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Jan 29 2012
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Daily Post, Interior Gallery

Before the movie: Hebden Bridge Picture House

Sunday 29th January 2012, 4.55pm (day 157)

Picture house, 29/1/12

One of this town’s greatest assets is its old-fashioned (1920s) cinema, with its good mix of movies and lots of legroom. It is so great that Joe is growing up within walking distance of a proper movie theatre – particularly when Halifax, a town ten times the size down the road, doesn’t have one at all. I love movies; a far superior medium than TV, which I never watch. (Except Masterchef.)

Even though I went back to my little compact camera today after yesterday’s vision of the future, I did learn one or two things about it yesterday; such as how to take better photos in lower light. I like this shot; the line of heads, the light reflecting off the two follicly-challenged guys.

And the movie? Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Well, you get asked to go to these kinds of things when you have pre-teen boys. Actually I thought it was pretty decent. Silly, but entertaining.

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Jan 28 2012
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait Gallery

Joe, Nutclough Woods

Saturday 28th January 2012, 2.20pm (day 156)

Joe, Nutclough Woods, 28/1/12

This blog is as much about my personal development as a photographer as anything else. Today I had a one-to-one development session with Sarah of Zebra Photography, a professional from Hebden Bridge; the session was a Christmas present (thanks Carol). I could say a great deal about what I learned, but suffice it to say that a considerable number of photos that I took today, for various reasons, I could not have taken the day before. Don’t expect them all to be like this from this point on – I need a new camera first – but I’m proud and a bit surprised by what I managed today. Hard to know which to choose – other highlights are on the Flickr site. Thanks, Sarah.

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Jan 27 2012
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Daily Post, Interior Gallery

Clare’s luggage (and opportunities missed)

Friday 27th January 2012, 1.50pm (day 155)

Clare's luggage, 27/1/12

No offense, but I’ve never seen a man who can take this much away for a one-night journey, regardless of the circumstances. I quite like the mild optical illusion with this picture: the reason the rucksack to left appears to be balanced on its side, and the ID tag on the right is hovering in mid air, is because this pic is actually taken from above.

However, the moral of the day is – Always Take The Camera. In the evening, after I’d given up seeking a better shot in a grey and dreary, uneventful day, there was a half-hour snowstorm that left Hebden Bridge dusted with white in the evening light. But… you’ll just have to take my word for it. Two hours later it was all gone.

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Jan 26 2012
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Daily Post, Landscape Gallery

Spurn Head

Thursday 26th January 2012, 11.50am (day 154)

Spurn Head, 26/1/12

From Mike Parker’s book, Map Addict (2009, Harper Collins):

Page 3: “I’m the one who will annoy anyone I’m sharing a flight with by repeatedly jabbing at the window and telling them which town we’re flying over, just because I recognised its shape and road pattern from decades of map scrutiny…”

Page 81 [referring to Spurn Head]: “Driving down this tiny thread of land is like walking a tightrope in a gale. The concrete road is poor and rutted, with drifts of sand blocking the way and sea spume whacking your windscreen like a scorned lover. At times, the road is virtually all there is between the two banks of angry, choppy sea falling away on either side. There is no safety net…. It is one of the ugliest, rawest places of beauty I have ever experienced. And it is quite wonderful. Twenty years it had taken from running my eager finger along my first Ordnance Survey map to standing on the point itself, but it was worth every minute of the wait.”

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Jan 25 2012
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Daily Post, Interior Gallery

De Rokerij, Amstel

Wednesday 25th January 2012, 3.55pm (day 153)

de Rokerij, 25/1/12

In my life I have been to the Netherlands about 12 times: mostly in Amsterdam but I have also visited some provincial towns. And even though there will be many people who will look at certain surface features, particularly in Amsterdam, and think that this is sometimes a sleazy place, they have got it all wrong. In all those times I have been here, regardless of what state I have been in, I have never once felt threatened, and no one has ripped me off for even the slightest Euro. This is, in fact, the most civilised country in the whole world.

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Jan 24 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait Gallery

Self-portrait, BOBCATSSS conference

Tuesday 24th January 2012, 11.05am (day 152)

Self portrait, BOBCATSSS, 24/1/12

We were so close to getting some attractive but stereotypical shot of the canals this morning and probably that one will make the ‘Best of the Rest’ files at some later date. But in the end this one wins because it amuses me, and it amuses me because it’s not staged or altered in any way: the words are written in marker pen on the whiteboard behind me and yes, I took it myself and no, I actually wasn’t pulling a face. Apparently, that’s what I really look like.

I promise, some canals tomorrow. Or Thursday morning.

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Jan 24 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger Gallery

Movie Premiere, Amsterdam

Monday 23rd January 2012, 7.40pm (day 151)

Movie premiere, 23/1/12

What a terribly glamorous life I must lead, right? Actually, no. I did shuttle over to Amsterdam this morning (one of the world’s great cities – visit, if you never have), but that was for a boring old academic conference. On my way back to the hotel this evening I passed what was clearly a movie premiere and just inserted myself among the paparazzi for a few moments to see what I could get.

Why are people so obsessed with celebrities by the way? I mean here not as actors (see ‘Tom Baker’, two days ago – which I accept is a case for the prosecution), but as ‘personalities’? I don’t understand it. If people are good at acting, fine, admire them for that, but then again there are people who are good at nursing, at controlling air traffic, etc. They don’t get cameras shoved up their arse on a regular basis.

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Jan 22 2012
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Daily Post, Interior Gallery

Window, Clare’s treatment room

Sunday 22nd January 2012, 2.20pm (day 150)

Treatment room, 22/1/12

I am trying hard not to repeat myself on this blog. That means that there are some photo possibilities which I’ve had my eye on for a while, but been saving, as they could then be used on one of those days on which I did not leave the immediate area, just sat and worked, and there were no particularly decent views outside.

Today was one of those days.

It was also the 150th day of the blog, which means I’ve updated the ‘Best of the Rest‘ page with some more shots that didn’t quite make it. Enjoy…

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Jan 21 2012
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait Gallery

Tom Baker

Saturday 21st January 2012, 2.20pm (day 149)

Tom Baker, 21/1/12

First day at home after 8 on the move, and so profoundly inactive (and light-free) that I was reduced to taking pictures of the DVDs I was watching.

Still, this shot is meaningful to me: like most British kids my age, I accord Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who near-divine status. I could claim that I was watching ‘The Deadly Assassin’ DVD today because of Joe, who does like the programme, but actually, he was out at a friend’s. I feel no shame.

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Jan 20 2012
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Uncategorized, Urban scene Gallery

A very rainy day, Manchester

Friday 20th January 2012, 2.15pm (day 148)

A very rainy day, 20/1/12

Tolerable weather this morning so I left home without any equipment. On the two-mile walk back from my office to the railway station, I decided happiness would have been a small frame of wire with some synthetic material stretched over it, even if it had been red with black spots and had two comedy eyes poking up from the top. I’m still damp now, several hours later.

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