(Click for larger)

I was thinking of ways to use my new camera lens and remote control and somehow work in an element of too-much-information. I hope I’ve succeeded; I hope this hits the spot.

Just be grateful I didn’t take a photo of the floor in my bedroom…

As always, more TMI stories can be found over on Lilu’s blog.

The Thing & Footsteps will guide you home

Seb: If you didn’t know already: it snowed in England this week! Not just a couple of centimetres either — PROPER snow. Like as much as TEN centimetres in some parts!

We only got about 5cm here, but in other parts of the country (Abi’s?) I think they had a lot more. Either way, more than 1cm of snow in England always immediately triggers two things a) the shutting down of all offices, schools and amenities — the entire country shuts down, basically — and b) it’s time to PLAY!

We Brits don’t play as much as other people. I don’t know why. I guess we’re a bit boring… But snow is one of the few universal times when almost everyone (other than the oldies) goes out to play.

Of course, me being me, I grabbed my camera and avoided the kiddies that might damage my lens.

What you see here is part of our garden, at around 1am. It’s pretty damn creepy. I’ll talk more about it tomorrow on my blog — it’s straight out of the camera, believe it or not.

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Abi: We never used to get snow at this time of year at all. I remember wishing for it year after year as a child but growing up by the sea, hard frost was as wintry as it got. I took this a day or two before I left my friend’s house, on the same day I took most of the other snow shots in my stream and found that this rather quiet image was by far my favourite. Snowfall exposes the paths we tread and I love seeing vast carpets of virgin snow over the fields. Even though it reminds me of that tragic scene at the end of The Snowman.

Incidentally Seb’s view on this one involved something poetic about my new start. He feels ‘the hopefulness of the footprints in week 17, representative of Neil Armstrong’s footsteps… represent the turning point…’ — he actually said that, I lifted it right out of the MSN chat window. I suppose when you look at it like that it’s kind of fitting.

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You can click either image to see what the lovely folks over on Flickr think of our photos.

Don’t Walk & Timberland

Abi: I have been listening to PJ Harveys album Stories from the City, Stories from the sea a lot lately. She is one of my favourite artists of all time and the reason I mention her here is because this image puts me in mind of the cover image of this album.

I have been thinking for a while that I would like to try to recreate this photo and part of the reason I was out and about at 10pm was to find a suitable spot to shoot it. I am not very good at night-time photography.

It is more due to the fact that I have had little experience and rarely seem to find the time to actually go out at night to take pictures. Knowing I would be returning home after dark this evening, I deliberately took my camera along with me.

I would like to say that this is NOT the image I had in mind. I wanted something involving Bristol Cathedral, or College Green. I even wandered along to the Planetarium and messed about with some light reflection on the water. Nothing worked.

There are loads and loads of great photo opportunities that the night time affords us but for some reason they were all proving elusive. Then PJ came on my ipod and I knew what i was after. The whole waterfront area in Bristol is a riot of coloured lights and reflections at night time and I like how it is a place of beauty in the middle of a city.

Seb and I don’t discuss our ideas for individual photos, unless we are collaborating on a portrait idea so I like the tenuous shoe/walk/don’t walk reference here.

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Seb: My trusty boots!

When I was at school, back when all the cool kids were wearing Quiksilver and Billabong apparel, I longed for something equally cool and fashionable (and expensive). You see, I flirted with Quiksilver but despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t fit in with a bunch of 5-foot-nothing skater friends. I was 6′5″ (196cm). They were stocky and thuggish. I was tall and… well, not very cool-looking.

So I decided I would have Timberland boots. Because they were mega cool! And expensive! Too expensive, as it happened — my mother refused to buy them for me.

I had to wait YEARS until I finally got a pair — and I had to buy them with my own money (seriously, £180 is too much for a pair of boots — but they don’t make many pairs that fit my feet) — BUT… (Jesus, this is a ramble), I’m still wearing them! I don’t know how old they are, but they at least 5 years old… I think nearer 8…

Proof that they were worth the investment, or that I just don’t leave the house enough… I’m not sure.
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Click either photo to peruse the (often hilarious, occasionally a bit weird) comments on Flickr.