i love juice

If its a girl......

If it was a girl it would have 2 million eggs in its own ovaries right now, she would only be the size of a Peach!! its crazy to think how the body forms and even at this very early stage its preparing it to create more life. I don't have a preference on boy or girl at this point as its not important it just blows my mind that there is all these things going on that we cant see or even have a choice in. The baby make the decisions at this point before it hands over the reins in 27 weeks.

A New Chapter

This blog has seen a few new things come and go since starting it back in 2008, taking a year away from blogging and concentrating on other things is always good and knowing you can always return to add a new aspect or chapter is refreshing.
Well there couldn't be a better way to start of this new chapter by introducing little baby Monkey, expected around Christmas I met him/her toady at 1:30pm. She/he jumped around wiggled and showed it was full of life making the whole experience on see the baby for the first time so much more special. Well done my Tenbellies.

Ellory Bop - Torn Apart 1985

One of these guys is my brother inlaw, i was 4 when this came out.

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Edwin Land

Today would be Edwin Land's birthday, he would be 103 years of age. The reason why i am writing a post on this guy is that he is one on the most inventive and well known pioneers in the world of Photography. Why? well his discoveries of polarisation lead to him developing the instant photography that we all know and love. Despite the high cost when Polaroid first came out (and still today) there was high demand and anyone who was anyone had one. To take away the process of giving your film in to develop the instant picture was born and easy for everyone to use. It was said that this invention was the ipod of its day and Edwin the Steve Jobs with his eye for detail and cut throat business style. Ironically, Edwin Land was an idol to Steve Jobs and some say that the iconic graphic colours that signify Polaroid was later used the early Apple logo.

Today his early cameras are sort after and used by photography enthusiasts, i too have one and debated selling it because of the high prices people will pay for it, but then i think about how iconic this camera is and realise keeping hold of a bit of history is much more important.

Happy St George's Day

Happy St George's Day one and all, i may have been alone in flying the flag and celebrating the patron saint of my beloved country but silent i was not.

Inspiration

I have had a little break of late, it comes every now and then usually when i don't feel like sharing anything or when you just get sick of the Internet. work has been a very difficult place to be with the looming redundancies and friends in the firing line it made me think about what i need to do or how i should look to the future as we start to think about building a family. But as i finish the Easter break and just get over some sort of flu illness I'm going back to work to start something new, so my goal is to keep my head out of the grey nasty poisonous cloud that over shadows our department and look to the students for a little bit of fresh inspiration.

3 Weeks Aged

I filtered my first sample of brew last night, its only aged by three weeks but patience is not my strongest attribute, however i will let this second one age much longer. I tried two different methods, one with fine oak shavings that had been mildly toasted and another where i boiled shavings and strips of oak in water for about 5 minutes. Im trying to gain a oak/vanilla smoothness to my brew and im fully aware that this takes years and masses of experience so my standard is obviously going to be way less but im sure i could create something drinkable.

So the boiled technique brought out a very clear oaky aroma with a very light colour, too light for what i wanted and although the aroma is still detectable in the brew the taste is all that. Plus because the flavour and colour is in the water it meant cutting it with the brew and reducing its strength.

The oak shavings were placed straight in with brew after that had been toasted this had an almost immediate effect on the colour and within a day the brew had that deep rich brown colour exactly what i am looking for. The aroma has started to come through and has definitely gain flavour at 3 weeks so i decided to bite the bullet and filter this batch off and bottle. I filtered it of 4 time to ensure there was no oak shavings left in the brew.

I sampled a little glass afterwards and its made for a fine effort, there is still that kick there which im hoping to reduce through leaving the brew and the oak much longer with this batch. I will use the 3 week batch as i bench mark.

Kowa SE

I'm getting a little fanatical about cameras of late and i think iv said this before, no only do i like taking photos i love to use the camera. I cant help but get a little bit excited knowing how all the very finely crafted parts in these machines work and how they go together. I suppose that comes from my engineering days and still lingers there as i find myself buying old duff cameras and fixing them. One that i finished before Christmas was this Kowa SE with a fixed 50mm lens its a tidy bit of kit. When i bought it for a very reasonable price of 5 knicker its had a stuck shutter and unlike my last camera i couldn't find any guides for it anywhere until i found this guy on Flickr who has an immense collection of cameras and had a similar model he had dismantled and kindly sent me the sketches he made while putting it back together. This helped ALOT as when i opened this one up it totally blew my mind and took a good week before i figured it all out and fixed the problem, then came the task of putting it back together. Check out the pics. once it was don it was time to load it up with film and try it out. the first batch didn't turn out great and partly down to using dodgy chemicals so i tried again and the results were beyond what i had expected.

This was the sticky mirror action

This is the shutter, you cant imagine how complex this actually is and so very small.

This took me two whole nights at assembling the shutter back to the camera body, loads of little springs and alot of swearing. in fact i was half cut when i finally got it right.

Job done

A few shots using out of datefile thjat was crossed processed in work.

miss spent weekend

Had what could have been one of the most enjoyable Saturdays for a while, it was cold working outside digging, planting etc but rewarding to say the least and topped off with a few pints in front of a log burner with pals. great...also a spot of photography.

Justified

The new series of Justified started this week, and the first episode hit the spot bang on target. Being English we have the shittest TV known to man, we very rarely make anything worth watching and so looking forward to my US series gives me a reason for having a TV (plus my xbox).

Makes you wanna shoot guns, drink Bourbon, eat fried chicken make moonshine and generally do man stuff all while wearing a cowboy hat............so ill see you at the weekend Thud.

Prometheus

This film not only looks good im sure it will be one of the top films of 2012. What makes it even better is that one of me ex students worked on the special effects. most of which is in the trailer.

Zombie Beetroot

Over at OTW today for a catch up with the kids and family and to play with my new Semi Auto 12g shotgun that Santa dropped off at thuds for me (thanks Family OTW). While we wait to get the clay flinger up and running we did a little target practice and shot off a few shells. Now myself and thud are both highly regarded as some of the most established beetroot growers and from time to time our red creations step out of line and try to take over the patch. So its lock and load and if your a veggie turn away now (in fact get off my site meat eaters only)

Happy New Year

Happy new year one and all, a little late on the post but i spent the past few days in cumbria with family and friends, shut off from my technology i refused to open my laptop and left my mobile in my room. It was great to get away from the very over done new year celebrations and although the weather wasn't the best we got out did some walking and sampled the local country pubs. Of an evening we eat well drank and had great conversation. what more could you ask for? 2011 was a very special year our family got bigger and for tenbellies and i, we got married and will be a major chapter in our lives i cant wait to see what 2012 brings.

Oh and the picture is my Beef Wellington that i cooked and came out better than i could have expected and made for a great new years eve meal.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all, nursing a slight hangover is only natural for the festive day but no time for sympathy its a quick bacon buttie and pack all the prezzies in the car and off to Leek to celebrate with family. And more booze no doubt. Merry Christmas.

Strike Day

so its been strike day today and across the country thousands of people have down tools and walked out of work in protest of one thing and another. Because i work in education i too have had the the luxury of having a day off, unpaid of course but instead of marching with my fellow brothers and sisters i have gone out and done something that i enjoy completely unrelated. Now whether they are right or not to strike you cant argue that its done some good in areas they didn't expect. As i walked through central station this afternoon it was packed out , the town was busy and the shops full but not with the commies, no. but with families out shopping in the run up to Christmas, everyone i saw had a shopping bag or bags and was ether with their spouses or children and instead of a hostile crowd there was a merry family atmosphere that was almost festive, not seen or felt for some time. If this is the result of the strike, that people pump money back into our economy and spend time with family and friends then bring it on.

Zenit E

Its official i have an addiction and not of the drug kind, alcahol i already have but this new addiction is much much worse. Its ebay, and in particular its film cameras. I have have started to mont up quite a collection of 35mm cameras some slr, some point and shoot and even an half frame. Im shure i have enough but the urge is still there and seeing as i very rare spend above a tenner for each one it wont see me out on the streets robbing from my mother just yet.

I have started to buy faulty cameras too, ones that are not working at there best so that i can break them down have ago at fixing them and increase my understanding of how different models work. It rather enjoyable and if i mess it up then its only a small price to pay.

My latest fixer upper is this mighty fine Zenit E SLR, made in the USSR its chunky and heavy but the best thing i like about it is the sound of the shutter, sounds like a Russian slamming the hammer down. This one had a problem with the shutter in that it needed tensioning and the light meter was faulty. so i stripped it down cleaned all the lens and mirrors tensioned the shutter and replaced the lightmeter from another Zenit E that i got for 2 quid. Gave the cosmetics a bit of a spruce and bobs your auntie. I replaced the lens with my Yaschica 50 mm which takes awesome pics. I tested this out on a recent visit to Rome which you can check out on my Flickr. Absolutely love this camera and will use it as much as i can. Its funny now that work has given me a new Cannon 400D you would think id be playing that but it just doesn't have the appeal like these old cameras do.

Lasers at the ready

Being a bit of a technology freak loving my toys and anything that is a little bit space age i jump at the chance to make things, although its seems I'm going backwards in the context of photography as yet again i bought another camera off ebay the other week. However I'm a practical person and love to make things whether its using technology or my own two hands. My recent little creative spell has been for my brother in law Thud, using a design he found in one of his many books on old building i designed two Gothic arches for two of his rooms. The process is quite simple and watching the laser cut them out is hypnotising. Just a few little finishing touches tomorrow will have these looking top notch. I wonder if Mrs Monkey will let me have one of these, along side the 3D printer, darkroom and workshop hmmmmm think I'm gonna need a bigger boat...or a shed.

Picking up the Leaves

Its very mild for this time of year and I'm desperate for the frost to really start as it always gives that winter feel and a sense that Christmas is approaching. Myself and Thud racked off the first of our cider this weekend with quite a few little surprises. the clarity and the difference in taste between the different batches. Anyone would have thought we knew what we were doing as we discussed the readings from our scientific specific gravity reading. Later i took a little wander around the garden taking the last of the apples from the trees and just taking in the immense rich colour of the garden. with some trees keeping a firm hold of their leaves the change from green to deep red then brown is striking and even though no frost or deep cold this some how makes me feel festive. After this mild sense of contemplation is was time for the long task of scooping them up and burning.

Lomo Film

I have recently been dabbling in out of date film both colour and black and white. Iv kind of got to grips with developing my own film but found printing to paper costly and time consuming so i recently got a negative scanner for ones birthday which cuts out both those factors and fits into what i want to do. I had My first attempt at processing colour film, something that most people seem to think complicated and yet its nearly the same at processing B+W with only a little more care time and temperature. I love using this out of date stuff has your never to sure as to what your going to get from it when you process it. the results have been great so far like taking your images back in time, saturating the colour and giving small imperfections which i really like. I love my digital camera but my film cameras have personality and their own style which some presets cant beat. These images were not touched or altered in any way and taken on my Rollie xf35, processed in my kitchen.