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Sunday 17 August 2014

A little bit of photography

Blog time, bitches!

Here we go. I'm currently exhausted so god only knows what I'm about to write.

*Closes eyes. Starts to nod off.*

--- --- 12 hours pass --- ---

I'm in a better state today to try to write about the last week. Take 2. Last week I decided to purchase a night tour so I could do some London night photography. I saw a deal on Groupon for 10 quid so I figured, why not? After work on Wednesday (after carefully checking the weather for no rain - although letsbehonest, even I'm starting to learn that it could rain at any given moment) I made my way to Victoria to hop on the night tour. Aside: I also went to a lovely little cafe for dinner, with my usual "A table for one, please."

I walked my way through a very rich neighbourhood, past the gorgeous terraced houses, fancy cars and limousines - in my jeggings and sneakers, no less, until I reached my destination at the start of the tour. Looking at the building, I thought to myself, "Oh damn, I got a dodgy one." I was prematurely annoyed, however, as the tour guide was one of the most entertaining, hysterical and naughty guides I have had to date. While the bus driver raced around London - Slow DOWN please, driver! - the guide called out ridiculous things to passers by, to soldiers, to guards and to The Queen. The driver did drive far too fast for me to get any good photos like I was hoping, but the great guide made up for the lost photos. Sitting next to me was the most awkward approximately-16-year-old American boy who I attempted to engage in conversation with (to avoid the sheer awkwardness of the situation) which I think made it more awkward as he was....just an awkward teenage boy. It was hilarious. Awkwardly hilarious.

Thursday night saw dinner and drinks for the lovely Sarah's birthday. We found a great italian restaurant with a fantastically charming waiter (who on the sly showed us an online voucher to get the meal cheaper). I had bought a card for Sarah and every chance when she was away, got the rest of the troupe to write a small birthday message inside - including the waiter. After dinner, we made our way to be at one for the Blueberry Muffin. I still cannot comprehend this black magic but - it actually tastes like a blueberry muffin. I think I'll just say blueberry muffin a few more times.

Blueberry muffin.

Muffin. Of Blueberries.

Friday was an awful day. Anyone who knows me well knows that I struggle with repetitive noises...and especially ones that aren't exact. For an hour, raucous bells "rang" on campus to commemorate Princess Anne's birthday. They'd stop and then start. They'd chime at different levels and speeds. It happens about 8 times a year for various royal occasions. I was rather distressed. By the end of the day, I was a bit of a mess, and ended up getting on the wrong train. The person next to me on the train was playing the drums on their phone, agitating me even further. By the time I got to Hammersmith, all I wanted was comfort food so I went to Maccas, where they're softdrink machine was broken so I had a little nerd cry. It was one of those days.

Saturday, I woke up at the arsecrack of dawn as I was heading off for a hike and photography expedition. 5.30am I was on the first bus and by 6am I was at Starbucks with two strangers. I promised to let my roommate know how I was going in case I got chopped up into tiny pieces. This was a trip organised through Meetup, and it turned out fine. One of the ladies ground my gears, but one can't expect to get along with everyone. We chatted and got to know each other on the drive there, and once there started to climb the mountain. It was going to be approximately 10km round trip, which involved heading up the Gorge on one side, down in the middle to cross the road and then back up and down again. At any point, we just stopped and took photographs.

Being the most amateur of the group (although looking at some of the photos taken I may be underestimating myself...), one thing I enjoyed was watching those that did photography for a living - watching as they pointed and aimed at something and trying to imagine what they were looking at. It was fascinating having people in the same environment and what interested different people. I love macro - so lots of my photos have something going on in the foreground because I find just a stock standard landscape picture a little uninteresting. That's just me. Others were looking for interesting textures and patterns (this interests me also) while others were going for the landscape. I spent most of the time on my arse in the dirt and the various kinds of animal poo looking at interesting things and perspectives from the ground.

The 10km hike part was good also - similar to Lofty but because we did it at a slow pace, it wasn't overly taxing. My knees are suffering today though. I have to brace myself everytime I take the stairs.

And so that's that! Off to Belgium in the upcoming weekend, that'll probably be my next blog post, so until then, adieu!
xx




Bubbly for Sarah's birthday








Cheddar cheese toastie in Cheddar :)

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