the clear out...

Ive got a skip on my front lawn...i wanted to get large one... but mike said 'No..a small one will do..We haven't got that much to put in it,' i am removing the vine that has crept over the rear of the house obstructing the daylight from entering the kitchen, on bright sunny days i quite like the dappled effect it has, and being a person who's not a fan of artificial lighting...i'd become quite used to minimal vision!..So the vine has gone, along with it the huge harvest spiders that have not only set up home, but had created a commune, a village their very own city of spider activity! i made sure that as i reached up to tug the stubborn, tangled tenticals that had strangulated the guttering my mouth was firmly shut tight, there was no way that i was going to digest one of those beasts...

i found that once the vine had been removed..the mallow that had been planted as a small shrub had grown also to vast dimensions and was also guilty of robbing me of the glorious light that would light my kitchen like a halo of goodness..so i found the saw that had been hiding in its rusty corner and chopped it down to the nub...i didnt stop there ..bushes, jasmin, old trellis, seeded plants were being thrown with late summer madness into the skip...whilst im doing this mike is emptying the two garages of our precious junk that we have accumilated over the past five years...the skip is over flowing...

"We should have got a bigger one," mike said......

i didnt respond :)

my kitchen is beaming with light....

update on Pogal...bad week...two pidgeons one frog....

what can i do with him...it cant be normal...???

i dont know why im writing this now, but i have the desire to revisit my time on the Isle of Wight.....it was a strange chapter...In 2000..I remember wanting to find a home that reflected my identity, as my ex and i had been in renting for all of our relationship...by chance he'd landed a job on the island; giving us the opportunity to find our home...and we did....a tiny little 1800 semi cottage with panoramic sea views that needed lots & lots of love attention and creativity....it was a nice little place...but as i write this ..im kinda thinkin' 'how bizarre that i as a person, finds it very hard to conform..if im asked, told, requested to do, adhere, follow a/some rule, request or order..i will do my best to ignore, avoid or delay what is asked... i am a rebel!! and i love it...as a teenager my pulse was beating to the beat of punk.. Stiff Little fingers, The Clash, The Sex Pistols...Half Man Half Biscuit... My blood wasnt red...it was Tarten!!!

what ever made my parents gasp with horror id absorb it, drink it like the smooth nectar of cider and a larger mix, finished with a splash of black...Glug Glug..lovely lovely Glug....!

so i do believe that my time on the island, was a reflection of me being an outsider to my peers..an alternative thinker...a quirky non conformist that wants to fit in! I endured a year...i found beautiful, creative friends..i touched my hippy side....and i photographed...i photographed Ventnor....which is where i lived, and it has an amazing beauty...a beauty thats almost extinct, like the dinosaur... I like to call it 'Fading Grandeur'

why cant i spell?? even with spell check...some words seem impossible. :(

well, after a year of 'rest' i am pleased to inform my micro' audience, that i have found employment as a tutor of photography trough Brockenhurst college.

Im a photographer who has stayed loyal to its traditions...im 'old school'... film based cameras, darkroom development..the majority of 'new photographers out there..i believe have been robbed of the delights, mystery and enchantment of this tradition..

i know the digital age has well and truly got us by the short and curlies...and i too can celebrate the possibilities of editing as you shoot...but where's the suspense?

anyhows...after excepting the post...i was made aware that the course shall be structured upon the digital aspects... :( so with about as much knowledge of photoshop that you could fit into a matchbox...i have purchased photoshop elements and am self teaching.

the man above is my new husband! it was taken the morning after our wedding :) at the chewton glen...very poshe' this image was taken on my phone! but what is so captivating about this shot, is the light that came so strikingly through the window... almost reminiscent of a dutch painting..( i shall be attempting this with oil?)

well ive installed the software into my mac, and have started to disceplin myself to a tutorial a day...this giving me time to practice and perfect my P'shoppin skills...

there is one PS' effect..which takes converts the image to B/W but retains colour in chosen areas...its a simple effect, but i'd always been puzzled to how it can be done...

i now know...

so after three attemps ive mastered one..

the first image has been altered.. the second hasnt...

which do you prefer?......

the last two posts, show the victims so far...i shan't be posting the frog, as it was truly vile!!

im feeling rather fine today, as ive just been approached by the local collage to teach photography on two evening classes :)

so my efforts have not been in vain...i must admit i was beginning to go slightly mad, even though the last year has been rather hectic with family..

so anyhows... here is Pogal..AKA P-Diddy...not sure why we call him that?

Beautiful isnt he...i love him.

My first image for my first blog entry.

I own a cat; his name is Pogal.

He is a killing machine! He is an Oriental, (siamese, block blue colour, and looks like a small panther)

I am a Photographer, and after the successful completion of my degree last year ( i gained a first!) i have been some what barren for ideas...id given all my creative juices to the uni :/

...so ive been scratching around in my little puzzled head... when all of a sudden it came to me...

Daily, our little panther brings home gifts for me.. now these gifts have varied from pidgeons (some often bigger than Pogal!), Voles, frogs and moles!!!

it saddened me to think that these poor mites had died prematurely and unexpectedly, so to immortalize, and pay a recognition to their lives, ive decided to photograph each one.

the image above, my first, one of Pogals many, is my 'Pola-vole' shot and digitally altered and set as a polaroid.

watch this gallery.