Photography.

Photography is a hobby of mine that I've adopted recently. I don't profess to understand what an f-stop is or how it differs from an ISO but what I do know is what I like.
Now I've been lucky enough to be blessed with 2 beautiful models (my children Devon and Lillie) and that I have produced some reasonably good result.
I don't go out to produce an image that people are going to like, as long as I like it then that's great. Everyone else can just like it or lump it so ner ner de ner ner! Posting images on the net however does allow you to get advice, advice that you can use on your next attempt. By doing this I've grown quite a lot and learnt to "look outside the box" when taking photos.
Below are some of my favourite images of recent times - enjoy.

Bamburgh.

If your ever given the opportunity to travel to Bamburgh I suggest you grab the chance to take it. Bamburgh is a beautidul small town in Northumberland and has the most amazing, quiet and clean beach you could ever hope for.
This is a firm favourite with us, even though it is an hour to an hour and a half drive for the simple reason that it is never over crowded. You don't have to sit around disgarded cigarette butts with your children or sit amidst used up beer cans.
One bonus to Bamburgh is it's fantastic castle which really is something to behold (if not expensive to view) and sits upon a hill over looking the beach. The castle is pretty much second to none in our area and is truly beautiful (a real treat for the historian or young knight to be alike).

Egypt.

We went to Egypt on our honeymoon just over a year ago and man oh man is that a place to see. We weren't fortunate enough to see the pyramids and the whole history side of things (due to only a one week stay - grandma's tend to get cranky when you leave them your kids for too long) but we did take in the Red Sea Riviera.
This place is fantastic! The people are great, although they are very "pushy", they see English people as very rich and able to spend vast amounts of money (I wish). Therefore they tend to want to be your friend and help you spend some in their shops. Other than that they are great fun and very respectful.
The food is brilliant, a mixture of different cultures and influences as well as traditional. It's also very cheap.
Now people will tell you that they know someone who knew someone who went who got really bad food poisoning. take this with a pinch of salt as this is not the case at all.
Beer is good too which you may not expect from a Muslim country but I gave it a big thumbs up.
The weather is outrageous, even at night it's red hot. The breeze that blows at night feels like someone following you with a hot hairdryer!
The best thing for me though was people watching. Sitting in a nice Bedouin bar at the side of the main strip and watching life go by while smoking a Shisha pipe (apple flavour being the best). the Bedouin bars tend not to serve alcohol but specialise in the Shisha pipes.
Now everyone thinks your going to get severely stoned smoking these but, they are nothing more than a flavoured tobacco smoked over water to allow for a very mellow, fragrant and tasty smoking experience. They come in quite a few fruity flavours and really need tried to believed. For about £1 you get a huge pipe full that will last most people around 45 minutes to an hour.
The diving in Sharm-El-Shiekh (where we stayed) is also second only to the Great Barrier Reef (allegedly). Some of the fish you see are beautiful and it is an experience indeed. You can find excellent diving just out the back of most hotels along the coast due to them having huge expanses of coral on the beaches which plunge into deep azure waters only feet from the beach.
We loved Egypt so much were going again this year as our main family holiday. I can't wait to get back. Maybe this time I'll try a camel.

I made this...

Here is a graphic I created for use by the 4x4 club I joined. Unfortunately it never got used as I intended, for stickers, wheel covers, banners and other club promotional materials.
Oh well you can't win em all. Enjoy.

The Offroaders!

A while ago I ran a 4x4 vehicle, not for the image of the "soccer mom/dad" but because where I live we have bad winters. Now my 4x4 ran superbly through one such winter and enabled us to stay mobile while a lot of others we not allowed that luxury.
While I had the car I used it off road too. Seeing as though so many never see off road I decided mine wasn't going to be like that. I was going to use it for what it was designed for.
So I joined a 4x4 club and we went to various sites around the UK and also had our own quarry where we held play days. I met a lot of good friends through that club all of us used our vehicles for the intended purpose and I also learned that they have huge respect for other road users.
Now this last fact may seem odd as our usual opinion of 4x4 drivers is of idiots who think they own the road - how wrong. Proper 4x4 users appreciate they are in charge of huge vehicles that can easily crush smaller vehicles and act responsibly because of this.
I learned a great deal about driving through the club (both off and on road), and also had a lot of great days out with my son who loved coming out with me.

It's nearly winter again maybe I can justify buying another...

Other love.

So we all have other loves beside our wives or girlfriends (boyfriends). Our dirty little secrets that we hide. Our yearning for something more, something DIRTY.
Well mine aren't quite seedy however they are very, very dirty. In fact they are about as dirty as you can get....
Mountain biking of course. What else were you thinking? I love to get out on the bike with nothing but fresh air for company. The feeling of a hangover on a Sunday morning and how it slowly slips away the further and harder you pedal. Returning home hours late to munch down on roast meat and veg smothered in thick gravy sauce.
The beauty of the changing seasons, from the bleak and freezing white of winter right through to the multi-coloured tones of autumn. Fantastic.
Why not leave the car at home this weekend and try something new, come on let's get dirty together.

Inspiration.

What inspires you?
I find mine mostly it's my family these days. They drive you, make you better, make you work harder than before.
Why?
For me it's the need to provide for them, to protect them and to be responsible for them all and make sure they have the best life possible.
Without family what is there?
Nothing, nothing worth worrying about anyway.
Family is everything.

Creativity in the home.

What do you do when your 5 year old wants his room decorated? The choice of colour of most 5 year old is something garish and bright (or even luminous). In Devon's case Day-glo Pink. Now I have nothing against my son having a pink room if that's his wish, however this would of burnt out his retina's after a week.
So we got to thinking and came up with the idea to paint a character on the wall instead. We went with the villain from his favourite cartoon A.T.O.M, Mr Payne.
I started by printing out an image from the computer on A4. Then I put this up on the wall and began to redraw the image. Firstly in a light coloured chalk and then I re chalked this in a darker shade once I was satisfied with the first image.
After chalking it's time to move on to the painting. Now you can go nuts and buy loads of paint here, I however started with a very limited palette and added white to lighten the red right down to the flesh pink in the final image. We also used the yellow of the walls to show the gold in the rings and belt buckles. So we only used about 5 colours in the end.
To finish of the image I drew over the outlines in permanent marker to give it that "cartoon" look and feel.
So is this better than day-glo pink?
I think so, what about you?

Cold!

How can a nasty little germ cause so much suffering?
That's right I'm suffering from man flu. Not really - just a very bad cold. Aching limbs and joints, running nose, sore throat, cold sores, painfull chest, you name it I got it.
Being so work concious/stupid I even came in to the office (although I regret this now and wished I had stayed in bed) which has just served to make this the longest day in history.
It doesn't help when it's raining outside, pitch black and I have to spend an hour to an hour and a half in slow moving traffic to get home.....humpfh!
Can't wait to get home to cuddle up in a ball on the sofa and down a can of Heinz's cream of mushroom soup before climbing into my bed for an early night (yeah right!).

I HATE COLDS!!!

It's funny...

Yesterday I spent the whole working day on a training course around Emotional Intelligence (or EI) and it's impact in the workplace. Now going into this course I was, as always a little sceptical as to what if anything I would get out of it. You know what I mean usually these things can be a bit dull and dare I say it - pointless.
EI however proved a bit of an eye opener. It's so easy to forget in this day and age other peoples feelings and get wrapped up in our own self importance. We forget that people are people too, each one different, each one with their own viewpoint or thoughts. It's also easy to forget that we ourselves are responsible for 50% of all conflicts we get involved in. We interpret a situation depending on how we feel that particular moment in time. So if your happy and upbeat you will interpret a situation completely different than when your sad or angry.
Now I don't like to take my work home with me (unless absolutely necessary) however last night I thought I'd adopt these learning's into my home life and see what happened. The results were amazing. My wife was happier back to me, my kids wanted to jump on me and play more, even the dog couldn't get enough of me. Happy days.
So just remember before you bite someones head off take a look at yourself first, chances are a little empathy will result in a much happier outcome.

I'll get off my soapbox now, excuse me.

So who am I?

Well I'm a thirty two year old Graphic Design Manager living and working in the North East of England. Currently working for software giants Sage (UK) Plc.
I'm married with a gorgeous wife and the two most beautiful kids any man could wish for. We currently share our house with our ginger tom cat Buzz and our Rottweiler Poppie. We live in a small town in County Durham.
Part of this Blog will be aimed at showcasing some of my interests from design to cars,from photography to well I think you get the drift.......don't you?
I'm a big fan of Audi/VW and within the household we currently run an Audi A3 Sport (the wife's) and a VW Lupo SDi in Canary Yellow (my commuter). Personally for affordable cars I think you have to go a long way to beat Audi/VW for design, build quality and performance. Hense the reason we have had so many of them over the years.
So that's me (well not everything, but I can't go giving everything away so early in my Blog now can I?)

Hello to the big wide world.

Welcome to my blog, and welcome to my first post. Hopefully this blog will only get bigger and better as time goes by, how does the saying go....something about creating a monster.