Thought I’d start off a category on photography as both Al and I are keen amateur photographers. This is a slight irony given that Alex and I were both working in a photo development lab when we became friends. Still makes me chuckle when I remember getting a subtle nudge or look from Al to suggest an attractive woman had just come in to pick up her submitted amateur glamour photographs. We eventually made up a serious of signal words for this (I remember the word Japonica being one for a woman who had submitted an eye catching set of pictures clad in PVC) and other photography faux pas related situations.

I was staring out the window at work today when my boss and good friend Alan pointed out that the evenings were getting longer (yes, it had gotten to that time when we both wanted to sod off for the day). I noticed Croydon actually had a reasonably nice sunset for a change given that it’d been pretty cloudy and rainy of late (I have a slight obsession with the sky you see) and that in turn made me think of the sky in Kansas where I’m going Stateside in March 2008 for the first time in over 8 years.

Kansas being so flat gives the most amazing view of the stars and sunset, sunrise, tornados, lightning storms, you name it. So I was inspired to dig out the picture below which I took on my old Canon AE-01 back in 1997 during my first visit. The shot was taken on the outside my favourite steak shack before driving back to Amy’s house and I think it totally captures my initial default mental image of America. I was always really chuffed with this shot and I still like it a lot now; especially with the pickup and the light on the bonnet. Gravy.

The other pic in this thread is a shot I took out of the window from my bedroom around Christmas 2007 using my Sony Cybershot DSC W55 7.2 Mega Pixel camera which I think is a very funky little gadget indeed and would heartily recommend. I adjusted the aperture slightly and that’s how I got the silhouette effect with the houses to emphasise the sky. I really like this shot, especially the obscure detail on the leaves on the left hand side of the shot.