365 Project: Photo 151

As all the horizontal lines may well give away, I took this photo out of a train window. I was on my way to Liverpool Street and so go passed what's left of the Olympics on the way. On the left we have the stadium and the Orbit and on the right there is the swimming venue. Behind all is a rather lovely sunset.

365 Project: Photo 150

This used to be Britain's tallest building. It is 1 Canada Square, known colloquially as Canary Wharf. It's over 230 metres high and has 50 or so floors. With the opening of The Shard this year, which is nearly 50% higher again, it is just a tall office block; I still like it though. This building, unlike the Shard, fits the context of the area and doesn't stand out too much. The Shard is too tall, gaudy, looks unfinished due to it's strange roof and, crucially, just doesn't fit into the area it inhabits. There are an increasing number of 'landmark' buildings in London and most of them do a pretty good job of blending in with the city, but then maybe it's a contradiction in terms to have a landmark that blends in. In any case, the Shard is starting to get on my nerves a bit in the way that it impinges on every view of the city centre. I'm starting to have sympathy with Guy de Maupassant. It is said that he had dinner every evening on the top deck of the Eiffel Tower; when asked why he did this he replied: "It's the only place in Paris that you can't see the Eiffel Tower."

365 Project: Photo 149

Okay, normally I don't go around collecting slugs on kitchen roll and taking photos of them in all their slimey glory but I thought this little fella was quite cute. He's not a plain black one but instead has this nice mottled pattern to him, almost like a leopard's spots. Admittedly, it was late at night and I was drunk when I found him. He was on a daring mission to traverse the vast expanse of a friend's kitchen floor and I nearly stepped on him in my haste to procure another beer, which would have been unpleasant because he was a good 3-4 inches long depending on how squidgey he was being. Anyway, we threw him out into the next door neighbour's garden for him to go about his sluggy business and we got our beer. Everyone's happy.

365 Project: Photo 148

I love going to the cinema, it's one of my favourite things ever and this is my favourite cinema, anywhere. It's the Prince Charles Cinema and is just north of Leicester Square. Don't let the name or the unappealing frontispiece put you off, this place is awesome. I highly, highly recommend you check out their itinerary, it isn't like normal cinemas. Right now there appears to be some works going on in the street out front but, like the sign says, I assure you they are open. 

365 Project: Photo 147

Another trip to Westminster and this time I was determined to nail a composition I hadn't quite got right previously. I think, on my phone, this is the best I'm going to get; there's still a lamp post in there that really bugs me, one day I'll go back with my proper camera and edit out in post production. For now, though, this will do. It would appear I'm still a little obsessed with grunging up my photos but in this instance I can at least argue that it helps hide the unsightly street lamp. In any case, I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. 

365 Project: Photo 146

Today was a beautiful Bank Holiday Sunday and there was also a family party to attend. Little Juliet was having her Welcome to the World party and it was a great chance to catch up with family and friends. 

365 Project: Photo 145

Parliament Square continues to be a happy hunting ground for me. I've thoroughly photographed Churchill's arse so I thought it time to move on to his front. Here he is with the spires of St. Margaret's Church and Westminster Abbey as a backdrop.

365 Project: Photo 144

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the beer flowing and I was lucky enough to be on the 13th floor of a nearby building as the sun went down. This was the view from the top.

365 Project: Photo 143

Today's theme was May Flowers but, as spring is manifestly refusing to play along this year, there really isn't much in the way of floral flourishing to be photographed. However, on the windowsill at home there is a bunch of flowers that, for over a month now, have been slowly dying. This isn't quite as awful as it sounds. Although they're clearly passed their prime it has been a conscious decision of mine to keep them there as I think they've been getting more and more interesting as they dry out.

This was, presumably, a rose (I know lots about plants on a molecular scale but next to nothing on the macro scale). In Photoshop I added some graining to bring out the textures some more, and also a vignette; it seems to look a bit more like a painting now, which I rather like.

365 Project: Photo 142

The theme was Clouds. Here is a picture of some clouds.

365 Project: Photo 141

The theme for today is Perfect Gift and so here is my first proper attempt at photographing my pocketwatch. It's a double hunter, which basically means that it opens up at the back too, which is great because you get to see the intricate beauty of the mechanism.

365 Project: Photo 140

Off topic today but this photo is certainly representative of my evening so far. So it turns out that the time consuming part of making matchstick models isn't the gluing, as I had expected it to be, it's the cutting of the matches to the correct size. If you don't have a decent tool with which to do this then progress will be glacial whilst hand injuries will be frequent. I quickly realised I was gonna need a bigger boat and so I ordered this cheap little matchstick cutter online. It only cost a couple of quid and was delivered within a couple of days. Although I can still only cut one at a time it has totally transformed my little production line and I can build the little bus seats at about twice my previous pace. I estimate that to complete the model will now only take 4 lifetimes.

365 Project: Photo 139

I went out and played a bit of snooker tonight and this was the only photo I took today; luckily it fits the theme for the day perfectly: Black. Quite clearly the black ball is still on its spot.

365 Project: Photo 138

I've decided I'm going to make a bit more effort to keep to the prompts for a little while, not because I necessarily find them useful but because I miss the people I used to do it with. There's a little 365 Facebook group that I'm a part of and once I stopped using the prompts I stopped posting there as it didn't seem fair for me to freestyle when they were sticking to the rules. However, they're a really nice bunch and it definitely helps motivation when you know you've got them backing you up. I'm still going to lapse, I know I am; and I suspect I'll push the limit of the meaning of the prompts to breaking point but, hey, I never said I was going to be a perfectionist about this project. The theme for day 138 was Fresh Veggies; as you can see, I'm already cheating. Anyone here in Britain will know that spring hasn't really happened this year; temperatures are staying stubbornly low and the sun, at best, a bit part player. This tree near where I live was pollarded half to death last year and the tough conditions have meant that even now, in the middle of May, it's struggling to put forth shoots (or fresh veggies as I've decided they are).

365 Project: Photo 137

Curse you, father, curse you! Three hours of effort and I have made one of the twenty-odd seats that the wretched bus will contain. I still have to sand and varnish this little arse-rest. Once I have all the seats made I will be about 10% of the way through the project. It would appear the rate limiting factor in matchstick model making isn't so much the gluing as the cutting of the matches. To cleanly cut hundreds of matches takes forever. I've already started researching specialist match cutting tools to try and speed things up a little. In any case, this bus has already taken over a third of the living room which has taken on a rather 'matchsticky' motif today.

Curse you, father.

365 Project: Photo 136

My father, bless him, is a classic bus enthusiast. I know, I know; it's tragic. It makes him happy, though. I am not a classic bus enthusiast; nor have I ever expressed an interest in gluing together thousands of matchsticks. Undeterred, my father bought me a matchstick model kit for a classic bus. Similarly to my father, however, I find it difficult to turn down a challenge and so I will build this damn bus if it takes me all year; which it probably will. Have at you, matchsticks....

365 Project: Photo 135

This is a photo of a very special gift that I received on my 30th birthday from Sue. This is just snapped on my phone but I need to take some time with my proper camera to do justice to the sheer magnificent beauty of this watch.

365 Project: Photo 134

I went to a gig tonight at 12 Bar Club in central London, I went to see the band of a friend of a friend and, I'm pleased to say, they were genuinely excellent. They're called CC Smugglers and they're somewhere around bluegrass, rockabilly, skiffle with a touch of rhythm and blues. They've got a lot of energy and sound great. I've bought their album and had it on hard rotation. For their last song they came down from the stage and played in amongst the crowd, which is where I grabbed this blurry shot.

365 Project: Photo 133

This is another shot of the back of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square; possibly my favourite statue in the capital. I think this is the best I'm going to get it as far as composition goes; all the elements just about fit together and I love the way it looks like Churchill is still there keeping watch over Parliament, his acerbic wit on a hair trigger. Once again I have grunged it up a bit, something I seem increasingly powerless to resist of late. There are at least two or three more views I want to perfect in Parliament Square so still plenty of work to do.

365 Project: Photo 132

This morning some friends asked if we wanted to come over for a bbq. Great idea, it was warm, sunny and the day was full of promise. However; by early afternoon cloud had set in and, not long after, so had the rain. But did we let that stop us?! Did we Hell.

365 Project: Photo 131

Another one of Westminster Abbey. I think by the end of this year I will have covered every square inch of Parliament Square.

365 Project: Photo 130

I admit it; I've become a bit of a sucker for grunging up photos, SnapSeed just makes it too damned easy. Anyway, here is the north entrance to Westminster Abbey. Vital statistics: Portland and Reyns stone, Gothic, built around 1220-1425 and quite, quite beautiful.

365 Project: Photo 129

This happy chappy stands like a sentinel in front of the British Museum's new(ish) exhibition on Pompei and Herculaneum; an exhibition I've been very excited about getting to. Thanks to Sue I'm a member of the museum which means I can get into the non-free galleries as often as I like for no charge but, annoyingly, this particular show is proving so phenomenally popular that admission is normally barred. It runs for most of the year so chances to give it a thorough going over are still plentiful and I recommend you do the same, but not until after I'm done with it if you don't mind.

365 Project: Photo 128

It's my birthday today. My 30th birthday. My 30th birthday.

Anyway, this is an elaborate way to hide a mobile phone mast; it's mostly made of wood and is designed to look like the Olympic torches from last year's Games. It's in the grounds of Dane's Yard which is a pretty swanky restaurant on Stratford High Street. We're not used to having nice places at this end of town so it was quite the shock. I received some wonderful gifts, one of which is a work of art in itself that shall probably get it's very own blog post just as soon as I figure out how to photograph it properly.

365 Project: Photo 127

This is The Grand in Clapham. I'd never been to Clapham before, it's totally the wrong end of the city for me but tonight there was an intriguing prospect to be had: Bookslam. It's build as a literary night club, which is probably about right. They occur every month or so at various venues around the city and this one happened to have a very feminine bent to it. The crowd was about 95% female and I suspect many of the males present also had a bit of a bent to them, if you'll forgive the 1970s terminology. The line up included Caitlin Moran, Hadley Freeman, Sarah Pascoe and Salena Godden so the sisters were out in force, and a fine job of it they made too. Each in their own way they were funny, intelligent, witty and keen to point out the car wreck that is the way women are portrayed in the media these days.

It's unbelievable that we still seem to need to point out that women are just as capable as men, and why so many women see the need to 'escape' by obsessing over close up photos of other women's bodies I am unlikely to ever understand; but so long as it still needs saying, let's say it. And if you can do that whilst simultaneously being highly entertaining, all the better.

365 Project: Photo 126

A fairly classic view of the Eye from Jubilee Gardens here.

365 Project: Photo 125

Duckbus tour!!

You may have seen these amphibious bad boys driving/floating around central London; if you wondered: Are they as much fun as they look? The answer is, 'Yes!'.

365 Project: Photo 124

I had a party for my 30th birthday today; once the pub closed a few of us headed back to my place where, by the looks of things, we had a rather rum and fried chicken based night.

365 Project: Photo 123

I have no idea what sort of flower this is but it caught my eye at lunchtime. 

365 Project: Photo 122

Now, this drink may have arrived in the gayest receptacle ever but I assure you it has 5 different rums and some absinthe in it.

365 Project: Photo 121

This photo is a bit on the grainy side as I took it on my phone at full zoom and even then I've had to crop it down; that being said, I like the composition so I just need to get down to Waterloo Bridge with my proper camera and a long lens. I might need to use some NE grads to even up the exposure too.