I went, I queued, I shopped, I chatted to a few people, I took some rather poor photographs:
Once the house move is out of the way, I need to spend a good amount of time practising photography, especially flash photography.
Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Dinosaurs Unleashed
Posted on in Dinosaurs.
On Wednesday night I attended the preview of a new exhibition, Dinosaurs Unleashed, on Oxford Street. It’s a slightly surreal experience seeing life size animatronic dinosaurs backdropped by the office blocks and department stores of central London.
I’ve already written about it on the Visit London blog and you can see more photos on Flickr. And, in a isn’t the internet cool moment, this morning I was added as a Flickr contact by the workshop who produced the dinosaurs and you can see behind the scenes photos of them being made.
Photos
Posted on in The World.Robot Zoo
Plasticine Garden
Sauropod Stack
Posted on in Dinosaurs, Memes, Miniatures, Work.
Hey kids, the latest craze is to stack your (toy) animals. Well it keeps us off the streets…
Very True Mood: 
silly
sillyKew
Posted on in My Life.Yesterday, I visited Kew Gardens [1] with a group of friends, in particular to see the new Treetop Walkway. We picked a very cold and wet day for this trip which meant that there were fewer crowds around, but also that the conditions were less than ideal for photography.
After the Gardens shut we attempted to dry out and warm up in Newens where we admired photographs of John Major and a pony[2] and sampled the historic delicacy that is Maids of Honour. Apparently, the location of the gents is also historic but, on a still very wet day, less of a delicacy.
[1] I believe this was the first time I’ve visted Kew – I may have been as a child but one big garden looks much like another to a small boy. This means that it joins the Globe Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall as major London attractions that I’ve visited for the first time in 2008.
[2] Separate photographs. I can’t imagine John Major and a pony in the same photograph. Anyone thinking of making an Edwina Currie joke: -10 points for obviousness.
Very True Mood: 
relaxed
relaxedVenice
Posted on in Dinosaurs, My Life.
Venice was simply amazing. Lovely weather, great food (especially the seafood), amazing sights.
We stayed at the Hotel Rivamare on the Lido, which meant we took a boat across the lagoon into Venice proper everyday. In the city itself we saw all the big names: the Palazzo Ducale or Doge’s Palace, the Basilica di San Marco, the Piazza, the Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal.
Things that appealed more directly to me included the Museum of Natural History was only partially open but we did get to see the excellent Ouranosaurus and Sarchosuchus; The Museo Storico Navale or Naval History Museum which only costs €1.55 and is packed full of relics from Venice’s and Italy’s seafaring history; The Rome and the Barbarians exhibition in the Palazzo Grassi was a ten times more expensive (and I really wanted the exhibition book but at €48 it was too much) but much more extensive than I’d expect for a temporary exhibit.
We also visited some of the other lagoon islands: Murano for the glassmaking; Burano for the lace making and painted houses; and Torcello for the eleventh century cathedral.
For one day we got the train to Verona, passing castles and vineyards on the way. There we visited the Arena and the Castle and had another fantastic lunch. One day wasn’t enough and we plan to go back sometime.
Venice photos and Verona photos.
Very True Mood: cheerful
cheerfulBack from hols
Posted on in My Life.
You can probably guess where we went.
Knackered now.
Very True Mood: 
tired
tiredBrighton
Posted on in My Life, The World.
Lettice and I went down to Brighton yesterday to enjoy a bit of sunshine and sea air. That all went according to plan – some photos are on Flickr. Also, a fabulous lunch at AlFresco and a very good haul from the second hand bookshops and comic shops (including the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier). Can all weekends be like this, please?
Very True Mood: content
contentNew toy!
Posted on in My Life.
I know own three SLRs. As well as a Canon AE1 that I bought with a student loan to replace an older model that failed to survive a fall, I have a Canon EOS 100 and, as of yesterday, a Canon EOS 10D. The last two are inherited from my father who has an even more impressive collection of hardware (I suspect that being a Canon fan is an inherited trait).
The 10D is a digital camera, my first. Yes, I’ve finally joined the twenty-first century (well sort of – my MP3 player is broken, I don’t see the point of Twitter, and I still hate mobile phones and hardly ever use mine). Though, from the look of the self-portrait over there, I belong in distinctly more paleolithic times.
Very True Mood: chipper
chipperWaaaah! Don’t wanna go back to work!
Posted on in Doctor Who, Films, My Life, The World, Work.Had a fantastic long weekend, four days of relaxing and enjoying ourselves.
Thursday night, left work and headed down to Croydon where ate at Wagamama’s (the Salmon Ramen is very good) before going to see Mitchell and Webb at the Fairfield Halls. I think this is the third time I’ve been to that particular venue – the first was to see Victor Borge some twenty years ago, and the second was to see the Rocky Horror Show about eight years ago. Anyway, Mitchell and Webb were just as good live as on the telly – some familiar sketches (taken to new extremes in a few cases) and some I didn’t recognise from the TV series.
Friday, we went up to the British Museum to see The Past from Above exhibition. Really breath taking stuff that really brought home just how vast the extent of human history is. Most parts of the world have see who knows how many lifetimes lived, with not a single line in the history that most of us know.
Also at the BM, was a (relatively) recently reopened gallery dedicated to the Enlightenment and hence the birth of the museum itself. It does a very good job of emulating what the BM is like in our secret thoughts – all book lined walls and eclectic displays.
Saturday, ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pink_weasel went to play at the Tate whilst I stayed home and read comics. But I did find time to visit West Norwood’s first ever farmer’s market (it’s going to be a regular event every two weeks) where I picked up some cheese and some welsh dragon sausages (pork and leek and chili). In the evening I left a very knackered Lettice in bed and went to Giroscope‘s birthday bash in fitzrovia – Duke of York, for beer Palms of Goa for curry; and finally The Fitzroy Tavern, for more beer.
Sunday was a quiet day at home – my dad brought the second of two leather chairs, Lettice poured dye all over a book (on purpose) and we started watching Doctor Who – The Invasion (with the missing episodes filled in by animation). Though not the best animation in the world it captured the likenesses of the main characters well and was, of course, cleaner and smoother than the surviving ’60s live action episodes.
Today, we lay around in bed and then went to Croydon again to see Casino Royale. Possible the best Bond film ever. Certainly the best since the ’60s. Having a actor who can actually act certainly helps. It will be interesting to see what they do next time, now that they’ve done the whole “how Bond becomes Bond” bit, will they find something suitably interesting for Craig to get his teeth into for the sequel?
Phew. Back to work tomorrow where with any luck I’ll be holding second interviews for my assistant. With luck we’ll be able to make someone an offer at the end of the week and have them start very early in the new year. Which will mean that I should be able to take more than two days off next time.
Very True Mood: satisfied
satisfied