I Thought I’d try and pen a blog post whilst I have a few spare minutes this evening. I don’t actually have much to report as sadly the awful British Summertime has ruined my plans to continue my sleep apnoea portraits this week. Me and Darren are crossing fingers that Friday evening will be good enough to resume the photo action though and I hope that will lift my spirits.

I’m not sure if it’s the weather effecting my mood or the thought of turning 30 next month but I seem to be in a bit of a grump at the moment. I’m sure it will pass but the last few days I’ve had a right cob on! Work stuff isn’t helping with the whole post-preferencing process looming over my head. As soon as I’ve filled out my form and handed it in next week though it is all out of my hands….let the dice roll!

So instead of updating the blog with photo series details I’ll send you to four other places for web based goodness. First stop should be http://www.pauldsmart.co.uk/ which is the blog of the very talented Paul Smart…. a thoroughly nice bloke and fellow south-west based photographer. You can also find and follow him on twitter here.

Second stop has to be http://gtvone.com to see the latest music shots on Sime’s blog this week. This guy should be getting paid…lots…nuff said! He also put out a podcast this week. Which I haven’t had chance to listen to yet but I’m sure it’s the shizzle – so check it out! (more…)

Following on from my previous post, I manged to get out last night and bag the first of the shots (initial quick edit below). I was hoping to get two done but sadly I got moved on from the location I had in mind. I’ll need to go back to the drawing board on that shot and come up with a new sketch. They had no real rights to move me on (I wasn’t on private property) but I was in no mood to argue my point at the time and I’m a natural born peacemaker. I’m pretty pleased with this first shot and certainly couldn’t of asked for better luck regarding the setting sun! Special thanks to my good friend Darren for assisting. 

apnoea: 1 of 4 (click to view larger)

I think planning the shot definately made things easier when it came to shooting but I think I’ve also learnt a few things from the shoot last night which I need to feedback into my plans for the other shots. In fact two of the sketches might need to be started from scractch, I shall keep this blog updated with progress.

It’s not often I plan my shoots, well that’s not true, I have ideas in my head but I rarely put them down on paper. I’ve noticed lately though that with no real photography projects on the burner that I’m getting lazy so having a paper plan for a series of shots is useful to visualise and motivate me to actually go out and create something. It’s also a useful tool to make some shooting decisions in advance rather than just bust out and let it evolve naturally (which although usually enjoyable doesn’t guarantee great results).

If you’ve read previous posts on the subject you’ll be aware I’m now the proud owner of a completely ugly and quite scary looking machine to help me control my sleep apnea. Since I’ve been given the machine my mind has been ticking over with ideas of how I could use the machine to create some creative self portraits. Last night I decided to start fleshing these out on paper.

click to enlarge

My sketching powers lead a lot to be desired but it all makes sense to me. I want to shoot myself wearing the mask and carrying the machine round in a variety of everyday (and pretty bland) environments.  I’ve made the decision I want to be the only person in the frame. Having passers-by milling about in the background would possibly be quite cool but it would add extra challenges to shooting that I don’t want to have to contend with.  Sketching out the shots though has been a useful exercise as I’ve already settled on several different framing options and shooting positions for each shot as I want them to be slightly different to add variety and I’ve also made some descisions on wardrobe that I probably wouldn’t have considered if I’d left it to chance and shot on the hoof. (more…)

Just as you think things are on the up…you hit a brick wall. You’ll see from the picture that I finally have my CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine to try and deal with my sleep apnea. Sadly though this hasn’t been the miracle cure I expected. I’m sure it will work out in the end but at the moment the struggle of trying to get used to sleeping with such a contraption is almost as bad as dealing with the sleep apnea itself. I’m trying to remain positive about it all but at the moment it’s just seems like an uphill struggle and one I don’t have the energy for.

I’ve spent much of the last 48 hours sleeping solidly, not because of the machine, but because I’ve had a really nasty cold/flu bug which has left me completely wiped out. My asthma is driving me nuts and I ache all over. Today I have to say I’m feeling much better than I did yesterday but I’d be telling porkie pies if I said I was anywhere near 100% power.

I realise this all sounds a bit depressing. Life really isn’t that bad I’m just feeling the bumps in the road this week. I guess on a positive note Paul (@fwump) sent me a tweet earlier in the week to let me know the prints they’d got from the wedding shots I took turned out alright, Which is cool and it’s clear from the off-the-hook stuff that Nathan Pask (@bigcrustyape) is posting on his blog and portfolio that the site I created for him is working well (and he’s having WAY to much fun shooting cool stuff). I also spent a little time the other week helping the legendary music photographer Simon Pollock (@gtvone) take control of his blog and gallery space and that seems to be working well for him. So thats all pretty cool. All that good karma should come back and bite me on the ass soon right? I’m sure it will. Until then I’m off to take another lemsip and cough up a lung!!

Blogging live from SAP UK on the ADM940 training course. As you can see lots of whiteboard action to get my head around! So far though most things are making sense and it’s fair to say that SAP run a fairly smooth operation. The courses are well run and by-heck the lunches are fabulous, not to mention the in-house costa coffee outlet! mmmmm LATTE.  Tomorrow will be my last day here and I’ll be glad to get home tomorrow night, missing the girls lots! Our Hotel is right next to heathrow airport and I have to say I’m not great at adapting to sleeping whilst planes land (more…)