nigel the pony

nigel the pony (click to enlarge)

We came across a little gang of wild ponies whilst walking round the fields near the office at lunch, and id just so happened to bring my camera along to get some snaps whilst the last of the 09 sun was out. This pony just stood and stared at me for ages. It didnt move. I walked right up to it and just continued to stare at me relentlessly. I took loads of photos, but this was the first image I took. There is something about this shot that is kinda haunting, maybe its the lighting, but when playing around in Lightroom the Selenium tone preset seemed to work quite well, so I left it. Haven’t really had much of a play with the Lightroom effects, but they are actually quite good for fairly basic stuff! Other than the Lighroom effect I just added a high pass over the top to bring out some more detail and gave it a slight border.

This looks really good when viewed large so make sure you click to view big on Flickr!

I think I’ll call him Nigel. That seems like a good name for a Pony.

dave, beaches and washed up size 9’s

red (click to enlarge)

So finally I’ve had the chance to take some more photography! Finally! So what have I been up to? Well Craig and the rest of Multiplay crew are keeping me rather busy, not only in work but also in planning things in the evenings and weekends that have been keeping me away from my camera! On the plus side iv been up to some fun stuff, which is great, and this weekend gave me the chance to get out and about on the south coast with some friends of mine who came visiting for my 27th birthday. How depressing. 30 is seriously looming now :/

The first pic is of my friend Dave climbing around on some beach debris we came across on Lepe Beach. The land you can see in the distance in the Isle of Wight, as we were literally on the bottom of the country. I really like this pic for a number of reasons, not least of which the sun starting to burst through the clouds to left of the image.

washed up size 9 (click to enlarge)

The second is a pic of an old washed up trainer, that Im guessing had washed up on the beach courtesy of one of the yaughts out to see. I really like how dramatic this seems to be, and it works really well in black and white, esp after some slight HDR’ing. It almost says that someone may have recently drowned, but I thought that naming it something like that was a little TOO dramatic!

brummies on the beach (click to enlarge)

I know, Iv gone into a full blown black and white mood. But I really love coastal shots in black and white! This one I feel I should have done more with maybe, but sometimes I guess less is more, so I let it be. Again, the sky plays a big part in this shot, along with the wooden pole in the water. Im almost tempted to put some colour back in this, but maybe on another day.

I feels really good to post some photography again! I know this will probably fail, but im going to try and get back onto some regular pictures from now on, esp now I’ve settled into the new job etc. We have an event coming up in a couple of weeks, so expect more LAN photography goodness! :D

the day we moved out

the day we moved out (click to enlarge)

So, after a month off it’s back to the grind of this blog eh? Hey ho. I didnt think id have been gone for quite this long, but truth be told it was quite nice to have some time away from the internets at home, and with my internet only being installed in the new house yesterday, it seems like its never been away already! Now that im sorted at home and in the new job, I guess its time to start working on some new stuff again :D

This is the field behind our old house on the day we moved out. It was a scorcher of a day (thankfully) and the field had only been harvested the day before, so it was a sea of wheat stalks. I sat here for a good twenty mins snapping away, but this was my fav. I love the texture in the crops, the sky was an awesome colour that morning too.

Hopefully I’ll get chance to go out and about more in the New Forest now that im down here, so expect plenty of me trying to get better at nature photography! This might mean I have to invest in some bigger lenses tho… oh well.

Also, thanks to everyone that took a look at my “life needs colour” peice that went on Abduzeedo; it had an insane amount of views and loads of nice comments and emails, so thanks a lot! :D

life needs colour

life needs colour (Click to enlarge)

I love the Daily Inspiration posts on Abduzeedo, if you have never been on this site then make it the one important thing you do today. This site is one of the main reasons I got so passionate about graphics design. The work that is showcased on there, not only by the guys who run it but also the people they find all around the world, is truly incredible. One of the recent Daily Inspiration posts got me looking through some of the more retro work they had found, and I couldnt help but LOVE some of the colours on them. I have a real thing for grungy type art, and combine this with a retro feel and you’ve got a style that I completely and utterly adore.

I had an idea for creating a kind of patchwork quilt of colours, which got me tinkering in photoshop and Kuler (see one of my previous posts on this awesome site) to try and come up with some combinations that worked. The key to this I found is not to go too overboard with the amount of colours you use. Its important to keep a kind of colour “theme” when finding a colours for your work, but without going too overboard as to flood your audiences brain with too much at once. In this instance I have 8 distinct colours to start with, but with lighting and texturing there are actually way more in the finished product.

I think im going to put together a tutorial on how I did this one, as im really proud of how it came out. Seriously though, if you’ve never been on Abduzeedo get your ass there right now :)

insomnia lan #i37

As I type this I have a huge cup of black sugary coffee, which is just about keeping me concious. I am SO tired. But i37 was worth the sleep deprivation. It was a fantastic weekend, with over 2000 gamers packed into the biggest LAN of the year in the UK. Much of the fun was had, with tournaments running for the 3 days solid, tens of thousands of pounds in prize money given away and much beer was consumed (altho some people need to learn there limits!). Radio 1, More4, and BBC1 all came down in some form to cover the event, as well as countless gaming websites, so thanks to all who showed their support! Also a big thank-you to Radio1’s DJ Dev, who was an infinately nice guy, and even came back for a second day at the event to play some more Street Fighter 4 against the masses.

the main gaming hall @ i37 (click to enlarge)

It was also quite a surreal weekend for me, with a random thumbs up outtake from one of the iLive coverage video’s being made into a water mark of approval on my behalf, that then ended up all over the LAN. Apparently it even made it onto 4chan, but I havent seen it.

This was the moment:

I approve of this blog

This ended up everywhere, even to the point where a very talented chap called Snakebyte in the main gaming hall took time out from his case wrap illustrations to do this awesome drawing of me:

awesome drawing of me by Snakebyte

Of course I had to approve this:

Shedboy approves of this drawing of Shedboy approving

Im hoping to get a copy of this at some point, although I didnt get to meet Snakebyte at the LAN myself as I was only shown this after he had left, which was a real shame! He did do some really awesome work at the LAN, which you can see here. Make sure you check out all over coverage of the events, including all the photograhy which can be found on the Multiplay i37 coverage pages, and all the iLive video bytes that we did, which can be found on the Fileplay site in HD.

To all those who took part in the world famous i-Series quiz this time round (at least 500 people); you tried your best but we just rocked all night long ;)

Team "In range of Craig" celebrate their win (Click to enlarge)

the xrayed console round was inspired (Click to enlarge)

the quiz is as rammed as ever (Click to enlarge)

Also commiserations to the punters in the Staff vs Punters boat race, who once again fell at the hands of the mighty staff in the only competition that really matters at any i-Series LAN :) Despite the blatent CHEATING which can be seen below (shame on you punters; you can only start drinking once the person before you has finished and placed their glass on their head! tututut) you got well and truly served!

FLAGRANT cheating from the punters (Click to enlarge)

the glass is placed on the head once done (Click to enlarge)

the boat race is much of the fun (Click to enlarge)

Elye's mouth is clearly not big enough (Click to enlarge)

Thanks to everyone who came and made the weekend so awesome, and see you at the next one!

go walk about

go walk about (click to enlarge)

Every so often, you should go walk about, just because you can.

insomnia 37

insomnia 37 (click to enlarge)

It is offially mere. *\o/*

LAN time is upon us once again, and so I have put together this poster to commemorate the impending 37th installment of the Insomnia LAN this weekend. Might produce a different poster for each LAN from now on, might be quite fun!

Tried experimenting with some light painting for this one, although iv never really tried any before I discovered that its very easy to get carried away! In the end I toned down the light to something a little more simplistic. Im very pleased with the background in this peice, I think it came out at around 40 odd layers!

For all those going this weekend, have a good time and see you there; il be the one shoving the camera in your face all weekend :D

rome was not built in a suit

rome was not built in a suit (click to enlarge)

I really love this quote. I have no idea where it came from, or who said it, but I remember seeing it on a typographic poster a few months ago and thinking that it was awesome. Its quite fitting for me too, as I only have 16 days left of my job where I have to wear a suit to work, and I start my new job where I can wear much more comfortable clothing ;D

I decided to go for something a bit more retro with this one. In the begining it was quite grungy, with a lot of damage being done to the textures and the font, but in the end I felt it needed to be cleaner in order to get its point across more effectively. Iv done quite a lot of graphical art lately as opposed to photography, but hopefully my next few posts will be from some of the photo’s I took while I was out and about in the New Forest a couple of weeks ago. There will be plenty more of them in the future ;)

retro multiplay

retro multiplay (click to enlarge)

Well its been a couple of weeks since iv posted anything substantial, and even more since iv done any decent photography, which really sucks as iv wanted to get out and about with the camera on several occasions this past week. However circumstances have not allowed. There is however, a reason for this: new job & new house! It seems to have sucked up all my time of late, but it was time well spent as everything is now sorted after much stress. My new job is with a GSP called Multiplay, for whom I have great affection. I have been involved in their antics in some form or another for the past 9 years, and now i’ve got the chance to further my career with them, and I can’t wait. I’ll be working on both their online projects and their huge gaming events (the i-series) which gives the job real diversity from day to day, which is awesome.

And so to commemorate this occasion, I decided to create a nice desktop to furnish my new machine at Multiplay when I start in September. Im a big fan of grunge (you may have noticed) and retro style art, so I tried to combine the two here. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out this huge panorama of i36 to see what I mean about huge gaming events:

i36 gaming hall (DEFINATELY click to enlarge)

dc trainers and new york city

new york taxis (click to enlarge)

Unfortunately I havent been to New York recently. Or ever for that matter. YET! That is they key word here people, yet. My friend Nat however has recently been over to see our western cousins and took plenty of pics along the way, including this one which I liked so much I had a go at HDR’ing and touching it up in PS. I like the result, it comes across as quite grungy and dirty, which I think really suits the scene.

Also, recently bored at a conference with work at which I was taking some photography (I wont bore you with the topic) I snapped this pic of my hideously dirty DC’s. I am happy to report however that they have since been cleaned in the washing machine ;D

dirty dc's (click to enlarge)