Great Scottish Run

For a couple of years the Bank of Scotland used one of my photos of the River Clyde on their posters for the Great Scottish Run (Bank of Scotland sponsor the Great Scottish Run).

And that was fun - it was really nice to see one of my pictures all over the place. It didn't get used this year, and probably won't ever be used again, because the Scottish Hydro Arena has since been built there and so, as an illustration of the local landmarks, it's horribly out of date.

This year I thought I'd shoot some pictures of the runners.
Here's Haile Gebrselassie as he ran past me, leading the race:

A couple of minutes later I got a text from a pal who was watching the race on TV, letting me know that he'd seen and recognised me. The truth is, I wasn't very hard to pick out from the crowds of spectators.

Here's Haile Gebrselassie as he ran past me, leading the race, as seen by the BBC:

I always knew it was only a matter of time before I was a big TV star!

Sunny Govan

The beautiful Victorian shipyard offices in Govan.

Start of the New Roller Derby Season

Saturday was the local start of the 2013 roller derby season and I went along to watch the bout. I think this is my fourth time watching Glasgow compete. A couple of faces (and tattoos) I was starting to recognise weren't there...I was really surprised that: a) I'd been paying enough attention to notice; and b) I was a little disappointed to not see them. Although that might have been just me getting confused - there was just the one bout this time. Most of the previous games I've seen have been double-headers so I've seen twice as many Glasgow competitors.
It was a really close and pretty exciting contest with the lead always changing. But in the last couple of jams Auld Reekie ran ahead of Glasgow.
From my point of view, there were some very good things. Rules have been changed which, for a newbie like me, made things much easier to follow. There used to be a hierarchy of penalties which, at some point, get a player sent to the sin bin. Minor infringements, you stay on track. Unless you've had several, in which case off you go. I never had any idea what was going on there. Now (I believe!) either it's a sin-bin offence or it's no offence at all. Thank you, rule makers! Even better, the faffing around between the jammers skating off and a second whistle to allow the jammers to skate...that's all gone. Now, the whistle blows and everyone skates. Phew! I don't know what the players and refs think about the rule changes, but as a spectator I'm very grateful.

Anyway, I took some pictures.

Apple Canyon

I've been going through some older pictures. Mostly looking for images I dismissed as uninteresting but which now make more of an impression on me. It's something I do quite often; things look different from a distance, especially when it's a distance of time.

I'm not in the least surprised that I chose to pass this one by. But right now I love it. I can feel the quiet calm of that stream running through that field and I could look at this picture all day. If I still feel that way next week, I might make it this months picture-to-print-and-hang.

(It's from below Apple Canyon Lake dam in northwest Illinois.)

Excuses

"Oh we'd love to help, but someone's got to soak up all this sun before it stains the carpet."

Playing with my food

I like cabbage. And most times when I cook it I think "I should've taken some pictures first." For once I remembered.

Winter Walk

Paul braves the snowfield on Dumgoyne at the weekend...

More of a tee-shirt winter than a snowshoe winter.

Sunset on the Whitelaw Monument

And faking it with flash a few minutes later after the sun's properly set...

How To Get A Head In Business

Disturbing statues in the Necropolis...

Polis

The last few days I've been trawling through some sets of a few thousand pictures from a couple of years ago that I never processed. Most of them are, indeed, junk. But there are a few bright spots in there. This is one.

Doon the Watter

C'Mon In

Monte Carlo Or Bust

The Monte Carlo Rally started in Glasgow Green today.
For me, a car-related event is almost as interesting as a paperclip-related event. If I enjoyed watching people driving cars, I could easily go and stand on a bridge over the M8. But there were sure to be a few opportunities for finding pictures, so I went along. And it was a beautiful day, so I'm actually having to work hard to pretend any kind of grudgingness.
This was pretty cool, though. It's the first car to set off, and the guy driving it competed in 1954.

Monique

This is Monique. Monique Quinn. She's agreed to help me work on improving my lighting technique whilst she's visiting.

Fortunately she seems to be a very patient sort of person.

Museum as Web Page, circa 1998. Just Needs <blink>!

This is almost exactly the same shot as just a couple of days ago, but rather more garish because they were setting up lights and a stage for some event. I thought it was pretty ugly. Then I looked at it some more and thought it was pretty cool. Now I think it's both - ugly and cool!

The part that made me see the good side was realising just how garish and over-the-top the museum is anyway. This is not an understated building and it doesn't exactly have subtle decor. So sure...magenta and blue lights. Why not? Bring it on!

More self-portraiture...

I've been experimenting with teeny-tiny catchlights this morning. On the back of the camera I thought it looked terrible. On screen, I think I'm starting to like it.

That's not just a backlit eyebrow hair...it's a backlit grey eyebrow hair. Sigh!

Doulton Fountain Redux

This evening I took another walk into town and to Glasgow Green to get some more pictures of the Doulton Fountain, this time with the fountain and the People's Palace lit.
Already the evenings feel like they're getting lighter. 5:30 and there's still some colour in the sky. I love that!
It was handy for the photo as well - hand held and no IS...I'll take all the light there is, thanks.

A Symmetric Visit To The Museum

I've spent the last week writing code, just to be sure I'm keeping at least vaguely competent there. Whilst I love (really love) making my living from photography, I'm constantly aware that I'm pretty much on the limit of making enough to live on. So I'd better be sure I can drop back into coding for cash if I really need to. Plus it's a lot more fun now I mostly just code on a whim.

But, after that splurge of photography through December and the start of this year, a week off was making me pretty restless. So out of the house all day today, Coffee (and yummy banana cake) in CCT early in the afternoon. Then a visit to the Kelvingrove Museum. A trip to the museum is always a bit of a thrill for me. I love that building. And they have one of my photos in their Scottish Prehistory section! I've never been very good at faking nonchalance about that.

Figurehead

She just lies there whilst Govan burns!

Guardian Cat

Why yes, actually, I am shooting pictures of random cats in graveyards. Why do you ask?

Kelpies

Yep, it's the Kelpies at the BBC. Still working on it. I like this one differently. I'm not yet sure I like it enough. Hmmm...which almost certainly means that I don't like it enough. Darn it!
Actually, I like it a lot. The people going into the BBC help, I think. But it still needs to be better.

Fog

Today was nice and foggy and cold - a bit of a relief from the warm, windy, rainy winter so far. Fog, of course pretty much requires a trip to the Necropolis.

And I walked back along the river and took a few more after-dark shots.

Night

For the longest time I've been meaning to take the tripod and get some after-sunset pictures around the Kelvingrove museum. And, as is my habit, I never remember.

This evening I was at the Riverside Museum at sunset, and the sky was quite pretty. So I wandered up to the university and took some pictures looking over the Kelvingrove anyway, lack-of-tripod be damned. They didn't come out too terrible, so I took several more photos on the way home too.

Riverside museum

Kelvingrove

The IMAX Theatre

Squinty Bridge

Squinty Bridge

St Mirin

I took another walk down to Paisley today. The sky was a bit more interesting this time.
In the 6th century St Mirin, or Mirren, also came here. But he went to the additional bother of founding a football team. Or something like that...I'm a bit shaky on the history.

I'm not clear about why they put his statue outside the cathedral rather than the football ground.

It's Science, Innit!

The Science Centre and a brief break in the weather.

Paisley Abbey Front Door

Oh but they did like their concentric arches!

And today's lesson was: it's good to charge up your spare camera batteries; it's better if you then remember to put them in your bag!

Random Things

I was going to take a day off work today since it looked like it was about to chuck it down before I left the house, but in the end I decided to throw the camera in the bag anyway when I went for a coffee. And, as is annoyingly often the case, I think I got more usable pictures than when I'm working to a plan. I guess the lesson is: plan less, shoot more.

So this is just some random grabs as I wandered around. Loved the stormy skies when the sun was on the squinty bridge!