Saturday 31 December 2011

Here's to 2012...

2012 calendar by Matt Hunsberger | via here via here via Pinterest

It's New Year's Eve
and hopes are high;
Dance one year in,
Kiss one goodbye...
Another chance,
Another start,
So many dreams
To tease the heart.

The Perfect Year | from Sunset Boulevard (sung by Dina Carroll below), lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton


Let's hope 2012 is a vast improvement on 2011 for everyone.

qb xx

Monday 26 December 2011

Celebrations and Migrations

A few little scenes from my Christmas Eve and Day:


















I admit it. Despite my bestest intentions this time last year, I have been a comparatively slack blogger here on AE, largely because I've become doubly critical of my own shots (some real blurrers of late due to my kit lens' autofocus function becoming, er, defunct).

I find it difficult to focus manually and I blame this on my eyesight -- I'm long-sighted but have had a squint since birth. Despite having a couple of operations to correct it when I was a kidlet sometimes I just can't focus through the viewfinder. Ergo blurgo.

Anyway... I've also been blogging over at Dater Overload, my account of the perks and perils (mostly perils) of dating, which has also been somewhat neglected only due to lack of Dates about which to Blog.

BUT! I'm determined to pull out my finger this year (from where, who knows) and blog a little more. Not that my life is a cacophony of excitement, but because I love being part of the blogosphere, I love all the creativity herein, and the inspiration, and the Pinspiration (LOVE Pinterest...). I just need to focus more, and find coherence.

This may, then, mean a migration from this 'ere site over to my other earmarked blog, quirky brunette, which I started, abandoned, deleted, recovered, and have kept on the backburner until such a time as I decide what the heckipeck to post on it.

Watch this space... or the other one. Not sure yet...

qb xxx

Sunday 28 August 2011

Salzburg Selections

Soooo... on Monday I got back from five glorious and culturally-rich (OK, caffeine-rich) days of shlepping around beautiful, hot Salzburg and taking (about 80% of) The Sound of Music tour (the tour company forgot to pick us up from the hostel). Salzburg is a typographical geek's heaven with beautiful shop signs even for the most fundamental of shops.

I've uploaded most of these to my Flickr stream but just in case... here they are!





























Thursday 11 August 2011

Moving sideways. Sort of like a crab.

Just a short note to say that the Amateur Eye is having a "mid-year" identity crisis -- as if the New Year one wasn't enough.

Basically I'm still struggling to pin down a purpose for Amateur Eye as I do think it's segued a little into musiclove, 101%-justified Richard Marx appreciation, and just generally non-photography subjects of late.

Sooo once again I'm reining in the Eye a little, and shuffling sideways into a new blog I'm calling, well, quirky brunette. Please come and join me as I waffle on about things that aren't photography, recommend films, books, odd songs off Spotify, that crush on Richard Marx, and maybe even post more videos of doe-eyed 60s and 70s female singers.

AE will still run, but will have more focus on photography and photographers, and fewer, "well, strike me roan, maybe my nose isn't so hideous after all" musings -- that's what quirky brunette will be for.

Hopefully see you there!

qb xx

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Change of Mood (Board)

Had a small shuffle-round of the images on the inspiration board this evening (the blue pinboard that hangs above my desk as a little reminder of my fads of the week/month/year). Some are transient, some are more permanent!



Current prompts:

1. Business card for Woodtype and Font Shop originally in Brighton where I bought my printers' tray and two woodcut print letters
2. Tag from Girl from Blue City bourbon biscuit necklace (birthday present!)
3. Business card for my website, b seen photography, to remind me to update it now and then...
4. Postcard from amazing stationery shop in Brighton's Sydney Street, Pen to Paper


5. Mini chalkboard-clipboard, true purpose as yet unknown but here reminding me which eras I seem to be obsessed with at the moment... 20s and 60s...
6. Photo-postcard of actress Mona Maris by E. O. Hoppé

via here
7. Mick Jagger by Colin Jones, courtesy of the Guardian and Observer, also on display at the National Portrait Gallery

via here
 8. Photo-postcard of Rebecca West also by Hoppé

via here
9. Postcard of Automat, Edward Hopper, originally featured here


10. Postcard of Le Jugement de Paris, George Barbier, also previously featured here


11. Photo-postcard of The Rolling Stones, by David Bailey

via here

 12.  Photo-postcard of Marianne Faithfull, by Gered Mankowitz

via here
 
13. "A terrier poses for the camera", © Ros Fraser Collection/Mary Evans

via here

14. Photo-postcard of Lily Cole, "Like a painting", by Miles Aldridge

via here

Have decided that the sublime Louise Brooks photo deserves a frame rather than a ladybird pin adhesion...