No, I haven’t misspelled the old practice of map making.  I’ve been in a photographic slump for quite a while now; nothing seems to spark my interest or make me want to haul out my equipment and search for inspiration.  Maybe it’s the cold, wet weather we’ve been having?  But then, that’s the reason I bought my light tent so many months ago and it’s hardly been out of it’s case.

Maybe it’s something else.

Regardless of what it is, I’ve decided that it’s time to fix it.  Last night the boys were on the receiving end of my new found vigilance.  I’d say they were unhappy about it, but the only way to get a cat to stay in one place is to bribe them with treats.  A couple of Temptations and a few pinces of cat nip and it was time to pose.

There’s a couple more, including a set up shot in the gallery.

ps: after almost a year, my Week 4 photos from Tibet are online now.

I picked up a new toy for the upcoming winter months so I can keep shooting without having to go outside.  It’s a fairly simple set up with just a couple of flashes, but it’s got a lot of potential.  So far I’ve played around and helped Danni with a batch of charms as well as taking some shots of my new toys (a Dell laptop and a Wacom Cintiq 12WX).

There’s a few here, and some more in the gallery like always.

I’ve mentioned it to a few people, but for the most part I haven’t really talked much about my new regieme.  For the past couple of months, I’ve basically cut out all of the booze I drink plus any food that I didn’t prepare myself (apart from the occassional night out with friends on both counts), in addition to going to the gym.  There were a few reasons for the switch, but for the most part I was just trying to keep my mind occupied and stay busy and this managed that all quite nicely.

I had a lot of help from a personal trainer as I’m not really a gym guy, and recently I’ve been working with a nutritionist as I’m well aware I need to put on some weight (10kg according to my nutritionist!).  It seems like a lot of weight and I’ve been struggling to eat as much as I’m supposed to each day, but I’m trying!

Anyways, I did a couple of self portraits that are a bit racy!  A lot of the look is done with the lights so I’m not quite as these seem (yet!) but I’m getting there.  No real photoshoppery apart from the black & white conversions.

I’ve had a bit of a summer funk and haven’t bothered to take many shots.  I think my motivation and inspiration took a bit of a summer holiday, but I’ve promised myself to change that in the coming weeks.

Some of you may know already, but I’ve been putting together a website for my good friends who’ve recently bought up our fencing club.  It’s going through a general rebranding and concepts are still being finalized, but the club name and website address have been decided upon.  From now on, I’ll be fencing at the Central London Fencing Club.  The website should be up and running before the end of September, assuming we get completed designs in time.

Part of that process has involved me taking a few more fencing photos which I’ll get online soon (I can feel your excitement).

In addition to all of that, I decided to take a few self portrait shots this past weekend.  Mainly because I really want to start doing some more portrait style shooting and I don’t have a willing model these days, but also because I hardly ever photograph myself.  It’s challenging if nothing else.

This is sort of how I’ve been feeling over the past 2 months, although no tequila was harmed in the taking of this shot. (setup is here)

Simple 2 light setup at home for this one. I took an awful lot before I finally managed one I like.

There’s a new self portrait section of the gallery with these and future self portrait images here.