Taking Doug home

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

How do you tell someone something so life changing?

I sat him down, made sure he was comfortable and came out with it;

"Doug, im not your real dad. And Laura, she's not your real mum"

"your parents were too young and had 6 other children to look after"
"they sold you to us"

"no" "no" "its not like that'

"Doug"

"your a dog"

"it happens all the time"

He barked a bit, chased his tail, wee'd in the garden and then he was happy agin.

Not so bad after all, i thought it was going to scar him for life.

We took Doug to meet his real parents; Willow and Bubba. Both of Jug breed.

I wonder if a dog knows after 6 months of being part that the dog thats just walked through the door is their son or the 2 dog's in front are their parents?

It was a great half hour spent, watching the 3 dog's run around the garden, chasing each other. it made for some great comical images.

and the chase was on

He'd only been there a few minutes and already they were giving him a grilling

Willow loves to cool off in the water

Lol, what does this look like?

Extreme close up

Face off

Another grilling from his dad

I grew up with dogs around me; German Shepherds, i'd previously never been a small dog person but having a small dog is great, you can take them anywhere and everywhere because they take up no room.

However don't go thinking that a small dog has no personality, Doug is a legend! He's randy, stubborn, intelligent, loyal, smelly; he's always passing wind, energetic, he's a real ladies man.
This actually sounds like someone i know!?

To the greatest dog ever..........Big Doug!

Now I've got to go hoover the car because he's malting and there's hair everywhere.

Lights, Camera, Action. On set of Dishonoured Pt.2

I took my camera along to another day of filming of the local made film Dishonoured on Sunday.

It was a late start against the schedule because filming had took place up to 5am that morning and so people were late getting in and out of bed. Rightly so!

As always peoples seemed high (drowsy) though and there was plenty of laughter.

Marcus's family, who's house filming was taking place in, must have a lot of patience as a good dozen people walked in and out every couple of minutes leaving the front door open. I know my wife wouldn't like it.

Because filming was taking place in a home, I knew things would be tight so I took my fisheye lens along to make the most of what's going on. Considering the best image quality from the lens comes at f8, things were tricky in doors when it came to lighting. High ISO was the order of the day, lots of noise!

I wont mention anything about someone getting tied up as that will give the game away!!!

Thanks for a good afternoon.

 

On top of the bridge.

Recently I was lucky to be invited to go up to the control room of the Crosskeys Bridge in my home town (or is it village?) of Sutton Bridge. 

Now, im sure everyone would automatically think landscape, landscape, landscape;
1) The fens in my opinion doesn't have a lot to offer in the way of spectacular views unless you want to see flat farmland.
2) There wasn't much going on in the sky either as the sun was high and bright which is not what a landscape photographer desires.
3) Im not much of fan of Landscapes anyway.

Instead, some may say, as per usual I focused on the things that others may pass by like the controls etc.

Ok scrap all of the above.

I did like watching the cars come and go down the long straight stretch of the A17 Towards kings Lynn.

I took a couple of shots trying to get a car in the right place to make the most of the distortion on my Wide angle lens.

I suppose the other thing Sutton Bridge is famous for other than the bridge, the clue is in the name after all, is the 337 million pounds power station.

Inside was quite cool, if you like levers, buttons and spinny type wheel things, Oh and don't forget the kettle!

Im not sure ill ever get the chance to go up again but im proud to think or say that ive been up there.
Now id like to go underneath it and see or mechanical parts at work.

The hotel; there's no life in the dark

My 2nd trip into the hotel with my friend Stuart was just as good as the 1st, its great to explore with someone else who's armed with their camera. Its good to bounce ideas off of each other and too help each other where needed.

It was another 2 hours spent walking around showing the sights that I had already seen. This time already armed with the layout in my mind, I knew of different rooms I wanted to revisit to get shots i hadn't before.

The abundance of dead flies in the rooms upstairs is immense.

Would you want to stay in this room?

Empty corridor

 

 

Joke's on you.

 

Urbex and fire

As a child I loved playing with fire, I even have a nice scar on the back of my right hand from when hot plastic dripped on it while playing with fire with a friend at the age of about 10. I told my mum I had fell over, she didn't believe me considering I smelt like cooked meat and my skin had clearly been badly burnt. I actually forget the scar is there and now as I approach 30 years old it is barely visible.

You already know that I like exploring abandoned buildings.

Why not combine fire and urbex.

And by that I don't mean ive started a career as an arsonist.

No, I mean playing with fire artistically and then checking that all the sparks and molten pieces of metal have been extinguished before leaving the site. Before starting we also did a recce of the area and made sure there was nothing around that was at risk.

It was a great experience and some great shots have come from this night with my friend Stuart.

For this shoot I used a Canon 5Dmkiii and 24-70 lens. All shots were taken between f/13 and f/18 and were 30 second exposures at ISO 200.

Stuart and I have already said that we now need to find the next location for urbex and (a little bit of controlled) fire.