Happy Kookmas

Secret Santa time again.

This year I received a great print of a Praying Mantis from Rhode Island artist William Schaff.

Really loving his work, check out his Flickr stuff here.
You can see the original papercut of the print here

Workmates and Wind Tunnel

Some of my workmates as pictured on day 21 of the company advent calendar.

Click for massively large version

(l-r, Stuart, Anthony, Joseph, John, Martin, Simon, Jon, Vinnie, Aaron, Gavin, Dave)

Here they are posed with a MP4-23 1:6 model which they test in the wind tunnel which they are stood in front of. 

Looks skateable to me, about a 12' full pipe (behind the words DAY 21) which blends into a square section with transitions of about 3 or 4' (at right of picture) I haven't yet been inside that section yet. 

Check out the shiny floor. 

Fancy Daps

Well it's one month down at the Tracey Island lookalike where I am now working so they had a sale to honour the fact. (may not be strictly true but they had one anyway)

After queuing for bloody ages I managed amongst a few other things to get these...

Fancy box.

Carbon Fibre look.

Inside

Sole Detail

Not bad for a fiver, my guess is that the magnetic sealing box is probably worth that without the shoes. Don't think I'll be skating in them, ah skateboarding I remember when I used to do that.

http://mclaren.com/seasons-greetings/

skateboardingphoto.co.uk

Check out the new online skateboarding mag that Harvey Mills has produced.

http://skateboardingphoto.co.uk/



Got one of my shots in it too.

Pretty In Pink

I parked next to this split screen VW in Woking this morning.

Another Day At The Office...

I bumped into this fella at work the other day..

Neil Trundle F1 tweaker extrodinaire

He's the guy responsible for the tweaking of the historic collection we've got on display. 

Working on a 25 year old F1 car at the moment, said he changed the injectors and it fired up first time.

Gonna run it in the parade at Bahrain or summat next season. 

Pic and that from here F1: McLaren's impressive Historic car collection

MD's And Rokkors

Bought myself a 50mm lens off of ebay for the Minolta X-700 with some of the money my parents gave me for my birthday.

When I popped round a few weeks later my dad said he had a lens for me that he'd got from a car boot sale.

A 50mm lens for my Minolta X-700. Doh!

Turns out they are different though.

The one I got off of ebay

The one my dad got from the carboot

Comparison

The MD (above left) has a min aperture of f22 whilst the MD Rokkor (arove right) has a min aperture of f16.

Guess I'll have to do a comparison roll of film.

Good News!

Spotted a Dacia Sandero Stepway in a hypermarket carpark.

Actually like the look of this.

Last Few Days Of Nothing To Do

Took advantage of this fact by going down to Brighton with the wife.

We went to the Duke Of Yorks Cinema see the new Mike Leigh film 'Another Year', enjoyable in a Mike Leigh type of film way.

I like the Duke Of Yorks, they've got a nice bar and they let you take your beer in (albeit in a plastic glass), we sit up on the balcony on the comfy sofas, very dignified type of cinema.

I had a bottle of Darkstar Brewing Co. Espresso, nice full bodied black beer that has freshly ground espresso coffee beans added to the mixture. 4.2%, nice black coffee aftertaste.

I also adopted another orphan camera from a charity shop, a Canon Sureshot Supreme of about 86 vintage.
The first Mrs Mullet had one of these, great camera, lovely f2.8 lens.
The battery is flat though so I am waiting for one to arrive, Boots wanted £11.49 for a 2CR5 battery, I paid £2.50 with free shipping on ebay.
Only paid £1.99 for the camera.
It's got a film in it so will be interesting to see what's on it.

Reinventing The Wheel

On a forum recently somebody asked me about the Santa Cruz 'coffin cut' wheels that Stevie T was rockin' at the Shoreham 'Old Skool Dayz' Jam. They thought they were a good idea, width for grip but with a reduce running surface due to the cutaway slot.

I remarked that it wouldn't surprise me if they were 'invented' again soon.

So imagine my surprise when I opend up the latest issue of Concrete Wave and saw this offering from Bustin Boards...

It's Time To Dig Up Gillingham Skatepark

Some great T-shirts on sale on ebay, designed by 'Stainless' Steve Betts (ripper and inkslinger)

Facebook group

Ebay link to shirts

Dad, I Got It Wrong Again

Caught sight of myself in a mirror when I was out today, I was wearing a denim jacket.

For some reason I had an image of Roy Kinnear playing dad to Dick Emery's skinhead Gaylord.

Street Spotting

Spotted these banks today whilst I was out and about.

Probably a bust but worth a quickie I reckon.

Confuzine

Got some pics up on Confuzine in a write up on Shoreham Old Skool Dayz

Words by SteveS (70's Steve)

Well chuffed

Ave it old wig wearing blokes.

.

Portland Skatepark

So I hear the new skatepark is due to open at Portland, Weymouth.

Here's me at the old one in about '77.

In the shot above I'm struggling with the forces of gravity to keep myself in the snakerun due to my speed, you can see the sheets of plywood laid on the ground in the left of the picture. This is where the more technically skilled riders were able to take a short cut to the next bend in the picture below...

This Is Finn

Finn was at Saffron Walden as part of the road trip with Uldis, whose daughter he is dating.
He has been skating a little over a year.

He turned up dropped in and pulled a frontside air on his first run.

Finn was riding an Earthwing Jailbird, nice looking deck.

UK kOoK Meet

Met up with Uldis today at Saffron Walden.
He's one of the OG Kooks and a good guy.
Been on a road trip form Aberdeen that took in Edinburgh, Blackpool, Shoreham and Saffron Walden.

Riding a Gnardog-esque BDS Q-12 with 215's and Mini Dubs.
Nice guy and being an engineer had some interesting views on truck tweaking...

Hang Up

Saw this posted on Facebook by Jim Goodrich.

Steve Schneer with a seriously hard hang up in the Heineken Pool.

Check out Jim's site for loads more quality pics.

Dub Trio

Bob's got me into this Dub/Metal group.



This is the opening track from their 2006 album New Heavy

12 Wheeled Kook

This photo turned up on middle-age-shred, posted by Dave 'H-Boyz' Hopkins, taken back in about 1981 at Andover skatepark by Steve Lily

It took me a while to realise that it was me.

I have no recollection whatsoever of it being taken or what was going on.

Shoreham Out-take

Pic of Stevie Thompson from Sunday that I wasn't quite happy with.

frontrock in the deep

                                        

Shoreham Sequences

Shoreham was rad.

Took loads of pics. Including some with the Minolta Motordrive.
Last 3 frames of the film, pity could have done with a couple more of the ride away.

If they ain't moving click on the pics and they should animate themselves...



Oakley Liddell inverts one.

Ricardo floats one Frontside

Latest Set-Up

Just set a board up for the Old Skool Dayz at Shoreham tomorrow.

Got the 80's blank deck off of evilbay for just over £6 + postage, slapped the Z-Rollers on, I was a bit stuffed for wheels as I've sold all my 80's / 90's wheels.
I did consider putting some turned down Powerflex 5's that I've got and that I was using in the late 80's but n the end went for the BDS Dub Cons as they looked good and were about the right size and width.

Spooky

I was in a charity shop in Brighton last weekend when I remarked that what I was really looking for was "a photography book but not one about digital photography as I want to get a better understanding of films characteristics, oh just like this one..."

Cock-Ups Arty

I managed to accidentally nudge the wheel that controls the shutter speed and ended up shooting a 0.3 sec.
Panning slightly with  trailing curtain sync flash
Looks like they would have come out okay if the shutter was down at Unit1.

Sweeper Shot

Unit1 session this morning, no Bob so had to make do with John Langton for the sweeper shot.

Clean VW

Saw this very very clean VW today.
A total contrast to the rat look ones that are about these days.

Left hooker.

Midsomer Edit

I've finally got around to doing it after unsuccessfully trying some new editing software.


WWM @ MSN from Alec Brown on Vimeo.


Oh before anyone asks the music is Doo-Di-Dog-Dad by Mr Bloe.

Subs?

Doesn't say he sells them...

£2.70 a pound

B&W MSN

A couple of pics from Midsomer Norton last week.
Taken with the Minolta X-700, Vivitar 20mm, expired Kodak Tri-X Pan 400.
A bit grainy but hey ho. I've filtered these a bit with Noiseware a great free bit of kit.

More pics on Flickr.

Reverse Lens Wheels

I've been playing with my X-700 with a reversing ring to fit a Pentax 50mm f1:1.7 lens on back to front in order to take close up photos.
Pretty cool, you get a very shallow depth of field and a tilt shift type effect.

Minolta Motordrive

Got an early birthday present of a 2nd hand motordrive for my Minolta X-700.
Here's the camera with the motordrive and the Vivitar 20mm f1:3.8 lens.

3.5fps baby!

Midsomer Video Paprika Tuc's

Well I had hoped to have some footage from Midsomer up on here but seem that I'm being a twat when it comes to technology.
That'll teach me for using a different video editing package.
Suppose I'll have to go back to Windows Movie Maker and get it sorted.

Meanwhile here's a pic of some nice biscuits I discovered on my last trip to France.

Midsomer Norton

Had a day out with the West Wilts Massive at Midsomer Norton on Friday.
Took about 2 hours to get there from Mullet Central.

Really great skatepark, smooth crete, lines everywhere.
Probably too many lines, it's one of those parks that you really need your wits about you as skaters can come from all directions.
Although it was a Friday morning sicknote session there was a good turn out of mature skaters and a couple of truants.
Lots of roll-in spots in to the flowy bowl, quirky rock features (tombstone and love seat.
Took my 42" Vision Longboard which was just as well as The Gaffer hijacked my Z-Surf 36".

More pics on my Flickr thing.

Maverick liked them too.