The best laid plans

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:44:16 +0000

Yes I know it was foolish, I went outside this morning before the Sun had even thought about showing her face, you see the Moon was sitting very close to Venus in the pre-dawn sky and it looked too good a photograph to miss. In the end I did miss it, well I saw the moon and Venus briefly as the cloud flitted past them, but it was not long enough to capture through the camera. Whilst I was outside though the thought popped into my head that I could take a series of photographs of the dawn and turn them into a small time lapse.
The camera was already in just about the right position for a series of dawn time lapse images, so I waited until my watch arrived at exactly 0703hrs and started taking photographs, then every minute on the dot I took another photograph, simple really I thought. Ten minutes in and I decided that perhaps it would have been a good idea to visit the toilet before I started taking the photographs, click, another photograph taken, sprint to the house and run upstairs, run back downstairs and sprint to the camera, click.
There was a moment when it looked like the plan had worked out, the sky started to change colour, gradually becoming pink behind the darker clouds, any minute now I thought and the whole sky will be an explosion of colour, click. The sky starts to darken, the pink is fading, I run to the house for the iPod so I can keep myself occupied in between every click. Thirty minutes in and I’m getting that sinking feeling, there will be no wonderful riot of colours this morning, from the fleeting glimpses I can see Venus is quickly fading, soon there will be nothing left of it to see, click.
Looking from the dawn sky to my side and Poppy is looking up at me expectantly, for a dog she is much smarter than me, a walk would be much more fun than standing taking the same view over and over and over, click.
Out of curiosity I put the time lapse together, at least I know a bit more about making them now, and next time it’ll work out perfectly

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-LEGjPYRQY

That wooshing sound…

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:32:23 +0000

…may not be your life passing you by but how do you tell? I was sitting at work last night; it was around twenty to three in the morning and I was watching the rain was blattering against the window when the thought came to me – what the hell am I doing sitting idle, there is so much I could be doing.

Fair enough, the astrophotography I’d intended from the top of the signal box steps was out of the question (thanks to the rain); but my sketch book was there so I could get some ideas together for a painting or two which would have been quite constructive, or, of course I had a couple of notebooks and a pen so I could rattle off another short story. With these creative thoughts in mind I sat down and picked up a book – it’s a good book, but that not really the point; I have time, I’m brimming with creative energy and I kick back with a book. Worst of all, I don’t read all that much, half the time I’m watching the rain hit the window and trying to hide from the multiple reflections you get from working inside a building with three glass sides. Of course I can find inspiration in different ways when reading, scenes from the book cry out to be illustrated, and stories that I could write jump forward to filed away somewhere in the back of my mind, but reading is not doing something and I feel idle.

Perhaps the trouble is, with so many things clamouring for my attention my mind shuts down and picks the easy route, or perhaps I need to train myself to focus from time to time It was annoying though to look back at the end of a twelve hour shift and think “I’ve achieve nothing”, that’s when the feeling creeps in that time is never anyone’s friend in instances like this. A night wasted is something you can’t really claim back at the end of the month, there’s no time bank where I can slip a card into the hole in the wall and withdraw ‘twelve hours for creative use only’. So if anyone has any tips for organizing not only time but what they should be doing with the time then those tips would be gratefully received.

time – Graeme Skinner

The best laid plans

That wooshing sound…