Monday 31st March 21:00

Well already we're on the fourth of the six-part crime drama, The Fixer, shown at 9pm on ITV1. I thought I'd do some research into the lead character, John Mercer, and have since found that his real name is Andrew Buchan, was brought up in Bolton and went to the same secondary school as me! That's quite uncanny, for I never thought that our school had ever produced anyone famous!
Admittedly, he's much younger than I am and I'm sure his school pals will be very envious of his role with Tamzin Outhwaite...

Sunday 30th March 22:22

I thought that I'd cover the story of 'Earth Hour' today - I'm sure most of you would have noticed how Google's homepage changed from having the usual white background to black yesterday.

The whole idea was started by the Australians last year, in a quest to hopefully combat global warming. Obviously it will take a lot longer for the idea to spread across the world's many different countries and cultures but at least it's a start.

More information about it all can be found by watching the video below and also by clicking on the logo which will direct you to the main site about it all.

Finally, for today, I have two images that I have taken over the weekend, both with 'Urban Landscape' in mind. I will no doubt be adding both, or at least one of them to my main gallery once I have decided on suitable titles.

Saturday 29th March 14:05

Having spent the majority of last night and some considerable time today, I have FINALLY managed to create a slideshow of the 'Watch Shoot' that I completed some time before easter. Click on the image below and it will automatically open a new window where you're able to view it.

Friday 28th March 15:22

Tanya suggested that we drove to West Leigh (part of Havant Borough) for she wanted to take some 'Urban Landscape' shots, in preparation for a set subject competition at Havant Camera Club. I decided to take my camera along as well and took this shot which I rather liked the look of, once converted to monochrome.

Thursday 27th March 19:30

Got to say that it's been a rather quiet week in the way of things to talk about. Had a client of ours come here for a meeting tonight - more about that once things start moving...

Wednesday 26th March 19:30

Spent virtually the whole evening working on a website layout (I usually draw up how I envisage them in Illustrator).

Tuesday 25th March 19:58

I'd finished my watch shoot some considerable time before the Easter break, just hadn't managed to find time to burn them to CD to send to my client. Went to Emsworth to post everything back (including the CD) and then had a brisk walk around the Mill Pond on my own.

Monday 24th March 21:00

Tonight saw the third installment of ITV1's crime drama, 'The Fixer'. Okay, so the endings may be a little predictable each week but who cares? It's great gritty drama with a very convincing main cast. I like it, I like it a lot.



You can catch up with the latest episode (or any of the previous two) by clicking on the graphic above. For any Mac users (or PC users using Firefox for that matter), click on the graphic below to download the Silverlight plug-in which will allow you to access these episodes or any other programme that you may have missed on ITV.

Sunday 23rd March 22:50

Whilst hunting around for some old shots of Corfe Castle, I stumbled upon this shot that I took some time ago. I really like it and should include it in my Trees · Leaves Gallery, trouble is, I'm totally stumped title-wise!

Saturday 22nd March 10:08

Did very little today so thought it appropriate to include this advertisement poster from one of our rival clubs...

Friday 21st March 18:18

Had a fantastic day out today in the beautiful county of Dorset.

We first visited Shaftesbury, one of England's oldest and highest towns which has featured in some of Thomas Hardy's novels and more recently (1973 to be precise) Gold Hill was made famous by the television advert for Hovis Bread (which can be viewed below). I have also provided a clickable link to Shaftesbury's Town Website.





From there, we headed off down to the Jurassic Coastline in Dorset, namely Durdle Door, west of Lulworth where we witnessed quite a dramatic sunset. Whilst doing some research about the area, I found out that one of my favourite bands from the 80s, Tears for Fears, shot part of their 'Shout' video here - see below.



Finally, clickable thumbnails to my two favourite shots of the day can be found below.

Thursday 20th March 07:43

I was puzzled to find that Google had today down as the first day of Spring... I'd always been certain that it was the 21st March. Anyway, in the hunt for their graphic, I found part of their website where you can view all the previous special designs of their logo. Just click on the one below to view them.

Wednesday 19th March 21:57

Another miserable day if you're a Trotters fan. Manchester United hosted the visit of Bolton Wanderers tonight in the Theatre of Dreams... two Ronaldo goals (one of which was another wonder free-kick) secured The Reds' victory. Ah well, it was an inevitable result really and the fact that stand-in 'keeper, Al Habsi, saved Bolton's blushes on numerous occasions meant that 2-0 happened to be a fair result. Bolton had the crack of the whip on several occasions but United's stand-in 'keeper, Tomasz Kuszczak, was also on top form. Even though it the result meant that Bolton slumped further into the relegation battle, it was an entertaining game of football nevertheless.

Tuesday 18th March 19:03

I decided to add an RSS feed to my website today. I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure how they work yet! Once I do, I shall be making good use of it!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content including blog entries, news headlines, podcasts and other forms. An RSS document, which is called a 'feed', 'web feed' or 'channel', is an automated summary of content or full text from an associated web site, thus making it possible for people to keep up with their favourite web sites.
The actual RSS logo was Originally designed by Mozilla Foundation for the Firefox browser and later adapted by Microsoft. The vector version was reproduced by Matt Brett (mattbrett.com), December 19, 2005.

Monday 17th March 20:20

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Just fancy a pint of Guiness actually.

Last week I spent a bit of time designing some t-shirts, both for my photography and design sites - for the moment I shall include the graphic design and photograph the head-turning garments soon!

Sunday 16th March 16:07

It was a miserable day here today (not that the weather was any better yesterday), so we stayed in all day. Both of us had photography work to do and we spent all day doing it, apart from slot in some TV viewing at the latter end of the day. Managed to watch 'White Noise', a film I'd wanted to see when it first came out.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of what I was working on...

Saturday 15th March 14:16

Tanya and I drove up to Oxfordshire today because a member of the PhotoPortal was holding an exhibition at The Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage. The exhibition is called "e-Scapes II' and runs from the 10th - 22nd March and is well worth the visit. Not only is the work exceptionally good but what struck me right away was the variety of subject matter on display. It was great to meet David, who is an incredibly modest photographer, particularly as he's been a finalist with two images for Landscape Photographer of the Year.

Click on his advertisement below to access his site.

Friday 14th March 14:51

Had a trip into Emsworth today and had a walk around The Mill Pond. Earlier this week, due to the extreme weather we've been having, the Pond flooded over, the first time it has happened since the 1980s. A rather large willow had been a victim of the weather and has fallen into the Pond, a few roots remain so not quite sure what will be done with it.

Later on in the day, we sat and watched some of Sport Relief, details of which can be found by clicking on the logo below.

Thursday 13th March 22:06

Should have been Friday 13th today for Bolton's dream finally came to an end tonight in their plight for European success. In actual fact, I'm rather glad that they're out, for they need to concentrate on staying in the Premiership. Having hated the fact that they employed Gary Megson to take top spot at Bolton, I do believe that given time, he definitely has the credentials to make Bolton the side they once were. That extra revenue from their European journey, along with the possibility of staying in the Premiership should hopefully help towards strengthening the squad.

Wednesday 12th March 22:00

It was our regular viewing of Grand Designs, tonight's episode was a 'Revisited' one with a spectacular 'kit' house made by a German company called, Huf Haus. More information about the particular house that was built in Surrey can be found here.

The Huf Haus website can be accessed by clicking on the graphic below.

Tuesday 11th March 20:30

I did something tonight that I've not done for around 12 years or more... play football! I received a 'phone call and was asked if I fancied playing and my obvious answer was "yes". I've got to say though, not only did I feel rather unfit but I was quite rusty as well! It was five-a-side, 30 minutes each half. Thoroughly enjoyed myself and we won 19-7 in the Tuesday Night Premiership League at Roko's, Hilsea.

More info about Roko Health Clubs can be found by clicking the graphic below.

Monday 10th March 21:00

Looks like we've found something to replace 'Life in Cold Blood', it's shown on ITV1 at 9pm and it's called 'The Fixer'. It's a new six-part drama about an assassin called John Mercer who is ex-Special Forces. More info can be found by visiting the ITV website by clicking the image below.



Earlier on in the day, I took this shot of our Mexican Fortune Tree as sunlight was shining through our blinds...

Sunday 9th March 13:38

Neither us did much today, however, I did spend two hours doing a photoshoot of 30 watches. I'd also woken up early with the intention of completing a photograph I'd had in mind for quite some time. Last week, whilst shopping at Morrisons, I noticed that they were selling toy cars, in particular a VW Beetle. So, with the shots below, I was able to create the shot I wanted - please click on the image to see the finished result.

Saturday 8th March 11:47

Decided to have a drive out west today to visit a quaint little village called Hamble-le-Rice. Maybe it's an age thing, but neither of us were 100% sure that we'd been there, until we arrived there and realised we had! Yes, it's an age thing. Having said that though, it's still a very pretty village even though the weather wasn't at its kindest.

On our way back, we had a quick look at two other places of interest, the first was Bursledon Windmill, Hampshire's only working windmill. Neither of us were inspired by it though, again due to the drab weather.

We then discovered Bursledon Brick Museum and walked into the grounds of it, to find that it's only open on Thursdays! It looked very interesting indeed with lots of rusty artifacts lying around, brick kilns and other bits of paraphernalia. A revisit is on the cards.
As a matter of interest, for those who live in this area and are also into photography, see this link.

Two shocks happened in the FA Cup today, Portsmouth knocked out Manchester United at Old Trafford by 1-0 and an even bigger shock was that Barnsley put out the holders, Chelsea by the same scoreline. Incredible results to say the least!

Friday 7th March 18:58

Okay, so cider is an 'in' drink at the moment. I never really recovered from it after drinking two bottles of it when I was about fifteen. Tonight though, I've drank a bottle of Cornish Rattler, alc 6% vol, and it's absolutely superb. It goes without saying that I have to give them a plug...

Thursday 6th March 09:58

At work, I was asked to do a photoshoot of ten Montague Swiss Bikes that Hampshire County Council have bought. I liked how uniform they all looked in a row and took a good number of shots against two different backdrops from various angles. These bikes are absolutely fantastic, for parts of them can be dismantled and the main frame can be folded in two, using various release mechanisms. The bikes will be featured in this Saturday's 'Independant' under the heading of 'Best 50 Bikes'.

More information about Montague can be found by clicking on the graphic below.



And here's the photo I decided to use...

Wednesday 5th March 20:41

Was a rather busy day today, to the point where I was doing work well into the evening.

Tuesday 4th March 20:03

We had an absolutely fantastic speaker at Havant Camera Club tonight, to the point where the both of us stayed for the duration! Tanya was particularly excited about the talk because it was all about Lith Printing and the man doing the talk is in the masterclass of it. He's called Tim Rudman and more about him can be found by clicking on the image below.

Monday 3rd March 21:00

The final chapter of David Attenborough's, 'Life in Cold Blood' was shown on BBC1 tonight. Five weeks have gone by since the first episode and I was left with wanting more. It has been a truly fascinating series and only the surface has been scratched with how truly amazing both amphibians and reptiles are.

For the last time, the last episode can be found by clicking the image below.

Sunday 2nd March 18:03

Watched both Premiership matches today... Bolton v Liverpool and Everton v Portsmouth.
Both ended up with a 3-1 scoreline against the two teams I was backing. Not a good day... unless you're a Merseysider.

Saturday 1st March 14:23

Went out today to get a few things and then called in on Emsworth on the way back. Had a walk around the Mill Pond, bought our groceries for the week and stopped off for a coffee in The Green House Café.