The flickr versus own site argument is hotting up here, as I now seem to be duplicating content on both instead of trying to keep each a separate entity. Some would argue that it is never a bad thing to have photos simultaneously hosted in as many places as possible. At least I have a chance of some ‘feed back’ from flickr but I seem to have a need to run my own site too if only for the satisfaction of owning a site which is totally under my control and where there should never be any issues with content etc.
I am rather pleasantly supprised by the performance of my new Sony W50, a fine little 6Mpx pocket job with a Carl Zeiss lens. This compact f2.8 lens has enabled some fairly decent low-light or night-time shots with a micro tripod and 2s exposure – a virtual impossibility with the Fuji Finpix. Though the little Sony provides little or no competition for a proper SLR so I still have my sights set on the Nikon D80, with or without kit lens. I have enough old Nikors and Tamrons to see me through providing this camera really is capable of working correctly with a fully manual lens that is!
Gill and I have had a very enjoyable if rather lazy weekend at mine with all of the usual low key shenanigans around the village, I did also manage to get some interesting photos of random ‘things’ and all evoking that inimitable ‘intense’ style which is, in fact, my trade-mark. This style has been variously describes as “visual haiku’ and “existential” and I guess I do have something of a detached obsession with the form of things and an intently introspective and analytical ‘gaze’. Guardian readers may regard this a little intellectually naive, Mail types ‘pretentious’ and Sun folks may just feel slightly intimidated but that’s the only way I can define what is after all a quite thoughtful activity and one which appears to transcend basic drives.
The previously mentioned move may not now go ahead, and in some ways this is a bit of a relief for me even though I was looking forward to the inevitable change in my own life style patterns. Manchester and Salford university places combined with other local activities has made the prospect of moving to a more remote and distant location seem rather untenable for Gill and family, at least in the short term. So we can continue to enjoy the novelty of commuting back and too along the Middlewood Way on bikes.