I have this awesome advent calendar, purchased by my excellent wife.

Behind door number one is a pirate. I feel like I should be less surprised.

We want another cat. Amelie is basically petrified of everything, so we figure we can introduce her to our friends’ cats to get her used to it. Tonight, we had our first ever cat party. It was pretty tense at the start, but Monty, Zuma and Amelie were very well-behaved. Zuma was mostly indifferent.

Amelie was behaving quite oddly. She’d run to Monty, squeak, then hiss at him. Monty seemed unperturbed. Amelie appeared to enjoy showing her new friends around when she calmed down a bit.

The iPhone camera is not great in the dark. It’s not great when you’re drunk.

Getting post is great; except for when it’s bills. It’s nearly always bills, or some fucker claiming you owe them money, or inviting you to be in a free prize draw, or a takeaway menu. It’s never good stuff, unless you’re expecting it.

What I like about Lovefilm is it’s a benevolent little package that lands on your doormat that isn’t a bank statement or council tax. It’s an hour or two of enjoyment, that you didn’t have to go and get. It’s the modern-day equivalent of a stork (or something).

I haven’t used my camera in ages. There is no excuse.

(everything I hoped + 1 Rhino teddy) * awesome = Bolt

When it comes to taking photos of ships, it’s difficult to get in a decent position at Southampton docks. I have previously moaned about being unable to take a decent photo from the same place that the following Norwegian Jade one is taken from, however, sideways-on seems a lot worse. Careful what you wish for, I guess.

Some people just really want to go on a cruise, I guess.

QM2 looking flat and dull and like there’s a silver bullet caravan in front of it.

If you’re wondering how I feel about my latest purchase, my SC-29 off-camera-flash-enabler, it looks a little like this:

If you’re wondering how Charlotte feels about it (and, indeed any other photography-related purchase I make), it looks something like this:

CLS is awesome, and and off-camera master gives you so much more freedom to experiment with shadows than using the built-in pop-up as the master. I am very pleased, and will be overusing this greatly in the near future. See more from this evening’s photoshoot at flickr.

She’s been sleeping in some weird-ass positions recently!

I think I have tonsilitis. It is not fun.

The background in this is too grey – I guess it’s picking up colour from the subject, but I can’t figure out how to counteract it logically. Maybe firing from behind would lift some of it.

Strobist: SB900 TTL + 2ev top front right, SB800 TTL + 1ev top back left

This shit is way harder than it looks.

Charlotte bought me my birthday present very early today. The pictured SB900 and the light tent that it’s sitting in. I tried taking some photos of Charlotte’s ring and it did not go well. I think I need some different coloured backgrounds or something. Might try some more crap from around the house in it this week. Found a great way to remove the creases from the floor of it is to put a platform outside underneath it. I do need a more permanent platform, though. Any recommendations are most welcome.

It appears that there is a touch too much yellow in this and the focus could do with being re-evaluated on the front one. It’s slightly soft at the edges. Still, they look way better than I thought they would for my first few tries!

Edit: Fixed the yellow tinge.