Carnival Spirit

Carnival Spirit

The first of well, at least two, possibly more, shots from the Notting Hill Carnival. I’m pretty sure he had no idea this was being taken, and the look on his face is definitely the one he was surveying the carnival with.

I’ve started shooting RAW images, rather than the hi-res jpegs I’ve been using up to now, and yes, I know I should have made the switch sooner, because fuck me can you get so much more out of them… It does make it rather harder for me to explain what I’ve done to this image, though. In short, I’ve leeched a little colour from it, and darkened the shadows a bit. I still can’t decide if I’ve overdone it on the right hand side of his face, though.

Heart Beats Broken

Heart Beats Broken

One of those pictures that suggests a story. The truth is more prosaic, as always, and so I shall leave it unsaid.

I’ve added a very, very slight blue tint to the whole image, just to cool the wall, and make the heart fractionally more vivid, and I’ve made the shadows a little darker.

Military Man

Military Man

Here’s an unusual one for me – a portrait. It’s a shot of my cousin’s boyfriend, taken at a family do a couple of weeks back. He’s a soldier, although I forget what rank he is, and indeed, what regiment he’s in, but it’s something moderately impressive. He’s the only man I’ve ever heard describe Prince Philip as a “bloody good laugh”.

As is obvious, this is quite heavily post processed, for tint, shadows and a bit more fine detail, but I haveto say, I’m delighted with the result. I’m normally very unhappy with how my photos of people come out, but this one got exactly the effect I wanted.

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

I’ve been working on some lomo-style pics recently, and this is one of the ones I’m happiest with. It’s not the most exciting of pics, but I like the heavily saturated colours, and the way the brightness intensifies as the lines lead the eye along the wall.

Whoops…

My apologies to those of you with als_workblog on your friends lists. I finally got around to making the RSS on my workblog work again, but it does mean you’ve all just been slapped with 10 posts. I forgot about that. It should be more normal from now on.

Luna Spasm

It all frays to silver at the edges. Our world-tapestry becomes mercury, the vapours toxic to rational thought. Dreams invade our waking moments, become the element in which we exist, a strange beauty become the only truth we know.

We find that we walk in an alien land, a nightmare landscape of broken metaphors and twice-twisted image. We are forced to navigate by instinct, and deliver ourselves into the waiting arms of strange gods, creatures somehow more than human, and yet too small to save us.

Madness runs like a flame in dry grass, and our only salvation lies in our hindbrain, that lizard reaction at the back of of us. We must evolve thought again, as we struggle to keep our balance on a shifting plate of variegating concepts, and when we do, we find others like us, trapped in this moontime sprawl. Desperate, we rope ourselves together with language and pictogram, develop a syntax of urgent communication.

Emotions are born anew, and paint the mercury world about us with washes of colour, transitory reds and blues and greens and golds, with our anger, pride and passions. We break off into pairs and small groups to better understand this new world we are creating.

And as we dance we find that somewhere below conscious thought, tiny novae of brilliant inspiration flare behind our eyes. We discover friendship and lust and love again, and we do it all for the first time once more.
And this is the world in which we exist. Born anew in fire and poetry at every instant. Where we are marvels and madmen, should we but choose to be aware of it. Where we can do anything that we can dream.