No new content today, sorry!

But what I have done is overhaul the whole photo side of the site. I’ve removed the ability to buy photos from my site — all sales will now go through Etsy — and I’ve linked my site properly into Flickr which means I now have a proper photo stream that you can watch, comment on or even subscribe to. If you’re one of the few that have bought my prints (thank you), leave a testimonial too!

The galleries now feed directly from my Flickr sets, so they’ll be updated instantly. You can click through to specific photos and comment on them (or favourite them, if you really love me).

I hate blogging without anything interesting to say, or pretty photos to share, but you’ll just have to bear with me. Monday might possibly be another ‘Special’; like the Pirate Special, only better.

Have a lovely weekend. Oh, and if anyone’s really good at growing tomatoes and knows why the lower leaves on my tomato plants are kind of yellowy/brown/burnt, do let me know. I have ONE tomato so far. One small, green sphere — the unripe fruit of all my labours.

Ahhh! I almost forgot: Dollhouse will be renewed for another season, so Dushku Day will return… next year. I almost posted some photos of that cutie from Prison Break today (which finally finished its run — thank God), but figured it might alienate all of those people that come here on Saturday just for photos of cute brunettes in revealing outfits.

It’s been a month since I was last alone. Solitary in that naked-in-your-room-listening-to-loud-music kind of way. First I was in the Faroes for three weeks. And then, for the past week, I had a case of the Americans.

Noisy Americans. Young Americans that run circles around my tired, old bones. Even during the few times I’ve found myself alone in my room the sound of their raucous laughter and singing always seemed to find its way to my bedroom

But… their enthusiasm is infectious. I always find there’s a lot more energy that lies dormant just waiting to be tapped into — and being surrounded by tireless, happy-go-lucky Americans is certainly one way to rediscover that energy and thus your youth.

I hopped and cavorted and even danced a little this week. I know… scary.

But now they’re gone! And I’m naked and slouching in my computer chair! Miles Davis’ muted toots and squeals ooze from my speakers. I am blissfully alone.

Now, because my I’m woefully exhausted, you simply get a few photos that’ll hopefully make your Monday morning a whole lot less tired and dull:

I have a landscape version where the rays of sunshine are more visible towards the horizon, but I like this one because of the awesome clouds towards the top of the frame — and the blue! Where did the hint of blue come from…?

Next, a totally disgusting photo of me and two girls. I assure you, despite what it looks like, I didn’t ‘get some’. I’m far too camp for most girls to take seriously. I must go about fixing that some day.

Two great things about this photo: I’m huge (well, they’re tiny); and the little sock. To find out what happened next, you’ll have to visit my Flickr stream.

And finally, a dopey picture of me and one of my photos that was on display last week at an exhibition/gallery (there were actually three photos hung, but I just wanted to show you some proof!):

Those of you that have already bought prints probably just had their value double. Cool huh? I’m still trying to get my head around selling art and the crazy way it’s valued. I’ll work it out eventually and make a million, just you watch!

I have a lot of other pretty photos that I may post later today; will try my best. Otherwise, a happy Monday to you all!

I’m not sure how to preface this one, so I’ll just lead with the goodies.

(Five years ago, 2004, in Wales at a festival called ‘The Big Cheese’…)

Those ears have a great story attached to them, which I will tell you one day, but not quite yet as it involves a very young boy that I made cry.  I have to work out a way to tell the story without making me look like a bastard.

OK, next, guess who this is:

(Last week, 2009, on stage…)

Recognise the ears?

Anyway…

In more important news (what isn’t more important than me dressing up in some kind of silken sarong and parading infront of an audience of hundreds?) I’ve done a little bit of springcleaning about the place. I finally got around to overhauling my ‘portal’ site: http://mrseb.co.uk. The old version was actually made just after the first photo in 2004 so I figured it was about time I updated it. It now has links to all things Seb, my blog, my Flickr stream, my shop on Etsy and, perhaps of more interest, a writing and photography portfolio.

The photography portfolio looks great, and if you want to show it to friends and family, please do so! Or if you know a magazine/newspaper editor… show them.

My writing portfolio is a little more nebulous as my writing style is still so new, so mutable. I’m improving and changing every day so I need to move bits in and out of the portfolio to keep it contemporary — but again, you might find it (and my experience) of interest. Also, if there’s something I’ve written (either on here, or if you’ve read other stuff by me) that you think ought to be in the portfolio, tell me!

Oh, and I forgot the most important bit! You can now be my  fan on Facebook. You probably won’t appreciate how hilariously uncomfortable this makes me, actually asking for fans. Unless you’re British, in which case you might understand. It pains me to the very core to ask you to be my fan. But as they say, you have to ask or you don’t get. So be my fan.

I’m going to go and blush in the corner now! I have Americans again this weekend. I’ll see you all on Monday, hopefully with most of my sanity in tact and a row of shrunken heads as trophies.

Apparently artists need to be challenged. They need muses, they need inspiration. Without pushing boundaries an artist tends to wilt and wallow, churning out much of the same, day after day, year after year until… well, they die. Scant few become very, very famous, and the rest are forgotten.

So to combat that particular murky mire of artistic dullness, to stir things up, Abi (a talented friend of mine that paints and makes pretty dresses) and Sebastian (photographer and part-time purveyor of baked goods) will be doing a grand project entitled ‘52 Weeks‘.

There are very few rules to 52 Weeks — in fact the only real rule is that we must post one photo each every week for a year. In our case it will be every Monday from August 31st 2009 until whenever 52 Mondays have passed! Is that August 30th 2010? Somewhere around there.

We have no set theme and no limits on what we can submit, as long as it’s one photo, every week, every Monday. Our photos will be placed next to each other, perhaps with a little bit about the photo or what’s going on with our lives. We’ve also never met and live on opposite sides of the country, but might plan for some kind of ‘momentous meet-up’ (or ‘hideous break-up’ as the case may be) during the project.

The photos will be posted both to Flickr and to another blog I’ve set up: 52 Weeks by Abi & Sebastian. It has its own RSS feed so you won’t see my (or her) photos pop up on this feed or this page. If you’d rather follow it on Flickr, you’re more than welcome to — it will all be cross-linked together anyway.

Expect to see some kind of introductory statements from the both of us to pop up over the weekend. Now I’m going to go and work on some cheesy picture of us both together to serve as our ‘title image’… and also have a think about what the hell I’m going to do for Monday. Stay tuned — this could either be very, very good, or diabolical. Either way, it’ll be interesting.

[This photo contains a lot of pretty photos. Just scroll down if you don't want to read stuff.]

Before your very eyes the format of this blog is shifting. Tuesday will now be, ’til the day I die, the day I forget to charge my camera battery, or the apocalypse, ‘Photogasm Day’ (I reserve the right to change the name at a later date if it no longer suits the image I am trying to project…)

Let me tell you about the new format for Tuesday!

First, I’ll link to the new installment of whatever photography project I’m working on — which is 52 Weeks at the moment.

Then I tell you how my current photographic projects are doing. 52 Weeks is going well! I think Abi and I are both surprised that we are a) actually keeping to the Monday schedule and b) still friends. There have been a few touch-and-go moments when she’s got all diva, but mostly things have been plain-sailing! For next week, I have a great homage to Halloween planned. All I can tell you now is that it’ll involve a large pumpkin and my face. It could go monumentally wrong. Those self-portraits you see at the bottom of the page may turn out to be the last known examples of what my face looked like before the Pumpkin Incident.

Next, to excite and tantalise, I’ll tell you about any upcoming photographic stuff. Which currently… is not much. I’m pushing my boundaries though. Pointing my camera at things I wouldn’t even have glanced at previously. I have promised a few local girls (I know that makes them sound like prostitutes, but they’re not — at least as far as I know) some portrait work. Or at least photos of them. Not necessarily portraiture. And I actually want to get out on the STREETS and take some photos there, the cut and thrust, the back-alleys. I suppose I should go into London to do that, or Brighton. There’s this whoooole area of photography (photojournalism, candid portraiture) just waiting to be… shot…  and I’ve not done much of it at all — and I really should do more of it! You saw some stuff in the summer (the Ray Ban Kid), and a few last week, but other than that… not much. So you might see some pretty-local-girl photos in the coming days and weeks.

Talking of local, I also want to get some more of my photos hanging  in nearby cafes and cinemas, or galleries.

And finally, in each and every Tuesday Photogasm, there will be lots of juicy photos: ones I’ve taken in the past week, or shots I’ve dug up from the archives. Enjoy!

Note: Some of these haven’t made it to Flickr yet. Consider them an ‘exclusive’. Also, in the bird photos, are those crows, or something else?

(This one came out really red for some reason… not sure why. It’s over-exposed I think, and not perfectly-sharp. Not that I’m complaining… it’s cool! The leaves in the top right are almost the right colour, incidentally.)

This last one is the first of my ‘50mm landscapes’ — an entirely new concept for me. Landscapes… but with a telephoto lens. Makes things feel more… compressed? Compact? More detail, less negative space. Incredibly hard to take too… but I think this photo proves that the concept works, so I’ll be taking some more!

And that’s this week’s Photogasm.