Archive for the 'photography' Category
Chocolate Fountain…
Fyse August 10th, 2007
Taken at the wedding of a friend on Saturday. The girl’s parents seemed remarkably unconcerned by the collision of melted chocolate with white dress.
Flowers in the Garden…
Fyse June 6th, 2007
Well, it seems I’ve again been little inclined to write of late. This may well have something to do with spending hours processing all the hundreds of photos I keep taking, so I probably ought to at least use this place to post a few of them. Click and then follow the ‘all sizes’ link on Flickr for a larger version.
Which reminds me again that this template needs a redesign. Doesn’t post pictures at all beautifully.
PS Argh. Just took a look at the site in Safari and it looks like a car crash. REALLY must get round to sorting this template…
Back with the phlog…
Fyse November 24th, 2005
For ages I’ve been wanting to sort myself a brand spanking new photo blog, but haven’t found the time to spend the requisite hours. I want a PHP/SQL based blog on a subdomain of floatingface, but it’ll take me too long to set up. For now, utilising my swanky new 2MP camera phone, I’ll resume use of my textamerica blog. There’s a couple of new photos to check out now, and keep an eye on the sidebar thumbnail for further shots!
Whose bright idea was that?
Fyse November 7th, 2005
Take one McDonald’s Happy Meal toy and one pint of beer…
‘The Physical Impossibility of Common Sense in the
Mind of a Student’
Damien Hirst would be proud. Unfortunately, it was my beer.
Exciting development…
Fyse October 25th, 2005
It’s been too long between posts again, and this isn’t even a real update. I don’t have time to fill you in on everything (football matches, continuing lack of project supervisor etc.) but I will point you in the direction of my new photo site! It’s extremely simple, and I’m still using the same old gallery structure, but it means all my photos have a permanent new home.
That really is all I have time for now, as I must sleep. There are a lot of emails to be sent out to potential project supervisors tomorrow, as well as a lot of example sheets to be completed (or rather started).
Meme time again…
Fyse October 16th, 2005
Both Nicole and Nicholas completed this photo related meme, and it’s a good one so I figured I’d join in too. Using Google’s wonderful image search, you take the first picture thrown up by searches for your…
- Town of birth
- Town of residence
- Name
- Grandmother’s name
- Favourite food
- Favourtie drink
- Favourite song
- Favourtie smell
“Manchester”
Though I was born in Manchester, I spent only the first year of my life there so I don’t really qualify as a Northerner. It’s a relief really, since otherwise I would have been stuck supporting either Manchester United (a repulsive thought) or Manchester City (a depressing prospect).
“Cambridge”
I guess I don’t really live here, but it is where I spend more than half the year. Cambridge is stunning in any season, and there are loads of fantastic photos thrown up by Google. This first is definitely one of the best.
“Fyse”
I did try my actual name, but there were no photos returned at all. It seems I have a namesake graffiti artist out there somewhere. I assure you we are not the same person. I have no artistic talent whatsoever.
“Dorothy *****”
I’ve edited this post to remove my surname, since I like the fact that Googling my name doesn’t currently return any hits on this site. It’s not that I’m particularly fussed if people find their way here, just that ever since I heard potential employers often Google interviewees I’d rather they didn’t come across this immediately. Anyway, I think I’ve worked out why my grandmother’s name throws up this somewhat strange photo. The ‘*****’ part comes from my uncle (her son), who has done a lot of research into the Chartist movement, and he happens to appear on a web page near someone named Dorothy. Strange that it’s a related *****, but I guess it is a pretty rare name.
“Olives”
It’s really tricky to pick a favourite food, as it completely depends on my mood, but olives are certainly up there.
“Espresso”
Nothing hits the spot like a double espresso.
“Beautiful Day”
Again, it’s really tricky to pick a favourite song. This U2 song has fantastic associations for me, since it was used as the soundtrack on the video of a sky-dive I did on my gap year. That’s right, I did a parachute jump. It was AWESOME.
“Freshly roasted coffee”
Yep, it’s another coffee related photo. To be honest, my favourite food could easily have been chocolate coated coffee beans, but I figured choosing basically the same thing three times would be a little over the top.
Normal service resumed…
Fyse October 3rd, 2005
I’m very aware that it is far too long since I posted, and I hope an absence of information pertaining to my life has not proved too detrimental to your own. I’ve been back in college since last Tuesday, and am actually quite looking forward to lectures starting again. I think the courses should be interesting, and this year is the first time we’ve had much choice of subjects. This allows me to drop some of the worst areas from last year’s exams (though there weren’t really any good ones). My choices this term will most likely be ‘Soft Condensed Matter’, ‘Physics of the Earth as a Planet’ and ‘Astrophysics and Cosmology’. Perhaps if you’re very good I’ll explain all about them some time. Or perhaps if you’ve very bad. In fact, you’re gonna have to behave in a pretty average fashion to avoid that particular treat.
I realise there has been an almost complete absence of tales from my summer, and in the interests of keeping abreast of current activities it will probably have to remain thus. I did however come back with over a thousand photos, so you can have a look at them as I post them on the internet. So far I’ve only sorted through the pictures from Cornwall, but feel free to peruse them. (Don’t worry , there are only 153.) Actually of course, they’re pretty boring to anyone who doesn’t know the people featured, so the better shots can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. For those of you who trawl through them all, I can’t even begin to explain the section containing men in drag, so I wont try. The show was called ‘Iolanthe’ and you can also find some pictures on the Minack Theatre Website (though they’re only from the dress rehearsal).
Now I must head to bed, but I promise more regular updates from now on. If I discard (regretfully) a whole summer of anecdotes, I can at least resume normal service. Blogging is a habit I’m in danger of losing and we certainly don’t want that, now do we?
Back home & a chapel roof tour…
Fyse March 24th, 2005
I moved back home again on Monday afternoon, which means a return to the messiest room in the world and a severe sparsity of friends. Will the relative lack of social life result in my working hard on the project and revision I have to do this holiday? Doubtful. I also have to do some job hunting, as I do not wish to repeat previous mistakes; those who have followed this blog from the beginning will know how unsuccessful my half-hearted job search was last year, and sorting things before the start of the summer will hopeful prevent this happening again. Before all that though, I’ll bring you up to speed on the life of Fyse…
I mentioned a project viva in the last post, and while the actual interview wasn’t as bad as I had feared, the mark I received was not good. One of these days I’m gonna have to get my act together and actually do projects properly. Then I might get decent marks for them. I have one piece of coursework left for this year (the one I mentioned last week), and I’ll have to ensure I really do well on that to drag my average up before the exams. My exam results were poor last year. This year I must work.
My last supervision of the term took place on Thursday in King’s College (next door to Catz). Afterwards, as we were about to leave, my supervisor said casually that he was taking a group up onto the chapel roof in 20 minutes if we fancied coming along. King’s College Chapel is arguably the most impressive building in Cambridge, and needless to say, we jumped at the chance. I even had time to pop back to my college and collect my camera. (Follow the links for impressive 360° panoramas and a photo taken by me a few weeks ago.)
Access to the roof of the chapel is via a doorway in the gift shop corner of the chapel, and the tightly winding staircase goes straight up into one of the spiky bits at the four corners of the roof. It was very long and very steep, but for a few short sections there was a (comically frayed) rope to hold on to, as well as plenty of people coming up behind me to provide a soft landing. Fortunately I don’t have too much of a problem with heights, no more than is just plain sensible, but there were a few people who struggled a bit. At irregular intervals there were small grilled windows, allowing you to monitor progress. Everyone made it to the top eventually, and a few of us even overshot a little, disappearing past the roof level and up into the tower.
Before going out onto the roof proper, we clambered the length of the chapel inside the roof void, actually walking on the top side of the vaulted ceiling. There were a few holes drilled the entire thickness of the rock, through which you could see directly to the stone flagging far below. Not only did this give a dizzying realisation of the potential drop (onto what must be one of the most unforgiving floors in the world), but also an idea of the thickness of the ceiling. Serious engineering, and built five hundred years ago!
Walking toward a glaring window at the far end of the roof void didn’t allow eyes to adjust, and I groped and stumbled the length of the chapel with my arms outstretched, feeling for the chin-height beams apparently designed specifically to catch out the unwary. There is very little give in a metre-square lump of oak, and stubbed fingers are certainly preferable to stoved-in skulls. Once we’d reached the far end, we made our way up the last stage inside another of the towers, and eventually stumbled into the sunlight once more. The chapel has a sloped roof, covered in every inch by thick sheets of lead. The weight must be ridiculous, and I’m glad I wasn’t the poor sod who carried it all up there when it was last renovated in the mid 19th century.
The view was quite absurdly good. The central colleges of Cambridge laid out below us, the Senate House, Great St Mary’s Church, the river, the University Library (a phallic structure if ever there was one) and beyond, the countryside. Legend has it that you can even see Ely Cathedral on a really clear day. There is an ornate wall skirting the roof, giving plenty of gaps to peer through as well as the reassuring knowledge that it would take a small tank to break through it. How immensely satisfying it was to peer down on the head of the swarming German tourists. Mere mortals never get onto the roof, as only fellows of King’s College and their guests have access. (A fellow is a member of the academic staff.) I don’t know how many students from other colleges ever get up there, but it can’t be many. What a fortunate chap I am.
Not that people are always limited by rules. The chapel roof has a sophisticated alarm system, and this is sorely needed when ambitiously unruly students are around. To some the chapel is like a red rag to a bull, and the chapel towers have spent time adorned by many assorted objects, including an artfully positioned toilet seat. The daddy of all pranks, however, was when a group of engineering students completely dismantled a Mini before carefully reassembling it on the roof. Legend does not record whether the car had a fully functioning engine, but full style points if it did. (The fellow that took us up was an undergraduate at the time, but insists he wasn’t involved.) The college authorities eventually had to lift it down by crane.
Well, having rambled on long enough already I’d better call it a day. There are many other things to talk about, including a nail-biting tied election, but that will have to wait. Till next time, faithful readers…