Out and about

Nearly the end of 07, happy new year to everyone, just time for the last 2 pics of the year..

..Swan on the River Avon ..
.. cloudy skies over Pewsey Vale

Frogger

A shot of a frog caught in the decisive moments before crossing a deadly road, possibly praying to a frog god, summoning up his courage in what might be the last moments of his hoppy life. You can see the trepidation in his eye, about to go for it when a weird, wandering guy lies in the road, in the rain, at night and starts taking photos.

Mov Rev: I am Legend

Brilliant, the best first half of a film I've seen in ages. Some clever scripting, great effects and excellent feeling of desolation and tension. Then I guess they ran out of money, lost the script or hit a deadline or something, because (imho) the second half of the film and especially the end is very average. The script seems to dumb down, the effects get worse, the tension disappears and even Will Smiths excellent acting can't save it from a nose dive. Could have been soo much better.

9/10 (1st half) - 4/10 (2nd half)

Better than Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (mostly), not as good as 28 Days Later.

Escaping the madness..

I was out Christmas shopping on friday, nothing like a shopping center filled of frantic stressed out people to make you want to drive into the middle of no-where. Apparently there were about 13 million cars of Britains roads friday, but I only saw about 3 in the middle of the Brecon Beacons - sad.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I've been out and about the last couple of days getting some photography done before I eat and drink far too much over Christmas. Hope you enjoy some of these pics...

Mini Mov Revs!

The Golden Compass - this film is bad. I don't know how good the books are, but if they are "classics" then they need to sack the director. The flow of the story is disjointed and awkward and pretty much has no ending (surely a sad ending is better than no ending?!). If I'm scratching for positives the child actors were bearable and the bear jaw flying off was a shocking highlight. I just felt sorry for the polar bears, not only loosing their habitat, but being forced to steal the show in dire films like this.

2 out of 10 - better than having your jaw punched off, but not as good as waiting for Enchanted to come out.

Hitman - game to film conversion, that suffers from the usual effect that either the makers don't really know the games or gamers very well, or they want to water it down to try and appeal to "normal" people too. Like Doom before it, they've managed to take a decent back-story and character and suck a lot of the depth out of it (not that the games were overly in depth to start with). At least some of the splatterage managed to stay in, despite the accountants wanting to make it a 15 rated movie. The story is pretty generic, but the SFX and acting were pretty good for it's budget.

5 out of 9mm - better than accidentally scanning your head in Sainsbury's self checkout, not as good as Hitman 2 hopefully.

American Gangster - kind of disappointing, I really wanted to like this film being a big fan of Denzel W and Ridley Scott, but I really found it not very interesting. Possibly because of the drug subject matter and possibly because of the high standard of other similar films like The Departed, The Untouchables, LA Confidential etc. I didn't think Russel Crowe was as good as he could have been either, I was going to say possibly mis-cast, but then he was great in LA Confidential.

Just 60% pure. Better than sniffing Coke, but not as good as sniffing Pepsi.

30 Days of Night - another great horror movie featuring Melissa George - keep them coming. Some fantastically graphic and gory scenes despite being rated 15. Good story and pacing, with some cool effects and stylised cinematography based on the graphic novel. A nice, new interpretation of vampires that allows it to slide in alongside the other great vampire movies in the genre without too many direct comparisons. It also made me want to go and watch The Thing again - always a good thing.

25 of 30 days of night - better than a vampire blood bath, not as good as a Melissa George bubble bath.

West Coast Tour

On a trip down the west coast from Bristol to Burnham on saturday, was very windy, but good fun.

Blacknore Point lighthouse.

Clevedon pier - a grade 1 listed structure from 1869. More info - http://www.clevedonpier.com/history.htm
Birnbeck pier at Weston is also soon to be decided how it is to be restored.. http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/news/story.aspx?brand=Westonmercury&category=news&tBrand=westonmercury&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeED07%20Dec%202007%2010%3A20%3A34%3A253



Burnham Lower lighthouse at sunset (not that you could see much of the sun - but it's made for some nice subtle hues).

Photography in the dark

Not much photography going on with it being dark by the time I get home from work. Here's a few of my addiction supressing night photos..

..two pics from around Chippenham..

..and a photo of Hector (this is his happy face)

Portland Bill & stuff

My last day of holiday for the year, and a quick trip down to Portland Bill (via Stonehenge below). A sunny morning, overcast evening and rainy night, suited me very nicely (even if it didn't supply the most colourful sunset).

Stonehenge..

"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history...'

Misty Sheep

Okay, it's cold, the sun goes down, water vapour rises off the grass.. is that mist or fog?! I don't know, but Foggy Sheep doesn't sound quite as mystical! Really pleased with these pics, to me they have a really ethereal look to them.

Autumn Colours

Sunset at Dyrham Park (gates close at 5pm though, so not the best place for a relaxed 4.50pm sunset).
Severn Channel and suspension bridge taken about 30 minutes after sunset.

Blue sky and autumn trees reflected in the River Marden.

Dyrham Park

Happy birthday me! I was 33 on Halloween, had a few days off work which was good. Went over to Dyrham Park and took a few deer pics. They are pretty tame, so not much skill required, but good fun anyway and I like some of the photos too.

Stag-Squirrel combo pic.