Oooo pretty!

I didn't and won't get to go to any fireworks displays this year, but it doesn't stop me enjoying the amazing sights through other amazing eyes. I wish Heroes was still on and I could work out how to absorb people's powers like Sylar. Without any exposed brain matter! Take a look. :-)

Davey J Photography

Patrick Schneider Photography

Lightning and fireworks!!!
A happy accident by Michael Pescetti. Read about it here.

Michael Lewis Glover fine art photography

I swear this looks like the beginning of the Eye of Sauron!

Catherine and Garrett blessed me twice

A sprint through pouring rain, a boat across the water three times, a few drives along roads with endless bushes caressing the sides of my car, and a Siberian husky. It was an eventful weekend in Cornwall. But I was glad I went. Even if I was surprised with having to do a best man speech!

I've known Garrett for around 15 years. Those kids you see riding their bikes everywhere they're not meant to? That was us. Let me apologise now for our delinquent behaviour. I think it was only Catherine that made this focused Irish Loki become ... Well, I'd be lying if I said Loki was retired. But Loki is definitely more of a guest appearance type of character. Catherine blew into his life in a flash of running trainers and heavy breathing - they met at a running club.

"Angus, we want you to do our wedding?"

"I'm free."

"Wicked."

And so we have my first blessing. I get a buzz from doing most weddings. But to be asked to cover the wedding of a long time friend is something else. Especially when it is followed with,

"Just come and do your thing. "

Free reign. No stress. (Ish!) Oh you live for days like this. I get to flitter flutter like a free bird doing whatever I feel. I was liking the thoughts, the thoughts of the scenery, the fashion, the rural greens... Then karma hit.

I got an email.

Now, normally, I try go respond to every email and call by midnight of the following day. Normally. This email, I read, re-read, then walked away for a few days.

Hello!

I am Catherine's sister and she asked me to get in touch with a request. Garrett's cousin/ best man Jeremy is not able to make it to the wedding, so my husband has stepped up best man. He'll do a great job BUT he can't talk about Garrett as a teen/ before he met Catherine. So we were wondering if you'd make a speech at the reception, full of all the embarrassing stories/ tales of escapades from his youth.

Looking forward to meeting you at the wedding!

Testicles.

My second blessing. I guess the balance of the universe decided that I didn't have enough stress for my first blessing. Thank you very much Universe!

But it IS a blessing. To be given the honour of making the speech is a major trust. So I have been trusted, majorly, twice! Gotta love it.

The day came. After sprinting through pouring rain the previous night and almost missing the last boat back to the port where my car was, we had beautiful weather and amazing scenes.

For a couple that were very relaxed about the planning, and not too bothered about much at all, Catherine seemed secretly to have found the Perfect Style Guru (tm) and arrived in a beautiful dress.

With matching accessories.

Garrett, slick, and refined.

My friends, I wish you all the best and karma work in your favour ;-) .

Angus D Blessed

Fight the morning zombies!

It happened. I don't know when it crept up on me, but I felt it one morning last week and have been feeling it ever since. That feeling of having to get up but still being dead to the world. You get up with an undead groan, long face, slow movements. It's that time of year people. The morning zombies are back!

Even my yawn sounded like the muffled moans of the undead. Instead of an Instagram filter being applied to the sights I saw, it was a Tim Burton filter of blacks, greys and "why is it still dark?" Why? Why? Whywhywhy??? The phrase "ungodly hour" would apply if it wasn't for the fact that it was the same hour that I have been waking up at for years now.

Damn. It's that time of year again.

The time of year when waking up is a fight between nature and nurture: the nature of your bodies instincts to get up with the sun, whenever that is, and nurturing a financial income. Nature vs nurture. Nature vs modern life. Nature vs a another groggy poke of the snooze button.

We must fight back! Fight the hoards of zombies around you. I have already planned on using some of the winter to try to continue some projects I have on the back burner and just push forward my craft. There is so much inspiration out there and so many people doing great things, people who have found the secret to avoiding zombification (I don't care if that's not a word!) and making every day mean something. I remember watching Jackie Chan talk about one of his teachers. His teacher said that every injury was a perfect chance to perfect the ability on the uninjured part of his body. Because unless you are perfect, something always needs to get better.

I guess the winter is a perfect opportunity to think outside the box and improve myself. What do the arrival of the morning zombies mean for you?

Angus D

Out of office reply

"Thank you for your email" it always starts. So does mine. Sometimes I want to put "wish you were chilling with me..."

Where am I? This time, Sweden. What am I doing? Getting some much needed rest and sleep. Well, that's what I say I'm doing. My partner would say I'm visiting future in-laws. Just like photography - same thing, different viewpoint. ;-)

Taking time away from work it actually really difficult when it's your own baby. So I've taken my new Nexus 7 tablet to do a little bit here and there in between the sleeping, meeting and greeting, and the babies running around my feet like ants.

But you know what, with all the hardship, life is good. Have a great.. what day is it? (When you're on holiday you forget what day it is!) You know what? Just enjoy your life!

A new build where I'm staying. Everyone seems to be 30-40, have 2 kids and a pet.
I feel like I'm in the Truman Show!

Angus D

Crazy folk!

Some weddings are entertaining. Some weddings are plush. Some weddings are just plain live.

I think I covered the last one recently.

Bes and Onur... Bes and Onur. They warned me. They did warn me. "There may be some craziness" they said. Now, I'm perfectly fine with that. In fact, I'm very happy with the threat. It means I have to bring not just my A-game, but some other ninja skills like being able to disappear into the shadows when people want to grab me to dance.

I brought my A-game. Yay! Failed at the extra stuff though!

I think they had a very magical day. I sat outside the bride's house, hiding inside my car like surveillance officers, camera primed, waiting for her to see her surprise chauffeur. Beautiful car. Horrible weather. Raining. Grey. Miserable. All up until about 10 minutes before she emerged. She was looking fabulous. The clouds parted in agreement.

As guests arrived, they all seemed, well, normal. No people dressed as clowns. No pantomime horses. Nothing.

How wrong I was!

Oh, and the bride and groom? Those folk, you know, who are the focus of the day? It was like watching people who couldn't get enough. It was like watching a couple who honestly had no idea of time. I was very thankful to be absorbed into their world.

Thanks guys. :-)

Angus D

Can you see the truth?

"What do you see? You people gazing at me?" These are the lyrics going round and round in my head. They were sung (I just found out from a film buff) in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Truly Scrumptious. ...What a name! But this (oh so random) song is going through my head because I was thinking about what we see when we see. How much do we "pre-see"? Prejudge? Call it what you like.

The other day I was chatting to some people. Chit chat. Chit chat. Huh?

I had that moment when you almost start gazing, staring, seeing something different in something that frankly shouldn't be new to you. A thing. An aura. An energy. Or something just plain weird! Sometimes, we just see nothing at all. I mean, how many times do we really re-see?

I've already shown this image to a couple of people. Some have interestingly given me an opinion that, at one point, had me bent double laughing. Well, these are the first images of the second set of my Alter-Ego project. Look at the image and make up your own mind of what you see. Maybe at the end of the set, you'll have to go back to the beginning and see again.

What do you see?

What do you see? 2

For all those starting the week on a day off, enjoy! I'm jealous!

Angus D

Explain this! Weird

Going through sets of photos. It's a rapid process. On the whole, I rarely go back to see the things that have been dropped on the proverbial editors floor. But once in a while, you go back and see something that your really, really, can't explain.

I had gone to do some reflective searching to see some of my past material and to see what I don't want to do in the future.

Learn from history. Let the future create.

Understanding techniques is also a crucial part of photography. Why did the light fall in a certain way? Was it intentional? Can you recreate it? Those are the signs of the masters.So I went on my pilgrimage of images, mine and others. I sought enlightenment of light. Purity. Holistic bathing. Maybe I'd see a spirit guide along the way. In fact, I wonder what creature my spirit guide would be...?

Anyway, something caught my eye. There are literally millions of images that immediately get chucked away. But in this one, I was wondering what trick of light I was looking at on my second pass. I really couldn't understand it because it looks like a ghost image like when you either have a long exposure or a blur from someone else. It looks like these things. Would be nice if it was. But none of these things were present.

I would love to say I knew how to do this, in the camera. I would freak people out. :-) But until I have words with my spirit guide, I don't know how to do this. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I see when I see this!

An image immediately discarded

On closer inspection...

Angus D

Your images are safe with me. They look pretty good too!

Technology and change. It makes and breaks our "developed world" lives. Well, it makes and breaks mine anyway! In the last few weeks, I've been changing, upgrading, and generally looking up new nascent and needed technology to augment the heartfelt creative skills. ... Maybe we are all becoming cyborgs - funky technology precisely wrapped around a warm imperfect heart.

Proud to eat in public

I sat there watching TV. Spaghetti bolognese on my lap. Chowing down. Hungry. Ravenous. "Eat the plate too" type hungry. Now, like a typical man, when I got my plate, eyes became focused  on my feast. No wavering gaze. If I was by myself, I may have even dispensed with the interruption of the knife and fork.

And just like a true animal, after a few minutes head down, face full, my head popped up to do a quick scan of the surroundings making sure no other hungry creature is going to attack me and take my feast. Teeth slightly showing in preparation for any challenger. I scanned behind me. Eyes widened.

My girlfriend sat there. Mouth open as wide as her head. Lowering a ball of spaghetti the size of an adult fist into her mouth.

I was impressed.

She wasn't.

I'm still here! Soon won't be.

Forgive me. Please. I have been quiet. A dearth of facebook posts. No images. No blog posts. No Tweets. No Google Plus. People have thought I've disappeared. Maybe kidnapped!

Well, I haven't. Oh no. I've been doing a range of things. Some I love - travelling. Some I don't mind - helping my brother move place. And some I hate - tax returns. Seriously, if Hermione had a spell for sorting taxes, I'd be on my way to Kings Cross now!

Oh, and I'm soon to disappear. To another place. Another world. I will write a tearful goodbye before I turn my pack on this world. I've even got the tape, plastic sheets and good strong rope ready. It was fun while it lasted. But everything must come to an end.

I'm moving place. Wading knee deep in boxes. Living with a partner that packs so well she has to be sedated so I don't go to sleep under a duvet and wake up on the floor under a coat! She is truly an unstoppable force.

"Baby, where's my camera charger?"

"Oh, was that yours?!"

"Baby, where's my..."

"Oh, I thought you didn't need it."

"Baby. Please. Only pack your stuff. Please. Baby. Baby! Put, the box, down."

My cameras and lenses are being used as pillows at night just in case they go "missing". Better safe than sorry!

So forgive my silence. I haven't left you. The plan is always to move to better things, and as usual, I will keep you all updated. Now let me go and put that rope to good use!!!

Angus D