July Blog Updates … In the clear … but its not over yet.

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the web.

Let me first have a shout out to my friend Chris, the owner of The Bramblesflowers and Flowers to yours who I found out during my last visit to the shop has broken his leg. Speedy recovery my friend and don't push yourself too hard.

We did not actually have a shoot in July, there was planned to be one on location in my parents back garden, but I cancelled it so as not to be a burden on them. We have however got the results for the last shoot in June that missed lasts months update due to timing. The team and I worked with the lovely Lyra Rose Model on some stuff for this and my other website. The shoot went really well and we got all that we set out to achieve done. So thank you then to all there and helped.

So with regards to Cancer …. well I am in the clear.

I managed to get my CT Scan done at the Hospital eventually. The first time being postponed due to me not being cleaned out enough. I was literally still full of shit even after fasting and drinking a whole bottle of laxative. Second time around I had to fast over three days and guzzle down two bottle of laxative. Great if you like Pernod aniseed liqueur, but for me no amount of sweet apple juice can wash away the foulneess of the taste it left in my mouth. It made my bottom ache and made me sick to my stomach. But the CT Scan got done and I received the good news last Friday. There was no sign of cancer anywhere, but it has opened the door to another complication. Something is still wrong and the scan picked up anomalies in my Liver. So I am waiting to be contacted by the relevant Liver department for further advice. Still positive news where it is found and I don't have the Big C.

July was the month my little sister got married to Colin Willianson, a good man who clearly loves and cares for her. Here is wishing them happiness for the future and thanks for a great day out at your Wedding. I did take some snaps of the day that can be seen in the Random section of this blog.

Thanks goes out to my parents for putting up with Amy and I, as well as taking us to random locations around the countryside to do some landscape and Infrared shots.

We have two fashion shoots this August, more of which I will tell you about next month.

I hope you enjoy this months blog, there is a bit to look at and make sure to come back for more next month.

x

Projects – Landscapes

in

I wish I could get the chance to do a lot more of this stuff as I really enjoy landscape photography. The lack of transport and ill health keeps me from getting out there. Anyway here are some black and whites of scenes we found recently on a day out and about in the countryside. We were lucky in finding an old barn in dire need of renovation, that photographed well amongst other things like willow trees blowing in the wind.

Projects – Infrared

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Sunshine and plenty of light is needed for Infrared photography. So when we were out doing the landscapes I banged some red and yellow filters on my two converted (unshipped) Nikon D80 cameras and grabbed these shots. For those who don't know Infrared is the spectrum of light that the human eye cannot see, but things like bees and butterfly's as well as unchipped digital sensors can pick up on and see. I have the two cameras as one is for colour and the other for black and white Infrared captures. Please enjoy.

Random Stuff

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This is the bit where I show you snaps from my sisters wedding to Colin, before she jetted off to America for her honeymoon. I did not photograph the usual stuff like wedding dresses and the cutting of the cake, as she had paid some more than capable Wedding photographers to take care of all of that and I could not better them. Nor wished to try. Instead I took pictures of more incidental things like the Sandwichs and layers of small cakes served up for mid afternoon tea. Champagne and beer glasses, and even shadows on the wall of lights from outside the venue as the Sun was setting in the golden hour mode. I hope the lack of Wedding dresses does not disappoint you all?

Still Life

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Outside my local hospital is a fruit and veg store that's there four days a week. What an inspired idea to put that where everyone can have no excuse to buy fresh healthy food? So at this store I found a fruit I had never seen before and decided to surprise Amy with it. She knew exactly what it was … Its called a Dragon fruit and has an interesting if weird look to it. So before eating Settling on these three images as the final cut for the Still Life gallery.

Lyra Rose Fashion Shoot

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Everybody welcome the lovely Lyra Rose Model in her first shoot with the team and I. She was a great model and perfect for the job. Punctual, polite and needed no prompt she got stuck in with the shoot and gave us some great pictures. Especially the ones with the Fab Lolly and the hundreds and thousands all over her lips and hands. I think we shall be getting Lyra Rose back for another session sometime early in the New Year after I have thought of some new ideas she would be good for. So thank you Lyra and thanks also to to Shadrine at Kavour for her hair and makeup and Phil for his wonderful studio The Boardroom, in Derby. It goes without saying a thank you also to Amy for her help and food.

The Garden 4

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Collected here are the edited highlights from a quick walk around my fathers pride and joy, his garden. There is often new things to find each time we go there and at different times of the year. Enjoy.

July Flower Updates

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I have cut the work load down starting from this month with only three flowers from the shop this month rather than the normal four. There is a good feel to the 'Power 3' concept. Best regards and speedy recovery to Chris and thanks the ladies at The Bramblesflowers and Flowers to yours A thanks also to Amy of course for her ever needed help and organisational skills.

That's it for this July. Please come back in August to visit us again.

Thanks

x

June Blog Updates, what happened to Mays update, Wedding day and possible me and the Big C

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the web.

I must start of this months blog with a wish for a happy wedding day for my little sister Lisa Fry who is getting married again in early July. If ever a girl needed happiness it was her.. So here is wishing you well with your marriage to Colin Williamson. All the best. See you there.

So what happened to last months blog entry?

Put simply I was not in a frame of mind to do it as I had had a battle with the Baxi boiler in my home. The demonically possessed boiler from Hell decided to pack up …. yet again! And Amy and I went without having a proper bath for over ten days. Yes we were ripe and very pissed off.Two engineers from Baxi came out to fix the boiler, the first man ran off after making as many excuses why he can not do it and the second one did half a job. He had to come back again a few days later and stood in my doorway shaking his head, sucking his teeth and saying I did not tell him there was no hot water. Cheeky bastard was trying to blame me for his shoddy work. I argued with him that I did in fact tell him as after ten days without a bath I was hardly likely to forget that fact was I? So the lesson is to never buy BAXI …. they are shite.

So after all that excitement I was just to drained to want to do the blog that month. My apologies.

Okay so I have something to announce

Enjoy this months show. I don't want anyone to worry as it has yet to be confirmed, but there is a strong possibility that I could have bowl cancer. So you would imagine there is a story attached to it. So as a man in his sixty's I was invited to send in a specimen to be checked for cancer. So that's what I did and a couple f days later they contacted me saying I needed a face to face meeting with them at clinic 6 At this meeting I was informed of the strong abnormalities in my sample and what it could mean. The women I spoke with told me I needed a colonoscopy examination. Great I thought …. another camera shoved up and orifice. Still I agreed and left it with her to arrange as this was the best course of action to prove one way or another. To my shock and distressed she called me a few days later and said, because if all my other medical issues they were not going to give me this examination. I protested and said I have had many cameras put in nasty places before and lived to tell the tale. I also have a rite to know if I have this cancer and that I cannot un-remembed all that she had told me. Her reply was to say sorry and that if I felt a bit ill I should take a paracetamol and go see my GP. I went Ballistic . I was that primed and ready to explode they could have dropped me on Iran and I woud have gone off.

So after much shouting she said I could take with the consultant on the following Wednesday and see why he agrees with her decision.

And so that is what I did this past week. He confirmed what she had said to me and then went on three times to talk about other patients of which I was having none of that bullshit and closed that line down. Eventually he offered me an alternative examination which was an X-ray using a CT Scanner which is a enormous scanner that looks like a giant doughnut. And I accepted excepted, but asked why that other woman could not have offered that in the first place when she called me rather than hanging me out to dry? It would have saved a whole world of agrovation and chest thumping.

He had no answer to that.

So here we are …. I am going for a CT Scan on July 17th at 0930. I suppose its better than having a camera up the backside !

Like I said before and in closing, this is not 100% confirmed and there is always a chance it could be something not so troubling, but at least now I should be able to get it sorted and deal with whatever is found.

Its all fun at the top and never a dull day !

So it leaves me to say try and enjoy this blog and see you next month.

x

Still Life

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We got some still life to show you this month. Taken in the back door studio, they are a collecting of dried flowers I purchased from Amazon and used natural light to shoot them in. I placed an overlay on the images to give them a distressed look and shabby chic feel. I have chosen the best ones to display on the website, collected here for you to see. I hope you enjoy them.

Maryna Sedin 4th Fashion Shoot

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Its that time of the year when we treat ourselves to a shoot with lovely Ukrainian model living in London, Maryna Sedin. This is our fourth photo shoot with her and was actually taken in the last days of May but missed out on the previous blog. What can I say about Maryna? She is just brilliant and a real gem to work with. She does not mind coming out from London as well which is a bonus and I only have to point the camera at her and she does her thing. Have a look at the pictures and see. Thanks then to Maryna for modelling. Thanks also to Shadrine at Kavour for her hair and makeup and Phil for his wonderful studio The Boardroom, in Derby. And thanks also to Amy for her help and food.

June Flower Updates

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Back again with the flowers this month after last months self imposed break and we have some interesting flowers.

We start off with a peony which is always one of my favourites to snap. Delicate and full bloom when in heated rooms, the look of this flower is always a delight only got three flowers this month from the shop, but Amy brought home a small thistle that she found close to her work place and that made up the fourth flower. At this point of writing the blog the flowers are now going over. So we will be trying something new with them tomorrow involving white spirit (turps) and a fag lighter. If it works I shall post the results up to view in next months blog, so be sure to tune back then.

That's it for this month, but a big thanks then to Chris and the ladies at The Bramblesrist and Flowers to yours And thanks also to Amy of course.

That's it for this June. Please come back in July to see us again.

Thanks

x

April Blog Update, I can see again ,... and Sonia with little Queeny dropped by !

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the web and apologies for the late delivery.

Its been a bit of a quiet month this month, with no extra bits of work to show other than the flower shoot and the studio shoot that we did. But there were some highlights for me with the return of Sonia who brought along her most adorable little two year old Queeny with her. We have met up twice so far and are planning a reboot shoot in early May on location and future studio dates. I first met Sonia a decade ago when she was eighteen and shot with her then. She has always been respectful to me and always so very elegant. Seeing her again brought back those halcyon days of Tyler, Monalisa and Sonia … such good memories. You can find many of our shoots in the earlier galleries on this site, which are worth a look. I also think she has improved with age. Maybe its being a Mother that has done it, but anyway I am glad she is back. Her daught Queeny is such a character, always friendly and making as much noise-and disruption as she can, but she is lovely I have added a instax picture of Sonia taken recently when we were in MacDonalds. I did not add the one of Queeny as I don't feel right about putting children's pictures up on the web.

Another bit of good news is that my eye sight in my left eye has returned. Its about 75% better. I still have some floaters bobbing around in there and can hinder when I look closely at things, but fingers crossed they might eventually go as well. So I think I have dodged the surgery I was going to have.. I did not like the sound of that to be honest so I am pleased. And as my Christian Mother would say, believe in the power of prayer.

The next planned studio shoot for May was going to be on the fourteenth, but has been moved to the twenty seventh instead. Maryna Sedin is again coming up from London for this shoot and I am looking forward to seeing her again for our fourth shoot together. I also hope to do some still- life's in May as well. I have not created anything like that for a while, and of cause the regular Flower pictures as always.

So that's it for this month. Be sure to return at the end of May and see you all again.

x

Mercybongo eleventh photo shoot

in

Ever lovely Mercybongo was the star of this months shoot at Boardroom Studio in Derby with some location shooting frown in as a bonus. Shadrine did the hair and makeup and we all ventured out into Derby going up the road to the St Marys Cathedral. Phil at the studio recommended the place and we used the two sides of the building. One side was in the dark, so a flash was needed and used. The other side was in the bright sun light. Mercybongo was great as ever and on the ball wearing a little creation Amy had put together. If you look at here jeans they are cut off at the mid leg area and several beaded 'thingies' are hanging down where the jeans once hung. Amy made that all herself and I appreciate the effort she put in as it adds to the vision I had of this shoot. She is going to alter them again by adding the camera shoulder straps at the bottom of the jeans to add a bit more contrast for the eye. Also another thanks to Amy for coming up with the idea for the second part of the shoot that was done in the studio. She made bows to go in Mercybongos hair using only the wrappers from a box of Lindt Lindor Milk Chocolates. And it worked as you can see from the picture. I also like the telephone Mercybongo came along with as that fitted in with the theme. So thanks to all there. To Mercybongo and to Amy and thanks also to Shadrine at Kavour for her brilliant makeup and hair. And of course Phil at the Boardroom Studio in Derby

Mercybongo will return in July for a location shoot in Kettering, so watch out for that.

April Flower Updates

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I managed to get some new stuff this month from the florist including some spotted eaves instead of flowers. They are the bright green ones. As the seasons change, so does the selection of flowers to work with and the Bramblesrist Florist never let me down. So thanks then to Chris and the ladies at the Bramblesrist and Flowers to yours as well as a thank you as always to Amy.

That is it for this month. Apologies for the delay and shortness of the offerings, but see you all next month.

x

March Update, Munira Model shoot and the Turd Reich

in

Welcome back to my piece of the web. Nice to see you again.

There is a little bit more to show you this month unlike February. So its be a long but productive month with a model shoot, six flowers and a journey out of the house. It was also my fathers birthday, so happy birthday Dad. It was also Mothers day, so celebrations there as well. I am still unable to see correctly out of my left eye with floaters blocking every time I move. I was put in to see a specialist with regards eye surgery and was put in last November. Yet so far I have heard nothing, not even a letter to say hello and we know your waiting. I will have to do it myself I think and get out the brillo pads to scrub the back eyeball !!! Should not take long.

I am looking forward to the coming shoot in April with Mercybongo in the studio and weather permitting on site in Derby. We have not seen Mercy since last Christmas shoot in December, so nice to catch up with her. Be sure to tune in next month to see the results.

I took the liberty of downloading an interesting piece of art that someone made and stuck up on walls and public places in London. It cleverly shows well known characters from politics in the world today, all dressed up as Nazis. The picture is aptly named 'The Turd Reich' Have a giggle at it. It is in-fact not a laughing matter, but a bit of black humour does help to ease the worry in this increasingly dark world. Another way to sweep aside the blues is to enjoy the images taken this month of Indian Queen, Munira Model with looks and beauty to lift even the heavyset of hearts.

Thanks again for dropping by and enjoy the blog. x

Project – 'Landscapes'

in

We went down to Newstead Nature Reserve on our day out, but got there to soon. I had hoped that the grass would be long and uncut, but we were far to early for that. There still was not a lot of leaves on the trees either. Still it did enable us the take some good pictures of some of the many Silver Birch with peeling bark trees. We also carefully avoided the ever present dog shit that litters the path I know they have to go somewhere, but why in a public nature reserve? Still we managed to get some half way decent snaps of the landscape there.