Oh No, Not Again
Apparently, it’s not just me and John Saul sharing this cover image.
Bev told me last year that the image library who hold that pic hadn’t told anyone them it had already been used. By the looks of things, they don’t tell anyone.
This Lighting Lark’s Easy, He Said
This’ll bore the bollocks off most of you, but I had my first attempt at shooting photos under controlled - I’d say “studio”, but our conservatory with a dark grey sheet hanging over the door doesn’t really count, I think - lighting yesterday evening (having previously been outside in whatever daylight there was).
Tried to make a very soft effect using a couple of reflectors and, during the above shot, a thin cotton curtain thing hanging from the conservatory roof to diffuse the sun as it shone directly in. By the time I came to the lower shot, the sun had gone behind the hill/buildings and the curtain came down. Played around with white balance settings and by the looks of things they work best either very warm, or very cool and then overexposed. OK in the middle ground, but nothing special.
So success! Go me. Rach mostly said, “God, I look so old.” But there’s no pleasing some people. If this kind of thing was all I intended to do, a lucrative career taking family portraits might already await.
How I’d fit a family into our conservatory - and what they’d think of the old sheet and “reflector balanced on pile of old firewood” - I just don’t know…
If I Said To You…
“I like Newhaven”, what, if anything, would be the first thing you’d think of?
Almost There…
On to last two chapters in the big RISEN FURIES rewrite. Just a couple of thousand words to do/redo. Have stinking cold/death plague. Life is a cruel, cruel mistress.
People Are Idiots
I managed to miss the broohah of the past few days regarding an apparently clinically insane romance author who managed to get a user banned from Amazon for giving her a 3-star review, and I’m only catching up with it now (for a good summary, Steve is your man).
Tess Gerritsen wrote a tongue-in-cheek ‘there but for the grace of god’ piece of musing of her own, whereupon a bunch of people in the romance world responded. Starting (mostly) reasonably sanely and largely concentrating on the issue of the original Amazon thing, before some slowly went mad.
(Edited chunk here following Tess’s comment. Mea culpa, etc.)
The whole argument is one of those quite barkingly stupid shouting matches that only happens on the internet or between drunks. I’d recommend reading it only for trainwreck rubbernecking.
I hope Tess eventually reconsiders putting an end to her blog because she’s always been well worth a read. I hope that the original psychotic romance author gets the treatment she deserves.
I also hope that everyone who gives me a bad review on Amazon is gored to death by water buffalo in heat.
Am I being serious? Am I not? And what’s that distant mooing sound?
Who?
I'm John. I'm a professional writer, a student photographer and a dabbler in web design. I live in a dull English seaside town with my girlfriend and our little boy. When I'm not involved in any of the above, I spend my time gaming, following football and reading 'n shite. You can reach me here, or by emailing yemighty [at] hotmail.com.
