This is another sunset picture from Sussex, my home county, in England. This one is early on though, with there still being plenty of daylight to bring out the detail in the foreground.

While the sky has a creamy and dreamy quality to it, I love the texture of the frozen pond — and the ducks that are huddling for warmth! Poor things. This is an ‘original’ photo with only minimal cropping, and no colour correction.

This is a post for Skywatch Friday.

(There are photos in this entry! Scroll down the page, if you don’t want to read about how awesome my prints are, or how you could own your very own piece of Sebastian…)

You’re probably aware by now that I’m a photographer. If you’re not, you should probably get someone to check for your pulse (or look in a mirror — if you don’t have a reflection, you’re more likely to be undead rather than dead, though).

What you might not have been aware of is that this blog has a section on it where you can buy prints! How cool is that? Only a few people have found it so far — and are now very proud owners of my photos! — so I figured I should perhaps hype it up a bit more, and make sure you all know of its presence. Can you imagine: people have been buying my photos, and you probably didn’t even know that you could! Sacrilege and apoplectic outrage!

Anyway, I’ve now removed the possibility to buy any photo, and instead I’ve gone with the ’signed and numbered’ method, selling a series of photos until they’re all sold out. After that series has sold out (or someone has paid enough for an exclusive!) I’ll move onto the next series.

I’m starting with my ‘Sussex Winter’ series — 3 photos taken during the coldest winter I’ve ever experienced, down here in the South of England: Sucks to be a duck, untitled and Handcross Ice. (You can also, if you prefer, buy them on Etsy — though if you want to buy larger prints, you should probably do that on this site.)

If you are interested in buying an original, numbered and signed Sebastian, go and have a look at that section of the site for more info.

Anyway, not one to waste your time with just a commercial for my awesome photos (did I mention that the sooner you buy one, the lower the number, the more your print will be worth when your grandchildren decide to sell it to pay for their drug habit?), I thought I’d also give you a few nice photos from the funeral ‘after party’ (what’s the correct term??) that I attended last week.

It’s shocking just how thin I am; a realisation exacerbated by the fact that I was going through photos from university the other day and I couldn’t help but notice that I was really fat. Well, not FAT, but certainly LARGER. Chunky. Now I’m just all skin and bones…

Yes, I am aware that you now all want to see a photo of ‘Chubby Sebastian’… I will try to find one where I look nice, and not too plump. The beard made me look fatter too, I think!

<Insert all sorts of poetic stuff about how life is cyclic, and how the seasons perfectly represent human life, etc., etc.>

Once Spring hits England, all hell breaks loose and everything goes a truly fantastic, citrusy shade of green for a few months. The winter months (basically, October through April…) on the other hand are rather dull. As you’ve seen from my photos of Sussex, the most excitement we see is the occasional frost or, if we’re very lucky, some snow. The sunsets are OK too I guess, but really all we have (down South at least) are a few hills, some fields, some trees… and that’s about it really.

So, not to be defeated by the grey drizzle of England, I reached for my uber lens of telephoto doom (as featured in this photo) and wandered around underneath some of our lovely oak trees taking photos. Macro photos. Everyone loves macro photos, right?

Well I hope you enjoy these two; I like them! (Truth be told, I don’t do a lot of macro stuff but I’ve been told I should do more…)

(They’re large, but you should make space in your browser window to look at them in full-size, they’re quite pretty!)

You probably gathered from yesterday’s 13 of 52, that the photographic pickings are pretty slim at the moment.

It’s grey, windy, horrible — there’s about two hours of good daylight if I’m lucky, which makes photo-shootin’ pretty hard. I’m reduced to internal and low-light stuff now, unless the clouds clear and we get some nice, clear, wintry afternoons in the following weeks. But that’s OK — I haven’t done any night-time photography in ages, and trying to get the most out of overcast afternoons is my forte! (By virtue of living in overcast England…) That doesn’t mean the results are very good mind you — it just means that you get something rather than nothing. But you can see the photos in a little bit and decide for yourself.

Today, just to ram a nail in the coffin no doubt, it pissed down. Real rain — not the horizontal kind that we usually get. Just WHOOMPF, bouncing off roofs and roads and cars. The thundering pitter-patter that drowns out music and scares the cat. But who cares! Vertical rain meant I could get my camera and umbrella and go for a walk!

So in the name of art, and wanting to stretch myself a little, I give you ‘Catching Rain’. A series of images depicting England under the veil of cloud and assault of rain. If I’ve done my job right, you should feel like you’re being gently hit by soft, snow-like rain as you look at the following photos.

As always, hover over a photo to see my notes.

(That table is where I shot the pumpkin-on-face photos, incidentally)

(Look at the red and green droplets of water clinging to the branch! Depends what’s in the background. Cute!)

Which one looks better…? I’m actually torn between them. Both look great. Let’s just pretend there are two Vespas and this here is a diptych of them both…!

(I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have ’shooting’ and ‘gasm’ in the same sentence. I can’t really call it a ‘meteorgasm’ for obvious reasons. Say it out loud… go on… Loud enough for anyone nearby to overhear you.)

Bit of a smorgasbord of photos this week. It’s winter, so everything happens really quickly — when the sun’s out, it’s beautiful, but five minutes later it can be dismal and grey and rainy. The sun is setting at 3:50pm or something crazy — when you wake up between 12 and 1pm, that makes the apparent length of days very short. Fortunately I have these blog-writing sessions to add structure to my life, otherwise I might hibernate or something…

I’ve been listening to Marvin Gaye again, almost non-stop. I think it’s turning into some kind of addiction, some kind of need – I haven’t put a song on ‘repeat’ since I was 16, but I must’ve listened to ‘Please Stay‘ 25 times in the last few days. It has only avoided tonight’s playlist because I’ve discovered another great album by Gaye called Here, My Dear. But I digress…  as I alluded to yesterday, I should have a (dare I say it) photo shoot with a cute girl at the end of the week. Little does she know just how easy these photos are going to be, because she’s stupendously beautiful and photogenic. But hey, I need the confidence-boost, the ego-stroking, so that in the future I can take photos of ugly people!

Big mish-mash of photos today then: the meteor shower of December 12-14 (Geminids), an ‘out-take’ from 52 weeks, and a couple of ‘geometric experiments’.  I’ve been trying to catch meteors for a few years now, but it’s hard here in south England. Lots of light pollution (I have an airport very close by). Then there’s the matter of clouds and full moons and all that jazz — this year was meant to be the best ever for Geminid sightings, but I was still hampered by cloud and sub-zero temperatures.

Yes, I stood outside for about three hours, and all I got was three photos. I couldn’t feel my toes for about two hours after I came back inside (it was the coldest night of the year so far… brr! ice on my boots!) They’re not even that great photos, but I’ve included a couple in today’s Shooting Stargasm.

The geometric photos are just… experiments. I liked the light, and I’m fast learning that I should just TAKE PHOTOS when there’s any kind of light to be had, otherwise I might not get another chance before another Tuesday Photogasm comes around. I’m also coming to terms with the fact that I might be a very good ‘available light’ photographer. It’s dawning on me that this may indeed be the case… (buy my photos, because I have a nagging sensation that they’ll double in price by this time next year).

Enjoy the photos! Think of me freezing my rapidly-gangrenous nuts outside just for the art.

As always, hover over each image for specific notes.

(Admire Canis Major on the far left! Two stars of Orion’s Belt are just visible)

Phew! That was a rather eclectic mix. Now I’m going to shave off my Hitler beard and think of something disturbing for Thursday.

I think this week I’ve taken more photos than any other period in my life — other than when I’m travelling of course, but it’s not really comparative. When I travel, my camera’s nearly always out — this week was my first taste of what being a working photographer might actually feel like.

The whole ooh-I’ll-just-grab-my-camera thing was obviously aided in the most part by the snow we’re currently experiencing. And the winter sun… my God, the winter sun. I assume the spectacle of the low-angle sun has something to do with our latitude — we’re fairly far north here, so in the winter, when it’s late, the sun hits the sky at a very slight angle. The colours, the pastel hue, the glorious gorgeousness that results… well, just wait and see.

Then, after that, we have the pretty girl that I’ve mentioned a couple of times. I finally turned my hand to available light portraiture, and God it’s fun, and really, really hard. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to try it! (Photography’s a bit easy, y’see, so I yearn for anything that can spice it up a little!) I’ve taken a few photos of people in situ over the years, mostly family and very close friends, but never a proper session — just me, my camera, and her. When I arrived she hadn’t even got dressed, or done her make-up. So we chatted. I had some idea of how the patter would go. I’m good with people; charismatic, good at instilling reassurance, safety. But this was my first time, so I really had no idea what the frack to do. I kind of knew what was expected of me, a bit like sex in that regard, but I had no idea what she would do, or how it would actually play out. How about this? ‘Er, yeah! More of that!’ How about if I do something like…? <click> Props? Shall we try props? Smoking? <snap> Change of outfit? ‘Sure, I’ll just make some tea…’

And so it went. If I was using my film camera, I would’ve churned through quite a few reels. 2 hours passed way too quickly; and not once did I say ‘yeah baby, yeah!’ despite the temptation. I think I got very lucky with the model; I’ve been thinking about making her my muse. Every artist needs a muse, right?

An eclectic mix of photos follows, but I believe you will find every single one of them both delicious and easy on the eye. Each image has some notes attached; just hover over them.

(Yes, the pink you see on the horizon was even more beautiful in real life. Are you jealous?)

(I’ve been working on my black/white conversion, as you can see.)

* * *

This is just a small sample — I surprised myself with just how many good photos there were from just two hours of chatting, faffing and photographing. There’s a couple more (my favourites) up on Facebook, and I’ll probably throw some up on Flickr over the rest of the week.

I guess the obvious question is: who wants to pay me for a PHOTO SESSION?! In the comfort of your own home! You make the pretty (?) while I make the tea!

(Click for larger)

Ho ho ho!

…

Everyone else seemed to be doing Christmas cards so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon. It being Thursday, the last sensible blogging day before Christmas, I tried to be festive and fold in the too-much-information thing. [Obligatory link to Lilu, The Queen of TMI's blog]. Did I succeed? You can hardly tell the cat’s been composited in, right? I tell you, I’m never doing cat photography again. I thought it was meant to be easy! Damnit, I’m a bona fide PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPHER now! She kept scarpering ‘neath the tree with her tail ‘tween her legs. No amount of coaxing would get her to play ball: she just wouldn’t eat the fucking tuna. So yeah, the cat was there in spirit, but I did cheat a little; sorry. (That really is tuna in the bowl, incidentally — I do have some integrity.)

So, Merry Christmas to you all, or a happy and festive winter holiday if you don’t do Christmas. I’m not meant to do Christmas, being a Jew and all, but… well… it’s very close to Hanukkah (which was last week) — what’s a few days going to matter? It’s not like our calendar is anywhere near accurate after 2000 years anyway. It’s just religious scripture mumbo jumbo; where’s the spirituality in fixed dates? I think we humans just like organised, predictable holidays… makes our life more tangible, secure, safe.

I think I can squeeze in a few posts next week, before the New Year. They’ll probably take the usual, banal ‘review’ format — I might, if I have one of those rare, sentimental moments, even ask you about how your year has been.

Have a lovely few days anyway. Eat too much! Don’t drink too much! Relax — properly, deeply, wholly — and enjoy the holiday. You’ve earnt it (probably).

P.S. My mother also wishes you a Merry Christmas! She bubbled most effusively at the idea of her festively-dressed living room being on my blog. It does look rather nice!

If you’ve been stalking me on either Twitter or Facebook, the next piece of news probably won’t come as a surprise. Truth be told, I’m going a little crazy here in cold, grey, snowy, dismal England. I don’t ever recall having this much trouble getting through the winter — something has changed within me, something is not the same. It’s like… the rules of the game have changed and I’m no longer satisfied with sitting here in front of my computers.

So I’m going to NORWAY, baby. Middle of March through until some time in April. I will experience the FJORDS and… er… I don’t know — cute, blonde inbred Scandinavian Übermensch? (That’s a Google Images link by the way — I’m not going to go and pick favourites, sheesh.)

(Photo not mine — just showing you what a fjord can look like…)

But yes, despite the brief moments of testosteronic superiority, the real reason I’m going is the fjords. Often described as the most beautiful natural wonders of the world, the fjords of Norway line the entire coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula and make up 7% of Norway’s total area. For some reason, Norway has one of the lowest densities in the world with only 4.8 million people in the entire country. Considering they have one of the best standards of living, and a huge income from oil, I really have no idea why no one lives there. Maybe there’s a disease (like the Faroe Islands), or maybe it’s the ol’ ‘it’s too damn cold for 80% of the year’ thing.

My friend in Bergen has a house on (by?) Hardangerfjord, which is one of the biggest. Have a look at Svein Ulvund’s photos of the fjord and nearby — insane, eh? March is when they’re meant to be at their finest, after most of the snow has been and gone. I hope I can do them justice — and I may need to buy a new camera before I go…

Anyway, I’ll be going to Bergen and Trondheim — here’s a map:

I actually had no idea they were so far north… Trondheim is further north than my trip to the Faroe Islands! At this time of year, there probably won’t be much sunlight — but by the time March rolls around, it should be at least 4C or 39F… so not that cold, really. Yet again I’ll miss the Arctic Circle by a few hundred miles, dammit!

We’ll try to drive around a bit, but I think only one of my hosts has a car — we’ll likely stay close to Bergen and Trondheim. Maybe they have skidoos that we can buzz around and churn snow with? Our plans are still in their formative stage, but I’ll be booking flights in the next few days… so there’s no going back.

If anyone’s been to Norway (Chele?), now’s the time to throw in any advice. And does anyone live in Norway? Maybe I can pay a fleeting visit!

* * *

Because it’s Tuesday, I have photos; mostly alternates for yesterday’s 52 Weeks. They’re not amazing, but perhaps they’re interesting — you decide!

(You might not be able to see it on your screen, but the leaf is reflecting a pink sunset — if you can’t see it, trust me! It’s pretty!)

(Again, there’s some lovely pinks and blues in this photo, but you might not be able to see them! I chased the birds around for ages, but they finally settled down in the tree for a photo. So kind of them.)

The last two are obviously a bit ‘experimental’ — my favourite bits are the golden ‘halos’ where the sunset hits the water at an odd angle. Very cool.