leyton.org

I spent this morning up in Balloch, supporting the hundreds of runners in the Vale of Leven 10k, the last race of the 2009 Polaroid 10k series. I’d have been running myself if I’d got my finger out and entered in time, but figured it’s just as important to do a spot of supporting on occasion to make up for all the cheers I’ve received when running myself! I took my camera along and snapped away quite furiously, and think I managed to capture a picture of almost everybody taking part in the process. My pictures are available on flickr here.

I had a great spot in the first 1k where the leaders were already edging ahead, and snapped most people as they want past, even chucking some money in Tommy’s collection bucket, before jogging to the 4k mark where the runners emerged out from their loop of the Balloch Castle park. After snapping most people there, I then headed back to the finish area to catch most of the finishers. I’d missed the winners, but my excuse is I’d foolishly not put on running shoes or gear, so was plodding along in jeans and heavy shoes. Not the best. Ah well. Didn’t do too badly.

It was wonderful to see so many participants, not only from my own running club, but so many from Glasgow parkrun too. My only difficulty is remembering names! So my apologies if I just cheered something generic. So many people seem to know my name as a result of giving the pre-race briefing to the 1200+ runners who’ve now taken part, I only know a fraction of your names. But great efforts from everybody taking part. It was a warm and sunny day, so looked like it was tough going in the second half of the course, where shade was in short supply!

Regarding the pics: As I say on the notes, please get in touch if you’d like higher resolution pictures, or if you’d like to use the pictures at all.

I enjoy taking photographs, but frustratingly I am not always particularly inspired, or don’t get struck by particularly good ideas. That’s perhaps why I’m a technologist, rather than an artist. Also it’s one of the reasons I enjoy candid photography, but that causes me problems as I get very nervous about sticking a camera in peoples faces (and am a bit pants at making them feel relaxed).

The great thing about mobile phones with cameras is, naturally, it’s much likely you’ll have it with you, and so are able to capture pictures you might not otherwise take, and capture moments that wouldn’t otherwise be recorded (Citizen journalism, I suppose).

Unfortunately, notably with the iPhone, the camera and options is rather poor. But I’ve tried regardless. So whilst idly browing my iPhone’s albums last night, I realised I had a few pictures that might be fun to bring together in a weblog post. Make of it what you will

Penguins

We were over in Edinburgh on Sunday last week, when we met our Wedding Photographers to go through things, and do a few trial photos. It was great fun. More on that in due course, but we’re so far delighted with our choice of photographers, and really excited to see how the pictures from Sunday, and of course the wedding, come out. We had access to the Zoo from the house we were in, so popped in to see the penguins. It’s something of a moral dilemma whether caging animals is fair, compared to the educational value and sense of the world around us it instils in children. All said, I still think I find Zoo’s sad places.

Merchant Square, Glasgow

I really like this covered square in Glasgow, although the bars and restaurants around it never appeal enough itself, the space itself is enjoyable. At Christmas it usually has a few specialist stalls with some interesting gifts, and during the year there are often displays, including a few art and photography ones. I’m an absolute sucker for lights at night, and wish the council would do something more permanent around the Royal Exchange Square, which looks wonderful through the winter months with it’s lights.

Citizens Theatre: Desire under the elms

We went to see ‘Desire under the Elms’ at the Citizens theatre, and the stage was dominated by an impressive house structure. As the focus of the play moved about the house, various walls moved to allow us to see through. It gave a wonderful sense of things. Rather precarious for the actors up on the 1st floor I’d imagine!

The play itself was wonderful, and very well acted. Not exactly the most uplifting of subjects, but a compelling couple of hours. As a corporate sponsor of the theatre, I’d earlier had an explanatory talk from the artistic director. We’re hoping to get along to see ‘Waiting for Godot’ sometime very soon, a play I’ve been looking forward to seeing for a long time.

St James’ Orchestra, Paisley

We went along to the winter concert of St James’ Orchestra, and after the first half trying to see over the head of a tall and fidgety person, we moved up to ‘the gods’ for the 2nd half for a better view (and acoustics). My piano teacher was playing the viola, so it was nice to be able to support her.

If you enjoy classical music, I can highly recommend looking out any amateur orchestras in your area for an accessible and enjoyable evening of music, played to a very high standard.

We’re certainly hoping to attend future concerts by the orchestra.

Stew and the Dogs

My friend Stewart (also, bravely, my Best Man) and his fiancé Carla, have two Spaniels, who have a huge amount of energy and, er, enthusiasm.

They descended on Stew on his sofa, when I was visiting last week.

You’ll be pleased to know the beer was not spilt, but it was a close-run thing.

Good riddance

We had a bad encounter with Mr Crowe of Dans La Cuisine in Shawlands. Whilst we did thankfully still get a kitchen, it was the wrong colour. I discovered this note on the window of the now defunct show showing that his landlord had a similarly poor view.

That said, I’ve definitely realised I have a very poor judge of character. I hope nobody was left out of pocket or worse off as a result of the company going out of business.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops are wonderfully enthusiastic flowers, aren’t they? First to appear in the spring, I often wonder where the bugs are that will pollenate them. Highlights the problems with the iPhones camera that it’s a bit ‘blurry’ in high-contrast (ie. the white is bleeding), or maybe that’s pocket fluff.

All the pictures are on my flickr account, and can be seen in larger sizes if you click the images.

I received an e-mail earlier this week through my flickr account from schmap.com, who seem to be an online travel guide website of some sort.

Apparently this photograph from autumn last year has been ’shortlisted’ for inclusion in their next Glasgow guide.

I gather the decision is made in early August, and it seems the picture is properly credited to me, so all sounds quite good. It’s certainly a first for me to find that my efforts with a camera aren’t entirely to waste. It’s also a bit exciting, and also reminds me that I need to get a decent print made up of this photograph, which is definitely one of my better efforts. I’d be happy to make the high-resolution image available to anybody else that might want a print.

You can see the other photographs from our autumnal walk around Pollok Park here.

The last couple of weeks has somehow been rather busy for all the right reasons, and this site has been somewhat neglected. Probably not going to cause anybody any heart-ache (especially as most of my visitors are hitting the old archive stuff not the latest and, er, greatest).

Figured it might be worth a short ‘update’ post that I’ve sort of been working on over the last few days…

Running

Running is going really well. After my routine got disrupted due to lots of travelling, and, well, Christmas, I’ve been back to running 3 or 4 times a week. Only a day after the words “I’m not pushing myself too hard” passed my lips, I went out for a gentle run. It really was gentle. I didn’t push, I just ran for the fun of it. Only to find I broke my fastest mile record, without even trying. That was a shock. I then went and did it again a couple of days later. Very strange, but perhaps indicative that a relaxed state of mind and doing it for the fun rather than the next goal has it’s own rewards when you least expect it.

It’s also really nice that the mornings are now light enough that I can squeeze a run in before I start work some mornings. There’s something really special about running through a frost-touched park as the sun rises. That, as well as unexpected records, are making me enjoy this running lark more than ever before. And there’s not been any return of my shin-splints/knee problems either. So I’ve found a sweet-spot.

Piano

You’ll recall I mentioned that I decided I’d take up the Piano last year, and actually started lessons a few weeks back. This is proving another surprise: I’m thoroughly enjoying it, and find that the hours zoom by as I tinkle away at the borrowed keyboard I have on my desk, practising the piece of music in front of me. It’s proving very therapeutic, and rewarding. Those small achievements as I get a particular bar of music right, or master a new idea, are really marvellous. A flashback to my education in a sense, as I got some key concept, or got a good mark.

That was part of it: I’ve not learnt anything radically new, other than by reading books, for ages. It’s been IT stuff all over, and science books. So I was finding I was hungry to learn something different. Keep that grey-matter limber. I’d considered languages (probably German), but I wanted something that would give me a hobby too (as much as language could well be very useful, it’s something I may try when I’ve attained a reasonable level at the Piano).

My piano teacher is a star too. Patience in plentiful amounts, and happy to answer quizzical questions that occur to me that, given she mainly teaches children, perhaps she doesn’t get normally. Certainly she suggested it wasn’t perhaps appropriate for me to learn timing by skipping around the room. She’s just around the corner (We can almost see her house from here), so it’s great for squeezing in for a late lunch.

It’s timing I’m struggling with most of all, as well as getting my fingers used to new movements. Getting the sharps and flats improved after my last lesson (fascinating in itself), and two handed playing is actually starting to take shape. I just suck at timing.

Pictures

Expect some pictures to make an appearance soon. I’m off to Ipswich this weekend to take the photographs for my brothers wedding. A nerve-wracking proposition, but whilst I’m certainly nervous, I’m also really looking forward to it. As long as the weather holds off enough that we get down there ok, and my photography equipment survives in one piece in the journey! Hopefully there will be some up for public consumption too. Wish me luck too on Saturday afternoon!

Work

… and work is busy too. Very busy. I’ve somehow picked up a new client, and it’s taking a long time to secure the services of a full-time replacement at one of my existing clients. I’ve also got a side-project I’m keen to start on, but what with all this running, piano, working, and – of course – time with Frances. New projects have therefore got to be back-burner stuff until some time opens up.

So it all amounts to a rather hectic, if rather enjoyable, period at the moment. Perhaps I’ll get a bit more time to be a bit more vocal as things settle down again in the next few weeks.

Oh, and enjoy your Haggis tonight if you’re having a Burns supper. We’ve got Frances’ close family coming around for dinner tonight, so hopefully I’ll get my onion gravy right to accompany the haggis. And yes, Kilts will most certainly be optional!

[fa:p:a=pollok-park-walk,id=277186929,j=l,s=s,l=p] I was taking a look at my friend Sharon’s website, and noticed that she’s got an excellent photo gallery integrated, and that it was all (under the hood) run off of flickr – but with local URL’s. Well, I’d been meaning to get something setup on ‘dexter’ my co-lo’d machine, but the enthusiasm hasn’t materialised to transfer it off of flickr, where I’d have to redo sets and albums.

So I had a good hunt about and came across falbum, as the wordpress plugin that seems to be behind things. Even if it’s not (and I’m sure Sharon will be in touch if not – It does seem to do everything I want, ie. to display my photosets seamlessly, and in an intelligent manner, with local URl’s, without requiring the extra hassle of manually maintaining them in two places. So, that led me to renew my lapsed flickr-pro account to get back to an unlimited number of sets.

[fa:p:a=christmas-2006,id=349182832,j=r,s=s,l=p] Anyway, ramble over. Recent Photos are now nicely integrated at leyton.org/diary/photos (as well as a few favourites in this post!), and I’ve popped up some from Christmas and New Year too. Expect more very soon, what with my brothers wedding to photograph later this month! (eep!)

It’s very easy to criticise, much harder to compliment. Certainly when we’ve felt somewhat under siege at times with incompetent companies doing work in our house and leaving us high and dry (here), or going to restaurants and leaving nonplussed about the experience (here and here), letting off some steam on this website is a useful exercise.

It’s not all negatives though. We were happy with our plumber, enjoyed eating in Miso, Ichiban and – of course – my all time favourite noodle bar Chi Noodle – who have had a major facelift and it’s improved further still. The sooner they open up in Glasgow, the more complete my life will be

So, whilst I do sometimes feel a bit bad about getting negative about places (especially if my google pagerank puts my site higher than theirs), there is – I think – a lot more positive writing up going on on this site than negatives.

I wanted to further that with a non-foody recommendation, and that’s going to hopefully be of interest to Glasgwegian (and Scottish) photographers. If you’ve not already been to Quiggs, then you’re missing out on the best photography shop in town. I was in there this morning hoping to get my Nikon D70 cleaned, and my film camera serviced.

It’s the Achilles heel of Digital SLR’s in that the CCD is behind the reflex mirror and none, as far as I am aware, have any sort of anti-dust system. That means dust can get on the CCD itself, resulting in flecks on pictures (particularly small aperture pictures) that can’t easily be removed with a simple clean (more here). So Quiggs had previously offered to use their high-pressure blower to clean it. And clean it they did. For the grand price of £0. Nadda. Marvellous.

I also wanted to get my film SLR serviced. I’ve not used it in ages, and it’s over 10 years old now, and had the shutter jam on me in San Francisco a few years back, ruining what would otherwise have been some pretty stunning pictures of the park and Yosemite national park. But a quick look, and a bit of a play, and they gave it a bit of a clean, and said it didn’t need anything. It was in excellent enough condition. My jam was probably my touching it when changing the film, not anything systemic.

So, I stocked up on new film and a new 1Gb Compact Flash, and a new battery for my film SLR. Grand total of about £45 of business. But most of all, the extremely friendly, helpful advise, and the aversion to charging me to do simple or unnecessary things, meant that I walked out of there (briefly; I was barely out of the door when I realise I’d left my new purchases on the counter!) feeling that it’s the best photography shop in Glasgow, and one of the best I’ve been to.

Jessops are the high-street shop most people will be familiar with. But I find it a bit too ‘Dixony’. Too many glass displays, too many ensuited assistants who are too keen to push a sale on you, much less have a passion for photography. The guy I dealt with in Quiggs was friendly, affable and knowledgeable. Sure, Parnie street is a bit off the beaten track, but it’s a nice little spot none the less, and we often park in the Kings Street carpark, so not that far out of our way.

So, go check them out: Quiggs of Glasgow – www.quiggs.co.uk. An excellent shop that deserves to continue for doing everything a photography enthusiast could want, so well.

Went for a nice long walk in Pollok Country Park yesterday, and Frances and I took a few pictures of the autumn as we went around. Some good ones there, but not sure if the autumnal scene that Frances has in mind for a picture in our front room is in it.

It reminds me of course that I have a few nasty specs of dust on my Nikon D70’s CCD, so need to get that cleaned. If you look carefully you can see the specs on a few of the photos (I certainly notice them).

I’ve been seeing a lot of Pollok park the last few weeks, as I’m still doing my running. It’s now the sixth week of running, and I’ve managed to get four runs in each week (bar a missed day here and there where I rested for a bit longer as my bones have been feeling the strain a bit), and I’m now comfortably managing three miles each morning I run, and a bit further on Saturday – 4.5 miles just this Saturday passed. It’s certainly a good feeling when I’m in my stride, and rewarding when you go that little bit further between breathers. I do have to keep reminding myself that I’m supposed to be building endurance, not distance or speed, at this point.

So my next goal is, of course, to keep doing it over the next month, and by the end of the year, to comfortably manage a 30-40 minute run without taking a walking break. I also want to have perhaps done a few longer runs, which will probably mean a couple of laps of Pollok Park, or heading up to Queens park or Bellahouston park…

One thing I really need to work on is ‘warm ups’. It’s notable how much more comfortable it is once warmed up, and here I’m missing some instruction (despite the books I’ve read) on good and effective warm up practice. I’ve taken to doing a slow jog/fast walk around the clay tennis courts nearby, followed by some stretching, which is going well.

I also need to get some winter running gear – the temperature has been quite mild the last coupe of weeks, but that’s not going to last, and a few mornings I’ve wondered what I’m doing as I head out with shorts and a t-shirt. Gloves too, by all accounts, come in handy.

Only wish I could take my camera with me on my runs to catch some of the scenes I’ve seen, with morning mist, a low sun, and some autumnal scenes and backdrops. Must dig out my old small, but somewhat old, Ixus camera!

An interesting photograph collection: glaswegians.org – A collection of “30,000 photographs taken between 1989 and 1992. The Glaswegians Photo Archive is a record of Glasgow through photographs of its people – their lives, habits, quirks and cultures“. Lots more about it here, and it’s great to see something that happened before the internet took off catching up, and creating such a wonderful resource.

We’re currently in Somerset, staying with my parents. It’s been a nice afternoon, so I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of the pond life that was enjoying the weather in their now very well established pond (Which I helped build many years ago!).

My ‘natural scenes’ group has them all. And a challenge – how many frogs can you find in this picture? (A larger image here)

Whilst I’ve rarely actually taken many photographs in museums and galleries, I often notice that UK museums are very hostile to photography. This is presumably because all to frequently people don’t know how to disable the flash, and flash light is very harsh and possibly damaging to exhibits. That or the lawyers fear copyright infringment.

Unfortunately, this one-size-fits-all policy means those of us who know how to disable flash, respect copyright, and might want to undertake photography projects, either have to fork out money for a pass, pay for publication. Compare this to The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where I was pleased to see they allowed (non-flash) photography.

As we live next door to Pollok country park here in Glasgow, I popped into the Burrell collection to enquire what their policy was.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that they allow (non-flash) photography for personal use. So it sounds like my project for some rainy afternoons over the next few weeks and months can go ahead. However, the policy is a little vague about non-commercial publication on personal websites, such as this, and my flickr pages. So I was directed to their PR department.

I’m waiting to hear back from them now. But I’m hopeful they’ll agree to my request, and that – in time – I might have some interesting photographs