Staff and snow

Sadly I've been a bit stretched on time again after getting straight into another job since coming back to Wales. It sucks that money and min wage work comes before photography all the time but I can't afford not to work especially with Canada only a matter of weeks away. I will make sure I free up some time before leaving to start my Viewbook portfolio - just a few more decent Staff shots and I'm done. Talking of Staff shots I managed to get one this weekend - big thanks to Duke and his owner.

Final flag post

Since returning to Wales I thought that I would concentrate on my Staff owners as much as possible, because I wouldn't have time before Canada for another new project. Sadly I haven't had the chance to add to my Staff project so here is the final image I snapped for my Thurrock flies the flag series. Hopefully I'll have a few Staff shots soon and then I will be ready to upload a few projects to Viewbook.

Goodbye Thurrock, hello home.

I've made it back from Thurrock this week to see my family and friends in Wales before I leave for Calgary around March time. My last week of being in Thurrock turned into a bit of a mad rush, saying my goodbyes, selling unwanted items and most importantly trying to get more flag photographs. Towards the end I did rush things with this project and I could have done with about twice as long to get a decent amount of images before I then edit down. Anyways, what's done is done and I can't go back to retake anything so I'm working with what I've got. Not all of the images that I've posted for Thurrock flies the flag will go into the final edit and I'm hoping to get a good set of 6 ready for my Viewbook site that will be going live soon. Here is one that I'm happy enough to say will be in the final edit which was taken sometime last week when the weather finally cleared.

Please, enough with the rain already!

It's been a bit difficult to photograph in these weather conditions the last few days but the wind has been great for my flag project. With the wind though we've also had the rain and that has kept me stuck indoors with my camera equipment fully charged at the ready. Whilst sorting some other must-do items earlier on today I packed my camera and tripod hoping to get some break in the rain around sunset - things run on a little longer than expected, eventually though I quickly made my way to the local allotments but the light was fading fast. I think another trip is due there at sunrise with some better lighting conditions...weather permitting.

2012 = Get Shit Done

After working all the hours I could get over Christmas I've neglected photography and blogging; I can relax a little now that I no longer work at a camera shop from this weekend. I'm determined that this year I take more pictures than ever and I'm sure moving to a new place in the next few months will also help to get my creativity juices flowing. I have promised myself that 2012 is going to be my Get Shit Done year..........starting with a new image from earlier today for the Thurrock flies the flag project. Wishing everyone a happy and productive New Year!

Magno Cafe

I've been a bit busy with work lately so didn't get chance to arrange/discover new meetings with Staff owners. However I did free up some time before work this weekend to visit another location for my Thurrock flies the flag project. Weather pending I should be able to get at least another flag image before this coming weekend. For any feedback or more info please email me at the address listed in the About Me section.

Sunrise Staffs

After photographing the house last week I continued to look around Corringham for more flags; my luck was in when I came across two owners of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and they kindly allowed me to photograph their dogs - the second owner preferred that her daughter be photographed and joked that it was too early to be standing in front of a camera. Thanks to both of the owners for stopping and adding to my Staff folder. Hopefully by next week I can have more flag images and maybe another Staff if I'm lucky.

Sunrise with St George

Before work this morning I quickly set up outside a house after arranging that it was ok to photograph with the owner a couple of days back. I can't decide which of the bottom two images I prefer so I'll probably end up going back there again but this time about 15-20 minutes earlier to see if the light is better - hopefully with a bit more wind too..... Apologies if the colours seem off, I know that my colourblind problems have produced some interesting results before when I then run it by the wife (who is currently asleep) for a second opinion.

Thurrock flies the flag

Starting with some good news, I have now moved on from part-time pizza delivery to part-time camera shop work. Not great when I'm trying to save harder now than at any other point in my working life - but still it's all adding up and talking about cameras to people isn't that bad of a job (just the pushy sales part that I'm not so keen on). So a new job and a new project. Thurrock flies the flag came about from when I worked as a delivery driver and noticed a few St George's Cross flags around. Although I own a Welsh flag and do hang it over a balcony when out on a skiing holiday, I've never gone to the effort of flying/hanging it when I lived in Wales. This summer was quite a patriotic one with the royal wedding and at one point bunting was everywhere but that's gone now. People that still go to the effort of flying a St George's Cross are that extra step above the bunting crap that was so easily available. It's that extra step that interests me and hopefully the shops/sheds/houses/garages flying the flag will make for some interesting images and interesting people. First up.......

Here comes the bride

Almost 10 weeks have gone by since my last post and I'm gutted to say that I have very little new material. I have been busy paying back my student overdraft and also quite unorganised at setting aside some time to go out and shoot. Saying that, there are no real excuses that can get me out of the lack of activity on this blog - sadly I've let photography fall below some less important tasks. I'm now back in the flow of things, starting with paying for a Viewbook account (which is still under construction) and also getting back in the loop with following blogs and twitter to get my photography fix. Big shout out to JonathanJK asking Viewbook for a favour and equally for the Viewbook gang dishing out a favour - I'm really excited about finally getting an online portfolio of work using their clean look templates. So now onto some of the images that I have taken over my quietest 10 week period, they were taken a few weeks back at my oldest (period not age) friend's wedding. She asked me to obviously shoot the ceremony and after party but I asked if it was ok to come for the wedding prep - thinking it would help bulk out the wedding book. Before the wedding we had only agreed on the staged shots for the ceremony itself so I was looking forward to the morning to wander around and be snap happy. It's because of this freedom that I'm willing to put up some wedding shots on a blog that I was trying to keep as purely personal. Sadly for my 1D MKII N, the wedding prep was the last thing to go onto its sensor. Literally minutes after arriving at the registry office, after using the camera for the previous 3 hours, the camera died and displayed 'Error 99' - so until I can afford to send it off for repair, which isn't going to be anytime soon working as a part-time pizza delivery boy on minimum wage (poor me, no really, poor me - I'm skint), I'll be using my back-up GF1 (that was luckily at hand when the 1D gave up). One other thing, congratulations to the newly married Meredith couple and thanks for an awesome day!

Sunset Staff

As promised I am trying to post more work around the few projects I'm working on this summer. The below image was taken today around sunset when I cycled passed this Staff and its owner. Hopefully within the next 7-10 days I will have images from the other two projects that I will be focusing on this summer.

As I have mentioned to most of the owners that I have met for this project; if you would like an image of you and your Staff I'm more than happy to send a copy - please use the email address listed (alexdmiller.info@gmail.com) to reach me.

Weekend walls

I haven't set out to go and photograph anything this week (or the last two weeks either) and I know that this approach of just walking around with a camera on my hip is not producing anything decent. My recent posts are stuff that I 'like' and nothing more; the work that really made me happy whilst being at uni was work that I could go out and capture for a specific project or theme.
Although street photography has become more of an interest to me (especially since graduating) I really need to be working on something more than street.
Hopefully over the coming weeks I can show more work that surrounds the themes/projects that I want to publish on my (soon-to-arrive) website.
In the meantime I've just started a Snapixel account (never been a fan of Flickr) to load more images that I 'like' - Snapixel will have more of the out-and-about shots, rather than the project/theme related work that I'm aiming to promote more on this blog.
Going through my images from being out and about this weekend I realised that I had several wall shots so I've quickly made an edit down to my favourite three.