I’m Decorating My Office

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Working from home is a double edged sword. On the one hand, I have the gift of flex-time and the absence of traffic, but on the other, I am encased in the same walls seven days a week. For that reason it’s important I have not only a dedicated area of my house to work, but that it’s a place I genuinely enjoy spending time in.

As it stands, my office has been left untouched since I moved here three years ago. My house has only had one owner prior to myself, and because it was a relatively new build, everything was neutral. Neutral is nice, but it’s… well, neutral. Last spring I had two of my living room walls painted red and the addition of some new furniture. It looks great, I’m very happy with it, and what makes it work for me is that it’s bright during the day, but cosy in the evenings. Not to mention red is my favourite colour.

Here we are a year later, however, and I’m turning my attention to my office. My aim here is to make my office more welcoming. Like I said, it’s neutral and with wooden floors, so I’m thinking of giving it a lick of paint and adding warmth via a carpet. I also like what Matt Brett has done with the display case and video game figures, though my office isn’t spacious enough to accommodate that. Plus, I’d probably spend all day staring at the different video game characters.

Since my office is small, it’s important I get the colour right. I don’t want the limited space feeling even more restricted because of the colour giving the illusion that it’s even smaller, but I’m not sure what to go for. I also want some of my photos printed so I can show them off and make my office more personal. I’m open to ideas, and I’ll definitely be documenting any changes I make via Twitter and Flickr. What do you think?

Psst, my workspace can be seen on the Workstation Setups blog, and you can view others there for inspiration in creating your own.

Tags: Homeoffice
Posted in Personal, Work | 4 Comments »

Badoom Bah Shoot

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Well, I finally bit the bullet and splashed the cash on everything I need to get the most from shooting with my 430EX II off my camera. I’ve had the list there for a good while, courtesy of Rick who’s always very helpful with these things. So, what did I get?

A light stand for my flash, a bracket to mount the flash onto, and perhaps most importantly a 33″ reflector umbrella. I reckon this will be a good starting point for playing around with. Since getting my triggers I’ve used them minimally because I don’t have anything decent to diffuse my flash. I’ve been using a bath cap to do that for me. Okay, not literally a bath cap, but it was a cheap diffuser I picked up on a spur from Jessops that covers the flash in a bath cap fashion.

With photography it kind of seems there’s always ‘one more thing to get’ to complete your set-up, but hopefully this lasts me for a while. Not only am I done spending money on expensive hobbies, but I also want to get to grips with the equipment I do have before further adding to it.

On another note, I’ve joined a band. Assuming that goes well I’ll need to invest in a decent snare drum. Over Christmas I got a DW 5000 pedal, and I’ve got a great range of cymbals (though I want a brighter ride as mine is a dry one), so the only thing left to add to my kit is a nice, tight snare. Ping!

I’ve been drumming on a Yamaha Stage Custom for years, which is serving me well. I’ve tuned it so it sounds real nice, but if I get back into drumming regularly I might think about selling it and upgrading. Why couldn’t I have gotten into knitting as a hobby? Or stamp collecting…

Tags: Drumming, Photography
Posted in Personal | 7 Comments »

Pictographs with the 28mm

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Last Christmas I bought my first real lens, the 50mm ƒ1.4, a lens I’ve since used to shoot everything with due to its versatility and splendid depth of field, especially in comparison to the kit lens. Though it’s been a permanent fixture of my 40D, it’s proved itself to be problematic at times. I wanted something with a wider angle so I could make better use of in-door shots with limited space, and I found the 50mm to be fairly restricting in that respect.

Initially I ordered the Canon EF 28mm ƒ.2.8, but I quickly realised I’d greatly miss the lower ƒ stop after having experienced the joy of ƒ1.4 for over a year, so I cancelled my order and upgraded to the 28mm ƒ1.8 for the extra 250 bucks. Even with my limited hands-on with the 28mm, I can definitely say it was the right decision to make, and well worth the price hike.

Attached are a few shots I took with my 28mm over the weekend. Click on them for major zoomage.

I haven’t been able to photograph much of my house with the 50mm, but the 28mm gives me an opportunity to do so.

If you visit Largs, you have to visit the Nardini’s ice cream parlor. I took my boys there over the weekend for some ice cream. I had three scoops; Irn Bru sorbet, mint choc chip, and banoffee pie. Weird combo, I know.

This shot was obviously completely orchestrated, but it’s of a body I found in the woods, with legs in the background suggesting it may have been a murder?

A simple shot of my friend modeling the iPhone, complete with sushi wallpaper provided by myself!

Unfortunately I uncovered a problem with my camera when playing around with the low ƒ stop in broad daylight. Obviously I had to counter letting all that light in by having a lightning fast shutter speed, but by doing so images were turning out partially black. It only happens when I shoot faster than 1/500, as discovered by Rick when he was explaining what the problem was. I’m sad my camera is buggered to an extent, but on the bright side it’s still usable. It’ll be a problem when summer rolls around, though, so maybe it’s a good excuse to get a new camera?

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments »