While DM and I were shopping the other day, he bought me a wonderful book about photography techniques. It came about by accident because we were looking for a Photoshop book for his Dad’s birthday and I was just browsing along the shelves thinking about nothing in particular when I spotted this book.

It caught my eye because we were just about to go off to Bodinnick and I’d wanted to do some night photography there (though in the event it was raining so hard overnight that I didn’t get the chance). The book has a chapter on techniques for maximising your chance of a really good night shot so he bought the book along with his Dad’s present and the new Bill Bryson, which he’s had his nose in ever since.

Well, he would, wouldn’t he? That book is his dream book because it talks about the creation of the universe in layman’s language and with a scientific perspective, rather than a creationist angle. He’s already gobbled up ‘The Blind Watchmaker’ and ‘Chariots of the Gods’ among others so it was only a matter of time before ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ fell into his possession. He’s been walking around carrying it and spouting paragraphs at me with a quizzical look on his face for several days now.

I’ve barely been functioning today because of only three hours sleep. I reckon I got myself so psyched up last night about making sure I didn’t fall asleep either at Waterloo or on the train. I was very conscious of having more than a grand’s worth of camera in my handbag, while being alone in the station particularly so I wanted to make sure I didn’t give anyone the slightest excuse to mug me. When on the train, I was determined to stay awake because I have a bad reputation for falling asleep on trains and ending up in places I’d rather not be. The last time it happened, I ended up on a ghost train hurtling towards a siding in the pitch dark. I had to pull the emergency cord to get off the bloody thing. It was not nice. So, my resolve was set but that meant when I got home, I was still in ‘wake’ mode and couldn’t drop off.

This has led to me being in a state of semi-comatose nothingness and meant I’ve been browsing some of the other chapters of this fab book. I saw a photo on the cover (damn, because it was on the cover, it didn’t have an explanation of how it was done) and it inspired me to give a thought through still life a go (rather than something dumped on the table). The photo on the book cover was actually quite different but made use of strong lines and had a similar abstract feel.

So, here it is, a still life that wouldn’t have come into existence if Edwin had come onstage a bit earlier and I’d managed to get the 11.35pm train rather than the 1.05am one!