Are you sitting comfortably?

Now that he lives in London, Adrian really misses Glasgow. So we went on a bit of a tour of the city to take some pictures of him sitting in some of his favourite places so that he can look at them fondly when he goes back down South...

Pacific Quay

On the Renfrew Ferry

In George Square.

Shooting stars through the dark

View from above

I was out at Loxley Colour in Port Dundas today, and they have a fantastic view over the city (these photos aren't all that great, I was in a hurry being already spectacularly late to meet Alasdair back in Byres Road, but you get the idea...):




Having eventually made it back to Byres Road I spotted this on the way to Tinderbox:

For a moment the "Leave orphanage donations here" bit suggested that I was about to come upon a Dickensian scene of small orphans being abandoned on University Avenue by heartless relatives dressed in black with white lace bonnets (even the uncles). But I think they might have meant people to drop off old clothes or money or something. Which is still a bit weird actually.

Anyway, I finally tracked down the extremely patient Alasdair who had very kindly bought me a copy of The Rights of the Reader for my birthday. I've only read a wee bit so far, but that bit contains the fantastic sentence (speaking of Anna Karenina and Vronski) "They loved each other more than pudding." Surely not.

Afterwards I applied my customary technique of Russian Roulette Haircuts. I hate having my hair cut (it's very thick and full of awkward curls and few hairdressers can deal with it successfully) in which I go into a hairdresser's at random and ask if they can cut my hair then and there. (Which rhymes, actually, but that's not the point...) Five times out of six they can't and I can escape and go on looking like Cousin It. But today was clearly the sixth time, and they did have a space free. Fortunately the hairdresser knew what he was doing and I now look much less like Cousin It...

Framed Again

Framed

Morag and Colin do Man Ray.

Somewhere in my heart there is a star that shines for you...

From the latest tip on photojojo. For some reason blue Christmas lights are all the rage this year. And they're the only ones that show up unless you push up the colour temperature of the photos. Weird...

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

http://www.mattround.freeserve.co.uk/files/killerquiz.swf

I got 8/10 for this, which I thought was quite good. And I only cheated once (I'd actually met one of the Programming Language Inventors ;-)

Wedding

Congratulations to Stuart and Pamela who emailed yesterday saying that they'd snuck off to St. Andrews and got married on Saturday!

Fractal

I've spent the last few days taking lots of photos of lots of people. But while I was over at Morag's last night (taking lots of photos of her and Colin) she gave me this weird, fancy broccoli. It's Romanesco broccoli and I expect it would be the perfect thing to cook for a dinner party of mathematicians: with any luck they'd be so fascinated with its fractal-Fibonacci-ness that they wouldn't care if the rest of the cooking was bad...

Bouzouki

Bubbles

Radio Bike Man

After many years of cycling mysteriously round Cambridge, Radio Bike Man has finally been interviewed!

Mask

Hunterian Rocks

After yesterday's casual rock photography Morag let me loose to take photos of some of the other exhibits in the Hunterian (which is looking very flash after its recent renovation).

Triceratops (currently missing lower jaw after the over-enthusiastic appreciation of one visitor, but should be fixed soon).

The main gallery.

Danse Macabre.

A very fancy amethyst.

Some sort of crystal porcupine (this is probably not a technically accurate description).

A truly terrifying sculpture. It was meant to be spinning round, but luckily wasn't.

Small statues.

James Watt and the small statues.

Elephant skeleton.

Giant ammonite (which you are allowed to pat).

A plesiosaur tries to catch itself.

Three small statues marked "Burmese Image of Guadama".

More action!

My parents didn't move quite quickly enough today and so got roped into the whole horrible lighting experiment:




My mum, in particular, hates having her photo taken, but was very good about it. Though I'm not sure what she's thinking in this next one...
"Dear God, why did we let her have a camera when she was a child?"



While I was in Jessops getting the hot-shoe converter gadget yesterday I also bought a diffuser for my flash gun. My usual approach is to hold a hanky over the flash, but this can look a bit unprofessional. Particularly if you've got the cold... Anyway, this one looks like a tiny shower-cap and, as well as being the cutest camera gadget ever, seems to be really pretty effective.

I'm supposed to take some informal photographs of some of the Hunterian's collection of rocks for Morag tomorrow (that sounds a bit like the rocks will be lounging around in casual dress - I just meant it's not a terribly official thing, just some snapshots for Morag to use in her work with the museum). Anyway, I tried taking a photo of my own pet rock (an amethyst) first without it:



Then with it:


I think the shower-capped photo is definitely less burnt out and the colour's better.

Lights! Camera! Action!

So, at last I am actually in possession of a small set of studio lights and a backdrop, via fotosupplies on eBay, whom I can heartily recommend. (There are a couple of other places I can heartily un-recommend as well, if you're interested...) Anyway, here are a couple of test shots - one more or less as-shot:


And one with lots and lots of overexposure:


They seem quite convincing (given the usual "get into the right place in 10 seconds without being able to see what you're doing" problem). More pictures to follow as additional victims models fall into my clutches...

More Vital Synz

Here are some photos from the launch night of Glasgow's new poetry society, Vital Synz, held in Oran Mor (I was scuffling about on the floor at the front trying to get pictures while not getting in the way too much.)

Oran Mor, full of poetry fans...

David Kinloch, one of the folk behind Vital Synz.

Liz Lochhead reading some of her poems.


Donny O'Rourke.

Carol Ann Duffy reading some of her poems.


Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead reading Edwin Morgan's poem The First Men on Mercury.