2.2.10

Star Gazing.


'Rail Trails'
Rossendale 2010
© edward chadwick 2010

Well, here we are into February, the deadline set in my last blog post has passed by in a flash.  Anything to report? Lets just say, it's looking increasingly likely that 2010 really is going to prove to be a year of some pretty major changes.  The major decision has been made & not lightly either, plenty of deliberation & time spent in front of the abacus, but it has to be for the best, it also has to work & there's only yours truly who can make sure it does. Talk about upping the ante a tad!

I've got to keep a little quiet for the time being don't want to go shooting myself in the foot or jinxing the great escape before it's all finalised.  So I'll pad the rest of the blog out with some idle photo-chatter,  I've been shooting a lot of new stuff of late, a camera is with me at all times, I'm hitting on a real stream of creativity & throwing everything at it.  First my snowy shoots back in early Jan, then a fantastic moon & clear skies arrived at the end lending itself perfectly to some night - shooting.  The last time I did any of this with any seriousness was back in 2002 on the west coast of Ireland with my Cambo5x4 being the tool of choice, subject matter: stormy seas & skies.  This time I've gone for some more cutting edge equipment - just to see what it's capable of & have to say I'm pretty pleased, I'm just playing at the moment - experimentation is the name of the game, it's usually conducive to stumbling upon something magical.

There's something wonderfully serene & quite beautiful about night shooting, I think it's because of the patience involved.  Sat in the peaceful darkness, just a camera & thoughts for company - it's both a contemplative & reflective activity, in these days of ever increasing demands for instant results & gratification it's a rather pleasing experience - that to create something beautiful it actually takes a little time to do so.  So I had a whole weekend of shoot after shoot, landscapes by day, the sky by night, very uplifting if a tad exhausting.  Especially when interspersed with the usual end of week high jinx with the Common pals.

In other news, the new website is coming on apace, it's going to have a cross section of my images on there & also a shopping section, so finally people will have the opportunity to buy my originals online. It's really not before time, I get so many enquiries about buying over the web from customers through the gallery that I confess I've been far too tardy in getting it sorted out.

What else? Oh yes, it may be the last we hear from this blog for a while, there's new & exciting things going on over on tumbr.... here infact:


Hopefully like the night shots, all these little things will be worth the wait...

14.1.10

Blue Moon.

'Blue Moon'
Manchester NYE 2009
© edward chadwick 2009

It's far too late to be uttering 'Happy New Year' - The season for such merriment has been & gone, despite all best intentions & resolutions made back in September, it's been without doubt a bleak season for the blog.  So why the lengthy silence? For now I'll blame a hefty workload for the distraction incurred over the last quarter, times in the gallery were better than expected over the festive season with plenty of activity & new work cropping up to tempt folks with.  It was definitely a season of hard work but of riotous times too, it would be remiss not to mention certain nights spent in Common Bar with a fine crowd of pals being the particular highlights.

Over the well earned break I got out into the wilds with the cameras, shooting snowy landscapes, frozen streams & spectacular skies.  It was good to do, an odd respite trudging though powder lugging a heavy tripod, but strangely, satisfyingly contemplative & rewarding.  Already, new photographic projects are appearing in my mind as well as dusting off some long dormant creative streams.

And now, here we are, halfway through January 2010 & there's something in the air & I'm not refering to the over-generous amounts of frozen precipitation that have been dumped on us over the past month or so!  Change feels like it's just around the corner, well into my second week back at the gallery, a serious bout of the new year blues are only just starting to lift. Things are afoot, everyone I speak to is bursting with enthusiastic optimism for my mooted plans.  An opportunity has arisen, bigger & hopefully better things are up for consideration, but part of me is reluctant to move away from the current scenario, unwilling to take the gamble & commit to a leap of faith into the unknown - I did it 7 years ago without a second thought - youthful optimism perchance?  Why not now, what do I do? Stay safe or throw caution to the wind & go for it?

I've set my deadline for the end of January. Another year here or a new year there?

Time will out.