Two for the price of one

Say no more! Except that there might be an updated version very soon . . . we will see!

Weird weather

You may remember a similar jet image from my last trip to Belfast? The weather that weekend was unbelievably warm and sunny - not so this last weekend! I arrived on the Friday to be met with sun and showers, Saturday was wet and miserable, Sunday was clear and cool and Monday saw the return of the wet drizzly weather - hence the colour and quality of the up close and personal picture above.

One other odd thing happened as I went through security at Belfast City Airport where size definitely matters! We are all familiar with the clear plastic bag routine we need to put liquids and toiletries in and to my bemusement my bag was deemed too big! Strange how the same bag was fine and approved at security in Stansted on Friday but obviously the rules are different in Belfast . . . The solution was to remove all my bits and pieces from the x-ray machine, back track and buy four correctly sized bags from a conveniently positioned vending machine for £1, repack the toiletries and then move through security successfully. I immediately asked the obvious question - who gets the proceeds of the plastic bag scam??? Two security ladies hadn't a clue and couldn't answer . . . A little internet digging might be necessary especially as bags are provided FREE in Stansted.

Tip from the top

My Swatch watch face was looking a little scratched and scuffed but after a little buffing with Brasso - it is almost like new! And who suggested this? Muriel of course!

Note the various languages on the tin - not too sure where Muriel found this!

Stained Glass Windows

Whilst in Belfast I was asked to shoot and document the wonderful stained glass windows of St. Nicholas' Church which was a joy to do as I had a fantastic sunny afternoon to provide the necessary backlighting. The main five windows were shot as a three frame vertical panorama and then comped together into the image above and all shot with the Canon G9.

More and other window/Church images are online here.

A couple of stand out images (well I like them!) are below if you don't get the chance to look at the link above.

Broadband weekend

Back in Belfast to see Muriel and also to oversee the installation of Virgin Media Broadband that was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Just as well I was in town as the final stages of activation needed my Mac knowledge to get the thing going. The engineer who doggedly worked through heavy rain to take a cable out the living room wall and in to the bedroom all on the first floor, tried to make a quick retreat when we had problems getting the Mac online. His job was done and he wanted out and he was encouraging us to call their support line as he could do nothing further. If I hadn't been there, Muriel would have been lost and on the phone to me!

Ultimately the Mac spluttered into Broadband life and all was well. I brought my old D-Link router with the intention of setting up wireless and I had won an eBay auction for an Airport card for Muriel's Mac - so all the elements were in place. I struggled all Saturday afternoon and evening and managed to half set up wireless where my Mac would run wirelessly but Muriel's connected Mac wouldn't "see" the internet and vice versa . . . all very frustrating.

In the end, I left the problem and have Muriel's Mac hardwired to the Virgin Modem and all seems well but will investigate this further when time allows.

Another animation

Having booked and paid for my flights to Belfast for a quick weekend at the start of this month, I had a call from Stuart Newman to shoot some interiors and details for the Society of Antiquaries and of course the shoot date conflicted with my outbound flight time. Through the years I have shot for Stuart on many occasions and the work is always creative and interesting and Stuart is one of the "good guys" in the business. Therefore I had no hesitation in changing the flight to the next morning and this was easy enough and didn't break the bank - still giving me nearly four days in Belfast.

The animation above is the result of eighty odd frames I shot of the Society's brass floor plaque, with shoes supplied by Stuart. The frames are combined as an image sequence in QuickTime and saved as a QuickTime movie - all quite simple but effective. Below is one of the panoramic interiors - five frames stitched in Photomerge.

As I was off for the weekend and all clients want images as soon as, there was the distinct possibilty that I would be processing the shoot through the evening and early hours and then driving the disks to Clerkenwell and then on to Stansted - otherwise they would have had to wait until I returned on Tuesday. Thankfully the first part of the above was true and I was able to drop the disks into a Post Box before continuing to the airport but it still took until 245am to complete. As I didn't have the delivery detour I managed an extra hour in bed, rising at 5am - not a lot of sleep before the drive and flight but enough. It was the end of a busy week as I had shot a wedding last Saturday and had to process the images immediately as the couple didn't go on honeymoon but all the better to get both jobs out the door and finished.

It's strange but I was actually looking forward to the early morning drive into Central London as the City is so magical and quiet at that time of day. I also planned to visit the 24hr Bagel Bar in Brick Lane to pick up a Salt Beef Sandwich . . . ah well, Pret a Manger had to suffice at the airport!