Lee Jordan - Midlands Web Developer » Photography

Severn Suspension Bridge

Lee Jordan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:21:48 +0000

On the way back from a recent day trip to Weston with photography friend and fellow Walsall flickr member, Ian Egner we dropped by the Severn Suspension Bridge, my second such bridge this year. Having two that is the start of a collection, I’m collecting bridges, I must carry on collecting bridges! :)

It was on the way back we decided to make the most of the day, although exhusted we waited for the sun to start setting. Ian found the best spot via GPS on his new iPhone and we found ourselves on the edge of the river mouth looking out over to Wales (after walking past a field of yet more cows, a water treatment plant and an electricity substation), it was a proper adventure, trying to figure out the angles and playing with filters. I have to say we do have the world’s greatest hobby in photography, it takes you places you wouldn’t have thought about going.

While in Weston Super Mare, we saw the crew setting up for T4 on the beach, we got off the beaten track and got some great shots from nearby Uphill, which was up a hill, strangely enough! I guess to get the best shots, you have to be prepared to wonder into fields of cows, attempt to walk on quicksand (some kids did, a sticky situation for sure) and wait in a service station for the day to die so you can get the sunset over the bridge.

Music Monday – Rogue States

Lee Jordan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:53:11 +0000

In danger of letting my Music Monday slip, but have no fear Brummie band Rogue States are here to give me a reason to blog today. I’ve mentioned these guys before in my Introducing Rogue States post, but they are so good, it bears repeating.

The indie four peice, rocked out to a local crowd at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham recently and so I thought, well why not get a few photos while I was there supporting our anthemic locals! As luck would have it I teamed up with friendly reviewer Matt Elton, who has posted a bostin review of the gig on his excellent music review blog, Rocket Falls. The gig was awesome but Matt will tell it like I can’t, in his Rogue States review :)

You can follow Rogue States on Twitter @roguestates and check out their website.

Abandoned Mixtapes

Lee Jordan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 06:00:01 +0000

A change of pace for Music Monday today. Something awesome happened last night while I was walking home, I found these abandoned mixtapes! It gave me an idea :)

Strewn from a carrier bag in a bus stop were ten’s of tapes that seemed to be abandoned, although it might have been cheeky of me, I sifted through the selection, reading the labels and chose some of the best sounding ones. As I type this post, I’ve linked up my walkman to my PC and am listening on a 1993 tape to Tom Petty – Learning to Fly! Which in my previous mixtape post is the song you can hear on the Eilizabethtown trailer. How serendipitous is this? These tapes have come to a good home as I have desk lamps made out of cassettes!

The thing is as well I sit at a computer for hours and when I can listen as a lot of people do, to music. Hours upon hours of music have been listened to as I work, I find it inspires and relaxes me and makes me more productive! I can imagine getting through these tapes quite easily when I work from home at this desk.

Seeing these tapes littering the bus stop though, gave me an idea.

What if in art galleries up and down the land (with PRS of course) there was a chair, some headphones, a walkman in a quiet spot and a selection of mixtapes that had been given to the gallery by visitors?

Epic Mixtape installations
What if in art galleries up and down the land (with PRS of course) there was a chair, some headphones, a walkman and a selection of mixtapes that had been given to the gallery by visitors. Wouldn’t that make the most awesome-est art installation? Knowing that on your lunch break or whatever you could drop in for half an hour and come away with a brand new fave song? You could also leave your comments in a guestbook and post your own physical mixtape for other people to listen to. As long as these tapes remained in the gallery and didn’t leave I don’t see why there would be a PRS issue, if it was all done properly.

Mixtapes on 6Music!
Lauren Laverne on her radio show is doing something called “Memory Tapes” where listeners send in their playlists which are then discussed and 5 tracks are then selected to be played! Here’s theMemory Tape for 4th June 2010. I can’t help but think, are mixtapes coming back in a rage against the iTunes machine stylee? Anyway here’s a classic from this tape I found in the street!

Tom Petty – Something in the Air

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That would get me into an art gallery hands down!
Share the music.

Refreshing Shower

Lee Jordan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:53:29 +0000

Taken actualy just before a flickrmeet in Lichfield, we had treked up to the Roman Ruins in Wall and it had just stopped raining. I had seen the grass and wondered how close my compact canon powershot, that sadly broke, could get. Amazed with the clarity and the way those three blades lined up I set about boosting some contrast and colour in Photoshop, dodging some of the droplets and well this is the result. I now use this shot as my fave desktop wallpaper! Click the image to see the close up details!

Green Warp

Lee Jordan — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:54:16 +0000

Taken in the greenhouse in West Park, Wolverhampton. I commented to a good friend that I felt like jumping in the lake because it was that hot in there! She didn’t think it was a good idea and on reflection, the ducks would have eaten me alive!

Caldmore Village Festival 2010

Lee Jordan — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:27:39 +0000

This bank holiday weekend has been quite a lively one in this part of the shire! Caldmore in Walsall just played host to its first village festival over three days and I have to say it seems to have been a huge hit, attracting over 5,000 people.

“Caldmore is a multi cultural area on the edge of Walsall’s town Centre. For many years it has been the natural home of Walsall’s artists and artisans from many cultures around the world.” — Festival’s Blog

Organised by a massive effort in the local community, you have to admire these guys for getting this off the ground and making it work. A main stage was put up in a school green, hosting live music, dancers, poets and all manor of live enetertainment. Satellite venues provided further events and places of worship held open days, to top it all off there was a parade through the village green, involving things made by local people in workshops. It was a great thing to see in our town.

Community Photographers Found!
The reason I found myself taking photos there this weekend is because the organisers reached out through Walsall Council to our wonderful pool of talented photographers via Flickr. I posted a message up on the group discussion board which attracted a lot of interest and we had a core group covering the events over the weekend. Not every photographer sees the same thing in the same way and I’m really looking forward to seeing the diverse variations and angles from the weekend. This is what I love about getting the photography community involved, in the mix you get a wider range of shots.

It was a great show of various cultures coming together and saying, “you know what, let’s have a really good time!”.

Why did this work?
Simple, community! Everyone pulling together and at times like this when funding is tight you really have to applaud the efforts made. It was a great show of various cultures coming together and saying, “you know what, let’s have a really good time!”. And once again the council showed that they can reach out to the creative community and get us involved too!

Links

Weston Sand Sculpture Festival

Lee Jordan — Sun, 30 May 2010 07:00:56 +0000

Last weekend us Brits had our first taste of summer 2010, and what with last years BBQ summer not happening, we made the most of this fine weather. I for one hate hot weather and managed to escape to the coast to cool off.

I found myself in Weston Supermare with a nice cool breeze, a walk in the sea and a visit to the Sand Sculture Festival, which was just amazing! To imagine someone can turn a block of sand into a work of art with all the detailing that you can see, it’s just astounding and worth a visit if you are down that way!

Birmingham Polarised

Lee Jordan — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:13:43 +0000

I was in Birmingham and had some time to kill after a meeting. It was during the build up to a scorching weekend of early summer weather and I thought it a good time to dust off the PL filter. This is Birmingham’s Victoria Sq in a way that I myself have never seen it, the crisp blue sky was captured amazingly well and the wide angle just gives it that feeling of space.

Walsall Museum’s Stores

Lee Jordan — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:00:53 +0000

Walsall Council gave our little community a nice chance to take a look behind the scenes at the storage facility where treasures are kept that have no exhibition space for them to be shown. It certainly was a great adventure, I found myself transfixed on old radio and media technology and this rather curious Dictaphone cylinder for some reason.

Again this was a great way that the council were engaging with the local social media crowd. You can enjoy more of Walsall Musuem’s pictures on their flickr group, here is a slideshow of the treasures that they have.

It was a great day and the small group that we had, really found some jems and of course we were able to produce some quite artistic photos of the items, which is why we were called in, with our eyes the details!

Much kudos is owed to, Dan Slee from Walsall Council (who wrote a blog entry), Steph Jennings for making the meetings and calming fears over copyright issues and Catherine Clarke, for guiding us around there and making the musem flickr group happen. It was a great day and the small group that we had, really found some jems and of course we were able to produce some photos quite artistically to show things in a different light than the standard white background which was sort of the whole point anyway.

The Spring That Sprung

Lee Jordan — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:48:26 +0000

Spring did finally get here after the prolonged winter spell we had. I quite like this, a daffodill had broke off and fell to the ground in the Arboretum, so I had the idea of holidng it up to the sun to backlight it. I’m really impressed with the results so much so it insipred me to write an ode to Modafinil, a treatment I’m trying for suspected Narcolepsy.

(Via a Daffodil)

Good morning Modafinil,
You brighten up the neurons in my head like the sun brightens the sky, yet too much and you just won’t let the day die!

You hide tiredness like it’s a sin and make worse any nerve or emotion I might be feelin’, do you have a purpose to serve or are you just trying to oust Ritalin? Wait! Perhaps you are needed, but only to show to the world our efforts have succeeded. That drowisness can be kept at bay, so we may say we are able to stay awake today.

For that might be enough, to make us accepted once again in 24/7’s broken society, where you are brought so sleep may be intercepted, by students of wrong priority.

For it is not me who you are trying to mend, just an unspoken rule against being tired you are trying to bend. So modafinil, I really want to know, do you enhance a cognitive ability, or hide a disability, remember sleep isn’t anything to be ashamed of; isn’t sleep a vital facility?

Dearest modafinil, it’s no longer day, so please rid of Provigil from my head, see I may soon need to retire to my warm cosy bed!