wow..must be a year nearly since I put anything on this blog.I should hang my head in shame.Truth be known I didn’t think I did anything remarkable enough to share with anyone. However,since my last post on here I’ve passed two OU degree courses.One in web site design and one in Photography and finished the NCFE level three photography and passed with flying colours-even if the college has cocked up big stylie and told the NCFE people we did a digital imaging course which we flippin welll DIDNT!!! and when I contacted the college was told that they changed the name cos they thought anyone applying for the photo course might have been put off if they thought it had anything to do with a camera LOL…….only in Bolton eh???
Anyhoo,I have taken the first steps in changing my life.I applied for and got a place on the Ba Honours degree photography course at Bolton uni and have now enrolled so I am now an official uni student whah hey!!!! I start on monday and am really scared and worried cos I don’t know how the back and leg will hold up.Got told from my specialist in August after mega MRI scans that my back is kiffed and the stuff thats happening to my back and leg is going to get much worse.I figured that this was now or never and if it will hold out for three years for me to get the degree then I will be well happy.I couldn’t do anything but try.Better to try than sit back and give up and then spend years thinking what if…
I’m a member of a cracking little group of us who will be doing the degree and so far,though I haven’t proper met them yet its looking like we will get on.Cant wait for Monday and finding out what’s what.
I’m going to keep a blog on here of what happens to me. Fingers crossed I will be here in three years telling you guys about how I graduated. I will try anyway and my Mum reckons I’m very trying LOL
Howdie all
this is the first post on my blog for quite a while.Ive been busy with the course and what with hossie appointments and worrying if my leg was about to drop off and the like I kind of neglected the blog.Not only that but the new lappy has to go back.I only opened the thing up and a huge chunk came off in me hand.Not a happy bunny in any way shape or form.They have to get it back now and it will take about 14-28 days to get back,so I’m back on the old PC which hates me and dies every thirty minutes.
This last two weeks I felt really wonderful doing the togging.Truth be told the leg and back have really been a cause for worry and I now have to see a neurologist about them and so I felt really crap and didnt want to go out with the cam anywhere.But…..found something I took great joy in and that was studio togging with lights.I really loved it big stylie and had a bit of luck(or so I thought at the time) and got hold of 60 quid to kick-start getting some studio lights of my own.
I should have known any luck I have is nowt only bad luck because tonight,on the way home from the supermarket,some tosspot in a corsa wazzed past us at formula one speed and they have thrown summat up with their tyres.The windscreen gave an almighty crack and there’s a crack now from the top to the bottom in a diagonal from corner to corner.I’m going to have to call autoglass out tomorrow which means my no claims bonus has gone and I have to pay 75 quid excess-so the sixty quid I saved for the lights has now gone.
If I hadn’t run out of tears already I’d be weeping buckets now.
However,I’ve been here before and no doubt I will be here again and life is nothing without a struggle.I will get the lights one day and I will do something with the photography,and if I’m very lucky and don’t loose the full use of my left leg I will be able to continue to strive to complete my dream of being a pro tog one day.
Bessy regs
Kenny
Addendum
just rung up the windscreen peeps and…yeahyyyyyy..no exess to pay so still oncourse to get the lights in the dim and distant future…….
Well….it started out as a cold but my lesson at college on Tuesday turned it into full blown manflu.Our assignment had been Rough guides to…… You know the rough guides books,well they always have a photo on the front with a huge band saying rough guides to….xyz etc. Our task had been to take a photo which would fit on a 20×20cm foam mount block and the idea was to take the photo so that when the rough guides logos were placed on them that the essence of the photos were intact and you still knew what the photos were meant to be.It was a task that I found very hard to do but I managed it.Doesnt help when you have severe mobility problems but helps if you can park near the places your togging LOL.
Anyway,back to Tuesday night.Yours truely mounted his images just as the rest of the class had done.Now I have no sense of smell so didnt notice the odour of the spray mount in the class.Even with all the windows and doors open it didnt solve anything and when I got home I felt very ill.Im now in full blown man flu mode with wonky head,cornflakes that are dancing and wallpaper that looks dead perculiar.I’m also looking like I’m blubbing for England when in fact its the optrex(tm) eyes.
I’m supposed to be going to a rugby match on Saturday but if this is still here then I wont be going.Wouldnt want to give all those Bolton RUFC players the rampany snozzies would I…..
I do hope it goes before the 22nd cos I am off for Chrimbo to wales.I cant stand the sound of chavs in the streets with their mulitpacks of lager and the incessant drone of Slade singing I wish it could be chrimbo every day so I am getting the hell out of dodge for a ten days Yahhhyyyyyyyyy!!!!
I’ll be taking my fab dingely danley dongle 3g mobile internet whatsamacallit with me so dont be surprised if I do a travel blog from Deepest Pembrokeshire week after next…..entitled,My holiday in the fog……
TTFN for now
Kenny
Well….
I binned all the images of the loons and was left with four usable ones,so heres one for Jen who begged so nicely and hope you like it….
this is the shot of Prestons of Bolton which I finally managed to get after many interruptions..BTW..the blurs near the shutters are people walking in and out of shot….You could call it the Preston’s of Bolton sixth sense shot…..I see brainless morons………
I might put the full sized of of this on the forum…….then again….might not LOL. You can see the full sized one by clicking the pikkie and becoming a member of my Blog’s pikkie clicker club.One day there may be badges and everything LOL 
TTFN
Kenny
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Dont bother trying to take photos……
Last night we went to look round Bolton News in er…Bolton.Bolton News is heavily involved in our Btec course and is supplying many of our assignments.Last night as a duel lesson.Firstly,a look round a very busy and successful newpaper that serves a huge geographical area.It was eye opening and made me realise how hard those lads and lasses at Bolton News work,and I gained an even greater respect for Karen,our tutor who is the main photographer there.It was great fun and very informative and I now appriciate what goes into a newspaper.
Thank you Bolton News for giving myself and my fellow classmates the chance to look round.
The second part of the evening proved to be a little more shall we say unnerving.Imagine 16 people in Churchgate in Bolton all with cams and tripods taking photos.Put that with the fact that there are five wine bars and two pubs that spilled out loads of drunken idiots and you can imagine the scene.At one point I was trying to take a picture of Prestons of Bolton when this drunken dribbling fool stood in front of the camera and started to give me two verses of Rod Stewart`s ” If you want my body and you think I’m sexy”
I no sooner got rid of her than another walked up and asked me what I was doing.I told him I was working for Granada News and that we had been told a UFO was going to land in Bradshawgate for some late night Chrimbo shopping….
He was still standing there five minutes later looking into the sky.
You know,I come from Bolton myself but if thats the calibre of people livng there now I may well keep my origins a secret.All my images have stupid faces leering into them except a few.Next time I will find a less crowded place for some night photography…..Like the Moon LOL
Bessy regs
Kenny
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Seems like my cunning plan failed.When I rang the rugby club and spoke to the Landlord it seems he gave me the WRONG team captain on the WRONG team so all the names I got were er…..not right.There were two Bolton teams playing that day and though the Landlord had seen us taking photos of a particular team he gave me the OTHER Bolton team’s captain to speak to.Doh!
Next time I go to a rugby match I’ll do a better job.I`ll stop them half scrum and pop out the old notebook and say…owd on a mo lad,whats thah name before thah scores that touchdown,strike,try(insert your own name for it here)
If I fell in a barrel of Murry mints you can guarantee I would come out sucking my thumb 
Bessy regs
Kenny.
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Hi all
I mentioned in a previous blog that I would be going to a rugby match today.It was at Bolton RUFC between their fourth team and one Chester RUFC.I didnt expect when I got there to be standing deep in mud or the cold but you know what,I really enjoyed it.I have to say that I wish I had had a better lens than I had because,being croaked on the left leg and it being in bandages I found it hard walking round the pitch and found it eaiser on the leg just to stand in one spot.The sigma APO DG 70-300mm is a good lens but not for sports unfortunately.I took 221 photos and 210 of them were total pants LOL
It was a comedy of errors really cos I couldn’t find out the names of the players when I went to the bar.Even the trainer’s son didn’t know!!!!! he kept saying,oh,he’s new and he’s new oh and…..yeah,he’s new….
then I hit on a cunning plan…I rang the club and spoke to the captain and got all the names and numbers and the few good ones I got I now know who they are.I hope that mine get chosen to go into the Bolton news but I doubt it…..I can live in hope LOL
I think next time I do this I will take a monopod and some thermals LOL. I might go again next week and have another go at this.Maybe if the weather is brighter the next 210 photos might turn out good uns LOL
Next Tuesdy we are having a guided tour of Bolton News and then afterwards something I love,a bit of night photography.Maybe those photos will be okay.I can only hope so.
Bessy regs
Kenny
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A funny title I give you but better than the joke about Rugby that was used at the photography class.Something about odd shaped balls…LOL
The gig is this.I have to take myself to Bolton Rugby club tomorrow with my fellow friends from the course and our assignment is to take photos of big burly bruising rugger players and hope we manage to take good ones!!! we have to find out who the players are and stuff and caption our images with things such as…..Crusher smith bounds to the touchline and slams the ball into the grass…..
thing is I’m still remembering our Tutor’s tale of the last time she went to a rugby match and watched a ball tumble though the air through the viewfinder of her cam….before it hit it and wrecked it.I also remember her words last week where she said if they start to charge towards you MOVE!!!!! and FAST…..
er..bit difficult with a wonky back and rubber knees. I shall just have to hide behind someone else and hope they take the imact LOL…
the good side of this is that some of our photos will appear in next weeks Bolton News.We all have to submit out photos and the lucky few will get theirs printed!!!!!! hence the notebook so we can say who we togged with our cams……
Hopefully I will A) get some good shots and B) not get trampled underfoot by unruly rugby players and C) not get my cam hit with a rugby ball (not necessarily in that order.)
I’m also hoping my back and my leg hold out as I do the shoot as they arent too clever at the mo…..
Watch this space tomorrow for……
Kenny posts his rugby photos from Bolton Hossie LOL
TTFN
Kenny
Hello again.
thank you for presevereing with me and the blog-specially since I had my crisis of confidence.I cant say that its gone yet but I did today take the camera out and take a few photos.I managed to find a spot not too far from where I could park up in Angelzarke near Horwich with a few to capturing a few autumnal shots for the assignment set by our tutor Karen for our photogoraphy course.Of course I had to botch up again by failing to remember to charge my camera’s bettery from the sound house assignment doh!
the end result was that I had 20 photos worth of power on the battery and had to make them count.In the end I took one on the path,six for a panorama hand held shot(I like to do panoramas freehand LOL) and then stopped on the way home to take a few photos at the side of one of my favourite places in Anglezarke.The famed Yarrow resovior run off waterfall.It doesnt happen very often but when the upper res fills up the normally dried out runoff becomes a thing of sheer beauty.I am always thrilled when I see the waterfalls reappear.I know that probably makes me sound daft but it appeals to the poetic side of my soul.I’m quite pleased with this photo and on a scale of 1-10 I probably would be kind to myself and give it a 7 out of ten,
This is the other image I took of the path.Again I am quietly pleased with this one.It isnt going to light up the world by any stretch of the imagination but its a step forwards instead of backwards…..
I think these two might end up appearing on my web site at some point in time.I havent made my mind up yet but I hope that you like them.At least I have now decided to have a good go with the camera again….
….and the new web site looks pretty good but a few bugs yet.My trusty friends will I am sure,let me know what they think.I can trust them to tell me,as I do with them,the truth.
For now this is me signing off but not before I say thank you to Nina,and Bev for giving me that much needed rocket up the bum.It is much appreciated!
Bessy regs
Kenny
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What can I say except I am glad its done!!! what am I talking about????
well,its the web site of course.The revamp started with this blog’s makeover-done by Paul as a favour and very grateful I am too for that.Next came the big cull…..Its no exaduration to say that I absolutely hated the old site.I didnt when I made it but I do now and its dark and has no soul or style.I built that when I was in less optimistic frame of mind and though on that score I still have a long way to go to get my head right,I’m on the right track and more optimistic than I was.
The next step on the road to a better frame of mind was the web site but I have to say that this has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.My head is bumping with it and making a web page and ten photo galleries…..And there is where the disappointment loomed hard and fast.As I looked though my old photos it sudenly hit me that they werent very good at all and that made me have a sudden crisis of confidence.I was supposed to go to my Btec class this evening and it was all I could do to stop msyelf from turning the car around,logging onto ebay and selling the camera.From nearly 200 photos on the old site its now down to around a hundred on the new one and only those are on because I am so desperate to get the new site up and live while I still can.
I suddenly realised tonight that maybe I was in the wrong hobby and that my dream of becoming a professional photographer might be a tad too ambitious.Maybe I should think of something else and knock it on the head.It was brough home to me tonight because I found out I have to have a portfolio over 20 commerically sellable shots before April next year and I dont think anything I have done so far or may do in the future is any where near that.I’m finding now that I am now having to think about this and it may well be that this site wont proceed any further and that this might at last be the final step on my photographic journey.I didnt think it would be but I’m not naive enough to think I am remotely good enough to do better.
To tell you the truth I dont know where I go from here………
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