Dаz
26/365 # I remember when . . .
Another day with no ideas . . . *sigh* . . .
As usual I did have a plan but it didn’t pan out. It came from a conversation I had with Joe, my eldest boy, this morning. I’d promised to buy him a new Transformer because his brother Ben had managed to destroy one of his favourites. Ben, bless him, is very loving but has a tendency to break things with the power of his mind alone.
So I went into town this lunchtime to pick one up and I got the new version of Wheeljack – remember him, Transformers fans? Always one of my favourites as a kid. It looked pretty damn cool and I couldn’t wait to get home and give Joe his new toy.
When I got home and gave him his toy his little face just lit up, it was brilliant and I was so happy for the little guy. He asked me to transform it and that’s where the shit hit the fan.
OH MY GOD NEW TRANSFORMERS ARE TOTAL WANK!!!
Joe managed to snap a door off just by opening it – not a good sign. I spent at least twenty minutes trying to decipher the instructions but didn’t even make it to the end (Lydia’s still trying now) and then I’d got so far I couldn’t transform it back into a car! It takes a degree in Engineering (or the mind and dexterity of a five year old) to change the new Transformers from car to robot and back again, in my day there was a logic to the way they transformed and they certainly didn’t fall to bits just by playing with them. These should come with a warning: “For display only, please do not use as toys”.
It saddens me that once these toys were built to last, built to be played with, but these days they’re made with both the toy company’s eyes on the almighty dollar. Knock ‘em out quick and cheap, whack a huge mark-up on the cost price and watch the cash roll in. In the meantime I have to disappoint my child with an inferior toy and a small part of my childhood has been tarnished slightly in some weird way.
Hopefully we can get our money back, in which case I’m going to scour eBay for a proper generation one Transformer (20+ years old but built to last) for my child and not waste a tenner on the shit they produce these days.
Umm . . . so anyways! I was going to do a shot using one of my Transformers and the crap one I got Joe today but it didn’t work. Panic! Had another go at messing around with a slow shutter, and that nearly worked but made my nose look big(ger than usual) so I had to ditch that in favour of a default shot. For lighting I used Joe's reading lamp, my ghetto light of choice. Well, it's my only choice!
A quick play in Lightroom made it a bit better but I’m really struggling for inspiration just now . . .
Check out the ghetto lighting action here
Additional: I gotta say thanks to you all for leaving such encouraging comments - I did actually like this shot but was a bit peeved that it doesn't reflect anything about my day or what I've written about above. But then lots of my other shots don't and I like 'em!
And I wish I could say I had put a lot of thought into this shot but to be honest it was a panic shot, an 'if the others don't come out I'll use this one' kinda thing. Luckily the lighting worked and Lightroom did the rest!
But yeah, thanks to you all, you keep me going! You all rock.
26/365 # I remember when . . .
Another day with no ideas . . . *sigh* . . .
As usual I did have a plan but it didn’t pan out. It came from a conversation I had with Joe, my eldest boy, this morning. I’d promised to buy him a new Transformer because his brother Ben had managed to destroy one of his favourites. Ben, bless him, is very loving but has a tendency to break things with the power of his mind alone.
So I went into town this lunchtime to pick one up and I got the new version of Wheeljack – remember him, Transformers fans? Always one of my favourites as a kid. It looked pretty damn cool and I couldn’t wait to get home and give Joe his new toy.
When I got home and gave him his toy his little face just lit up, it was brilliant and I was so happy for the little guy. He asked me to transform it and that’s where the shit hit the fan.
OH MY GOD NEW TRANSFORMERS ARE TOTAL WANK!!!
Joe managed to snap a door off just by opening it – not a good sign. I spent at least twenty minutes trying to decipher the instructions but didn’t even make it to the end (Lydia’s still trying now) and then I’d got so far I couldn’t transform it back into a car! It takes a degree in Engineering (or the mind and dexterity of a five year old) to change the new Transformers from car to robot and back again, in my day there was a logic to the way they transformed and they certainly didn’t fall to bits just by playing with them. These should come with a warning: “For display only, please do not use as toys”.
It saddens me that once these toys were built to last, built to be played with, but these days they’re made with both the toy company’s eyes on the almighty dollar. Knock ‘em out quick and cheap, whack a huge mark-up on the cost price and watch the cash roll in. In the meantime I have to disappoint my child with an inferior toy and a small part of my childhood has been tarnished slightly in some weird way.
Hopefully we can get our money back, in which case I’m going to scour eBay for a proper generation one Transformer (20+ years old but built to last) for my child and not waste a tenner on the shit they produce these days.
Umm . . . so anyways! I was going to do a shot using one of my Transformers and the crap one I got Joe today but it didn’t work. Panic! Had another go at messing around with a slow shutter, and that nearly worked but made my nose look big(ger than usual) so I had to ditch that in favour of a default shot. For lighting I used Joe's reading lamp, my ghetto light of choice. Well, it's my only choice!
A quick play in Lightroom made it a bit better but I’m really struggling for inspiration just now . . .
Check out the ghetto lighting action here
Additional: I gotta say thanks to you all for leaving such encouraging comments - I did actually like this shot but was a bit peeved that it doesn't reflect anything about my day or what I've written about above. But then lots of my other shots don't and I like 'em!
And I wish I could say I had put a lot of thought into this shot but to be honest it was a panic shot, an 'if the others don't come out I'll use this one' kinda thing. Luckily the lighting worked and Lightroom did the rest!
But yeah, thanks to you all, you keep me going! You all rock.