Forrest and William

We went for a walk a couple of labradors and their people at Friston Forest today.

Meet Forrest and Willie.



Apart from a tiny growl at another springer (one month younger than Z) a couple of weeks ago, Forrest is the first ever dog that Zebedee has shown any obvious dominance behaviour against! It was kind of a shock to see Z really growl at Forrest (nine months old) when they met at Piddinghoe yesterday evening. Luckily Forrest's people are understanding and let the dogs sort out their places themselves. After a little while, Zebedee was playing fine with Forrest. It was never that aggressive behaviour, anyway, but I'm just not used to seeing him growl at all. I guess now that he is at the brink becoming an adult dog, he is trying his luck at being the more dominant one compared to those younger than him.

Well, I guess it's time to do a bit of research into what is the best way to deal with this situation. I'm not going to allow him to become a bully, but I need to know how not to crush his spirit, either. Hm, well, not that there are signs of that. Silly dog.

Starlings

Just one shot today. Starlings in a tree in Piddinghoe.



I have decided not to pursue this 'a photo a day' project at this stage in my life. Photography is the only source of income for me at the moment, and I really don't want to risk losing passion for photography. I thought that it might happen if I "force" myself to take a photo every single day; it may start feeling like a chore.

Actually, let's make that a little more sinister....

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Well, not quite. ;-)

Anyway, had a couple of cool girls over for a photo shoot today.









Look at the attitude on this girl!



That was Chloe, and here is her sister Rosie!






For a long time I didn't know how to make the most of Rosie's photos, but I think I got it now. One take on them, anyway!

Afternoon at the beach

Just got back from a lovely hour and a half on the beach.



As we arrived at Tide Mills, rain clouds were just arriving from inland and heading towards the sea, so we waited in the car for about 15 minutes for them to pass before we walked to the beach.



At the beach we met Max! Zebedee hadn't seen Max for months and months...



...but they picked up right where they left. Best friends. :-)



Remember last time I pictured these two together? Z has grown a bit since then.



A couple more shots of the beach.

West.



East.

Friston Forest

Came across this cute thing running around enjoying himself in Friston Forest.



Interesting how you look one way and it looks like autumn, turn your head and it looks like spring.

Blur

I'm practising taking photos with more blur in the frame than I'm used to having. Trying to get it look good, but I don't think I've managed it yet. Here are some attempts, nevertheless.






Couldn't resist a daffodil or two...



One crazy dog...



Two crazy dogs...

Northern Lights

I took some photos of a Scandinavian Pub called Northern Lights today.



Well, OK... I had some Sauteed Raindeer first, before I started taking photos. So shoot me.






This pair of skis is on the wall of the pub, and apparently they are the real thing from around 1930's!












Selection of Scandinavian drinks and sweets... They do both Salmiakkikossu and Fisherman's Friend vodka, BTW - not for the faint of heart!









Some of the less usual drinks on offer in Brighton.



The beautiful bar.



Sooo Scandinavian. :-)









Mid-renovation upstairs. I took some photos there at night a couple of weeks back.



Some of the upcoming entertainment - Finnish legends Kari Peitsamo and Pelle Miljoona.



The owners and staff and very friendly - and a little bonkers, as is expected.

Budding leaves

Look! Leaves! Very soon! Whoo-hoo!

Japanese theme Brighton

We had a little walk in Stanmer Park this morning.



And in the afternoon on the seafront in Brighton.






And who do you think we met? The young Elvis Presley, of course!!



To think that he was performing in a local dingy bar! Blasphemy, I say!



Now: be warned. The maker (I presume) was very protective of these wonderfully, amazingly unique, imaginative, fundamentally ground-brakingly fantastically original hats. When she saw that I took a snap of her marvellously brilliant never-seen-before-in-all-of-human-kind woolly creations, she said - looking very insulted, indeed, as if I had a baseball bat in my hands instead of the camera and was just about to smash her stall into pieces, or steal all her marvellous creations and become a millionaire selling them on: "I'd rather you didn't!!!" Haha. Nevertheless, here it is: (DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RECREATE ANY OF THESE WOOLLY HATS AS THEY MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT!!!)(You have been warned!)(I'd rather you didn't!)



Well, anyway.... subsequently we moved onto late afternoon-evening entertainment! First we went for a drink at Madame Geisha.















Madame Geisha is a funky bar/restaurant on three levels.












Toilets!



And then onto Moshi Moshi for some Japanese dinner. Which, surprisingly, wasn't a disappointment! (Saying that, I wasn't expecting much because - as we all know - E-Kagen is the best Japanese restaurant in Brighton.)









The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur...

Tide Mills abstract

Stanmer Park at twilight

Peacock (Inachis io)

I was very surprised to see a peacock butterfly a few days ago. I didn't think butterflies would be flying about yet! I was excited. So excited that I didn't manage to take a photo of it - it kept flying off every time I tried to attack it with my humongous lense.

Well, today I was more careful. Look!



I was as excited, but in a bit more controlled, stealthy manner.

I saw another butterfly, too! A female Large white. Identified by the two spots and a streak on its upperside forewing.



I've had trouble identifying the Large white from the Small white, but today I found a good, simple identification rule:

(Looking at the forewing upperside patterns)
no spot = small white male
one spot = large white male
two spots = small white female
two spots and streak = large white female

Anyway - not only the butterflies, but the butterCUPS are out, too.



And geese flying left and right.






Blimey, it'll be summer soon!

Skylark

I've seen skylarks at Tidemills before, but today was the first time I had my long lense with me and managed to capture one or two.

You know skylarks - they do this gorgeous song in flight when they rise vertically straight up while singing to their heart's content, flap their wings all the while, ascend higher and higher until one can hardly see the little spot in the sky from the ground level, and then, finally, they go quiet and descend straight down and rest on the ground for a while, until the next musical flight.

Well, here's one of them during the in-air singing.



I did a little collage of another one during its display flight.



And afterwards, a rest by blending into the surroundings on the ground.

Yuk!

This is for all you pollen allergy sufferers. Enjoy. As I know too well, you don't have to smell it, you don't have to get it in the delicate inner linings of your nose at all... no.... all you need is to SEE it and you start sneezing! Yes! That's how crazy you are! Ha-choo! Ha-choo! Ha! There you go! Try and stop now!



And then - ever wondered what goes on inside a daffodil?
I wish I hadn't. But there you go.









Oh why can't it be just about lovely fluffy yellowness? Why does is have to be about the horrible black things, too.....?

My Disney World has been shattered...

OK, that was a little silly... I feel like a great tit now. I have to end this post with something more up-beat that those horrible black things in lovely yellow things...

So here goes. A great tit.



I can't believe how difficult it is to get a decent photo of a tit! (!) They fly off as soon as you try to very slowly and carefully get closer to them. I'm sure these birds move more slowly in Finland...

More spring flowers

The first cherry blossoms are out!






And daffodils are in full bloom everywhere.






Seaford Head, seen from Newhaven's Castle Hill.

Greenwich Park

After a lovely dinner and evening with Tara and Lee in SE London yesterday, today we went to Greenwich together. But before that, a Karma portrait. :-)



From Greenwich Park there is a fine view over Canary Wharf in London.



After lunch and a walk around Greenwich, we went back to Greenwich Park to have a little play with Zebedee and a Frisbee. Here is Zebedee (and Lee's legs).



And my lovely, crazy friend Tara. Crazy in a good way, of course. Love this photo of her. Her smile is so contagious! :-)



"Nooo, I'm not going to give it back to you!! Just try and catch me!!"



Some Zebedee poses:









And random passers-by:



Some with attitude.



...and some that couldn't care less as they are just out to have fun.



Some skaters on the way back to the car:

Phew!

I only realised afterwards that I hadn't taken any photos all day Saturday. But fear not! I did actually take some photos on Saturday... I just took them very early in the morning on our way back from Northern Lights.



So I'm still keeping up with the 'photo a day'...

At the beach

Another sunset at Newhaven beach with the doggie.









In the evening we had dinner at E-kagen (the best Japanese restaurant in Brighton). I'm going to take photos for their new menu possibly next week.



...and after that we had a drink or two at Northern Lights, a Finnish/Scandinavian bar in Brighton.















I will be taking proper pictures there some time next week.

Shaky impressions

I saw these gorgeous white daffodils in Piddinghoe this afternoon. It was already getting dark so I thought I'd wait a little longer and let it get even darker, and do long exposures of the daffs with my pocket camera.

Rachel

My photographer friend Juliet came over for a photo shoot for her friend Rachel today. Well, I was allowed to take photos, too. ;-) Here are a few shots of the gorgeous Rachel...



My first attempt at high-key.












Actually I like the last one with a starker look.

Crocuses

Well, at least I don't have to dress up polystyrene heads today at 11:55 PM.

Just been for a little walk and came back with some photos of purple crocuses. Well and truly in bloom by now.



So small, delicate and pretty.

Whatever next?

Look what this "photo a day" challenge is making me do. Cross-dressing polystyrene heads?









Help.

Making an effort to keep up with the challenge

I'm trying! Ha. About 11.45 pm I realised I haven't taken a photo today. So here's my desperate attempt to come up with something worth looking at... These are just some of my props that I bought the other day. The theme, I thought, would be something like "shades and jewellery at the ready - where's the party!?". (Well, basically, I just tried lighting the black perplex sheet with some items on it ;-).

If some of you my dear regular or irregular photo blog followers have a spare moment and can be arsed, can you please let me know which photo you like the most? (If any... I'm not sure if they are all crap.) The winner will be uploaded to Flickr in my "Photo a day challenge" set.

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5

Lastminute.com £10 deal

I booked a random hotel the other week as a lastminute.com £10 hotel deal. Just because I like driving to new places and - well, not a surprise, really - take photos in new places. It was somewhere in Hampshire. We decided to take the long, scenic route via a couple of small villages and Winchester.

Can't remember the name of the village where we saw this little church... I will update with the info if/when I get it. Update: Tillington!






I have noticed in the past year or two, as I have taken photos in local churches, these eagles propping up the gargantuan bibles... wonder why they are there; why eagles? If anyone knows, will you let me know?



Next, some photos from Winchester Cathedral.


















Then we drove to the village of Longstock, and Peat and Spade Inn...



(these are just some shots I took while waiting for our meal)






...for the most sumptuous lunch in - well, weeks! OK, perhaps months. :) I start to salivate as soon as I think about my delicious main course...












Then we arrived at the hotel...



...and headed to the bar for some wine and review of the day's photos...



...three bottles and a long discussion later, bed!

Windows

Today started with a glorious sun shining through the bedroom window.



...and ended with another kind of window... which I found within this shot I took in the evening at Newhaven harbour.



Here is the detail.

Challenge

OK, I'm going to start taking this photo blog seriously now. My aim is to take at least one interesting, presentable photo EVERY day. But I'm not saying how long I'm going to do this for. I know myself well enough not to make a promise of doing this for a whole year, 365 days. I'm not ready for that yet. Then again - who knows! I shall see how it goes.



This photo wasn't taken especially this challenge in mind, but just happens to be the only fairly presentable photo I took today, during a lovely walk in Friston Forest with my funny dog. I seem to be fond of vignetting recently. AND I've used the square format a few times.

From tomorrow I will be making a conscious effort to challenge myself every day.

Swan Lake

There is a little pond in a little park near our local supermarket. It has a resident swan couple, and Zebedee is very interested in them.



These are the only photos I took today. Unfortunately I only had my pocket camera with me, but I kind of like these shots.

Signs before "first" signs of spring

Yesterday I said crocuses and daffodils are the first signs of spring, but I lied. I've forgotten to mention and photograph even earlier spring flowers: Snowdrops!



I've seen snowdrops here are there for the past week or two, but by now most of them have... errr - dropped. I only found a few that were still intact.



As I said yesterday, won't be long till daffodils and crocuses are in bloom everywhere.















Don't know what these buds are, but I thought they looked great.



Back on the river bank, Zebedee caught another bunny. This one didn't try to run away, though.



In the evening I went to London to see Aya and her friend. After a very nice dinner on Brick Lane, I couldn't walk past Spitalfields Market without stopping to take some photos.


















Must go and shoot in London some time soon again!

First signs of spring

Saw these daffs on the way to the local woods today. It won't be long now till the roads are lined with daffodils everywhere!



See, the frilly middle bit is there just about ready to come out.



The smaller variety - which, I learned from TV the other day, are endemic to Britain - are already in bloom in many places.



And of course crocuses... or is it croci... just about to bloom, as well.



Spring is almost here, and Zebedee is so excited he is just a blur.

Oh yeah, another sunset

...at Birling gap. Well, I haven't taken any sunset photos for ages! So here's one. Or two.

Firle Beacon

We tested out another new place for walks today: Firle Beacon. Looked like a fabulous area with great views, but sadly it was so foggy/misty that we could hardly see the view at all. Another problem was that there were quite a few sheep around, so we had to be very careful where we walked with the springer puppy on the loose. (I am going to take the 'recall' practise very seriously starting from tomorrow - can't risk Z running around worrying sheep!) So, I ended up mostly taking photos of barbed wire...


















Somehow black and white seemed appropriate.