Lots has changed since I last typed in here!

I've started at Plymouth Uni now. I've just started the 3rd year of my BA (hons) Photography course, transferring from Truro College. Still living in Falmouth though, so it's a bit of a trek :/ All good fun tho, and I like trains so it's alllllright :D

Starting lots of new projects which is exciting. It's great to be studying in an environment like this - with like-minded people, people who really understand what you are doing and what you want to say! It's nice to be able to pick up my camera again and make something without being judged. Experimenting... research by practice. I like it...

Off to Amsterdam next month! Should be fun, although not looking to the coach journey there :/ I've never got on very well with coaches and I doubt this will be any different. May have to just take some kind of narcotic beforehand and sleep through the travelling, haha.

Anyway, now for another 2 hour trip home. Toodles!

How pleased can one
Sun setting make you
If you humble yourself to it?
How grateful can you
Really say that you are
Just to be here and live through it?
And when beauty asks a question
How often do you reply?
How often do you wonder about
life on the other side?
On the other side of sorrow
On the other side of rage
On the other side of ok
OK at all in any way
Imagine what loneliness
Will drive someone to do
Now multiply that times me
And multiply that times you
Now imagine what it would take to make
This all happen again
And just when you think you're gonna cry
Multiply that times ten
You are distracting me
From all other activities
And I know the fact of your presence
Will dominate my memory of this
restaurant this table
This day and this town
Cuz I carry you, baby
I carry you around

The main purpose of todays journal is to procrastinate. I think that is what quite a few of these entries are, actually. But while I'm here I might as well talk about something. So I'll talk about SNOW as that seems quite popular!

Yes, we even had snow in Cornwall... they tend to panic here more that anywhere else because it doesn't happen very often. Here is some photographic evidence:

( Have a look )

Yes, Merry Christmas, woooo!

Isn't it all exciting?

I got an early Christmas present this year! The lovely people at: Fitness Footwear sent me a pair of free shoes to try out :)



It was hard to choose a pair so I chose these mainly on looks to begin with(!), but after reading the description it was easy - completely vegan, they're made from organic cotton, natural latex, bamboo, coconut (for the buttons!), recycled car tyres, paper and water based cements - all taken from sustainable sources.

Apart from that they're some of the most comfortable shoes I've worn in a long time. The insoles are made from a firm but really well cushioned cotton material and because the whole shoe is very flexible and well-fitting they're light and great for even just wearing around the house!

They're really comfortable to walk in too and because they're made of soft material, they can be worn with or without socks which makes them good for hot weather as well :)

So all round, a great xmas pressie! Thanks folks :)

Today I saw a little worm wriggling on it's belly,
Perhaps he'd like to come inside and see what's on the telly.

I always think everything will dtop being crazy briefly, but of course it never does. Last week I ventured back Up North in the Yellow Boxmobile! I always miss it up there, everyone's so much friendlier. But then when I am there, I miss it down here again. The sea! The beach! The lovely little roads and lack of sense that there's anything outside of this place. It's so quiet... yeaaah, I miss where I grew up, but I don't know if I could leave Cornwall now.

So anyway, Alton Toweeeers! Yeaaaah! The novelty never wears off... and then a couple of days later we went from there to London to see the lovely Ani DiFranco again (the novelty never wears off there either, hehe...), and to the London Dungeon which is always good fun, ha. Then back up north, then all the way back down here! College is crazy too, as usual. But good crazy. I now know how to book bind! How crazy is that? I suppose that's everyone's birthday pressies sorted out...

Today we're off up to Reading (I think?... Or near Reading perhaps...) for a big family Bonfire night sort of thing. Apparently it gets very competetive with who can bring the biggest fireworks, so that could be interesting. Lol.

Right, I'd better go and make some art.

Today is my day off, although really it isn't a day off at all as I'm going to spend most of it taking pictures for college, but I don't really think of that as work. That's the most amazing thing! If I could make photographs for a living, it would be like I was never working at all... and I don't really want to work for my whole life because I think that would be quite boring. So there you go!

So today I'm off to finish these colour shots that I was supposed to have finished a while ago, but just haven't gotten around to.

I've figured out what I'm going to do for my book project too, which is pretty great as I felt like the only one who had no idea! I think I got all uninspired with all this time off and needed a minute to get back into it...

Coffee! Then photos! BYE!

I'm moving house again for the third time in the last year on Monday! Hopefully this will be the last move for a long while though, as the place we're moving into is veeerry nice :) With lovely peoples too!

I got my results for the first year of my HND - I got a distinction for my website, in fact! I was rather pleased with that indeedy. It can be looked at here: salsmith.co.uk if anyone feels that way inclined. It needs more junk putting on it, and the Fat Willy's Surf Shack website (for which I photographed!) should be up soonish so that will be linked to it from somewhere.

I just had a lovely cup of coffee. I don't have the internet at the mo, so I'm in an internet cafe slash bar place that does play rather good music.

I feel so lucky to live so close to the sea! Any time I like, I can just walk out of my door and there it is! Falmouth really does have some beautiful beaches. It's a shame they get so crowded with tourists this time of year, but if you go first thing in the morning, when they're still sleeping off their hangovers, the beaches are COMPLETELY empty - except for a few Cornish people that go swimming in the morning everyday of the year. Brave people...

Anyhoo, I have to be at work soon.

xxx

Oh my dear lord and gosh.

I passed my driving test! Je ne crois pas! (If that is indeed how it is said...)

The mock test (which was, by the way, failed terribly) made me slightly terrified of the actual thing, but when it came to it, it wasn't actually that scary. SO yaays all round :D

2. (I didn't realise I was numbering them, but never mind). I did my first proper-job photography shoot for a company yesterday! Alright, so it was for the company I work for, but it was still fun. They had a make shift studio/booth which was VERY tricky lighting-wise. But it all worked out in the end :) Huzzaaaah, etc, etc.

Errrrrrrrrm 3. I now have to move house. Hm. Anyone got one going spare?

4. I need a car! But cheap please. Anyone got one of those going spare aswell?

5. Oh my god. I can't even think about college work. There's just way too much of that to be finished in such a short space of time :|

But yeaaaaaaaaaaah, happy as a happy one :D

I cycled a long way today. Well, it wasn't that long really, but it seemed quite. The sea is so beautiful! I feel so lucky to live in a place as calm and away-from-everything as this. Sometimes Cornwall feels like such an isolated place (which it is...) but I think that's not a bad thing. It's nice to be able to go to places that have proper public transport and where things ACTUALLY happen, but it's always great to be able to come back here and go "Phew! Glad I don't have to LIVE in that." Or maybe I just like it today because it's sunny :)

Tres Bien:

Just got back from a loooov-e-ly trip up t'North.
I now have oatcakes. Of the Stafforshire variety. Lots of.
Seeing Portishead next week! :O
I now have a ( Canon A-1 ) :D

Nice new music.
Nice new iPod to play nice new music on :D
Photography... foof.
I have purple trousers.
Colour processing, yeah!
Frieeeends.
Nice new job.

Not so Tres Bien:

Some of my negs have invisibilised themselves :(
It keeps raining, then snowing, then sleeting, then hailing.
My housemate smells.

That's it actually...

I guess that's a good sign :D

Ooof, so it's all a bit crazy, as usual. Like the weather, in fact - nearly all of Falmouth has been closed down due to insane winds making people's roofs fall off and trees fall down. It was nice and sunny today though :)

I have been up to lots of photography-style stuff, but as it's mostly darkroom I don't much get to post it. Some of it's on here though: Gallery! And more stuff is on here: My professional-looking photography blog. When I have a second or three, I'll get my darkroom prints scanned in or photographed. I've been experimenting with lithe printing which is rather quite fun (indeedy-o).

Today our lecturer got us to make graphics that relflected a piece of music. I love photography, but I am CRAP at graphic design. Ce n'est pas bon... I should make some websites to practice :)

I FINISHED MY ESSAY!

HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.

Spring is so nice :) Almost everyday I've woken up in the last few weeks has been beautiful... the sky is just golden and warm and lovely. I hope that doesn't mean the summer is going to be horrible... we'll see.

The year seems so full of stuff already, and it's only really just started! I'm going to see Portishead in April, which is quite incredibly amazing :| I don't they'll be touring again in a loooooooooong time, if ever, so that is very, VERY exciting :D Also seeing a few smaller bands, one called The Young Knives which sound rather spiffy, and saw a few days ago Cornish bands Tongue + Groove and The Eyelids which were great :D

I got these boots the other day and they are amazing -



Almost like wellies but 438924839028932 times more comfortable/warm :)

Oooh.. I got my hair cut earlier aswell. I now officially have short hair. Maybe I will take a picture at some point :D

I just read this book -



It's AMAZING! It has to be read. It's sort of a novel slash graphic novel slash film and it's just wow! The illustrations are amazing and the black pages look very nice indeed...

Right, time to flit, byeeeeeeee!

My laptop has been fixed!! WoooOooo! It was incredibly frustrating... as soon as I FINALLY had the internet, my laptop decided to cave in on itself. But luckily a nice person offered to fix it and I now have it back :D So yaays all round.

College is crazy, as usual. So many different projects, it's hard to get my head around it all. I think the most daunting is the 2000 word essay :/ I'm not good at essays... but we also have to do a self portrait using loads of different media which I think will be fun :)

Other than that I've been a bit lazy on the photography front, due to working ALOT. I got a job over xmas in a camera shop, and although it was meant to be temporary, it seems like I might be staying on... not sure if that's a good thing or not though. It's very, very competetive which is just a bit too stressful for me :| I'm definitely going to be carrying my camera around with me more at the moment though.

Camera-wise, I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want a Canon 40d! Words cannot describe the beauty so I'll just show you a picture instead:



Wow...

If anyone ever gets the urge to buy me a really nice pressie, feel free :D

Anyhoo, time to "do some work"... heh :P

Busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busyyyyy busyyy.

I'm moving house on Friday! Yup yup, to a lovely little place in Falmouth :) They have buses there, and chip shops (so I hear...) :O I may even be able to have TWO WHOLE HOURS extra in bed due to not getting up at 6 am anymore :| So yay for that.

Other things... I'm in the last few weeks of college (uni?) for this year so that's all a bit crazy. I have lots of things to do and there's much too much rain. I'm really liking being back in the dark room though, it feels very nice. It does mean that my hands smell of chemicals a lot though (I should probably stop biting my nails aswell as I doubt developing fluid is very safe to ingest...).

I can't believe it's so close to Christmas already!! Everything's gone so fast... I also can't believe that I was still studying media earlier this year... it seems so long ago. I feel quite old.

Ach, I need a drink. Toodles :D
xxx

Ello!!

Just got back from London Land and thought I'd post some pickles and that :D None of Ani I'm afraid as they're all cameraphoney ones (i.e. not very good) but she was AMAZING. I got a set list so I might add that in somewhere when I scan/photograph it. Until then, here's some (though not many) piccies of London :D

( London Shtuff )

Well hello there.

I haven't been doing a lot of online stuff of late, so thought I'd post a catch-uping thingy (ketchuping thingy?). Heeeyeaaaaas :D

Anyway, tomorrow I am going to see...

ANI DIFRANCO!



Oh my Gods :| That's just over 24 hours away :|

Yes I know... not sure how I'm not dying of death right now, but I think it's just denial.

I'm going to be in London for a couple of days so should be taking lots of documentarying pictures, which will undoubtedly fill up this journal a bit. London always seems an interesting place to take pictures, but maybe that's just because I've been in Cornwall for way too long... :/

Ok, going to go and try to keep my brain in one place BYE!