Snow in the top field Prestbury, yes I have had another session in the snow, I’m in love with it all! Snow is still lying on the ground as I speak. These are fairly unusual winter conditions in the UK now and again it all makes for interesting change, photography wise.
Christmas is almost upon us and as ever I am looking forward to spending the day with my Bro and SIL with a good nosh up. I’m just a little concerned about not being able to afford to offer much in return this year but I do intend to make up for this later!
Listening to GP at the moment, usual recanting of the years new (more or less) jazz orientated stuff. It dawned on me that I have most of these tunes on my MP3 already!
We are trying pet coke at Oliver Wood towers this year, for those not familiar with the arts of solid fuel heating PET coke is Petroleum Coke, it is not a naturally occurring mineral coal but a residue of the ‘cracking’ process in oil refining. It is ridiculously hot and turns the dog grate into an incandescent glowing mass of metal. I am concerned that this stuff is pretty bad for the environment though, it also makes a massive amount of smoke in the early combustion phase which drifts throughout the whole village, but nobody has complained yet?
Tagged: cheshire, prestbury, snow
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- December 22, 2009 – 3:01 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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The weather over the last few days has been very cold but also extremely scenic, we still have a lot of snow on the ground. I just had to get out with my camera and indulge that fascination for the kind of forms and vistas that others may miss. I now have quite a backlog of images to work with and some may find their way to this site, all should find their way to flickr.
I find these snowy settings to be quite inspiring and particularly amenable to mono treatments, though most of the images I have appear to be virtually mono in colour anyway —
Tagged: cheshire, cold weather, prestbury, winter
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- December 21, 2009 – 2:55 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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It is extremely cold tonight yet beautifully clear outside. I have used the last few shovelfulls of coal on the fire and once again a prevailing lack of funds is making life very difficult. I keep meaning to get out with my camera on a night such as this and attempt some more long exposure ‘light painting’ shots. These are the sort of conditions which should lead to something of a more natural nightime sky colour, i.e. one which is not suffused with the orange glow of a distant conurbation’s sodium street lights.
This has been a year of strange good and bad luck for yours truly, flushed with no worries to almost destitute in the space of a few months and all compounded by less than wise job moves.
Next year has got to be a lot more stable, I have enjoyed the better times of 2009, specially the spring and early summer months when a sense of bohemian freedom gave rise to a state of permanent rapture. Conditions that can only be instilled by a feeling of complete autonomy and self-determination, my ideal state of existence as it happens.
Suffice to say that I am keeping a close eye on the fight against the king of trash, AKA Simon Cowell and his evil empire that seeks to promote the pre-eminence of all that lacks substance, style and meaning in contemporary popular culture. Over 100,000 people on Face Book have joined the fight. They are busily trying to vote up Killing in The Name by Rage Against the Machine for Christmas number one instead of the insipid, morkish and unoriginal identikit nonsense from the Cowell stable which has normally taken the spot.
I’m not as massive fan of RAM but it is the principal that counts and they do represent the idea of contemporary music as a vehicle for rebellion, provocation, protest and artistic design. Myself, I would have preferred something from the Jazz or new contemporaries set, a Battles tune for No1 would be quite satisfactory.
Tagged: cheshire, cold weather, prestbury, winter
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- December 18, 2009 – 2:53 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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{ A leaf in suspension by my front door. A chance find that attracted my gaze and which has yielded an image with both Rothko and Miro like qualities I think. }
Tagged: abstraction, photography
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- December 12, 2009 – 2:50 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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Prestbury Living magazine has one of my photos on the cover this month, the same image is also used (rather more effectively) as background for an inside spread where its effect is quite impressive. I supplied several images for this but the one that I felt to be most appropriate for the cover has not been used — yet?
Of course I am grateful to the folks at PL for using my photos and as ever, any kind of publicity is always gratefully received.
Tagged: cover photo, oliver wood, photography, prestbury living
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- December 9, 2009 – 2:46 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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I recently tried a little “light painting” for the first time, for those not in the know light painting is a night photography technique where one illuminates the subject with a portable light source whilst the camera shutter is open on a long exposure or even ‘bulb’ setting. Obviously the camera needs to be mounted on a tripod for this. The idea is to control the pattern of illumination by literally ‘painting’ the subject with light. I used a powerful LED torch and a 10second shutter with f4 aperture. Some people thought the images were actually HDR (high dynamic range) processed. It is a very engaging technique, which introduces an element of direct physical interaction with the subject and gives a real sense of creative action, almost as if you are painting the image on to a canvas of night. I did my first experiments in St Peter’s churchyard Prestbury but would like to try the technique in even darker settings; possibly up in the hills, I have a secret location in mind.
This ‘blog’ diary may be migrating to a more state of the art (web 2) wordpress platform at the weekend — if I have the time to work with that. It does feel a little like the end of an era but I want to make my blog page(s) a little more dynamic and experiment with various feeds and such like.
Tagged: light painting, photography
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- November 11, 2009 – 2:43 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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Ready When You Are Mr McGill They have finally decided to release the classic Ready When You Are Mr McGill on DVD — not the rather lame 2003 re-make but the original 1976 Granada production with Jack Shephard. For those who may not know RWYAM is a drama written by Jack Rosenthal about a location film crew shooting a simple sequence for a TV costume drama on location and the original play became something of a minor cult within the TV industry. However, nothing goes quite to plan and what should have been a strait forward mornings work turns into an all day calamity. We see a temperamental director going into a state of nervous break down as jaded technicians battle with the demands of shooting on location, but the central dramatic device is manifest in the form of Mr Joe McGill himself. A nervously incompetent but hugely ambitious extra with his first modest speaking part which seems to be totally beyond his capabilities though his modest roll is critical to the narrative logic of the scene being shot. A situation thus develops which is both hilariously funny but also genuinely unnerving.
The original has the gritty dramatic quality that was such a great feature of the TV play in the 70s as opposed to today’s candy floss celebrity obsessed crap with relativistic narratives concentrating on the minutia of personal trivia and the workplace politics of the crew.
The original cast was mostly comprised of unknowns (at the time) thus lending a sense of increased realism. Ready When You Are Mr McGill was offered up as part of ITVs Red Letter Days strand which was their counterpart to the BBCs excellent Play For Today series. Of course it was all shot on 16mm film with sep-mag sound, a much more enchanting medium than over sterile video or contemporary digital video.
Things maybe improving for me soon though I do not want to be counting any chickens until they have hatched so I will shut it for now!
Tagged: 1976, granada tv, Jack Rosenthal, ready when you are mr mcgill
- Published:
- October 7, 2009 – 2:42 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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FILM
Movie of the month — I will let this speak for itself. Suffice to say that it includes a sequence showing me throwing shapes to Donn T which may cause hilarity.
Donn T is a relatively recent find courtesy yet again of Giles Peterson. She is quite an interesting artist with an unusual but also highly varied style embracing ‘broken disco’ and ‘vox house’ genres, two new ones on me.
Morning Bell by Donn T
I love this particular track for its shear kookynes and classic deep jazz inflections. I gather that this is an example of the ‘broken disco’ style which fragments aspects of disco funk and jazz, separating parts that would normally be integrated into a combined mix. It has fantastic Max Roach like drum work toward the end and I am still not sure if that is a live kit or electronics or a combination of both?
Tagged: dancing, halcyon days, video
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- September 15, 2009 – 2:38 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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Firstly, the movie ‘describing’ my September visit to Mr Partridge in London. All of course shot on a basic Sony PAS camera and edited in MovieMaker. Limited material has been configured into the definitive poetic impression of my short but enjoyable trip.
It is starting to feel a lot more autumnal today, the light is changing subtly and becoming more ethereal. I must endeavour to be active with my camera(s) over the coming weeks and have a few ideas for out door light painting stuff as well as some more moody black and white landscapes. Once we get more fully into the season of long afternoon shadows, the “chiaroscuro season” as I call it, I think I will also make some B&W movies up in the top fields. Been experimenting with a red filter on the Sony W50 with camera in B&W mode and it does make a dramatic enhancement to contrast and sky detail.
The house move business is gradually grinding to a halt now, as both of my desired properties in Bolli have been sold. If I am going to move at all it is more likely to be next year but by that time all of my financial problems should have been sorted anyway. I’m still quite loathed to move away from Prestbury; it seems like an odd thing to do.
Tagged: london, mark, video
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- September 7, 2009 – 2:36 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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Me and Mark on Hampstead Heath.
Just returned from a brief but very enjoyable trip to London to visit Mark P. This was also my first ride on a Virgin Pendolino train, rather surprising considering that they run just a few hundred yards from my doorstep. The journey was very comfortable and fast! In fact, we were in Euston not long after I finished my can of Heineken. It is still a far cry from the days of the Manchester Pullman though, gently rattling china cups and cutlery on a white linen table cloth, the smell of real coffee percolating and at-table service from stewards dressed in smart white and blue uniforms. We didn’t have an awful lot of time to do things and I also came down with a nasty soar throat and a bit of a mild fever not long after arriving. Despite this we did manage to get over to Camden market which is truly amazing. It’s funny but when I visit other people I seem to eat so much better, either it is because my acquaintances have mastered the art of fine cuisine or simply because there is more on offer. The food from the stalls in Camden market is amazing and there is so much choice, much better for a take away than anything up here that’s for sure.
Some of the gorgeous grub on offer at Camden Market, Mark and I had the dhal (bottom right) with pilau rice.
Mark and I also went up onto Hampstead Heath and some videography and photography was undertaken on Parliament Hill.
Still not sure about proposed house move, other options have been mooted by interested parties but not so sure about these either. Last I heard the one and only place I would want / could afford in the Bollington / Kerridge area was under offer, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has now been sold unfortunately.
Tagged: hampstead heath, london, mark
- Published:
- September 3, 2009 – 2:34 pm
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- By Oliver Wood
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