Rural road-trips, a gothic make-over and a scary Polish lorry driver!

Firstly, I know a lot of you find my blog amusing, that is it's purpose I feel. But I have to report some sad news, my Taid sadly passed away on Wednesday 18th of May. His funeral was today, and my, was it a celebration. But a tough day none the less. Taid, to me will always be

remembered as someone who had time for anyone, and it is thanks to him I have any kind of grasp of maths. We released balloons and messages and it was a day to remember such a proud man, so full of personality. RIP Taider 1939 - 2011

L to R Jamie, Tracey, Emma Lee, Joanne, Terry, Jonathan and Sush. Taid is sitting in the middle with great granddaughter Olivia and Grandson Kiran.

And so Summer holidays are upon us, and I'm already wanting to go back! Still I have plenty to keep me occupied so far, there's a few photoshoots in the pipeline and scripting has already begun for two of the films I have planned. The scripting for the Scream tribute film has now finished and we're looking to set a date to begin filming.

Some of you may be aware that I recently made a somewhat hefty purchase at Camera

Solutions in Chester. I have bought a new lens, my dream lens infact. A Canon 24-105 L lens, that tiny red line that circles the end of the L series lenses has been something I've aimed for since getting into photography a depressingly long time ago. I've been so scared of using it in case I need to sell it on. (I think I almost melted my poor debit card, it was one of those moments where you were expected the dreaded 'card declined' beeps that makes you want to run screaming from the shop). But luckily (?) it didn't and I put it on my camera andtook them out for the first time on Saturday. I decided to go on a little road trip by myself, I had no destination in mind at first, only that I fancied the A5, so I found Brecon on my satnav and took off in my car. I was near Oswestry before I took a wrong turn at a roundabout after getting distracted by someone pulling out on me. Wrong turns often lead to a horror film-ending, but luckily for me they lead to something I simply love in this world; empty abandoned buildings. This is where my camera came into its own, I couldn't believe how rich and saturated the colours were coming out.

These buildings looked as if people had left them years ago (there were about 7 or 8 in

a row and only single rooms) but as I was peeking through one of the windows, I saw a calendar that read 2010. It's hard to believe that they have decayed so much in such a short space of time. One was still in use, a motorbike riding school. I could see people in hi-vis vests on bikes behind the cattle market which was behind these shops. The wind had started picking up quite

a bit by this point so I decided to jump back in my car.

Since I had took a wrong turn, the satnav was trying

to get me back on track to Brecon, I decided to clear the route and look for places with interesting names instead. I zig-zagged through Morda, which sounded an awful lot like Mordor to me (although no eye of Sauron and no Hobbits disappointingly!).

I also drove through another interesting place called Knockin, I wanted to get a picture of the 'Welcome to Knockin' sign, but there was a police car behind me, and nowhere safe to stop.

Next up was Nesscliffe, a long stretch of road with a few houses, and lots of fields, I found a rather interesting looking bus-stop here.

Inside the bus-stop there were some graffiti'd flowers which took a long time to shoot as the batteries in my flash gun were dying. I had a brief chat with a random girl who asked me if the bus had gone. I honestly thought the first time I saw it that buses had long ceased to stop here, but lo and behold, one turned up moments later and she waved to me as I got back in

to my car. That's one of the things about Wales, well depending where you go, but in mid Wales I've always thought people are very friendly and helpful.

After Nescliffe, I drove through Bicton and stopped at a garage to get myself something to drink. I asked the guy behind the counter if there was anywhere good locally to stop and photograph. He told me (in a lovely gravelly voice!) that I was mere minutes from Shrewsbury, and it being an old town offered a multitude of amazing shot opportunities. Sadly I couldn't find a place to park my car but I've plans to head to Shrewsbury on the train at some stage over to summer with my camera.

Just outside of the town centre, I pulled into a lay-by and took a couple more shots. I know the ones I've taken aren't amazing, but I was trying to photograph things that would display the quality of the lens, and my experiences of places are personal. I prefer to remember places for their aesthetic and secretive qualities as opposed to the "obvious" shots.

After leaving the lay-by I drove through Harmer Hill, there was a sign for an airfield in a town called Sleap, I saw the turning too late and was stuck behind a huge tractor! Wem was the last photographic stop for me. This was due to a scary incident involving a Polish man. I was photographing some material that was stuck to some barbed wire on an (what I considered to be dead) industrial estate, when he beeped his horn and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was photographing the barbed wire, and he said that I couldn't. Trying politely to say it was just barbed wire, he repeated himself so I decided to cut my losses and get out of there.

As I was driving away he blocked me in with his huge lorry and got out of the cab. I was a little scared to say the least by this point, I rolled my window down and explained that I was simply out looking for things to photograph and he asked what company I worked for. Thankfully, that morning I had put on one of my uni hoodies and so I showed him. He seemed fairly happy that I wasn't there to steal anything and he let me go. Sadly it had dampened my mood and so I decided to head home. I drove through a few more villages, Grindley Brook, Tushingham, Broxton, and Clutton and then through Wrexham and back home. I guess all in all it was an enjoyable day, it was great to put my new lens to use and get used to it some more. It's certainly very much worth the money, and now I'm half way there to my dream set-up. I will definitely be doing another road trip or two over the summer, although I may take someone with me next time!

Lastly, a while ago, I posed a blog about being bored leading to a transformation. A few people have commented on the picture, so I decided to make a tutorial video on how I achieved the look. I've also posted the video up here. I hope you enjoy it! There's likely to be more videos over the summer, so watch this space!