atomicules

Actually taken the other morning on the way to work; I spent my lunch time brushing the dirt off. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for as I was hoping for actual sunrise through the mist and I got neither since it was before dawn and the mist was barely visible. I think I have a very similar photo from this time last year taken on my APS film camera and should I eventually get my films developed it will be interesting to see how it compares.

All that said, I love this shot and I think it may be the best picture I've ever got on Polaroid (well Fuji).

From last weekend, I think - I lose track of time. There are many more daffodils in bloom now down the track, which would have made for an even prettier picture, but the weather isn't as nice this weekend so I'm glad I got it when I did. Regarding that track: this was taken pretty close to the top of the track and you can just about make out the end of it in the distance. I cleared all of that of ice (big thick slabs) last winter with just a shovel. Just feel like I should point that out as often as I can.

It was tricky finding the right place to stand for this one: I wanted to "fill the frame" as much as possible, but also make sure I was well out of the way of her cantering round. And then there was trying to gauge just how much she was going to cut the corner by; the answer: a lot more than I expected!

(But I still really like this)

I'll use this test shot (Yay, rollers haven't got stuck open) to mostly waffle on about my new bike (not that you can really see or tell from this photo; it's the one on the left).

I'm sure I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I'll do a brief (Fuck it, it's MY website, I'll do what I want) recap:

1. Got a fixed gear bike through Cycle2Work (first new bike since Father Christmas brought me one as a kid!), perfect for 7 mile round-trip commute.
2. We move house, commute now a 38 mile round-trip. Nevermind, I'll get a more appropriate bike as soon as Cycle2Work scheme re-opens as fixed gear a bit hard going in the winds, also need to be able to fit studded tyres for winter.
3. Cycle2Work scheme gets put on hold indefinitely.
4. A year and a half later, finally reopens. But in meantime have become accustomed to fixed and the key advantages of low (almost zero if you abuse things like me) maintenance. When times are tight this is ideal.
5. So, was all set on getting another similar fixed gear so I could at least take this one offline to repair and then have as a spare.
6. In typical "just my luck fashion", the Genesis Day 01s I had my eye on at the LBS sell out, then PlanetX/On One stop doing Pompinos. So forced to have a re-think.
7. Was primarily against a road bike as could only afford Sora and I ride in the drops a lot (although in hindsight, I can see how Sora would be useful on a winter only cross bike as could shift in mittens fine, but screw the slow, boring, heavy, sensible option...)), but then miracle of miracles...
8. I discovered a company that accept Cyclescheme via mailorder and had a GT GTR Series 5.0 bike that features an unheard-of-before-to-me brand of shifters called microSHIFT that don't have a stupid thumbshifter like Soras and would allow shifting from the drops!
9. Victory

So, yes, hurray! I went for the road bike. It is an "entry level" road bike - apparently - but, fuck, I've been riding one gear (fixed), having 16 gears (instead of 18, 20) is already more than I know what to do with. I still have some concerns over maintenance costs, but well, I can't be expected to run things as lean as I have been doing forever. And I will work on getting the fixed gear fixed up for winter (it's only when you get a new bike that you realise that is what a bike is meant to feel like and just how knackered the old one is).

A couple of interesting things about riding a bike with gears and a freewheel after two and a half years of riding nothing but fixed gear:

• I can't get my feet in the toe-clips. Ha, memories. I now understand why people use clipless pedals on road bikes. On a fixed gear bike it is actually easier (also the pedals on the fixed are easier to flip) as there is obviously resistance when flipping the pedal backwards. Not so with a freewheel. So even getting the first foot in is harder. I have to do this with the pedal at the bottom of the stroke before setting off. Also, since the bottom bracket is much lower on the road bike, the toe-clips scrape on the road which is annoying as I can't get my second foot in on whilst the cranks are rotating. I have to get up enough speed first so I can freewheel and hold the pedals steady with the first foot.
• Freewheeling is incredibly unnerving. It just feels wrong. But I shall have to force myself to do it because as well as the toe-clip issues, the lower bottom bracket also means I doubt some corners can be taken at full pelt whilst pedaling.

Another neigh picture, this one from the weekend. I tried to follow up with a picture of Mouse on Summer (the new arrival), but this one had jammed slightly in the camera and didn't come out cleanly. This must have prised the rollers open a bit as the next one came out far too easily and didn't actually develop. But, hey, at least after over a year of having ponies I finally have two pictures of one of them.

P.S: Where did February go?

Tried to capture the early morning haze across the fields. Aware of how much this camera (and me) struggles to expose well for both light and dark areas I upped the lightness knob a bit, but then overexposed it (so missing most of the effect of the haze) and then also got a nice purple roller thing during development. But saying all that, I do still like it.

Hardly any snow this year, but a lot of frost lately, which makes for some rather beautiful - if a little chilly - mornings. This doesn't really capture it, but ho-hum, got to try these things.

Manual shutter, manual triggered flash? Fast enough fingers? Just, yep!

Whilst stood doing the washing up (it is fair to say that where I live now permits even more lazy photography than where I used to live, the only crying shame is I've been unable to do any), I kept looking out and seeing the sunlight cast beautiful colours across this old steading. So I nipped out to get a photo. Whilst trying to keep the dog from jumping up and knocking me over I completely forgot to adjust the focus and only remembered whilst wandering back inside. So I thought, "Sod it" and wandered back to the same spot as best as I could remember and exposed it again, this time focused - I thought I might as well as I had nothing to lose.

I've subsequently tried to take two more shots of the same subject, but this first one, the mistake, is the best of the three. I've just not been able to the photo to match how I see it in my head and I've decided to give up trying and move on to other subjects.

In the excitement of having a whole two packs of instant film to play with (the last film I shot was a year ago) I continued to get carried away with trying to do things the camera was never meant to do (and unfortunately I've wasted most of the first pack in this manner). This was taken whilst jogging alongside my eldest who was trotting up the hill on Bailey (she's still learning so can't go off trotting on her own so some poor mug has to jog alongside 'just in case'). Anyway, never really stood much chance of pin-sharp focus, but the framing is pretty awesome :-)