Feeling a little world-weary tonight. An afternoon spent battling with Launchpad's ec2 test facility and a gym workout that didn't go as well as planned (I really need a trainer - or at least a workout buddy - to make me do things some times, and I don't have either) have left me drained and a touch on the grumpy side.

You have been warned.

And again, I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not picking up and working with a camera much. Oh, I'm shooting bits and pieces here and there for the Countdown project, which I'm going to have to turn into videos some time in the new year because right now I just don't have the time, but I'm not shooting anything serious. It's all just frivolous shooting. Well, not frivolous but... I guess 'unimportant' would be the right word. It's keeping the muscle memory going - here's the ISO control, there's the shutter release, there's the bracket function, that sort of thing - but it's not challenging me creatively and it's making a part of my inner brain itch like nobody's business.

I've got some grand ideas written down, and I keep fleshing them out - more on that as and when I get round to actually carrying them out. That I've imposed a photoshoot moratorium on myself until the new year - because trust me, organising a wedding and holding down a programming job are quite enough to be getting on with - doesn't help matters, but at least I know that when the new year rolls around I'll be able to start sending out casting calls, talking to potential subjects and organising teams to be able to put these things together.

A part of me worries that the ideas are a little too grand - one of them calls for no less than eight different fashion styles in the same series, and the change in style extends to the location, too - but if I don't aim high now I'll never do it later.

On the slightly less complex side of things I'm working on a project that's not even embryonic yet - I'm still waiting for it to be a Zygote (okay, let's discard that metaphor before it goes any further, shall we?) - but, should it work out will be extremely simple, at least technically, though I suspect there will be a lot of work to do with regard to getting subjects and other parties involved.

All of which, of course, tells you bugger all about anything. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll be able to tell you more.

Bullet points, because I'm not in much of a mindset for much else.

Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket and:

• A D700x, which, no, hasn't been announced yet, but about which a Nikon rep made encouraging but vague noises about at Calumet's Manchester mini tradeshow yesterday (blog post and photos to come on that). I think that'll be my next upgrade, almost certainly.
• Some Bowens Gemini heads (I'm leaning towards the 500R/500R kit, but it's still pricey). I had been toying with the idea of Elinchrom Rangers but playing with the Bowens units yesterday I came to really quite like their rugged versatility.
• A Sun-sniper strap - they're hard to get hold of in the UK, or at least from Calumet. Might try The Flash Centre instead but they use CityLink for deliveries.
• A bucket with time in it, please.
• Oh, and if you've the spare cash, I'd quite like a Hasselblad H4D. I played with HD3II yesterday and am now getting seriously turned on to the idea of medium format.

One of the things I said I'd do with the Countdown project is produce a slideshow / video / thing every ten days or so so that people could catch up on the project. So here's the first ten days' worth. Enjoy!

Countdown: The first ten days from Graham Binns on Vimeo.

I've noticed that the video seems a bit jerky in places. I'm not sure if that's just Vimeo - I've noticed on other Vimeo-hosted videos - but should you experience it yourself I'd appreciate it if you let me know.

For the record, this video was produced on an Ubuntu machine using kdenlive. 

Yes, I get bored sometimes (click photo to embiggen).

That's the first 10 days of the Countdown project done; hopefully I'll get a video slideshow thingumy online tomorrow.

I started a new personal project yesterday, which due to a complete and utter lack of imagination on my part I'm going to call Countdown. As of 11th September 2009 it was exactly 100 days until my wedding to my Awesome Fiancée, Sarah. Seeing as how I'm handy with a camera, and seeing as how I'd like a record of the days leading up to the wedding day, I figured I'd document them in photographs.

I probably won't be posting every day (though I will post every day's photos eventually) because I'd likely go mad if I tried. You can follow my Flickr stream for updates, and I'll post here periodically (probably every ten days or so). 

I just uploaded yesterday's photos - which just so happened to be of a family friend's wedding - to Flickr. Why not take a look?