deviantART: Searogim's Journal

*is excited* For a while now I have been thinking about splashing out and buying myself a DSLR. Problem is, my Powershot is a great little camera and it has taught me so much, including to love photography, and I just haven't been able to justify spending so much on a new camera when mine actually doesn't have anything wrong with it. I had looked at conversion lenses for my Powershot, but again, couldn't justify spending money on something that wasn't necessarily going to make a lot of difference to my camera when I could put the money towards a DSLR, so just carried on wanting.

On Christmas Day when boredom struck (which it always does) I started having a look on various websites to see what they had in their sales, mainly looking for books, but decided to have a look and see what price I could get a Canon EOS 450D for, just on the off chance that a special offer would bring the price down enough for me to be able to persuade myself to finally go ahead and buy one. I wasn't expecting much, so couldn't believe it when I saw some great deals.

So I have just come back from town, complete with a Canon EOS 450D and a load of extra goodies, some of which I wasn't even expecting to get but that were special offers in store, and having saved myself probably the best part of £200 by the time I get a cheque for £50 back from Canon. So no prizes for guessing who is one happy bunny, or how I am going to be spending the rest of my afternoon.

I recently posted a thread in the thumbshare forum asking for people to share their work that shows scenes from Britain. Here are some of the pieces that stood out...

~ Felixstowe Beach by

~ Brighton by

~ London vs New York by

~ The Suspension Bridge, Bedford by

~ Newhaven, East Sussex by

~ Northumberland by

~ Loch Lomond by

~ Portland Bill, Portland, Dorset by

And here is some of my own work showing Britain...

~ Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island, Poole, Dorset

~ The river Stour at Wimborne, Dorset

~ The Thames, London

~ London from the London Eye

~ The Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, Hampshire

~ The Berkshire countryside

~ Big Ben, from the London Eye

Some of my more recent work...

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When in Rome...

... take a rediculous amount of photos.

After a couple of weeks of worrying about flights (I was flying with Alitalia), I have just come back for a fantastic holiday in Rome. Having never been there before, there was plenty of site seeing to be done, and a crazy amount of photos to be taken. I cant believe how many I took (well I kind of can, but you know what I mean), and I am really dreading sorting out where they were all taken when I have had them developed.

But its not really that bad, in amongst the typical tourist snapshots, there are some photos that I am really pleased with (I'm so glad I took my tripod with me to get some decent nightshots for once), so don't be suprised if a lot of my upcoming submissions have an Italian feel to them.

Some shameless self promotion...

Clubs

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Deviations

It's been far too long since my last journal entry to do what I usually do and feature most of my recent favorites, so here area a few of the ones that really stand out...

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The Long Overdue Journal Entry

It seems like forever ago that I last set aside time to write a journal, and time has been moving incredibly quickly recently, so with nothing better to do that listen too good old Terry Wogan insult every other country on the Eurovision Song Contest (hes the only reason I watch it, coz lets face it, nobody could watch it for the "music"), now seemed as good a time as any to write about nothing in particular.

The past couple of months have been a bit insane, and part of the reason that I havent had time to write a journal before. As some of you might know I am a veterinary nurse, and had been working in the same practice for well over 5 years. Gradually things were getting worse for the nurses, with staffing levels getting lower, but the workload moving in the opposite direction. I had half heartedly thought about looking for another job, but never got round to getting my lazy arse in gear and doing something about it. Then one Tuesday evening at the end of March I was trying to find an advert in a veterinary journal to show my dad when I came across an advert for a nurses job at the practice in my village. I didnt take all that much notice, but my mum persuaded me to apply, reminding me that I had nothing too loose, and the following day I re-wrote my CV (having not even looked at it for years), and dropped it in to them. That evening I had a phone call to arrange an interview, which took place two days later. It had all gone well, the practice was just like I remembered it from when I used to take my own animals there, and the job seemed great - I would actually be nursing and have the time to actually do my job properly, so I waited to hear back from them, which I would be told would be a week to a week and a half later. However, the following day I had a phonecall asking me to go in for a few hours to see how I got on with everyone. It seemed that I had made a good impression, so when monday came I found myself back there again. Just as I had expected, everyone was really nice, and I left a couple of hours later with the job.

Unfortunately the next day was April the 1st - not the best day to hand your notice in, but less than a week after applying that is exactly what I did. Next followed a manic month of filling in paper work, making sure that the nurse I was leaving behind knew how to do all the jobs I had been doing, phonecalls, etc, but it seems that it was all worth it. I started my new job one the first of May, and almost a month later I cant believe how much better things are. Its been a tiring month, trying to learn a new practices policies and a new computer system, which after the previous one I was used to that must have been around with the ark seems too straight forward to be true, but it looks as though it is going to be worth it in the end

As a result of all this I dont think I have submitted as many pictures as I could have considering how many I have taken, but despite this my work seems to have been getting more notice, and I have had a few occassions when I have come online and cant believe how many messages I have had. Thank you to all of my watchers for your continued support, I find it amazing that anyone is interested enough in my work to actually want to watch me. A couple of years ago I would never have guessed that I would be spending my spare time on a website such as this, or drawing in Photoshop, afterall, I used to get comments on my art homework such as "did you just draw around this?" (to which the answer was yes *g*), so I truely am greatful to everyone that shows an interest in my work

Some shameless self promotion...

Clubs

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Deviations

I have done so much favoriting over the past couple of months I dont think it will be possible to feature everything, so here are some of my favorites of my favorites...