’ll be people who want to learn, not a bunch of spotty herberts who are only there because they have to be.

First things first, though. Take time off without even considering the future. I reckon I deserve a bit of a sabbatical. Second surprise—I quite enjoy the whole “house husband” thing: doing the dishes, cooking, tidying up, actually having the time to organise and process all those photos… So, something else to add to the mix—whatever I do, I still want time to be domestic; time to do things on impulse, to phone a friend and say “fancy a coffee?”

So the next stage is to seek professional advice on the sort of things that I can feasibly do and that fit in with my aspirations. I don’t want a jet-set career; I just want enough to pay the bills and to fund the odd trip to France or Ireland to watch Sale Sharks and get bladdered.

That’s not much to ask, is it?