Are you lookin' at me?

This is just to provide some contrast to the "straightened hair" pic... (next in this photostream, or here: static.flickr.com/31/97388990_3c4a8546ef.jpg ) Additionally, I believe it's actually compulsory to have this kind of narcissistic tosh on flickr, isn't it? Digital cameras have a lot to answer for... The tint here, by the way, is thanks to the K750i having a "white balance" feature. It's really neccessary for cloudy-weather shots, to prevent things being too blue. You can go the other way though... and I quite like this saturation effect.

The title is what a very senior person (ahem, naming no names) said to the local Vice Consul. Border of Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, July 1999, en route to Kosova. But that's not so much the point of this upload, I just like my "Michael York" look in the photo! ;) Taken with a fairly old Nikon (don't remember which) with a 50mm on Kodak Plus-X, by Suzi. For technorati, the telephone is my old Ericsson T28, which – like the T39 I was to have a bit later – was an excellent phone I wouldn't object to having back again. Infinitely more reliable, and nicer to handle, than any phone I've had recently.

This is one of a few late additions to the pics from the Sen'kovka festival at the border of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. They recently arrived from Ukraine so I thought I'd upload them. Note the appropriately positioned flags! Funny thing, timing. I can look at my eyes in this picture and remember that this trip to Ukraine wasn't "work", although I am with Tonia and some of the gang who I often work with under the auspices of www.aidconvoy.net . But this trip was wonderful because instead of being work it was in fact more about me saying to them, "this time I need you, my friends", coming as it did right after a break-up which had left me with lots of questions. A time when I really needed to be me again, doing my stuff, instead of wishing I was half of something else. Best viewed bigger: static.flickr.com/38/96612988_bcad38f67d_o.jpg

Ohmigosh. This is me shortly after professional make-up artist Paula (also in the pic) straightened my hair. It only lasted a day — but for that day I felt fully eligible to join a boy-band... www.paolarecabarren.com/

Well, it was about time I uploaded this one. I always love when you can see the shutter opening through the lens in mirror shots like this... naked camera... kind of a feedback thing going on. Well, *I* like it, anyway! ;)

Ridiculous numbers of people have asked me and Suzi if we're brother and sister. Including Suzi's mum. This is a rare photo, in that whatever mannerism causes us to look alike, is captured here. Compare with Suz, in this other one: www.flickr.com/photos/captain-k/45177739/in/set-1359258/ .

(Cowboy hats were all the rage in our little group of shoppers...)

Check out the arc of feet! For a few years I've been a member of a great idea called Hospitality Club. It's a lesser-known version of CouchSurfing — and a little more amateurish, in a good way, in its feel. In essence it's about helping fellow travellers. You use the service if you have a room, couch or even floor to offer (or you want to have a place to stay in a strange town), and even if you just want to give a tour (or be shown) around town. I've met some very lovely people through HC. This pic is of Anja and Agnesja from Poland (and me, and another friend of theirs). They stayed with me just very briefly in Brighton while they looked for another place as a base while they told fortunes there. www.hospitalityclub.org

Hello.

I really love Kodak Portra "natural colour" film. I took a snap of my friend Giles in the pub garden, (it's the adjacent shot in this photostream) then handed him the camera and got him to take this one of me with exactly the same settings. Pentax ME-Super, 50mm SMC f1.7 lens, Kodak Portra NC 160 (35mm).

Okay, this set of photos is very random, I admit it. This one's a baby racoon called Eddie. He's just spotted a particularly tasty acorn.

I seem to go blonde in the sun ;-P

Please do not feed the lunatics. For tenuous link group: farmstand herbs -> farmyard fruitloops! Taken with a Pentax ME-Super (or possibly an ill-advised MV-1) on Kodak Ektachrome transparency film, then scanned with a Canon film scanner through an old Mac with no colour management software working. Hmm. Patina?

I'm doing my Michael York impression.

Aberdeen in October. Nobody told me just how cold it could get!

I've always loved this one. Taken for us by Sybilla, a German exchange student who was then with our friend Joe Karthauser. Outside 12 D'Aubigny Road, where lots of us lived over the years! The wing mirror peeking in is lovely Josie, my Morris 1800 with the acres of red leather. I used to always pick up hitchers on the way to Sussex University campus, or my job at the Juggs Inn (a 14th century pub!). One of them once asked me, on looking at the leather, wood, and chrome, "Are you a drug dealer!?"