In the latest installment of cars shot for Richard over at Performance Car Dreams I borrowed an Impreza WRX for long enough to take some photos of it.

Bonkers loud and 300BHP ensure it’s quite an event to drive, I was tempted to buy it myself but decided I’d stick with my little Fiesta for now until (if? when?) the fuel prices ever go back to a bearable level.

No silly, not horrible ginger swellhead Rex from big brother, but rather a Maxda RX-8, and a Golf GTI. See what I did there? Anyway I can’t think of anything funny to write so I’ll just put these pictures here and leave it at that.

These were taken for Richard over at Performance Car Dreams.

Dogs are great right, they are easily as great as pretty much anything you can think of. Here are some things dogs are better than:

1.) Cats
2.) People
3.) Pens
4.) Balloons
5.) Mittens
6.) Bricks
7.) Trees
8.) Cups

As you can see from that list, Dogs are pretty great and no mistake. So when my pal Ross asks me to take some piccies of some dogs I’m hardly going to say “no” am I? They are miniature schauzers no less!

I liked this one as I thought it looked like some sort of rockstar portrait. If you disagree with this, you can add yourself to the list above as number 9.) You.

And just because Dogs + Fisheye lenses = fun, here’s another for you.

I know I haven’t posted any car photos for ages, which will be rectified very shortly as I have two cars to shoot this weekend. vrooom beeep!

Following my disasterous last effort with the holga, I decided to throw a couple more rolls through it to see what would happen. This co-incided with going to Carter’s Steam Fair which was visiting our town at the time.

If you don’t know what a Holga is, it’s basically a camera made of plastic. How exciting! If you don’t know what a steam fair is, it’s basically a fair, made of steam, oh wait…

All three of these photos were taken on Fuji Provia 400ISO, with the Holga set on it’s highly technical “cloudy” setting.

Rosie.

Panning with a Holga, I never thought it would work but it did!

Look at that piggy! Oink!

It’s now been just under a year since I got the Holga. In that year I’ve put through about 15 or 20 rolls of 120 film of varying types and vintages. A lot of people dislike the vignetting and out of focus areas that you get with a Holga, not to mention the light leaks. I’m the opposite, and infact that’s probably the only complaint I have with my copy, it doesn’t vignette enough, it doesn’t leak enough light, and the focus is too consistent across the frame.

I’m considering beating it up a bit to see if that makes a difference! I’ve seen various cheats such as deliberately unwinding the film a bit once it’s finished and on the roll, so that’s one option to fix the light leaks. I suppose I could smear some grease on the lens as well!

All in all my love affair with the Holga continues, and while things could be better, I’m not looking for a divorce yet!

Frenziedly running around flailing my arms ineffectually is my defacto status,   and things were no different when the time came to start my first ever home brew kit.

A bit of background info;  I like the odd pint of contintental wheat beer which doesn’t come cheap.   Whilst visiting family I was offered a drink of homebrew wheat beer and obligated by conventions of politeness to agree,  I found myself with a pint of slightly cloudy looking beer in my hand.

I tentatively set out to drink it,  expecting to have to fake enjoyment,  whilst frantically thinking of an excuse not to have another pint after finishing the first.

Aroma - good.
Temperature - a bit warm but no big deal.
Taste - surprisingly nice.

A couple of pints later and I was sold - homebrew is the future!   Fast forward several weeks and I’m up to my elbows in barrels,  bottles and brewing sugar.    Specific gravity,  hygrometers,  wort and priming,   why do such things all have their own peculiar vernacular?

Anyway,  I bottled my first batch of wheat beer on 18th August 2008,  and tried my first bottle this weekend.

First impressions are that it’s perfectly palatable if a little heavy on the yeast flavour/aroma. I suspect leaving it longer in the bottle should improve that. Being a loser nerd I immediately set out to make some lables.

Officially named “Känguru Schweiß Weißbier” from the Dobbier brewery, it’s got me hooked and I’m already brewing my second batch, this time a Mexican Cerveza. Arriba!