Rethink Floyd

From left to right – Simon Martin, Julia K and Andy Cooper

Individually incredibly talented musicians who have been performing both their own music and covering the best of the best for many years.

This is one very happy photographer and videographer who can, tonight, announce the formation of Rethink Floyd! We are, naturally, all long-term fans of Pink Floyd and it’s wonderful to be able to involve myself with the music I love in working with them.

Rethink Floyd will be performing at The Windlesham Club & Theatre on Saturday 8th of June http://www.windleshamclub.org.uk/about.php

Keep an eye on my Facebook Page for website details, photos and show-reels. Link through the image 🙂

Mylie and Zach

This last year I’ve been giving a few tutorials on photography to my friend Sam. It’s been really great fun and very rewarding. We do have to work the lessons around the children though!

Today we met at her Nana’s to share our photos with her. It also gave us some time for me to show Sam one or two layering techniques with Photoshop. I think Mylie quite enjoyed watching herself magically transform into a Flower Fairy 🙂 The image I created is on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/miradordesign

Mylie and Zach were being really good today and I managed to persuade Zach to sit on his big sisters lap (for about five seconds!) and got this sweet image of them together.

There’s that horrible old saying, “never work with children or animals” but I won’t be dissuaded. They’re wonderful!

Another blogger I follow, Patrick Latter, has a great piece in his hiking blog about camera equipment that also links to some interesting looking tutorials for both Photoshop and Lightroom so do check it out http://hikingphoto.com/camera-gear/

A Sip of Golden Nectar

This Asian Swallowtail butterfly danced amongst the Clock Vine flowers sipping nectar on the wing and providing a beautiful spectacle for those of us in RHS Wisley’s Glasshouse today.

The Indian Clock Vine (Thunbergia mysorensis) spans the entire length of the tropical area of the glasshouse and is truly stunning with its slipper-shaped yellow and maroon flowers filled with sweet nectar. In the wild it is mostly visited by sunbirds and hummingbirds.

The Asian Swallowtail (Papilio lowi) is sometimes called The Great Yellow Mormon and to see this little beauty in the wild you’ll need to go to Borneo, Indonesia or the Philippines.

The Butterflies in The Glasshouse event as Wisley runs until the 24th February so do go along if you can
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/What-s-on/Butterflies

Sunshine On a Rainy Day

I haven’t really done any flower arranging in quite a while. Something I do like to do is use the individual flower heads from a bouquet that’s past it’s best and create a colourful little table decoration. Perfect on a fatigue day when I need a simple pick-me-up 🙂

Hope it brightens your day too! It’s also a bit of a thank you gift to everyone who’s been following and liking me on here, Twitter and Facebook.

Photo links to my Facebook page 🙂

Broken Beauty

This is Hastings Pier at sunset. It looks stunning with the sweeping skies of the southern coast. The Pier has an extraordinary heritage, particularly with the pavilion as a music venue.

Sadly, after many years of dereliction and neglect from a series of owners it was devastated by fire in 2010. Two people were arrested for arson but no charges were ever made.

The community has been fighting for years for this broken icon to be rebuilt and brought back into use. Finally, after a compulsory purchase order from the council, the pier is in the safe hands of the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust who have funding and plans for it’s resurrection.

Please visit the Trust for more information and a chance to purchase a plank. Just click on the image for the link.

Bearded Dragon

Today we had to make trip to “Pets at Home” to get a new scratch post for our cat, Pixel and some more bird food for our hungry little garden visitors.

I always get a little bit side tracked at the pet shop though and here is one of my favourite creatures to go and watch for a while. This wonderful lizard is a bearded dragon (Pogona) and they originate from Australia just like me!

I’d love to keep them as pets but we just don’t have the space to give them a really good vivarium, which is essential. They are lovely creatures, very friendly and tactile and will live for around 10 years.

You can link through the photo to the “Pets at Home” web page about them if you think you might be interested in one as a pet.

Please make sure you really do your research before buying and are fully committed as many of these lizards end up needing to be re-homed!

Crystal Haze

The very worst thing about living with chronic illness is the fatigue. You know that moment when you just wake up and everything is still a little fuzzy round the edges? A day taken over by fatigue is like that ALL day. Trying to engage with your own brain is a challenge in itself!

So this is my interpretation of today. The lights were on but it wasn’t very clear if anyone was actually home!

I just hope tomorrow is a bit more productive!

Goldeneye

Today didn’t go quite to plan after a problem with the central heating! Having the plumbers coming and going as well as an icy cold flat is not conducive to a productive mind.

Pixel has been a cuddly, little angel though today so he gets the starring role on the blog.

Not that this cute behaviour will last! I can almost guarantee that the moment we settle down to sleep “devil cat” will make an appearance and perform various acrobatics on the curtains 😉

Ah, the joy of kittens eh?

I’ve been working hard to process all my snow photos and Wisley images and hope to post them to my Facebook page tomorrow evening. Link through the image 🙂

A Bird in the Hand

Today I took my friend, Sam, and her daughter, Mylie along to Wisley Gardens to see the Butterflies in The Glasshouse but my Photo of the Day is Sam’s highlight of the day, a robin feeding from her hand 🙂

Mylie was captivated too but didn’t want to get too close to the mealworm and seed mix I’d brought along to give to the birds!

The snow is thawing now but the birds still need some extra food and fresh water to get them through to Spring. Which brings me nicely along to my links for the day!

This weekend is The Big Garden Birdwatch with the RSPB. In conjunction with this, RHS Wisley are hosting an event there with guided walks and experts from the RSPB on hand to help. Visit both sites to register (RSPB) and for times of the walks (RHS). You can, of course, take part in your own garden or a local park!

RSPB – http://tiny.cc/etb4qw

RHS Wisley – http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/What-s-on

Focus on Light and Shadow

Something a bit different today as I’m sure tomorrow will bring more snow photos!

A local shop, Heather Forster in West Byfleet, do a fantastic range of cards, gifts and jewellery and have been kind enough to let me use their shop as a treasure trove of still life subjects.

Here’s the link to their website http://heatherforster.co.uk/

If you want to practice your skills with complete manual operation of your camera a still life subject, with lighting, is a good place to start. Don’t be afraid to focus on the background or a less obvious area of your subject matter. Photography means “drawing/painting with light” so have fun and experiment!