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  • Dave 9:53 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: ,   

    Photo book for sale 

    dave wild

    A few people have asked me to do this. A few very nice people who have been contacts on Flickr for as long as I can remember. The people in question always seem to find the photos that I have the most fun taking in the first place. The photo on the front cover is a case in point.

    This book is a collection of my photos taken over the last three years or so. It’s broken down in to three sections: Infrared, Fur & Feathers and Shadows and Reflections. So, as well as a collection of the better infrared shots, expect cows, sheep and ducks and some unusual shadows and reflections.

    I ought to have called it “Infrared landscapes, some cows, some sheep, some horses, a few more cows and a few ducks”. The text on the spine looked a bit small though so I went back to a simple title ;)

    The book is being sold at the lowest possible price so that I’m not going to personally profit from it.

    The book page on Blurb.com

     

    • emdot 10:42 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Tomorrow is pay day. In honor of said day, in honor of your book, and in honor of your very wonderful photographs, I will be making a purchase. Of this book. And I can’t wait!!

    • emdot 10:45 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Oh. Whoops. It would seem that I have no willpower to wait 24 measly hours. I bought it! And I am wearing a very huge smile on my face! Yea!!

    • publicenergy 10:53 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      You’re a star – and thanks for the encouragement :)

    • Diana L-S 2:15 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      That’s awesome! I put it on the calendar for Friday (payday), I’ve loved your photos all along the way. Thank you for putting this together.

    • publicenergy 6:27 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Thank you very much. I hope you like it! :)

    • Primed Minister 8:59 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Sounds good Dave. Hope this isn’t an April Fool… :)

    • publicenergy 9:08 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Hehe – it’s not an april fool, and I hope the people who bought it don’t think it is after getting it as well!

      I am somewhat taken aback how quickly this was dived on and people actually buying it as well. Mad! :)

      Once all of the nice people have bought it I might put the price up! ;)

    • publicenergy 9:10 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Incidentally, for you people who are displaying a shadowy figure icon next to your name, you can associate an icon with your email address at http://en.gravatar.com/“ rel=”nofollow”>gravatar.com.

    • Roger B. 4:53 pm on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Congratulations Dave!

    • publicenergy 7:05 pm on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Cheers Roger – and it’s nice to see people have faces now too! hehe :)

    • brendadada 10:11 pm on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Congrats Dave, it is such a great feeling, doing a book.

      Will definitely buy one: I am one of those people who doesn’t have a credit card, and Blurb is one of the few places that won’t take debits or Paypal, so I’ll mail you. Ta. :)

    • publicenergy 6:48 am on April 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks muchly! :)

    • Lost and self publishing | The 9:05 pm on April 4, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      [...] the meantime, Dave Wild has a new book, and about to put the price up allegedly, so be quick! There are two new hefty-ish publications in [...]

    • publicenergy / A best seller a 9:31 pm on April 8, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      [...] I announced that I had a book for sale just over a week ago, I thought that I’d get a copy for myself and two or three other people [...]

    • Sunday Roast: come midnight yo 3:55 pm on April 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      [...] of my all-time favourite photographers has a book for sale. Go. [...]

  • Dave 9:03 pm on March 29, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , gallery, wordpress   

    WordPress Gallery 

    WordPress 2.5 Gallery

    I upgraded to WordPress 2.5 today and it comes with a new gallery feature as well as all sorts of other stuff. I’ve had a play with it and it seems pretty good but has some rough edges. I’m sure these will be sorted out in future updates.

    My only niggle is that it doesn’t generate an intermediate image to sit between the original upload and the thumbnail and instead tries to show the original with HTML tags to resize it – which results in an image that doesn’t look it’s best.

    Given that this is the first version of WordPress with this feature though, I’m quite impressed how easy it is to use. I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves – especially when some of the plugin authors start changing it – anything is possible.

    Aside from the gallery, WordPress 2.5 feels to me to be more professional than it’s ever been before. Some people are saying they don’t like the new admin interface, but I think a lot of that is down to being used to the same way of doing things for a long time then having change thrust upon you. Me, I don’t mind change. It looks cleaner, and like the gallery, I’m sure it’ll be fine tuned and tweaked to improve over time.

     

    • brendadada 12:33 am on March 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Yes, I upgraded today, and yes I agree, I like it too. A tad nervewracking, but it seems to work, -ish.

      I’m looking for a new template while only some things are broken, might as well see if I can break some more. :)

    • Upgrading to 2.5 | The Photogr 10:29 am on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      [...] WP features include a Gallery, and widgets are all built in, including options to create drop-down menus, which is very cool, if [...]

  • Dave 7:32 pm on March 27, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , ,   

    Derwent Edge 

    A change in the weather

    Rocks

    When I got hold of my modified infrared camera last year, I didn’t realise that I was about to experience one of the wettest crappiest summers the UK had ever experienced. The infrared light that makes up the images comes from the sun and that was mostly absent, hidden behind rain clouds. Even so, I did manage to post around 140 photos taken with the camera, so I ought to be thankful that I at least managed to take some photos with it. regardless of the weather.

    Derwent Moor

    A walk at the weekend along Derwent Edge started in bright sunshine and the weather forecast said bright sunshine all day too. I was looking forward to taking some infrared shots with some nice sunshine and clouds. When we got towards the top of Walker’s Clough, it was fairly dark and cloudy and a little later, on the approach to Lost Lad, it was snowing too. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground at this point left over from previous snowfalls.

    Walking along Derwent Edge, it got bitterly cold, more snow, some hailstones and then, very quickly, all of this weather overtook us and disappeared away from us leaving blue sky and sunshine. The photo at the top is of that weather disappearing away from me.

    A friend got a better picture taken of it from a different angle:

    big clouds are headed this way

    big clouds are headed this way by petulant_seraph

    I love weather like that. Normally it happens the opposite way around though – starts off quite nice then you get dumped on royally once you’re somewhere nice and exposed!

     

    • premiump 7:27 am on March 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Wow, what a contrast! Weather is such an unpredictable thing. I can remember being in the car with parents years ago, we were driving to Leeds. It was cats and dogs all the way, then we went under a bridge and it was dry as a bone on the other side. I can remember it like it was yesterday ;)

    • Diana LeRoi-Schmidt 2:03 pm on March 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Wow! The top photo looks like a wave of clouds is coming up over the edge.

      I really like the 3rd photo too!

      Great photography!

    • Bruce 1:47 pm on March 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I love the imagery in the top one: two people stand exposed, facing stormy weather ahead…

    • brendadada 9:55 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Yes, that topmost picture is wonderful. I love the blacks.

  • Dave 11:20 am on March 23, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , n+, , ,   

    N+ and Pac-Man Championship Edition 

    Like a lot of other people, I got an Xbox 360 for the first time when the price went down a week or so ago.

    Now, for all of the next generation whizzy graphics and whatnot, some of the best and best value gaming comes from the Xbox Live Arcade. Two games in particular have made an impact with me.

    Firstly, N+, a 2D platform game where you control a ninja collecting gold and avoiding enemies in order to escape the level. It’s so simple in principle, but there are so many things about it that raise it above the typical. The stick figure you control is deceptively simple looking. It is wonderfully animated as it runs, jumps and climbs – not to mention as it dies – there are a lot of realistic physics at play here.  The game leads you in gently but as it progresses you have to get increasingly ingenious and improve you controls in order to progress.

    Whilst the single player game is great, I was further impressed by the multi-player game. You can play co-operatively, and the maps that you play on are geared up so that the best way to complete them is through co-operation. Some of them can only be completed with multiple players. Using Xbox live and being able to talk to the other players as you come up with your strategy is great. You tend to hear a lot of grimacing noises and laughter though as various players are splattered!

    You can download N, the game N+ was based on free for PC, Mac and Linux here

    pacmance

    Pac-man Championship EditionThe second XBLA game is Pac-Man Championship Edition. Now, I’ve always had a soft spot for the arcade versions of Pac-Man and especially Ms Pac-Man which I’ve always thought was the best version of the game. Every time anyone tries to update the game for a console, they tend to make it worse, or just emulate the arcade game and pad out the side of the screen with unnecessary artwork.

    This is different. Pac-Man Championship Edition was developed by Tōru Iwatani who came up with the idea for the original version many years ago. This is apparently the last game he will work on. This is also the first Pac-Man related game I’ve played since those original arcade games where I think they’ve actually improved it.

    There are half a dozen modes to choose from, but they all have some common themes. You have a fixed amount of time to play the game – 5 or 10 minutes depending on the mode. So, your goal is to score as much as possible in that time – and to begin with, even survive to the end of the timer. There is also just one maze and during that time, the action doesn’t stop. You don’t get cut scenes or pauses when all of the dots are gone. When you eat all of the dots from either the left or right hand side of the maze, a fruit appears in the opposite side. When you go and eat that fruit, the dots refresh in the other side of the maze. And so it goes on. Some of the game modes not only re-fill the dots, but also re-draw the layout of the maze.

    While all of this is going on, there is a more modern thumping version of the Pac-Man background music playing – nothing horrible though – it just sounds like the original noise made modern – no fancy tunes or anything nasty!

    So, if anyone fancies a bit of friendly high-score beating, you can find me here… ;)

    (going out for a walk and to take some photos soon!)

     

    • Primed Minister 4:13 pm on March 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Good to see you’ve taken the plunge and got a 360 Dave. If you’re a fan of the GTA series, I hope you’ve allocated some free time for GTA IV when it comes out! I have, problem is I’m not sure how I’m going to cram in time for my photography malarkey too… Not enough hours in the day. :)

    • publicenergy 2:08 pm on March 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      With these two games, Worms and Bomberman, I’m happy as a pig in shit! – I’ve also heard that Mr Driller is on the way and on the Wikipedia page for Chu Chu Rocket it says that’s coming to XBLA too. I really hope that last one is true! :)

    • Primed Minister 5:55 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Worms… Have you not sussed by my email address yet Dave that I work at Team17? :)

    • publicenergy 8:13 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I did clock it some time ago and thought aha! – but then promptly forgot about it. Well, However you are associated with Worms, that’s a great thing to leave behind after your time on this earth! – the 2D versions anyway! :)

    • publicenergy 8:14 pm on March 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Oh and I caved in on GTA IV (didn’t try that hard not to really) – the HMV 1000 free MS Points seemed too good an offer to miss!

    • Primed Minister 9:52 am on April 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Nice one. I’ll have to have you a game then mate at some point (gamertag: pmr17), I haven’t been on XBLA for a while though (my son’s always on it)… :)

      I’m looking forward to GTA IV, there’s been a lot of hype about it so I only hope it lives up to expectations! It does look very nice though and I’m curious to see how they integrate the multiplayer aspect into this one. Only 28 days to go now before it’s out… Expect less Flickr uploads after the 29th!

  • Dave 11:03 am on March 16, 2008 Permalink
    Tags:   

    A friendly sheep 

    Another friendly sheep

    I had to post another photo to bump the last one down the screen!

     

  • Dave 1:25 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink
    Tags:   

    A face that could make a bat crash 

    Mirror mirror on the wall who gives a f*#k [144/365]

    I’ve not got much to add to this really. Except to say that if you post a photo that you hope will be largely ignored, it probably won’t be – and vice versa. I need to go out and take some nice photos over the next few days to bump this down quick smart! :)

     

    • premiump 7:26 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      … y’see, this is what happens when you hurtle down hillsides at daft speeds, whilst gritting your teeth and hoping for the best!

      I know this as fact, as I occasionally also look as though I have been hit repeatedly with an ugly stick(or maybe thats just me) :)

  • Dave 10:54 pm on March 9, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: holmfirth, ,   

    Holmfirth Horse 

    Holmfirth Horse 7

    The photo above is my favourite out of a bunch that I took today when out walking near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. The following images lead up to this one really.

    Holmfirth Horse 6 Holmfirth Horse 5
    Holmfirth Horse 4 - In desperate need of nibbling a camera Holmfirth Horse 3 - Flares
    Holmfirth Horse 2 - Total Nasal Eclipse Holmfirth Horse 1 - Introductions

    Out of all of these, I quite like the top 3. The bottom four are really only included because they demonstrate the difficulty in tracking a fast moving nose!

     

    • Diana L-S 1:44 am on March 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Great photos! I love all your soft horse muzzle shots.

      Thanks for the chuckle when I read, “tracking a fast moving nose”. You brought carrots along right? ;)

  • Dave 1:12 pm on March 7, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , ,   

    Geotagging and FeedDemon 

    For a long time now I’ve used FeedDemon to read RSS feeds. There are lots of reasons for that and there are plenty of posts around that explain why it’s better than online-only readers.

    I noticed today that when a feed item is geotagged, I get a new globe icon appear which links me to Google Maps. That’s a nice little touch. Of course, it’s be even nicer if it used the new icon!

     

  • Dave 10:40 pm on March 6, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: poole,   

    Poole 

    Quay [136/365]

    Convenience Store [137/365]

    Disappointing Marshmallow Harvest [135/365]

    \

    I’m sure it’s much more lively in summer ;)

     

  • Dave 11:10 pm on March 5, 2008 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Odd Photographers? Lock ‘em up 

    filth_campaign_persecution

    Read more about this here.

    I’m sure I have done countless things while in view of other members of the public that might have looked odd in order to get a photo. Normally the look on people’s faces can be read as ‘look at that loon with a camera’ rather than ‘quick call the police, that bloke is obviously scoping out the local park in preparation for some future terrorist atrocity.’ This is just another farce in a long line of security related farces.

    I’m a regular reader of Bruce Schneier’s blog which is interesting for lots of reasons, but in relation to this, there are quite a lot of stories where Bruce and his readers have highlighted some absolutely ridiculous security related stories that beggar belief.

    PS. The camera they seem to have drawn a circle around looks like a Canon Ixus – I take further exception to that! If I was paranoid I could conclude that I have been singled out! :p

     

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