[As always, these photogasms contain a lot of photos. If you can't be bothered with the pesky 'reading thing', just scroll down.]
Continuing in the same vein as last week, here’s another photogasm! This week was helped along by a powercut on Sunday. For three hours. It’s amazing how little you can do when you have no electricity — but it’s also humbling to realise just how much you can do too! (How deep was that…?)
Of course I sat on my laptop for an hour, until the battery ran down. Used my mobile phone to connect to the Internet even! But when the screen finally blinked out to black, I had to do something. It is at times like these that I really love being a photographer: I just grab my camera and go outside. And below… you can find the results of the powercut photo session!
But first, yesterday’s 10 of 52, in which I balance a pumpkin on my face:
Normally I would just link you to the project’s blog but this time… well… you can probably imagine why I want to share it here on the front page of this site.
And with that out of the way — and yes, it really did hurt as much as you think it did — on with the rest of the Photogasm.
Upcoming projects: Still not much. I have some more money coming in from some clients that are finally paying (when is six months ever an OK period to settle invoices…?) — and the tech blogger writing job thingee is going to be more lucrative than I thought (I seem to be quite good at it — who woulda thunk it?) — soooo… I will have money to frame some prints! And hang them in places! And sell some more photos before Christmas! Or failing that, give everyone photos for Christmas!! My actual photographical skill (is that the right term?) is coming along at an alarming rate. It’s almost as if each photo I take is better than the last. Scary. How good will I end up…?!
Ah, yes, and one of the girls I was meant to photograph is proving elusive. More on that later.
And now… the gasm itself:
As always, each photo has some kind of note attached — hover your mouse over each one to find out more! Again, some ‘blog exclusives’. Some will turn up on Flickr, some won’t.
(I love the moss in the foreground in both of those shots)
(Which one do you prefer…?)
And to finish… because, let’s face it, I’m a big, fat narcissist… another self-portrait from my dark dining room — long exposure, but super-steady hands!
Don’t you just love the phone on the wall?
I actually have more self-portraiture to come but two is quite enough for one blog post. Keep an eye out on Flickr for the rest.
Ed Adams
Nov 3, 2009
Sweet pics.
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
Thanks Eddie!
Melissa
Nov 3, 2009
I am just dying to know how much that pumpkin weighs. Go ahead, give it to me in metric. I can handle it!
I love the mushroom photos. That’s the first fairy circle I’ve seen! And I definitely like the black and white flowers better than the color. Not sure why — maybe because I’m up in the grim, gray, rainy 5:30 am morning and it’s nice to see something beautiful that fits the mood.
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
I prefer the black and white too, I think because the water droplets are slightly more visible — and the texture of the lighter flower!
The pumpkin… I have no idea. It’s about a foot across. You know we use Imperial weights in the UK, what with the ‘empire’ in Imperial actually being the British Empire…
It’s the Continent that use metric.
I’d estimate the pumpkin at around 10lbs, 5kg. Maybe a bit more.
Sara Strand
Nov 3, 2009
Well next year I will gladly mail you a 30 pound pumpkin if you desire.
Because I have two of them on my front porch now that I’m working myself up to throwing away. Which means I’ll need to roll them across my really large yard, because I have useless arm muscles.
I like the blue flower picture because I like blue. And I’m a brat like that.
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
I think 30 pounds might be a bit, er, lethal. But it might make for a great photo, if I zoom out a bit more, and it’s just my tiny head underneath a vast pumpkin (that was the original idea I had for the shot… but I didn’t want to DIE…)
The blue one is just as pretty…!
Nyx
Nov 3, 2009
I like the blue one better. Don’t get me wrong – the B&W one is lovely, but there’s not all that much color in the picture and the blue of the flowers and green of the stem really catches the eye. As for the pumpkin photo – OW?!
I love fairy circles! There was probably a tree there long ago – that’s what causes them. The tree dies, or gets chopped down, and the only thing that’s left is a ring of mushrooms circling where the trunk would have been.
I’ve only seen them a few times.
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
How ’bout that! Yeah, there could have been a tree there. At the moment it’s a big pampas grass plant — which I guess provides a similar kind of shade/shelter?
Mum only spotted it recently, so I don’t think it’s been there before this year. Having said that, I have no idea if mushrooms are recurring… or one-shot things… *must research fungi*
Another vote for Blue…!
Nyx
Nov 3, 2009
Hm…so, I have been corrected. Having a deceased tree there is only one way of getting a fairy circle (it is, however, the most common) – there are, apparently, other causes as well. If the circle pops up again next year, and the year after that, it’s likely that the fungi has created a mycelium (consider it like all the mushrooms are actually one big organism). These things can be huge – so large, in fact, that one was once called the largest living organism on Earth (it stretched something like 2,400 acres…or, for you Brits, 9.7 km squared). Unfortunately, logging roads were built and they cut through it. As for the causes, the one I gave is only one known cause – there’s a bunch of ‘em that are up for debate. Legend has it that when fairies dance, the tramping of their feet causes fairy circles. Yay, my anthropology degree is finally coming into use somewhere (along with that one sole plant science class).
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
Cool!
And again, Imperial = from the British Empire.
Imperial = Imperator = Emperor = Empire
We do acres and hectares too!
MinD
Nov 3, 2009
I prefer the black and white flower in the window. Just sayin’. =)
Nyx
Nov 3, 2009
Hm. Whoopsies! Missed that particular comment. We’ll just blame it on me being an ignorant American
Art
Nov 3, 2009
Wow, the mushrooms photos, first especially, are photogasms. Nice.
Sebastian's mother
Nov 3, 2009
a) I like the blue flower because it is pretty
b) I request a photo of the fairy ring where you can see if properly, not all fuzzy in the distance!
c) You can pay for your own nasal reconstruction surgery from now on.
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
Thanks, Arty.
Go take your own photo, mum.
And that’s rich, coming from someone that’s had more boob jobs than the average resident of LA.
Abi
Nov 3, 2009
As you know, I like the shrooms and think they would be popular in the shop, especially if you heed my original advice and shop yourself in in some kind of elf garb. As I am rarely wrong about these things it would be wise to get right onto that…
Again, sad that there is no KW nostril shot here. The world needs to see that.
You have very soft, fluffy hair in the bottom one. I hope you know. Looks like ya backcombed it and are lying back so as to keep the volume…
Renee
Nov 3, 2009
Pumpkin photo made me giggle. Vote is for color version.
the girl in stiletto
Nov 3, 2009
i love your self narcissistic photo the most.
wait, oh you were asking about the colour vs the black & white one?
sebastian
Nov 3, 2009
Mushroom photo for the shop then! Will add it tomorrow.
And the blue flowers too, it seems
I don’t think I can list the self portrait in my shop, Stiletto… but thanks all the same!
the girl in stiletto
Nov 3, 2009
im sure if you put a caption “ed norton wannabe” some hot chicks may fall for it
carissajaded
Nov 3, 2009
I love your pictures! Especially the one with the pumpkin on your nose. Not only can you balance on your toes, but things on your nose. that was stupid, i need to go home…
Jaime
Nov 4, 2009
I like the second photo of the mushroom best, and the color photo of the potted flower best as well.
faith
Nov 5, 2009
I like the blue flower in color. At first, it was hard for me to decide, looking at them side by side like that, because I liked them both!
But then I put them as the background on my monitor, and the B&W was all, “ooohh! Pretty.” And then the blue was just AWESOME. So that was how I chose.
I hope it’s ok that I use your photos as my backgrounds. I luff them.
sebastian
Nov 5, 2009
I suppose that definitely means the colour one wins!
Carissa — it’s even more impressive when you remember I’m 6’5″. I was always envious of shorter people with their lower center of gravity.
Thankee, Jaime