So the other day I decided to stay off the computer for (most of) the day, and do some creative stuff instead!

I ended up doing some weird doodles, that I’d thought I’d share with THE WORLD:

Lately I’ve been experiementing using longer shutter speeds in daylight – with an ND filter of course! I think I need to get a stronger ND filter so I can get to lower shutter speeds, and longer bluuurrr!

I need to make this blog more focused too, it’s all over the place at the moment!!

I’m trying to start a new routine of doing something creative every day. Whether it’s photography, music, sketching, whatever – it’s just so fulfilling to do anything creative.

I started this yesterday by making some music in ACID Xpress… well I say ‘music’, more like a crazy remix of soundclips from local MP Betty Williams. No I will not be posting it!

Today was really sunny so I stopped the (little) revising I was doing and popped out for some photography. Here’s one of the shots I came up with (click image to view on black):

This is a quick sketch I did the other day based on this picture of a Portugese shepherd (pastor in Portugese), I really love the expression in the photo (and in a lot of that flickr user’s photos – check ‘em out!). Obviously the sketch isn’t perfect (hey – it’s just a quick sketch!), but it’s good to get back into sketching again. The last entry in my sketchbook is from 2007! I have still been doing drawing in art classes at school, but that always feels a bit forced creatively. I tend to be much more ‘free‘ in my personal sketchbook, and it feels great to have that freedom again!

In other (unrelated) news, I’ve just pre-ordered Jeremy Enigk’s new album, ‘OK Bear!’ – I’m so excited for this new album; I’ve been waiting for aaages. You can check out some tracks from the album on his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jeremyenigk (the first two tracks are from the new album).

Photographer Doug Menuez brings up several great points in this post on his blog, about how shooting with film really makes you think about what you’re shooting – with no LCD screen to check focus or exposure.

Just reading this really makes me want to try shooting some film:

I was much more aware of light and therefore of the unforgiving nature of the film. I was bending my brain back into a film mindset. I could feel the difference and started to grasp the outline of a theory.

My only experience really of shooting film is when I was around 10 or 11 and took a few snaps with my Dad’s SLR. But at that age I didn’t really have much of an understanding of what I was doing – I liked the shutter noise though!

Anyway, the post is a really great read and there’s some great discussion in the comments section. So go READ IT!