Monday, 21 April 2014

Book: Lumen Island - Halloween Tale

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Lumen are mysterious powerful luminescent orbs of pure magic - they are like the back bone of all magical things.

There's a rumour going around about a living skeleton, does he come out on the night of Halloween? When will the Lumen reveal themselves?


What secrets do the Lumen truly hold?

Find out in the first book of the Lumen Island series and follow Cecilia and her friends as they confront their school bullies who took their Halloween sweets and discover the wonders of the Lumen.



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Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Video: Stop Motion


Earlier, I recorded a 30 frame stop motion piece with British coins and notes. I didn’t have much time to make it as I was, and am still, trying to think of and write a report, games and my dissertation. Though I’ve also been talking to my friends a lot, which doesn’t help productivity an awful lot, but hey ho.
I hope to make more of these little videos (though the next one will be longer) and use my own sound effects (I might make some music too).

その前先、英国のコインと英国の紙幣に30フレームのストップモーションを撮った。僕にはまだレポートとゲームと学位論文があるから、暇じゃない。だけど友達と話し過ぎて、あまり生産的じゃない。でも、どうでもいいや。

もっとこういう短いビデオを作りたいし、(でも次のビデオが長くなりそう)自分の効果音も使いたい(音楽も作るかも。)

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Photography: Mother's Day, Sherwood and a Picnic.

Today (30th March) I went to the Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire, England). The decent amount of sun this Mother’s day served adequate lighting for my camera. I shot a fair amount of new family photos. And my mother laughed merrily at my bashful nephews and niece, despite her slight cough she’s had for the past few days. It was a good time to have a picnic, yet there were no squirrels or many birds to steal our food… which, to be quite honest, was a shame for me the guy with the camera.  

As I’m not one to show photos of people much, I’ll only show the photos of the Great Oak, statues and  amongst other things.

In May I’ll travel to Japan, so be sure to check back then for some great pictures of Tokyo and Yokohama. It’s gunna be so much fun ^_^   After that, I’ll go to London for the next comicon. In spite of all that, I don’t see myself as much of an otaku (Japanese anime, manga and games lover/all-round geek), photography makes things where people gather more interesting. I’m more interested in Japan, it’s language and actual people more than anime and manga XD


This isn’t the major oak, it’s just a tree.


Oh look, horse!


My dog.


This way to the major oak (shortest trail around the national park).


This is the major oak in all its glory. Of course it’s always in crutches, it’s old after all.




There was a small training area for archery. These little trinkets were being sold around here too.



Don’t really know what this is. A deer?




Robin hood and Little John (the bigger guy). If you don’t know the tale, then watch anything Robin Hood related (Robin Hood: Men in Tights is hilarious). Basically he’s a folk legend that helps keep the spirit of Sherwood Forest alive.








Thanks for reading.
----

Micheal.

Saturday, 29 March 2014

Photography: Starting the Journey


Recently I began the journey that all photography fanatics start. Actually, what I use now (Fujifilm Finepix 8500) is only my second ever camera. My first camera was a tiny camera complete with film... that’s all I can remember about it (though I do suffer from a poor memory at times, sorry about that :P ). I rarely ever used it. In fact, I think I only ever used it when I took a trip to France once with my school. Of course I, being as carefree as I am, practically used most of the film on the ferry without taking a single picture of anything in France… but I didn't really care much about photography back then at all.

Anyway, I decided to buy a new camera after enjoying taking pictures for my foreign friends who haven’t seen or enjoy seeing scenes and things from the UK. I think this enabled me to see things that I previously thought as boring and mundane in a different light.

So, most of the pictures I have been taking recently are in and around the city of Derby, England. I study at the University of Derby, so it makes sense to start there. I travel 3 hours there when I do go into uni, so it’s definitely worthwhile to relax and take some pictures before I catch the bus. 

Although I've started with minor things such as statues and swans, I've also had a little time to learn about aperture, ISO and shutter speed, which allowed me to play around with the manual mode of my camera more, making me even more intrigued in the workings of an actual good camera.

Below are some of my favourite recent photos :) please enjoy and comment.

These are some I took before learning anything about aperture etc (automatic mode):












Here are others I took after taking some time to teach myself about manual mode:
  



Thank you for reading. I'll post new pictures and update my journey as frequently as time permits.