bitsofbobs

This had the makings of something awesome, mostly because I knew nothing about them whatsoever other than an genius wee video they have recreating The Thing with action Figures (see below). The gig was in Mono…not stereo, don’t get confused…and certainly don’t say that things sound better in stereo, not the case. Support came from Findo Gask, again a name i’d heard but knew nothing. They were great, all kitted out matching kraftwerk-esque outfits and played music that could only be described as end of level boss music for any game on your amiga.

To the main event, I’m not a massive John Carpenter fan but was keen to see in the crowd who was…they were easy to spot. The band is made up of 2 french guys and I can only describe them as creepy version of air. A massive high Five to both guys (I only got to high five the keyboard player on the way out) but the drummer was amazing…and my word was he french. Loved the gig and glad this kind of stuff is going on, the venue was mobbed so hopefully this will open a few doors to more kind of stuff like that. High Five GFT.

Took my big slr to the gig…glad I did, got some belters…they’re here.

Was at a gig on Monday night at ABC (Bat for lashes for all those interested) and on the way home after the gig noticed how awesome Glasgow looked at night. I had no cameras with me for the sake of not getting stopped at the gig and was gutted as I could have taken about 30 amazing photos. So, decided when I got back I was going to make an effort to get all my gear out (tripods etc) and have an evening Photoshoot about town. I’m always heading out at lunch time snapping and know where all the good wee lanes and alleys etc are like the back of my hand (just don’t know the names…sorry ). A friend from work who’d also just spent a ridiculous amount on new lenses was up for it also,always better to buddy up. Was a bit nervous more than anything heading out as I thought loads of people would give us hassle, the exact opposite, loads of people stopped for a chat and ended up having loads of good banter with folks. Felt really relaxed and were just surrounded by loads of amazing architecture, we both went mental. Loved it, The whole expedition was sponsored by bar 91, black friars and adlib. Wouldn’t have been right not to have a few cheeky pints. Today I feel hungover.

Will definately be doing that again. If you’re into it and fancy tagging along give us a bell/email was a great night. More results on my Flickr.

Been using my dads old Pentax k1000 camera over past few weeks. He gave it to me years ago (he always like to remind me how I broke it in 1986 and he had to buy a new body for it), I even did a proper photography course with it, but am a bit rusty on it now. I loaded it with some ilford black and white 400 film. It’s pretty cheap to buy and always available at about £4 a roll for 36 exp. The film cost about £6 to get developed and printed on small 6×4. Got some great shots with it though. Go look on flickr. Also for all the geeks here’s more info on the camera.

What a weekend. A friend of mine I used to work with in Aberdeen came up from London to visit for the weekend. The plan was simple. “whatever”. James arrived on friday night and I was choked full of manflu, and he was feeling worse for wear after travelling 500 miles at 100 mph backwards. So friday night was cup of tea banter. Woke up on Saturday relatively early start and a massive fry up. The mission head to Central station and see what happens. Next train + ferry to place that holds fun potential…Arran. Awesome. Quickly on train and before we knew it on a particularly cold and wet ferry over to Arran. Uh oh. Somehow as soon as we stepped off the ferry there was instant sunshine and blue skies. Brilliant. We pottered around Brodick for a while before heading to the tourist information centre to find out what was going on. Turns out we arrived in the middle of a walking festival…apparently you can have a festival of walking. It was here we found out the last ferry home was at 1920…fail. That didn’t leave much time. The woman in the tourism office told us that accomadation on the island was scarce but she pulled a favour and got us a family room over in blackwaterfoot on the west of the Island. Awesome. I love random Adventure. Bit of time to kill before bus arrived more photo taking on the beach…here, disaster. My digital camera battery died. Noooooooooooooooooo (think platoon) bought the battery charger but not the power cable…fail. From here I asked every shop if they had the cable, was running out of places fast. Last stop, Books and crafts, to be more precise a helpful old man at the back of the shop. They didn’t actually sell any of these cables but he did have the cable minus plug and gave me a plug. Brilliant. Bus through the middle of Arran to blackwaterfoot where we were loaned a screwdriver to make my battery charger. We were in business. Brilliant.

Blackwaterfoot itself was a lovely wee place, a massive strecth of beach that lead to kings caves, A massive Cave carved out by the sea. Worth a look with A relatively challenging walk (which could, as we found out, be avoided). A full day of photography and walking in the sunshine finished with a roast dinner and a pint.

Up bright and early for our breakfast and a bit of banter with the other guests. Todays mission. The goatfell, Arrans tallest peak. Just a little under munro height. We headed off and caught the bus that took us round the north of the Island via Lochranza which looked lovely. More banter on the bus with a travelling couple also keen on Photography doing the same walk as us. We arrived in Corrie on the east of the Island to start the walk. The path up was amazing. All the stones had been arranged to the point where it was almost cobbled to the summit. Good banter all the way up from travelling couple pierro (italian studying in sterling) and Jackie (Australian living in London) The last 300m were a killer. Massive steep steps and lots of pulling up. Took about 3 hrs to hit the summit from Corrie.

The views from the top were amazing. Best day for it. Clear skies, could even see northern Ireland. Strange as a few others from work were climbing around Arrocher and were caught in drizzle and poor visability…nae luck. From the top we set off back to the ferry. A 6 mile walk back to Brodick. Nice wee walk back over streams, through forrest and finally back onto beach all in a t-shirt. Great stuff. One last visit to make. Back to the books and craft shop to return the power cable (assembled of course) just incase someone else gets caught out. Ferry back. Perfect timing for a perfectly random weekend of “whatever”. Shattered now.

Went for a little wander at lunch time there. Just to get me away from the computer. Love the fact that we have a bit of sunshine in the afteroon. The weather has been so unpredictable past few months. It’s getting to be hard work carrying so many cameras around and swapping lenses. Been taking alot of pictures with my Iphone recently so all my other cameras have taken a bit of a backseat. Filled them all with new film. Just finished one of my holgas that is currently being developed. Pick it up tomorrow. Rather annoyingly the jessops right near work no-longer process the 120 film as it’s always “too busy”. Soooo had to go up to the one a few blocks up by nevis sport. Worked to my advantage though…it’s always dead in that one, and they undercharged me as they didn’t really know what to put it through the till as…result. Should have it tomorrow. And i’m looking into making a cool a wee flash image viewer for all my iphone pics.

Last night my attention was brought to the fact there was going to be the annual (apparently) persied meteor shower. about 9 o’clock I noticed it was a pretty clear night. It was decided. Nic was up for it, more to do with driving her new mini more than anything. So we headed to Balmaha beach about 1130 and sat with a picnic blanket (tartan of course) on the banks of loch lomond. Managed to get a few photos…which once looked at were actually black. Wasn’t until I got them into photoshop and did some trickery the image came to light. There was a bit of cloud but you could still see shooting stars through them. I loved it. Seen loads. dunno where they got this magic “100″ meteors in an hour nonsense though. Unless I went to bed too early

Got some WELL early birthday presents from nics mum and dad. I loves it. First off is this kodak brownie a camera which takes 127 mm film. Which by the way is really hard to get hold of these days. Managed to find a place that still does it in the uk. here if by chance you ended up here looking for some. bit of history on it. Made in England introduced in the 50′s before coming a massive success then being shipped over to the states were it became known as the starlet. Some film is on it’s way I’ll keep you posted from what I can gather it rather randomly only takes 8 photos…brilliant.

This is exciting, the kodak hawkeye. This takes 120mm film which I have a load of as my holga takes the same. So this baby is up and running. Basically it’s a box with a lens on it and a manual shutter. It’s as simple as it comes. Bit of history, this particualr model was a slightly “done up” model of the original which date back to the 1890s before kodak bought into it and re-issued it in the 1930s ish. Either way I can’t wait to see it’s results.

also managed to find the original manual online here.

Gotta love the sunshine. Arrived at work in shorts and wasn’t going to miss out. Wee wander round town with my camera. Look no clouds and lush blue sky…I LOVE IT!

Following the success of lunchtime wander it was decided again…to wander. Another lovely day yesterday…Blue sky couple of fluffly clouds. Lunch time bell goes and it’s off to central station looking for adventure. Hmm what goes well on sunny days? parks do. Couple of stops in I spotted it ignoring the pointing elephant. Maxwell park. South side about 10 mins away and 2 stops…perfect.

Arrived, lovely place…birds singing…was all very disney. Was literally over the tracks to the park. Loved it. Noted during summer rather than trying to squeeze onto a wee patch of scabby grass in george square. The park itself was pretty big had a pond, had a couple of swans on it…i’d call it a classic pond. The park had a massive avenue of trees that ran right through the middle of it. As well as a large array of empty benches to choose from.

Not one ned in site…brilliant. Some pretty posh houses around it. No shops around though but good for a picnic…tick

AWESOME weekend. Booked up a hotel and headed for the highlands. Got nic some walking boots and got a proper map of the surrounding area. Took monday and tuesday off work as nic had them off. All set. Got the bus up on saturday where we arrived at the hotel. I loved it. We went down and had a 3 course meal in the hotel. Lush. Sunday morning we got up bright and early had breakfast and went out with the map looking for adventure. There was an awesome amount of snow on the ground and hills. Some amazing views at the top of the golf course. Following the map…I quickly got us lost…HA it’s easy to follow the paths…until they’re burried under 1ft of snow. That’s my excuse and i’m sticking to it. We soon ended up stranded between deer fences…classic and had to go crossing streams. I loved it. Eventually we ended up in the back garden of this massive lodge…which was quite clearly private ground. Brilliant. Back into town where we stopped at the tipsy laird a pub in town where we had awesome soup and sandwiches.

Back to the hotel our chef had done a runner so went to a filthy fish & chip shop (happy days) where we sat in and ate more than we probably should. Back to hotel for pints and scrabble. Great stuff. Had too much fresh air I think. Only had the 1 pint and felt quite tipsy.

Monday up early again for breakfast…full scottish of course. Headed out to ruthven barracks an old fort about 1 mile and a bit outside kingussie. A nice walk but all the snow had gone. Then into town to do a cafe crawl and eat cakes and drink coffee. Pams cafe. great cake. Bus home and back to Glasgow just in time to get in and order a dimaggios for delivery. Great stuff. Now it’s tuesday a proper day off celebrated by doing very little. Got to experience day time tv…first thing on this morning, A midget fashion show…I might take next week off