I’ve discovered what mates are really here for…
…Sabotage that’s what.
Just take a look at the evidence here…
Or here even…
There’s me, trying to be all professional and doing some serious photography and Just when I’ve got a perfectly lined up shot, who should mysteriously appear but him. Always getting in my way he his.
I try so hard to ignore him, but eventually I have to something about it and sort him out, teach him what’s what…
Not sure he’s learnt his lesson yet tho.
Black and white?
Down by the river?
Ice cream?
All sounds good to me.
So that was the plan we, er, planned and executed in our own incompetent way.
I’m reminded of a quote by Jeremy Clarkson, host of Top Gear…”Ambitious, but rubbish”.
Pretty much sums up anything mate and I get up to. If we ever succeed at anything, it’s not because we’re actually any good, more luck I would say. Most times we’ll succeed at something, whilst trying to achieve something entirely different…but we’ll take success wherever we can.
However, I think this plan was somewhat successful, afterall it wasn’t too complicated was it? Just three little steps that’s all, any more than that then we would’ve probably come unstuck.
Tuesday morning, we arranged to meet up (actually we arranged it on Monday, but whatever), usual time and place and what not.
So I get on the good old reliable pushbike (umm, must get that buckled back wheel sorted) and cycle into town, leave it secure at the work place and walk through town to our meeting place. Then a strange noise emanates from my trouser pocket, “what’s this, oh yeah someone’s sent me a text”. It was mate (blimey, he does know how to use a mobile!) telling me his bus was late.
“Brilliant, I’ll just kill some time then.” How do you kill time anyway? with a stopwatch maybe? nah that only pauses time…umm (this is what happens when I’m left alone with my thoughts for too long)
Eventually mate shows up, and eventually we hatch our dastardly plan, after visiting our usual eating establishment (gotta be fuelled up first).
And so it was to be a black and white session, down by the river, mainly cos mate wanted to try out taking black and white pics with one of his millions and millions of cameras that he’d never used for this purpose before.
Plus there’s an Ice cream vendor (or two) by the river, and we both seem to have a bit of weakness for the stuff.
On the way to the river we stopped briefly to take some pics of the permanent market stall thingy by St. Paul’s church. It wasn’t market day so there wasn’t actually a stall there, just the structure for it.
But the river, and the Ice cream were calling, so onward bound, we get to the river and of course proceeded to argue over which side we were going to go on (a decision largely affected by where the ice cream vendor was).
“It’s this side”
“no, no, it’s this side”
The argument goes back and forth until we eventually decide on the far side, probably because by the time we had finished arguing, it was the closest.
Walking down the river (by the river that should be, neither of us are Messiah’s, far from it in fact), we find the ice cream vendor, purchase exactly the same one (must stop doing that, it’s getting a bit wierd), blooming nice it was too, seemed to last for ages as well!
But of course all thing’s must come to an end, so we slowly head back into town, this time on the other side and we find another ice cream vendor! Didn’t get another ice cream tho, that would just be greedy.
And eventually we end up where we usually end up…at the Bear pub, where I work.
[edit 29.05.2010 – Matey has pointed out that I’ve forgotten the bridge incident, Not sure how I did that, it’s a classic example of how many of our conversations go…
One of us asks a stupid question and t’other one has to state the bleedin’ obvious (with lashings of sarcasm of course!).
In this case t’was him who asks and me who replies…
We’re walking towards the river, arguing over which side to go on and where the ice cream vendor is, do we turn left down the Embankment, or do we go over the High street bridge and round to the other side. I’m pretty sure that the ice cream is on the other side, whereas he thinks it’s on the Embankment side. The conversation goes a little something like this…
“where’s the nearest bridge?” (probably thinking that we may need to cross back over to get to ice cream)
“er… there” ( pointing at the High street bridge)
“that’s not what I meant and you know it!” (stifling his laughter)
“you just asked me where the nearest bridge was, it’s not my fault you didn’t say what you meant is it?” (stifling my laughter)
That is pretty much how most of our conversations go. The problem with us both being sarcastic gits, is whenever we’re having a serious conversation (which isn’t often), it usually takes a turn to the funny side. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, why should we treat the world any different?]
I got up this morning, the sky was so blue (this ain’t a Blues song, honest).
It was a beautiful morning, so I thought I’d walk the long way to work, by the river. So off I trot with camera in hand just in case, you never know I might even get some pics.
Blimey it was hot, good job I didn’t take a coat for once, I just know matey must be loving this hot spell, he’s not a fan of the cold.
Even I’m enjoying it, which is wierd, cos normally my brain don’t work too well in the heat (some might say it never works well).
The walk to work doesn’t take very long, even going by the river, so I had time for a sit down and a smoke. Of course I took a few pics whilst I was at it (one day I’ll burn the camera doing that).
Eventually though I had to carry on to work, didn’t want to though, would’ve been quite content just sitting there, enjoying the sunshine and taking pics.
Didn’t get a lot of pics, too busy enjoying the weather, but at least I got some…bet the whether’s not so nice tomorrow when I have more time to enjoy it.
Clouds…I love ’em.
When there’s not much in the way of inspiration (photography wise), there’s always clouds.
Always changing, constantly evolving, forming new shapes and new images for me to shoot…also they’re fun to play around with “creatively”.
Sometimes I tweak them a bit, to bring out the shapes and colours.
Sometimes I leave them as is.
It all depends on what it is about that particular cloud(s) that strikes me at the time. Sometimes it’s the potential of the shot, “what is it I’m seeing here“, sort of thing ( was that too arty?). Sometimes the shot just, er…”speaks” for it self.
Either way, hopefully the end result is a photo I can look at and say “yeah, I like that”.
My favourite time to get these shot is the evening, as the Sun starts to set. Unfortunatly, I don’t always get a chance to get these ‘cos of the job I do, but at every opportunity I try.
The colours at this time are fantastic, I know it’s probably to do with pollution and “climate change”, well if that’s true then bring it on!
If I’m around at the end of the world I’ll have me camera out…just imagine the colours we’ll get then!
This post served as a poor excuse to show off a new Flickr set dedicated to clouds.
On this post, I mentioned that there was gonna be a pirate party at work, and that if all goes well I would have some pics…
It started not unlike most Friday evenings, me and an underling (seems some fool left me in charge), not the usual one tho he had the night off… do underlings deserve time off, I’m not sure.
Oh yeah, and I’m in full pirate costume…bandana, flouncy shirt, waistcoat, so on and so forth. The underling only had an eye patch (plus his normal clothes, you perverts).
I’m beginning to think maybe I’m the only one who’s gonna be wearing a pirate costume…then the hoards arrive and before I can swash my buckle, we’re running around like headless mutineers (see what I did there, funny innit?).
It got so busy, so quick that even the boss (who we refer to as “Our Glorious Leader”) had to help, for a while anyway before he scuttled off, probably to count his money or something.
Eventually we were joined by two more underlings but by this point we’re so behind that we spent the rest of the evening trying in vain to catch up.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love that it was busy and all that but unfortunately it meant I didn’t get a chance to get any pics, which is why there isn’t any (duh, obviously).
Still it was a great evening, not exactly ruined by all the corsets on show…ehem.
And I’m not sure how pirates managed to be the scourge of the seven seas, not in those boots anyway, they did a right number on my feet!
Continued from Part1...
And so on to Houghton House then…
Now I’ve been there before, many years ago… I remember cycling there with mate#1 in fact, it was before I got into photography so I didn’t have any pics…until now that is.
We drive up to where it’s situated, mate#1 looking for somewhere to park, cos you can’t drive right up to the House… great more bloody walking.
So we have to walk along a path that seems to last for forever, at least the view was worth it.
Also on the way to the House, see told you it went on for forever, there was some Cows in the field nearby, although I seemed to be distracted by mate#2 whinging about the steepness of the path. I know he’s getting on in life but does he always have to whinge.
Whinging about how knackered he is or how cold he is, honestly I’ve never heard so much whinging!
Anyway where was I… oh yeah Cows. I like cows, not sure why there’s just something about them.
Have to take some pics of the Cows.
And then there was the sheep, managed to get a shot off before they ran away. Mate#2 reckons it was me who scared em off, but I think they saw him coming and scarpered!
I don’t blame them, wish I’d done that when we first met, would have saved me from years of abuse.
Then on to the House itself…
Very impressive it must have been in its heyday but now it’s a ruin, not that I don’t like ruins quite the opposite, ruins have a lot interesting shapes and shadows great for taking pics of.
Having spent a while wandering around the House taking pics, I decide to have a sit down for a smoke and to just take in the atmosphere.
Which mate#2 takes as an opportunity to shove his camera in my face bloody cheek!
Then mate#1 and mate#2 are suddenly stuffing their faces, as if the food we had in Ampthill wasn’t enough.
So the day draws to an end and apparently we’re dropping mate#2 off first…think it must be time for his afternoon nap.
We head back into Bedford and me into work and that is the end of our escapade, some good times and some bad ones (mainly mate#2 whinging) but all in all not a bad day pic wise.
just wish we could pick one place and stay there… have I said that already, think maybe mate#2’s senillity is catching!
The day starts off with a rather rude awakening at about quarter past seven by a knock at the door, not overly pleased by this, having only got to bed at about two thirty!
Turns out to be a delivery driver, er delivering some bits for my Pirate costume…having a Pirate party at the Pub in which I work, hopefully if all goes well I’ll have some pics.
Anyway, back to Tuesday…
So, having had to get up earlier than expected the only thing to do was put the kettle on…umm coffee! Oh yeah, best have a wash as well…don’t want to be smelly do I?
Mate#1 picks me up first…so I get to sit in the front seat like a proper adult (I can pretend can’t I?) and as we’re driving along, well he’s driving actually be a bit strange if we were both driving, I’m sitting there in the front seat and I spot all these wonderful clouds in the sky (where else would they be?).
Bugger… I’ve only gone and put the camera bag in the boot! I’ve never done that before so it’s just typical the one time I do, there’s some pics to be had.
Mate#1 says he needs to get some petrol, seems cars don’t work very well without it, so that’s the first port of call.
When we get to the petrol station, I take the opportunity to firstly get my bag out of the boot and then to go get some grub…a man’s gotta eat.
Back on the road, I’ve got me camera out to get some shots of said clouds.
Time to pick up mate#2, best let him know we’re on our way tho cos we don’t wanna be hanging about, waiting for him to get his act together… bless him he’s getting on y’know.
Right, finally we’re on our way to, erm… where are we going again? Oh yeah, Clophill with the intention of visiting The Church…St. Mary’s church to be exact, actually it’s the old St. Mary’s church to be more exact.
Was gonna put in some history and what not, but it would seem having had a sneaky peek at mate#2’s post he’s already done that so I shan’t bother…so there!
We get to Clophill and as it turns out this Church isn’t that easy to find, not helped by the fact mate#1 and mate#2 can’t decide which road it’s on, they’ve both been to the Church before apparently, not that you would have got that impression…I know I didn’t.
We head up a road that both of them agree (sort of) is the right one.
Turns out not to be the right one of course, we couldn’t find a map in a map shop such is the level of combined incompetence.
Undeterred we carry on looking for the Church, when one of us spots it (not sure which one) at last! now how do we actually get to it?
As we drive around, trying to keep it in our sights, we head up a road that seems to lead us there…and would you believe it, it does…well sort of, had to park the car and walk up what turns out to be a bloody long steep path (nobody said anything about walking).
But finally we arrive.
So the pic taking session begins proper, albeit with much jostling and getting in each others way, well mate#2 getting in my way and me resorting to jostling him.
And as we roaming around the Church taking this shot and that, I turn round to see mate#2 doing this.
I’m pretty sure you’re gonna regret that… which of course he did, and moan about it too, kept complaining he was feeling all stung for some reason…I’m guessing the senility kicked in.
Having spent a fair ol’ time taking pics of the Church, changing memory cards in the process…funny I don’t remember taking that many pics, it was decided, not by me I might add…well known for my lack of decision-making skills, it was time to move on.
I think the goal was to find somewhere to have coffee, about time too hadn’t had one for about three hours! Although mate#2 kept mumbling something about beer, not that we take any notice…he’s always mumbling something, must be his age.
We ended up in Ampthill, in a rather nice little coffee shop. And so one cup of coffee and a Cornish pasty later, we head out into Ampthill, seems mate#1 and mate#2 want to go to the bakery down the road…hang on haven’t we just eaten, always thinking about their belly’s.
Having got their grub from the bakery, it was decision time again.
Where to next, seemed to be a lot of that going on today, why can’t we just go to one place and stay there?
It was decided that Houghton House was next, seeing as it’s just down the road from Ampthill, and that is indeed where we ended up.
If you feel inclined, you can always read what mate#2 has to say here…not that it’ll make much sense.
I was on my way to work this morning, when I spot this here billboard…
My first thought was isn’t that nice, a big company doing something for the enviroment.
Nothing to do with profit margins then…probably.
That’s not my hand by the way but it seemed appropriate.
My intension here is to occasionally write about my escapades with my ongoing addiction to photography, be it funny mistakes (most likely) or maybe even some serious photography discussion (but too serious eh).
I’m not into all this “arty” photography, but will acknowledge that some photos can be “creative” and have artitstic value, but generally I take a photo ‘cos I like what I see.
The photo above was an attempt to take a shot of the sunlight on the benches, but a certain “mate” of mine kept waving his hand in front of the camera, so I took a shot of that instead… bizarrely I actually liked the result, so he did me a favour really (he won’t like that he he).
The Webbed Toe 
You must be logged in to post a comment.