A Modern Way of Letting Go!

Thought I'd also add a winter image of the 'Gallery at Laurieston' - and here it is!! Every flake is different, allegedly!

'Snarley'

'The Golden Section (ii)'

Hi, again
All those jobs that one needs to do early in the new year are slowly progressing. Although its scary to think that we are fast-approaching MARCH! How did that happen.
February has been good up here, I've managed to get out with my camera on a few occasions and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. All this means that I've got a lot of images to assess and value their merits and determine whether they deserve to be taken further - this is an onerous but vital part of my job. Its totally unglamorous but ultimately critical!
It's been a proper winter this year and I've loved it!
I've also had to select two images to best represent my body of work for inclusion in the forthcoming Spring Fling taster exhibition to be held in Dumfries and then Stranraer. This is my first time in the Fling and is something I am looking forward to with, I hope, healthy trepidation! Selecting these two images took me hours and hours - I do hope I have chosen wisely. I felt it important to include both a Galloway landscape scene and a fine-art image. I'll post them here (see above) and hope I receive positive feedback from you, my most discerning critics!
I've also been progressing with my flyer and business cards needs and feel more confident with my approach - DL flyers are the way forward Hannah!!!
Exciting news: I this week met with another local artist to consider collaboration. Mary Smith is a poet and writer whose work I have been aware of for some time following her joint-workings with sculptor Matt Baker and artist Silvana McLean - I was very taken with the outcomes of both these ventures but particularly by the moving and emotional words from Mary which connected excellently with the powerful pieces sculpted by Matt at the Cairnsmore of Fleet reserve - worth it, trust me!!! Anyway, Mary and I met and had a think about the potential between us. Suffice to say this has had my thought-processes working overtime and brainstroming ideas together with Mary - already I think we have many many avenues to follow, some which excite me greatly!
See Mary's site here: http://marysmith.co.uk/index.asp
I called in to see Hannah McAndrew earlier in the week and had a chat and a cuppa - cool! It was great to see Hannahs vision coming together as her plans for a wood-fired kiln is developing well - not sure about the wood-stacking though!! Could do better, particularly Pauls poor effort!

My footie team still struggle - come on AFC!!

Until next time - love to you all
phil
xxxxxx

Albert Goes West

Hello!
Its been birthday time in our house and yours truly has hit the rubicon-inspired forty sixth. Its funny but if you say forty-six quickly it doesn't seem as bad.
We've had a cold, cold couple of weeks but no snow - until today, its been humping it down for the last couple of hours. So Alex and I are going to sally forth and have both a snowball fight, he doesn't stand a chance, and build a snowman - cool.
Thanks for all the feedback regarding my recent uploads to the website.
I decided on a walk up Screel Hill during the week to see what I could see. It was fantastic and certainly got my little old heart pumping - I always think its harder walking on your own because you don't know how fast you are going, does that make sense?
Anyway I'll put a couple of images up to illustrate the Screel experience.
Until the next time.
Love
phil

And look here is the snowman, Freddie (Alex calls everything Freddie!) and one with Alex, Joe, me and Freddie in our garden. Gosh, I wish I could work out how to put the images where you want them to go - over to you, Han!

A hard days night!

Hi

Its been a mucky-ducky few days and no mistake.
The weather has been pants and the whole family are still manfuly fighting 'the bug'. Joe was really poorly last week but is now approaching fighting fitness again. Due to this and the inclement weather had to cancel my tramp with Matt, who understood - the pressure is now on to squeeze a walk in before Matts off to Ghana!
We went out to friends Paula and Neils on saturday evening and had a lovely Burns supper of (veg) haggis, neeps and tatties - great effort Neil-dude. Alex and Gracie-girl had a rare old time and thoroughly enjoyed trashing the place!
We had a real trauma and a moral dilemma to face on saturday night after our return - I'll have to wait a wee while before expanding, apologies.
The website has been uploaded and tidied up a bit - the new images are on! Thoughts and comments always welcome. www.pmcphotography.co.uk
Am in the process of designing new business cards and Gallery flyers - some things aren't easy but patience will see me there.
Its a funny time of year when the weather is dirty and the chances of getting out are limited, I feel like I am preparing for something I'm not too sure about what that is. I know that doesn't make sense but seems apt! Lots of little things to get my teeth into but nothing of any great substance - keep chewing Phil!!
'til soon
Love
Phil

Working my way back to you, babe!

Hiya,
As visitors to my updated and revamped website may note there are still no new uploads to my 'Recent Upload' gallery - slack, very slack the baying crowd cries and I would have to agree with them. But wait, the boy Phil has some defence to offer..........Alex has slept barely two hours the last two nights and is struggling, nay, stricken by one of those coughs which is as dry as a bone and as troublesome as toothache! I even went back to bed this morning for an hour or so - I felt like some melodramatic Victorian middle-class type!
So, there's one excuse, another I'd like to offer up is that I LOVE WINTER and there have been some really special days up here of late (I type this as a raging bugger of a storm is brewing - but fear not as the wood and coal is in) and I've been fortunate to take advantage of one or two of them. Hence I'm struggling to limit uploads to fifty or so from the last two months, I'm currently down to ninety-four and struggling to thin it down further. One thing that is always apreciated is when people give feedback anout my 'recent images' this helps me have a more objective view of my work and assists in finding out what others think. I do ask for Louise's opinion and welcome her thoughts - I also ask my mother (Nancy) when she visits and her feedback is always "Ohh, I like that one" to just about every image - mothers, eh, don't you just love them (I know I do)!
I guess I'll get there but I really don't enjoy sidelining images that I really like. There are a couple on this blog which are teetering on the precipice....
My third excuse, is, as you may be aware, that the painters have been in - well, painter actually, Brian - who has done a great job of the hall, stairs, landing, ceilings by removing a load and I mean a load of woodchip from before the time of the Ark! He's a brave man and he's done it, re-lined, emulsioned and painted all five doors upstairs in the time it'd take me to do one or two panels - I feel he'll be back for more of the same at some point - cheers, Brian!!! (Brian also had the added distraction of Alex, who appeared enthralled by every step of the process - he also interupted Brian while he was lining the ceiling to show him his hopping - how cool is that!!!)

Right, I've got my excuses in and I'm off to tune-in to AFC, here's hoping that we can start collecting some terribly needed points.
Be Good.
Love
phil

Three bananas and two egos!

Well.
I have and most likely always will support the notion of a 'free' National Health Service for all. However, sometimes ones mettle can be seriously tested.
To cut a long story short Alex's operation didn't go ahead this morning despite us being up at about six to get the boys etc together for the day and possibly overnight (for Alex and I). Alex had his pre-op stuff then we were seen by the Consultant Surgeon, who we hadn't previously met, prior to surgery - he took one look at Alex and told us he'd prefer to wait a year and see how things go! We'd already waited nearly a year. But he would 'take some pictures and see how things progress' - 'hang on' says I - why didn't your colleague (the other surgeon) say this or why didn't you communicate with each other? The surgeaon said that '90% of the time he'd do the operation but he wanted to be sure', 'well' says I 'Why couldn't this have been decided a month or six weeks ago and not five minutes before going down'!!!
Alex was sooooooooo hungry that he ate three massive bananas in one go - good boy!

Very frustrating and we've got the painters and decorators in (no tittering, its fact!!) so the house is a sty and we're all tired and fed-up.
Had to take out some frustration on some wood - a mighty axe does wonders for the blood pressure - so, I'm feeling more calm and the woodpile for next winter is slowly coming along.

Thanks for all the well-wishes and kind comments from my first blog. Hopefully there'll be some business and photography stuff soon to mention.
Something I'm looking forwards to next week is a walk back in time with my friend the sculptor Matt Baker, will let you know how our journey back four millenia goes!!

Be good, oh and good luck to AFC in their cup game against Workington Reds tonight!
Love
Phil

Its About Time!!

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!
Me, I'm living proof - its just takes a wee while to get your head around stuff.
Its another year and I thought it about time to ramble to the masses (here's hoping for three or four viewers anyway) this will be of benefit to Louise who is usually the main recipient of my angst, misgivings and general, random thoughts.
I truly hope I can post about once a week with :work, business, family and life related stuff which will, hopefully, have a modicum of interest to others.
Its a slow time at the moment for me business wise and the very selfish part of me is glad that the weather has deteriorated somewhat allowing me to catch-up on office based chores which, in the main, are rather tedious but necessary. I'd rather be out 'there' with my camera but responsibilities are just that responsibilities!!
Alex our three year old has to go to Hospital tomorrow morning for a minor operation - this will involve a general anaesthetic in order to remove a little cist/cyst above his left eye. The cist/cyst was caused my him clocking himself with a small toy mallet when he was about eight months old - it doesn't want to go away on its own. So, after taking advice, he's having it removed. I know its nothing to worry about but I'm worried.

Right I'm in the process of uploading new images for my website - www.pmcphotography.co.uk - I suppose I better be responsible and get on with it.
'til soon
Love
phil