Photoblog from Dave Pyle

Happy 2010!

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:26 +0300

Happy New Year!

I hope the new year and the new decade brings you all great opportunities, experiences, peace and happiness.

So, this is it. The end of my project of 'One photo per day for a year' for 2009. It's was a lot harder to do than I thought. There were many times throughout the year where I just felt like jacking it in, usually when it was late at night, I just got home from work and just wanted to sleep. Trying to find something worthwhile to photograph for 'my stupid blog' was definitely something I had to kick myself in the arse to do. I was so desperate for ideas that during 2009 I decided to 1) Get engaged 2) Get married and 3) Have a baby. That gave me enough photo material to make it to the end of the year.

Would I do it again? No. Definitely not (By the way I'm talking about the blog now, not marriage or having a baby). I'm so happy that today is the final day that I have to carry my camera around hoping to find something interesting to photograph or having that feeling near the end of the day knowing you still have to do a photo for that day. The reason I started the project was to use my camera more and that certainly happened, mission accomplished.

Doing the blog forced me to look at everyday things in a new way. To find interest in an otherwise seemingly uninteresting subject. A kind of inner hidden beauty if you like. I'm not saying I found it in everything I photographed, far from it, but at least I looked.

Chase Jarvis, that super funky Seattle based commercial self-promoting extraordinaire photographer, once said that 'there are at least 10 amazing photographs within 10 feet of you right now'. This is so true, but knowing how to find them is the tricky part. I found it incredible that on my walk home everyday from work, using the same route, how often I spotted something photographically interesting that I'd completely missed countless times before. It's kind of like hearing but not listening or my case, looking but not seeing.

So, if I was to say what I've learnt from my photo a day project it would be that there's no such phrase as 'there's nothing interesting to photograph'. There is ALWAYS something interesting to photograph, it's just a matter of seeing it.

I want to thank all those people who left a comment on the blog or to me personally and to those of you who have visited everyday or even only once or twice. I hope you found at least one or two photos that you liked or the odd post that you found mildly interesting. If so then I can count the project as a success and feel all warm and fuzzy inside :-)

To anyone thinking of doing a similar project for 2010, do it! It's hard work but very rewarding. Drop a link in the comments so people can follow your progress. I promise I'll subscribe ;-)

In the meantime, cheers and all the very best,

Dave

Over and out.

Christmas Cheer

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:32 +0300

I decided to take this photo from the walkway between the road outside our apartment. I've mentioned before on this blog that the road has 16 lanes and so it sees its fair share of traffic, including cop cars, so I thought it best to take my passport with me just in case.

Well, sure enough five minutes later a cop car pulls up along side me and uses its loudspeaker to ask me something. What I'm not sure because I find those things absolutely impossible to understand, but I'm guessing it was 'hey you, what the hell are you photographing?'. I replied in my best Russian that 'I'm sorry I don't understand, I'm not Russian' and proceeded to undo my jacket so I could get my passport out.

What happened next was a Christmas miracle. They shouted in broken English, 'ah ok, no problem. Happy new year!' and drove off with a smile.

I love this place sometimes.

Soldier

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:05 +0300

That little snowflake reminds me of a soldier crossing a field. Not sure if anyone can see what I mean.

So the forecast was right and we had a nice load of snow this morning. Hopefully it won't all melt away before the New Year.

Daniel went to the clinic today for a checkup and he has put on 1kg and grown 2cm over his first month. Not bad a effort.

Beads

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:34 +0300

Christmas lights along Tverskaya street, Moscow's main street to the city center.

Moscow's 'Christmas' is really the New Year in terms of the same type of excitement. People give presents, have parties, get drunk and fight. The forecast is for a big dump of snow as well which will add to the occasion.

We're planning on spending a quiet evening at home with the little one which suits me fine. My days of going out and getting rotten drunk at overpriced and overcrowded bars and clubs are long gone.

Housebound

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:25 +0300

With the crappy weather Moscow is having lately, and by crappy I mean warm and slushy, it's nice to be stuck at home looking after Daniel.

As he gets older we'll be able to go out and take long walks, right about time the weather starts getting better. Until then Lena and I remain pretty much housebound.

Having said that, Lena did manage to get away for a few hours today to go to the sauna with some of her friends. She definitely deserved the break considering the stressful few weeks months she's had.

Now she's home I've put her back to work. My order is for a Sunday roast dinner, followed by lashings of tea, cakes, biscuits, ice-cream (all home made of course) and a cooked breakfast before work in the morning.

Sleepy

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:04 +0300

I'm not sure who is sleepier in this photo, Lena or Dan.

Actually, come to think of it, the sleepiest is the photographer, that would be me. Another fairly sleepless last night with Dan still suffering from the dreaded colic. The doctor came around today and did some stuff, I'm not sure what as I was in the kitchen but he seems better this evening.

The good news is that the older he gets the less he will suffer from it. Tomorrow he turns 1 month old so after a couple of more months it should be done and dusted.

Fingers crossed.

Santa?

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:50 +0300

Merry Xmas everyone! I hope everyone had far too much to eat and drink and is suitably sleepy drunk right about now, well at least in this timezone.

I have family in both Canada and Australia which means there's a whopping 14 hour time difference between them. So, my mum in Australia is about to wake up to Boxing day whereas my Canadian auntie is about to start her Xmas day evening. Meanwhile I'm somewhere in the middle, at the tail end of Xmas day.

So wherever you are, take care and have a great time over the holidays.

Tasty Pastry

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:57 +0300

Not quite the mince pies I would have preferred but still damn tasty.

For all those people who've been following my blog, I would like to wish all three of you a Merry Xmas! :-)

Northern Lights

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:40 +0300

It's not really the Northern Lights but I imagine they look a little like this. Instead this is a long exposure of the moon with some light cloud cover over Moscow.

Well I think it was the moon, it could be the headlight on Santa's sleigh. He's a bit early if it is. Maybe he's doing a practice run for tomorrow night?

Mind you, if he was really coming to Moscow then he's visa and custom declaration would be a complete nightmare to sort out. No doubt the customs officials would impound his toys and demand an astronomical import fee which of course would end up with Santa bribing his way into Russia.

Дэниел Дэвид Пайл

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:33 +0300

Daniel was registered with the Russian registry office today so he now has an official Russian birth certificate, oh and a name of course.

Дэниел Дэвид Пайл in Russian or Daniel David Pyle in English.

Because Russians have a fairly strict naming system I thought we might have to give him a proper Russian patronymic name which would have been made up from my first name plus 'ovitch' on the end as in Davidovitch. Fortunately you can choose whether you want to follow this convention or not so we just stuck with Daniel David.

Next thing is to get him a Russian passport followed by British and Australian citizenship. I don't want to even think about how much paper work that is going to be.