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20050630

Dummy


Dummy
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A naked mannequin groping itself in the window of a clothes shop (Cruise) in Newcastle upon Tyne, near the Central Library.

On Flickr this image is tagged with, amongst other, the words 'naked' and 'grope'. I wonder what effect it might have on the number of views?

20050629

Mooooo


Mooooo
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
On the town moor in Newcastle, City Freemen are allowed to graze cattle - a tradition that goes back to the twelfth century.

The cows charge at joggers from time to time, which is an amusing sight unless you happen to be the jogger in question.

20050628

Caution


Caution
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Warning of a live electric cable in a hole next to the side of the road.

20050627

Wheel Clamps


Wheel Clamps
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Taken yesterday - a road towards the east of Newcastle reflected in the window of a furniture store.

20050626

Collingwood


Collingwood
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
I've never been to this pub, but its sign has a kind of faded charm to it. Not that it's persuaded me to give the food a try.

Near the pub is a huge and very run down abandoned building that used to be a leisure centre, I think. I'm planning to go back there before too long and take some 'urban decay' snaps of the broken windows and graffiti.

20050625

Croc


Croc
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Found this in a wood in Prudhoe - someone had spent a long time carving it into the shape of a crocodile's head (the bits in the photo represent the teeth).

20050624

Demon Bunny


Demon Bunny
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Beware the hypnotic eyes of the demon rabbit!

A gargoyle above a doorway in Newcastle.

20050623

Horses


Horses
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Two healthy looking horses in a field in Northumberland.

My stock of photos from the Espion is running a little low at the moment (I have about three weeks as backup). I'm hoping that the good weather will hold until the weekend, so I can build up the reserve with the aid of some sunshine.

20050622

Tower


Tower
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Near the Laing Art Gallery.

GeoTagged
Click the link to see its location on the map.

20050621

Quadrangle


Quadrangle
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
The arches at the entrance to the quadrangle, University of Newcastle.

20050620

Beware


Beware
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Graffiti on a metal fence near Ouseburn.

There's something about a fussy 'dog warning' sign that doesn't work - I always think, despite the photo of the alsation often added for effect, that the fearsome dog is probably a hyperactive Yorkshire Terrier.

With a crudely spray painted sign, on a fence that looks like it 's been reclaimed from a junkyard, less people are going to take the chance. On the balance of probability, whatever's back there is going to be big.

20050619

Bridgework


Bridgework
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A bridge between Prudhoe and Ovingham.

Geotagged
Click the link to see its location on the map.

20050618

Pheasant


Pheasant
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
I don't know what happened to this pheasant - it was nowhere near a road, so it wasn't run over. There were people walking dogs along the route, so maybe it was attacked by a dog.

20050617

View to Acomb


View to Acomb
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
The countryside in Northumberland, along the line of Hadrian's wall near Acomb (the wall in the picture is not Hadrian's wall, but there is a piece of it in the field out of shot to the left.)

Blended exposures: this is a blend of three images resulting from bracketed exposure - I wanted to capture the brightness and colour of the land without losing the definition in the sky.

20050616

Bomb It


Bomb It
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Graffiti stencil on a bridge.

20050615

Tea Bag


Tea Bag
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
I was looking through the (now volumnious) list of tags for my photos over at Flickr and realised that there's one (at least) for every letter of the alphabet. I haven't counted how many there are in total, but as a rough estimate I would say perhaps four hundred.

The tags below are either the most frequently occuring for that letter, or randomly selected if there is more than one tag with the same frequency.

Flickr tag alphabet:
Animal
Building
Car
Durham
Edinburgh
Field
Green
Haymarket
Insect
Jesmond
Knitted
Lichen
Metal
Newcastle
Old
Plant
Quayside
Reflection
Sign
Tyneside
Urban
Van
Window
Xprocessed
Yellow
Zodiac

20050614

Brown Cow


Brown Cow
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Cows on the town moor in Newcastle. I'm not geotagging this one for two reasons: the location isn't the main subject of image and the town moor is enormous, so I would have to place the tags arbitrarily.

20050613

Fire Exit


Fire Exit
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A door backing onto a quiet alleyway in Newcastle.

GeoTagged

20050612

Flowers


Flowers
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Daisies - but because the colour didn't come out very well on the espion, it seemed better to bring out the background more.

20050611

Dog


Dog
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A dog tied to railings near a newsagents, which was probably where its owner had gone.

20050610

Postbox


Postbox
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A postbox on a quiet country road near Ovington in Northumberland.

GeoTagged
Click the link to see its location on the map.

The geotag information is supplied courtesy of Google Maps and Flickrite Steeev, who wrote an excellent Greasemonkey script without which adding the data would be a labourious nightmare, instead of a simple procedure.

I've been experimenting with cutouts or partial desturation on a few images with a clear focus but a slightly distracting background. On some images it hasn't worked and I think that's due to the focal object not being bold enough.

20050609

Statue


Statue
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Commemorating a tank regiment, if I remember rightly (although it looks more likely that it's a memorial for a member of that regiment). In front of The Church of St. Thomas the Martyr in Newcastle upon Tyne, which was the first photo I blogged.

20050608

Bishops


Bishops
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Statues of the Bishops of Durham in the botanic gardens near Grey College and Collingwood College, Durham University.

20050607

Prudhoe


Prudhoe
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
A painted wooden sign marking the edge of a village in Northumberland.

I've always been a bit particular about my favourites page on Flickr. If you choose too many, the photos are split into two pages; I'd miss the ones I enjoy seeing most.

Keeping my favourites to one page forces me to choose only photos I think are exceptional and have some resonance, however obscure or personal. It distills the best and helps me to explore the directions that I would like to take my own photography.

Like the quote on my Flickr profile page suggests, I believe it's important to feel that poignancy in a photo, however casual or unsophisticated the image may appear at first.

This blog is, in a similar way, my 'shotgun' approach to exploring photography. By carrying a camera (even one as crude as the Espion) everywhere, taking photos at every opportunity and posting every day, I don't expect to learn technical brilliance - but I do feel like I'm learning something.

20050606

Tractor


Tractor
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
The tractor looked old but in good condition - someone's restoration project, I think.

20050605

Creature from the Deep


Creature from the Deep
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
It's a frog of some kind, but what kind exactly I couldn't say. This is one of the last photos I have to upload from my Canon A200.

20050604

Sage II


Sage II
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
I realised last night that I'd inadvertently managed to post an Espion pic on Friday, when I should have been uploading something from the Fuji. I'm going to post one today and one tomorrow to make up for it.

My previous photo of the Sage ended up looking over processed when in fact all I'd done was adjust the hue and contrast slightly.

This is the Sage from a different angle (cropped from a larger photo that included the Baltic Art Gallery), and is untouched apart from some minor curves adjustment in Photoshop.

20050603

Moor Court


Moor Court
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
An art deco block of flats in Newcastle.

No idea how much they're going for these days, but the corner properties especially must cost a few quid.

20050602

Washing Day


Washing Day
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Well, after being so rude about the Scottish Parliament yesterday, I have to start today with an apology: if I've exposed your drying pants for all to see, sorry. You did leave them out in plain sight though.

20050601

Whiskey City


Whiskey City
Originally uploaded by teotwawki.
Scottish Parliament:
where people mouth off, suck up
and manipulate?

Back on April 1st* I posted a photo (accompanied by some bad Dutch) taken from exactly the same spot with my Canon A200. This is what it looks like from another angle. At least - I think that's the Scottish Parliament, rather than a dilapidated block of flats.

* Translation: Where has the time gone this year? I took a lot photographs on a recent visit to Edinburgh and this was clearest day with the most sunshine. This is the Scottish Parliament, which cost a ridiculous amount of money. I assume that massive quantities of Scotch must have been consumed in the planning stages, since the design of the building could only have been devised in a state of extreme intoxication. I wanted to like it, but just couldn't - this is the least visually offensive part of the building.

p.s. This is what the haiku is referring to. And why does the Scottish Parliament have security cameras? In case someone steals paperweights from the gift shop.

Only joking. It's not THAT bad. It's just a bit of a disappointment.