Mirror to the sun

When we were in England, I spent a lot of time telling people "oh, no, I like it cold..." and I guess I do, but the only reason I like it cold is this... it's easier to warm up than it is to cool down - I think. 

This photo above was taken in Greece I think... It was warm there, really warm...

BUT, that's not what this post is about - this is about "new beginnings"  

I've just pulled the pin on my old hosting with Brinkster, I signed up with them in 2006 and have been with them ever since - it was "ok"  

I signed up with SquareSpace last night after using a couple of weeks trial... Very impressed AND it would seem that SquareSPace is more about how your website looks, but they maintain a great CMS / backend / the bit you put the content into as well as being great with SEO etc etc...  

So, raise your glass folks, we're into another era...  

Sime

Instagram [web] adds embed code

So this just showed up and I didn't even notice... Maybe I was asleep? Now you can use the web version of Instagram to grab the embed code for your instagram images...

Then pop them on your blog etc... You can also grab other people's embed code and pop their photographs on your blog, hmmm..

For example, it would seem my friend Rachel and I had similar thoughts today, or.. at least we both caught trains?

Anyways... Instagram embed, get err embedded...

Finding time to family time...

"Family Time"....well, the lines are sorta blurry! I work from home, I have an office that is right next to my 3yo son's bedroom, right beside the family room (you might call it a lounge?) and generally within ALL the noise in the house, which with Mr. 3 .6 is quite a lot... He wants to be a drummer, he loves trucks and is the most epic at Dinosaur noises of any kid I've ever had sit on my shoulders at a Justine Clark show.. ever..

And this is Seb watching Justine get her Dino on... A quiet moment from him.. next frame though... well...

Anyways, sidetracked, my point is I work from home and it is VERY noisy sometimes... Skype calls with overseas clients... forget it... I need to run a disclaimer that says "a child may burst in at any moment to see who you are" ..and before you all comment (like nobody does!) "why don't you lock the door?" Well... one day when Seb REALLY wanted to come in, after I had to turn him around and send him out, he slammed my old victorian door so hard that the lock broke proper like... Yeah...

Don't get me wrong, there are GREAT parts to working from home, too... I mean, sure, I need to stay up late if I want to concentrate on an article or statistics or Farmville**

The great things are this... If I want to, at any point during the day, I can walk out and give my little man a cuddle, I can chat to my missus, I can sit outside and watch master 3 go around and around on his bike... I've got to learn to put the iPhone down more often and spend more time listening to Seb though... it will come! at least I'm aware... Oh, and I can make my own coffee

Get my coffee table here..

I have started looking passively at collaborative work spaces around the area... Any thoughts on the collaborative work space?

**if I ever mention Farmville again, and I'm serious... slap me

Oh how they change...

It's pretty amazing to stop and think about where the time has gone since my little man was born... He's four this year - it feels like no time and a lifetime, all at the same time... I was looking for some images for a client from last year earlier, and came across the truck photo below, and thought it'd be interesting to do a comparison...

So that's Seb with his first Tonka, the one I stood on and near died / split it in half... He'd been two for about three months. Still has that concentrated 'tongue out of the mouth' running with trucks face on...

This one is from a few weeks ago, different park, different truck... Same manic run (he's on two wheels for this one!)

They grow up so quickly... Don't miss it... Buy Milkshakes...

Are you Versatile?

I was thinking I might produce a podcast tonight - then I had a nice cup of coffee and decided that this would have been simply daft. Instead, whilst watching the first 20 minutes of the Bombers getting thrashed, I decided that, these days, we need to be more versatile... Like photographers wasting their time complaining about  convergence rather than learning how to shoot a bit of video, like film photographers saying that they're not switching to digital... Or am I confusing stubborn with versatile there, anyways, doesn't matter - I'm rambling!

What I think I mean is this... If we're not willing to try different things then we may become stagnant... I was only into photographing live music until a couple of years ago, the music was what I was after, those moments... I didn't want to really try anything else, I mixed in a little bit of boxing, a little bit of corporate portraiture, some of this, some of that..., but nothing "serious"  I was happy with music...

Meanwhile, I was firmly in the "I'm never photographing a wedding!" camp - that was tooo much like hardcore pressure! Seriously! One shot at getting someone's photographs right?! no thank you very much....

I penned that I am constantly surrounded by inspiration, and that this is both a good and a bad thing - sometimes.. Well, that inspiration is also responsible for me wanting to try new photographic things. Recently I signed on as a second to Elise Garner to photograph an Ironman event, it was lots of fun and a great learning curve all at the same time...

And, amidst all of this I was pushed to be a second photographer on a wedding or two, too, and I'm really glad Katie persisted! I've had a lot of fun with weddings and I'm off to shoot another in just over a week - I don't do a zillion... Recently I did my little brother and his lovely bride's wedding - special.

A lot of people specialise, me, I've sorta gotta mix it up to keep it interesting. Life is too short to be bored, right?

-- Sime