Christmas

Back from Amsterdam.

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Festivus

After 4 days the replacement carer that I was working with has spat the dummy, not surprising considering he was a 21 y/o South African fresh of the boat and living with mother, couldn't cook, clean, wash, use a telephone. . . the list goes on.

So the last few days have been a bit tense, but now I have got a replacement and the trip to Amsterdam is still go. The pound has be pushing out an all time low against the Euro, and with the rate of exchange, it is about even. Christmas and the exchange rate are cutting into the budget, so the computer might be more of a new years gift rather than a Christmas one, and Noel just got her new Macbook pro the other day of which I am envious, but I still get fiddle around.

Northern Hemisphere Christmas MK II is well underway, the English spin on the holiday is a bit more like what I'm used to, but I really miss the Summer at this time of year. I never realised how religious England was, how much it was a part of there persona. Where in Canada there was a desire to be "PC" and have a multi cultural holidays, frosty the snowman etc, there is little of that here with Jesus and Santa hanging out everywhere. Maybe I should celebrate Festivus this year.

St Johns Wood Church

Smack bang in the middle of Notting Hill, this church was about the only public green space around, we got nice and lost this weekend after getting some cold weather gear from the Portobello markets. I'm slowly learning more and more about HDR, my gear is not bad for it, but I could see why I would want extra features and maybe a decent tripod.

The main carer (Joel) is leaving next week and there is a new South African dude starting, so until the end of next January, I'm Simon's primary carer. Intense! Christmas will be an interesting time, here's hoping I come out the other side with some new skills and a new computer :)

Highly Dreamlike Reality

So lots is happening ATM, have booked hotel and flights to Amsterdam for a pre Christmas getaway, picked up some cheap seats to Paris on the Eurostar in January for Noels birthday, printing and framing photos in different countries and playing squash in the December league in Richmond.

But anyway, this is the photo I took while security was questioning me, just south of Little Venice. I don't quite know what it is, but this is my favourite photo that I have ever taken. It's like and image from a dream or something, there is something totally surreal about it. I don't care if you agree but shit, it makes me happy.

HDaRt

Temperatures have started to get below 0C, starting to get sick, I stop hanging around outside all the time. . .

Little Venice in HDR

Went to the All Blacks v England game on Sunday with 80,000+ others to watch the kiwis destroy the poms 32-6, I took a bunch of photos, but alas with my sisters camera so no visuals, but I hope to have a big panorama of Twickenham Stadium full to capacity with the entire east side holding coloured squares in the shape of St Georges cross, rather stunning site. After the game, I went to a party full of kiwi's, not a outsider to be seen, was a rather surreal day.

After watching "The Changeling" with Noel, ( total crap) I got out in the sun today and went for a wander around Notting Hill Gate and Little Venice, where I took a bunch of photos.
As I was taking the one with the cranes in it, a security guard came up to me and told me to stop taking photos. I questioned his authority (as you do) and as he tried to find the correct answer by calling the big man, I continued with my photography under the watchful eye of CCTV.




Is there the Queens chain in Brittan? Are waterways public domain? Can a public thouroughfare's intelectual property be copyrighted? Are the gods crazy? After looking around online for clues I just came up with a bunch of "police harasses photographer" stories and some police state propaganda.




Enjoy my first HRD series. . .

All Blacks

All Black v England at Twickenham Stadium, Michelle got us some tickets, look for me on the telly!

HDR Reminder

So my buddy Patrick sent me a link with a bunch of HDR photographs (link), and I remembered how much I had been wanting to do more once I had a computer to do it with. So I took a few shots on my last foray into the city, this shot is at Clapham Junction while the train was delayed.

Watch this spot.

Hyde Park

Starting to get cold, winter carnival in Hyde Park.

Yeah we all shine on

So I only made it to the Tate Modern last week, and after 3 hours of modern art, more galleries just seem like hard work. I did however get to see some Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Monet, Pollock and even Frank Stella. Noel got to flex her art history knowledge as my guide, and I actually learnt a lot as well :P On the way home we went to Waterloo and I caught Big Ben looking rather beautiful and took this shot.


I've been back at work for the last few days, my job had become a bit more taxing as Simon has started to act a bit polar, excerpt from email;

"Recently thou he has been having severe mood swings, attacking me, trying
to bite/punch etc and yelling profanities and abuse to everyone and the doctor
took him off the anti depressants which has been . . . interesting.
Today I got breakfast and lunch thrown at me, a camera tossed on the floor
(mine), hugs and kisses, called every name under the sun, a few apologies and an
attempted bite attack, I'm rather tired."

So I cant wait for my time off this week, it will be well deserved. Might actually make it to the portrait gallery this time. . .

So after the "Global Economic Crisis" and the collapse of my previous website due to funding issues, I have bitten the bullet and started a fresh, shook out the old HTML know-how, re learned CSS, and slapped in a bit of stolen code and here I am. Takes a bit longed to get shit online, but hey, time is now something I have a little bit more of. You like?

But I digress from current events. I now have a warm place to live in Twickenham, a place which I am also working at as a live in carer for Simon, who has Cerebral Palsy, which is a 3-4 day a week job which I share with a 37 y/o Australian called Dave. I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out after an extremely poverty stricken departure from Canada in September, being a carefree hippy child just doesn't have the same appeal in the UK so getting a sum of money to move back to the west coast could still be on the books.

But the single greatest thing about this job is the flexibility and free time. I've decided to look into freelance photography and design (hence the self righteous site design) as a side job to build up as a valid revenue stream and hopefully move into it as a career path for a while. Weather this is possible or not is yet to be seen, and I kinda need a computer to do the work on first so it is a gradual development.

But since your here, I may as well ask, "Do you know anyone needing a photographer (London only) or designer? (anywhere)" Maybe you love me so much that you want to buy a photo print off me? Yes that's right, I am now a commercial whore, taking whatever I can get. If you like anything I have just ask, I will probably just send you the files for free as I am too disorganised to run an online store and shipping individual prints is a little eco-irresponsible. Get in before I'm bigger than Jesus and you have to pay £10,000 for something I made when I was 12. :)

So welcome one and all, thanks for stopping by, I know there are a few bugs in the site and not much content yet, so gimmie a couple of weeks to get everything running at full steam.

Love - David

Image Test

Red Chromatic Abstraction

Gin

Aeroplane

Welcome back to the DMP

After messing around for a few hours I have managed to embed a blog in my website! Oh joy is me. Now I just need to get the rest of the shit sorted . . .