Gong Hey Fat Choy

 It's the Year of the Goat this year in the Chinese calendar and their New Year celebrations took place today in Beeston, on a smaller scale than usual due to the budget cuts in community events.

They of course had the dragon dance, some demonstrations of martial arts and how to write your name in Chinese. I didn't do this, as having a pretty long name, I would be there all afternoon!

I bumped into a couple of friends of mine, one being a filmmaker and puppeteer, who was putting on a show in about ten minutes time. I had not seen his show before, so I went off to find a seat. I was quite surprised that there were more adults wanting to see the show than children.

The story revolved around a girl, her father, a teacher and a yak. The Professor (my friend Melvyn) did all the voices and actions. Quite amusing to hear one sentence in a man's voice and then another in a woman's. The audience appeared to thoroughly enjoy it.

Foaming Hell

No, this isn't snow, but foam bubbling around the water feature in the Old Market Square.

Someone must have sneaked in some shower gel or washing up liquid to get the effect. It used to happen quite a lot in the old days when there were two fountains near the Council House.

I used a fast shutter speed to freeze the action of the water droplets, so it looks a bit like snow.

Colour Wheel

Another grey and wet day in Nottingham and not a lot happening. So I've had a play about in my digital darkroom and created this. Just to add a little colour to this photo of the Nottingham Wheel.

The Bonny Lads

Back in November a new record shop opened in the city centre. A branch of Rough Trade no less.

Besides selling albums, CDs and books they also have a snack bar and have recently been having live in-store gigs by up and coming bands.

I saw one such band today at lunchtime, who go by the name of The Little Comets, an indie rock group from the North East of England.  I'd not heard of them before, even though they have been going since 2008.

They played for about half an hour to a receptive audience, who had packed the upstairs cafe area. They weren't bad considering it's not really my kind of music. They also have a bass player, who I sadly didn't manage to get in the shot, so here he is, in a portrait of  his own.

The Blue Period

It was sunny today for the first time since last Sunday, so it made for a slightly lighter night as I cycled home from work.

As the sky was still blue, I stopped on the bridge that I cross the canal on and took a few photos of the canal, it's boats and the sun setting in the sky beyond.

Synthesis

The first time that I came across a synthesiser was at school in London in about 1975. It was during a music lesson, when our teacher switched on this strange looking black box with lots of flashing lights. He then played a simple tune and all sorts of weird noises came out. There was also a lot of plugs that he changed by unplugging them and putting them into other holes and some even stranger noises came out.

I was amazed about what it could do, and have been in love with such music ever since. The first musician that I got into was Jean Michel Jarre and his 1976 album Oxygene. Then came along Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis and Kraftwerk.

So I was excited to see this Moog Voyager synth at the studio in Mansfield yesterday. Sadly it wasn't used in the songs that were demoed by the Disco Prophets, although they do have a keyboard player in the band called Richard, who has a couple of keyboards himself, but neither of them are Moogs.

Adventures In Modern Recording

The former library in Mansfield has been turned into an arts centre and recording studio. Our favourite band The Disco Prophets were there to record some demo songs for promotional purposes. We of course were there to record the event in photographic form.

I was hoping that it would be a big open studio like the Beatles recoded in, so I could get some nice shots of the band members doing their thing. Alas it was a fairly small room with subdued lighting. But I still managed to take some shots of the band in action, although I could only hear the drums, as the guitars & keyboards were plugged straight into the recording equipment. We also watched the sound engineer/producer twiddling all these knobs and using ProTools to work on the sound

Love

Today is of course Valentine's Day, where people show love for each other. Although this really should happen every day, and not just once a year.

Things were no different in the Frost household. Here's the card and friendly love dragon that I got for Gail. And of course there had to be a single red rose.

Playful Pooch

I poked my head into Cobden Chambers at lunchtime, just to see if anything was going on, when this little fellow came toddling towards me.

You have to agree he's a cute little fellow. Getting on a bit I think, by the greying of his fur round his face. Very friendly too. I gave him some patting, while he sniffed me. He could probably smell Oscar & Marmalade on me.

A Sweet Way To Learn The Alphabet

Sugar letters, a bit more tasty than Alphabetti Spaghetti, and easier to spell with, as they are not covered in tomato sauce.

Just found them today in a local supermarket, and thought they would make for an interesting photo for today.

Saturday Night Isn't All Right For Fighting

I think the whole of Nottingham was shocked when it was announced on the news that there had been a murder in the city centre in the early hours of Sunday morning.

As the reports were updated, it emerged that there had been several arrests and the victim was only a teenager.

I went through the area today that had been cordoned off by the police during Sunday & Monday, while the investigation took place, and came across a lamppost that was covered in floral tributes for the murdered man.

It emerged that his name was Joshua Bradley, and he was only 19. A pleasant, happy lad by all accounts, and he was a keen boxer. He may even have followed Carl Froch into being a famous fighter, if he hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There has been a couple of arrests and hopefully they will be charged soon. It beats me why anyone should do such a thing to someone who was just out to enjoy himself at the weekend.

Balls Up

Another quiet day in Nottingham, so here's a shot of the Beeston Bears' training match that I photographed on Sunday afternoon.

Now I bet you are wondering whether Number 59 caught the ball, even though he had his hands closed at that particular moment. Well the answer is yes, before he was chased by the guy in the orange tabbard.

City Lights

A shot from the Castle grounds of the Nottingham skyline, which I took during Friday's Light Night celebrations. There is of course the big ferris wheel situated in the Old Market Square on the left. The Victoria Centre flats in the middle and of course the dome of the Council House on the right.

Bear Grills

I went down to a local recreation ground today to take photos and do some interviewing of a local American Flag Fottball team called the Beeston Bears, for a local magazine that I am involved in called the Beestonian.

For a winter's day it was very sunny, so it made taking the photos more interesting and the light gave the pictures some life, as you can see.

The visit made me remember when I was at school, as we went there for our PE lessons.

The Beestonian is available on line, and here is the LINK, so you will be able to read my article when the next issue is published.

High Tea

Walking around the city centre last night, I came across this rather amusing scene, which was part of a
big front window display for a clothing store.

It does make good use of some old and odd cups and saucers, including the well known Willow Pattern design.

Wheel Of Light

The city centre came alive tonight when the annual Light Night festival took place across various areas of the city, much to the delight of the thousands of people that I saw walking around the Lace Market, Hockley and the castle.

Of course the highlight for many was seeing the Nottingham Wheel lit up and people seeing the skyline in the night sky.

Heart Of Glass

I wonder how long it to to stick all those little bits of glass on this figure of a woman?

She presently sits in the window of a hairdressers on Castle Boulevard.

I wonder how many extra customers she's helped the shop to get?

Armed And Dangerous

Don't worry, there wasn't a terrorist attack in the city centre today, it was just the Army on a recruitment exercise. Although not many people seemed to be stopping to enlist.

Either that, or the soldiers are planning a raid on the chocolate shop, to get some luxury Valentine goodies for their wives and girlfriends.

Round And Round

The 60 metre tall ferris wheel has made a welcome return after being absent for four years.

Unofficially called the 'Nottingham Eye', but due to copyright reasons, it's been named 'the Wheel of Nottingham'.

It's here for about a month. But will be very popular on Friday, when it's Light Night across the city.

Seat Of Learning

Here's a night time shot of the University's Trent Building, which I took tonight from Highfields Park.

What I Would Miss..

The first of February and so I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to make a return to publishing my daily blog from Nottingham, as I've taken a break from it for a while.

It's also the theme day and this month's theme is "What would I miss if I left Nottingham?"  Well for me it would be the music scene. I've seen some really great bands and musicians over the past few years, such as The Disco Prophets, One Girl, One Boy, Emma Blaydon-Jones and The Madeline Rust, amongst many others.

My photo shows Lucy, the singer and bassist from The Madeline Rust, who I saw for the first time in concert back in August, at their debut album launch at a city centre club.

This is Not Madeline

No, this is not Madeline, her name is Lucy and she is the singer and bass guitarist with local rock band The Madeline Rust.

Although they are based in Beeston, Gail & I went to see them at a gig last night in Litchfield, which is in the West Midlands.

Of course they were as good as when I saw them in the city centre in August, although the venue wasn't as well lit, so I had to increase the ISO a bit to make the images useable.

Scaring The Storm Away

I took this shot whilst having a walk around some local allotments.

I like to think that the scarecrow is doing its job right and is chasing away the stormclouds.

Peek-a-Boo

A sunny lunchtime today, so I took a stroll around the Lace Market. Whilst I was walking along, I began to notice that there seemed to be a lot of photography students about in small groups and all carrying cameras.

Passing through St Mary's churchyard, I saw a couple of girls trying to take a photo of another girl who was hiding herself in-between the branches of a tree. They were obviously trying to learn about light and shade.

One said that it was too dark to take a photo, and I thought that they should either increase the ISO, reduce the shutter speed or change the lens's f stop.

If anyone is interested, I took this with my 45mm lens, 100 ISO, f1.8 at 1/60th. Also slightly tweaked in Lightroom.

Not An iPod In Sight

If you are a record collector, then to get that authentic vinyl sound you'll need one of these, an original record player.

Nothing digital here. Analogue audio all the way.

Swan Song

A swan mistakenly thinking that I'd bought him some food. Sadly not, I only wanted to take his photo.

Bookworm

A collection of old books that I came across on a stall recently at a vintage market.

Certainly a wide range of colours, designs and titles. And I must admit that I have never read any of the stories. Although The Master of Ballantrae is the only one that I have ever heard of.

Gadgets

This is Manchester based electro band Shield Patterns, who played at the Contemporary on Saturday night.

I really went to see the support band who I like called One Girl One Boy, but stayed to listen to this duo, and thought they were very good.

They played in almost darkness, except for a couple of red lights, so I thought it would look better as a black & white.

Alright Young Man

Someone had carefully wrapped a scarf around the neck of the Brian Clough statue in town, to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.

For those that don't know, Brian Clough was the manager of Nottingham Forest football team during the 70s and was quite successful on the field.  I'm not a football fan, so I couldn't tell you what and when, but if you're interested, then I'm sure that you can find out through Google.

Love Cake, Love Beeston

All these delicious cream cakes were handed out to people who visited the Picnic in the Park today at Broadgate Park.

It was quite well attended with a face painting stall, story telling and a juggler on offer to entertain people. But of course it was the cakes that drew the most interest, created by a local bakery opposite the park.

Hissing Sid

It's not everyday that you meet a snake at a food fair. But I did today, and fortunately he wasn't on the menu!

The food fair took place in the revamped Trinity Square, but sadly wasn't that busy, due to the rainy weather. I saw a chef I know that owns our favourite Indian restaurant called the Curry Lounge with his wife and brother, who were promoting their new range of chutneys.

Anyway back to the snake. According to the Gordon Ramsey lookalike, it is an Albino Burmese python. These girls didn't appear to be scared of it, so I decided to give it a stroke, and was surprised that it's body was warm and dry, as I was expecting it to be the opposite.

Smile

I was just testing my camera and I shot this still life scene by accident.

Thought it looked quite amusing, and so I thought I would share it with you all.

Home Thoughts From Abroad

There is a lot of activity in the Old Market Square at the moment, with workmen erecting all sorts of stages, tunnels and booths for an exhibition that takes place later this week.

Hopefully there should be plenty to photograph and things to learn about the 'Great War' that began a century ago.

Lines And Shadows

Abstract of a staircase and wall of the Nottingham Contemporary.

Erosion

A very old Land Rover that's seen better days. Now on display at Barton's in Chilwell.

I Want To Ride My Bike

A Blue Plaque unveiling this morning of Beeston cycling legend Sid Standard.

Sadly Sid died 11 years ago in ironically a cycling accident on a ride in Derbyshire. Sid owned a shop in Chilwell that everybody went to for new bikes, repairs and spares. It's still there and is now run by a great guy called Kevin. And being a cyclist myself, I'm a regular visitor.

Once the ceremony was over, a load of cyclists set off on a ride to Derbyshire, to the same spot that Sid had his accident.

Clog Dancing Can Help You Fly

Beeston's heritage has been on display today in many forms; vehicles, talks, photographs and clog & morris dancing.

The sun has shined for most of the day and so it helped to make it a nice time for everyone who visited the events.

Up In Smoke

I was out shooting a band tonight and when I had done, I rang Gail to say that I was on my way home. Gail said that she had read on Facebook that there was a big fire at the university's Jubilee Campus. So I sped off in search of some photos.

Obviously with such a big fire, all the roads surrounding the campus had been taped off by the police.  But Derby Road was still open. So I pulled up on a side street and rushed over to where I thought I could take some decent shots.

As I had been shooting in a pub, I didn't have any zoom lenses with me, except for my 12-40 f2.8, which wasn't long enough, but I did have a 75mm f1.8, and a digital teleconverter, so I managed to take some reasonable shots like this one.

The building that was burning, wasn't even finished yet. A laboratory, funded by a big pharmaceutical company. It has cost £20 million and was meant to be carbon neutral.  Not anymore going on the amount of smoke and flames in the night air.

Sunshade

I took my fisheye lens out for some action today and came home with this shot from Highfields.

A Global Image

I watched a video the other week about using things to take photos with, and one of them was a globe. I just happen to come across one yesterday in a sale for a couple of quid, so I snapped it up.

As it was a sunny evening, I cycled through Highfields and decided to try out my globe. I don't think think that I had the right lens on my camera, but took a few test shots anyway, which this one I think is the best one.

Supermoon

Everyone seems to be posting photos of the 'supermoon', so I thought I would do the same.

I Should Be So Lucky

There's a competition that's just begun in Nottingham, featuring the little Aussie diva Kylie Minogue.

Apparently there are a number of these cardboard cut-outs of her dotted in buildings across the city centre, and if you have your photo taken with her, you get the opportunity of winning two tickets to see her in concert at the Arena next month.

I tend not to be a lucky person, so I resisted the opportunity of taking a pic of myself with her and Tweeting it across the world. Instead here is the cardboard cut out all by herself.

Barefoot In The Park

Sunday morning saw a few hundred people walk around Wollaton Park without any shoes on. It was all done in the name of charity.

The Nottingham Barefoot Walk was thought of by Lee Todd, and which aims to publicise the fact that there are people in the world that have to walk barefoot every day and so old shoes are collected, to be sent to countries life Africa through the Shoe-Aid scheme.

Fortunately it was a lovely sunny & dry day, otherwise people might end up with very muddy and very dirty feet.

There was a choice of either a 3km or 5km walk and afterwards a few local bands entertained everyone  in the sunshine.

Sunset Silhouette

For various reasons I didn't take any photos today, so here's one from last Sunday, a sunset at Gunthorpe.

Guilty

Another day of random shooting. Nothing really interesting except this one.

The way the three guys faces work together to make the scene. And I bet you are all thinking the same thing. The guy in the middle has just dropped a very big fart and the guy on the right has smelt it, while the man passing by heard it.

Packing Up

Well the summer school holidays are over for another year and I bet all parents are relieved, as it means that they won't have to spend time and money on finding things to do.

One thing that has been popular has been the Nottingham Riviera, situated in the Old Market Square. But now the kids are back at school, the workmen have started dismantling and packing up all the rides, kiosks and fake palm trees.

I don't know what happens to all the sand they laid back in July. Maybe they sell it on to a builder, but it would need sifting, to remove all the bottle tops, empty crisp packets and whatever else finds its way into sand.

Restive

One of those photographs that you often see with some motivational message on it, like:

"You don't spell love, you feel it".

A gentle landscape taken on a warm summers day somewhere in Nottinghamshire.

Banned

Well if you own a car, a caravan or a tent, you'll not be welcome at Hoveringham Pastures. Mind you, with it being a lovely open space with trees and a river running close by, then you wouldn't want the area spoilt either.

Nice Ice

Over the weekend I was nominated twice to do the now infamous Ice Bucket Challenge.

Being a believer of not wasting water, I had no wish to throw away a perfectly good bucket of H2O, so  I thought about how I could be involved, but by not getting wet.

I had seen some variations on the theme, but they all seem to involve wasting water in one way or another. So I went with this concept, of an ice bucket chilling a small bottle of water. Like it was like champagne,;which in some African countries it is.

I also wondered about which charity to give my donation to. After some consideration, I decided to go with the local animal rescue that I wrote about a few weeks ago, especially as they put out a message asking for some pouches of wet cat food.  They are only a little charity, so every penny counts. Unlike some of the more well known charities, that pay large salaries to the bosses and can afford TV ad campaigns.

So after work, I called in to one of our local supermarkets and bought some boxes of cat food, which I then took up to the rescue, so the dear little cats that are looking for a loving forever home will have a nice meal or two tomorrow.