Petal Carpet

Today it was overcast and humid, with a few spots of rain during the day which turned into a downpour in the evening. In the park, I saw that a brisk wind had blown the blossom off the trees sideways -- so that it hadn't dropped evenly all around the trunk, but in patches next to the trees; like a bedside carpet made of petals. So I took a snap.



I was a bit disappointed that the weather had made the lighting for these pictures rubbish, but I decided it couldn't be helped. Five minutes later, just as I got back to the office, sharp, clear sunlight burst through the clouds, making everything beautiful. Damn it.

Red Legs

I was wearing bright red tights today, and they made me feel unreasonably happy.

Birthday 2010

Some photos from my birthday yesterday. I wish I'd taken more, but I was just too busy! It was quite a good birthday with a few nice surprises and no particular catastrophes.

This was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes in the morning:

I met up with my friend Bridget for tea at a café called Yumchaa, which I thoroughly recommend:

This was my cake. I love Easter chicks, they're so expressive and sweet and sad, and they remind me of Bitter with Baggage:



In the evening I went with some friends to a smashing comedy night called Karaoke Circus, a regular night at which comedians and volunteers from the audience sing accompanied by a live band. I brought my camera, but as ever, I forgot that it was even in my handbag. (And knowing that I always do that, I'd even planned to task one of my friends with being the official photographer for the evening, but I even forgot to do that.) I do wish I'd at least taken a photo of my dress, though. Oh well.

Leaning Tree of Ealing

What's wrong with this tree?

Hipstamatic App

Hipstamatic is a fashionable iPhone app at the moment: you can use it to take photographs that replicate prints from an old-fashioned automatic camera. Leaving aside the inherent pretentiousness of the whole concept, it is a really fun app to use and it takes very pleasing images. Here are a few of my early experiments:









My favourite thing about Hipstamatic -- apart from the unusual and interesting pictures, obviously -- is the noises it makes. I think the shutter click is the same as the one made by the usual iPhone camera, but there's also a little flash button which makes a tiny electronic whine when you activate it, a spot-on perfect copy of the noise old cameras made which I haven't heard in years. The first day I had the app, I kept opening it just to make it do that noise.

However, there is a lack of clarity about the choice of lenses and films on offer. The app comes with a small selection and you're encouraged to buy more at the Hipstamatic online store. But click on that link and look at the product descriptions. For example: 'Ina’s 1969 Film: Ina has a bakery today but 40 years ago she was rocking some pretty serious instant film. Peel away the boring with this fine film.' What on EARTH is that supposed to mean? They're all like that. 'Jimmy Lens: James was cool, but Jimmy could walk through flames. This lens rocks the daylight, the nightife, and everything in between.' So... what -- rounded edges, or...?
And there aren't any big, clear examples of what effect each bit of equipment will have on your photographs, so when the text lets you down, you can't turn to the visual either. You can download an 'owner's manual' PDF which is slightly better, but that still leaves much to be desired too. Answering the questions 'what are you selling, and why should I buy it?' seem like marketing basics to me.
If you Google about, you can find fans of the app who've posted their own demo sheets, comparing all the different lens and film combinations (er, I found one the other day and will link to it if I can find it again) but I think you should be able to find that easily at the shop.

Anyway, I didn't set out to do a proper review, so I'll cut off here -- this is a fun toy, I love how it makes my own photos surprise me, and I can see myself using it quite a lot in future.

Fall Asleep the Natural Way

This DVD is like a prop from Father Ted:


I just found it on my pillow in my parents' house. No explanatory note. Strange but wonderful.

Withnail & I Film Locations

Walked by a couple of locations from the film Withnail & I, and it was beautiful weather so I took some snapshots. They're in Stony Stratford, Bucks.

This was the tea room, although it's actually a pharmacy.

This was the shot in which Monty's car drove into the market square.

Happy Postbox in Ealing

There are quite a few of these happy postboxes around West London, once you start noticing them:

Walking Around the Serpentine

Making the most of the brighter weather, I went for a walk around the Serpentine. I saw this heron and was able to get really close, even though there was a little crowd of children nearby shouting at him, 'HEY. HEY. MR OSTRICH. LOOK OVER HERE!'

(As someone on Twitter said, I managed to catch him just as he was about to have his shower.)