Self Portrait February 1, 2010

31/365 Multi-Shot 16 pictures of me!, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

31/365 Multi-Shot 16 pictures of me!

I’ve wanted to do a self portrait all month, but it’s not that easy to take myself seriously. And then I started to see collages of peoples first months of their 365’s and it got me to thinking about one of the modes on my camera I never use, Multi-Shot 16. Today I took full advantage of it, have 8 contact sheets of myself in every pose I could think of and chose these. There were actually a lot more that were usable than I expected. Happily! This is only my second attempt at a self portrait but it was fun!

15/365 Something Old, something new January 16, 2010

15/365 Something Old, something new, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

I’ve been knitting since I was about five years old which means that I’ve been knitting for over 30 years. But I’ve never knitted on double point needles. Until today. Inspired by Sam, one of my fellow knitwits, who has been knitting for just two years, I picked up sticks and gave it a go. This is the result. A corn on the cob, complete with husk, made for an upcoming exhibition at Liverpool’s World Museum. I’m rather pleased with myself. And I think it’s kind of adorable.

No Worries! January 4, 2010

3/365 No Worries, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

So, this is what I take on a weekly basis! I hate taking pills. It’s a constant reminder that I’m sick! Sometimes I don’t feel sick at all, sometimes I have great days when I have to really think about why it is that I can’t have the same life as everyone else. And then my hands shake so much that I can’t take a photo. Or my head hurts so much that it feels like I may pass out from the pain and never wake up. It sucks. And I’ve had enough. By the end of this year I want to take a photo that shows at least half this amount.

It doesn’t help that the NHS has nothing like a holistic approach to health. I see different specialists for different illnesses and never know whether one symptom is being caused by this illness or that and as you can probably tell by now…. it’s really dull being sick!

Framed December 29, 2009

Framed, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

In the past five weeks I have written just over 100,000 words of a novel I started in November for Nanowrimo. It’s going great although I’m probably not even half way done yet. Yes, this is getting a bit epic! But writing means time indoors and I was starting to go stir crazy. So, when I awoke today and discovered a thick fog I found myself with the perfect opportunity to get out of the house.

I haven’t really shot in fog before and so I looked it up on the internet, well I am a girl after all, prone to reading instruction manuals. The only real piece of advice that I could find was to use a polarising lens. So I did. I took a walk around Newsham Park which is conveniently located at the end of my road and took a whole bunch of shots. On days like today the only people around were either walking their dogs or me. As one dog walker said to me, “It looks all Dickensian doesn’t it?” It did.

Westcombe Park December 16, 2009

Westcombe Park, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

For far too many years I would get the overground train from Abbey Wood Station into Central London where I worked as a Financial Controller.  But that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy. Yes, the train was always late and overcrowded but there was always something out of the window that I wanted to photograph and couldn’t as the trains sped past and the train was a great place to write, most of my first novel was written on a delayed train.

So when I went back for a visit recently one of the sights that I knew I wanted to photograph was Westcombe Park Train station, one of the ten stops on my daily commute. I’ve always liked Westcombe Park Station simply for the face that it doesn’t look as though it’s ever been modernised. It looks as olde fashioned as anything can be in London without having modern distractions all around it and… well I don’t know, I just really like it and I was particularly glad that the photographs I took of it caught the exact mood that I was after. I’m also surprised that others have enjoyed these photographs, I thought it was just me who would like this

Looking Up and Back November 21, 2009

Hospital Staircase, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

The Liverpool Royal Hospital may have looked outdated the day after it was built but I’ve always liked the shape of the building if not the colour.

Besides, the treatment my brother received there quite literally saved his life and for that I will always love it beyond measure. So much so that I made it the star of my favourite of the 3 novels I’ve written.  So far.

Other pictures of the hospital can be found on my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrogirl72/

Wires November 10, 2009

Wires, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

I love this telegraph pole outside my flat but I’ve never taken a pic of it as there’s been a bit of a problem in my street with crime.

But today I wasn’t going to be put off when I noticed the beautiful blue sky and the moon still out (OK, its tiny, but it’s there).

The photograph was also taken with my backup camera the Nikon Coolpix P5100. For a camera which I describe as broken it doesn’t take a bad picture I reckon.

How you make synthetic rainbow wool November 7, 2009

How you make synthetic rainbow wool, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.

If you can’t find an actual rainbow to source to make your rainbow wool then there’s always this alternative for the synthetic stuff. It still makes lovely scarves for your friends

Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk July 23, 2009

Tunnel of tombstones, originally uploaded by Astrogirl72.

This is by far my favourite shot taken on the Liverpool leg of Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk (http://worldwidephotowalk.com/) which I took part in on 18th July 2009. I met up with 30 or so other photographers at the Anglican Catherdral and together we photographed St James’ Park, Duke Street, Bold Street, Liverpool One and The Albert Dock. A few of the photographers I have spoken to on Twitter and Flickr and this gave me the opportunity to meet them face to camera. We all seemed to have a fantastic day and some incredible photographs were taken. You can view them here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/liverpoolphotowalk/pool/ and have a look at the rest of my photographs from the day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrogirl72/sets/72157621756201212/

Anglican Monument July 20, 2009

Anglican Monument, originally uploaded by Astrogirl72.

I really should be getting better results from such an expensive camera. This photograph looks as though it was taken with a Holga, not a Nikon Coolpix P6000. Having said that, it’s this pic that making me warm to my camera after 6 weeks of pretty much hating it. Go figure.