http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/ en sam@nocturnalmonkey.com Copyright 2010 2010-08-30T20:25:56+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/coffee_and_bokeh/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/coffee_and_bokeh/#When:20:25:56Z This weekend Luisa and I made the journey down from Yorkshire to Kent visiting her family. On the way down the M1 we stopped off to get some much needed coffee. Before we hit the road again, I took a shot of my cup of coffee sitting on the car roof. The light wasn’t great and I didn’t really have time to mess with a lighting set-up so I made do. Once I’d imported the image into Aperture, I saw the picture wasn’t as bad as I first thought but it needed some work. After playing with some settings, I managed to arrive at a point I was happy with. Over the course of the weekend the photo has been getting some really positive feedback and despite me not really taking too much notice of Flickr stats, it’s set a personal record in terms of views and favourites. I started to document the process for future reference but thought it may be a useful resource to someone else so I decided to write it up. For this example, I’ll be using the adjustment features in Aperture to edit this image, so you may need to adjust your process accordingly depending your application of choice. It’s also worth noting, you may not be able to follow this step-by-step to achieve the same effect. The idea is to really play with the settings and discover what works for you. Anyway, I’ll get on with how I edited this particular photo and hope you find some hints that you can apply to your own images. The original Here’s the untouched image which has an overly red hue from the street lights. Cool down the image The image needed to be cooled down so I started by using the Temp and Tint sliders to shave off some of the red hue. Increase the exposure Now the colours are looking a bit more true to life, I wanted to increase the exposure slightly. This may look like too much but later on you’ll see how to pull back some of the sections you want to keep darker than the subject. Bring back the black You’ll see some of the darker sections of the shot look rather pale now so I’ll use the Black Point slider to pull back some of the darker tones. In this particular shot, I think it helps separate the subject from it’s surroundings. Desaturate (only slightly) I felt the colours in the background we still a little too overbearing so I reduced the saturation slightly. It is also the basis for achieving the final effect I wanted with this shot, a sort of slightly aged photo. Blue out the black Now I concentrated on getting the finished look I wanted. First I wanted to make the darker tones less harsh so I used the Tint colour selector to add a hint of blue to the shadows. A dash of greenery Next I added gave the grey tones a slight green hue to carry on the aged result I was after. Add a vignette I felt adding a subtle vignette would help frame the shot. I also thought it added a little more dynamic colouring to the sky. Lighten the subject The penultimate step in this process, I felt the work done so far didn’t really draw enough attention to the subject so I used the Dodge tool to lighten the cup slightly. Burn baby burn To finish off the shot I went over the background with the burn tool just to drop the overall brightness of the background. That’s it! Some of you may think this is tosh but hopefully not everyone. I’d love to hear what you think. Process, Personal, Photography 2010-08-30T20:25:56+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_seven/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_seven/#When:17:49:57Z On the home stretch and still not completely out of ideas, although some days I was admittedly cut down by late nights and… ahem, alcohol. Day forty-four ~ New boots Tonight we went out for a few drinks and some food. Lu bought some new boots so I thought I’d shoot them. I played with a new technique in post to give it more depth Day forty-five ~ Self The other day I bought a magazine focusing on shooting portraits including tips on editing in post. I decided to take a self-portrait and do some experimenting. I overdid it a tad just purely to play with the techniques. I’ll continue to play with them and find the right balance eventually. Still playing with some post-production techniques Day forty-six ~ Vintage Luisa’s Mum came to visit recently and brought with her a package full of stuff including family trees which her older brother had painstakingly put together when he was younger, going back about six or seven generations. Along with this was a pile of old family photos which are amazing. Some date back to the mid 19th century. After my recent DVD discovery, I look at these now with a little more knowledge of the photographic process at this time and can almost project myself into the scenes and imagine what it must have been like. I’m now going on the prowl to see if I can find any from my family tree. Using modern technology to shoot examples of old Day forty-seven ~ Corked Within the final five days of Project 50 and yet again I was struck down by lack of inspiration. I finally decided on a subject and wanted to try some lowkey shots on something other than a person. I achieved the small beam of light from the flash by using more card to create a cone and fire down to the small opening. Think I’m starting to get the hand of lowkey shooting Day forty-eight ~ 55mm I borrowed my Brother’s old Yashica SLR some time ago but still haven’t got around to buying film for it. I’m going to have a dabble with it and see if I can remember what I was taught in my photography class at college. I’ve no idea how old this camera is. It’s great though Day forty-nine ~ Dougie Tonight we went out for a few beers to celebrate our CEO’s Birthday and I managed to snap a few shots before the alcohol took effect. Doug doesn’t like me shooting him so it’s a shock I got it Day fifty ~ Fin Made it through to the end of the project. I had some other ideas for the final shot but circumstance meant I had to use a fall back plan which I don’t mind as it gave me the chance to get out my brushes and ink. The perfect excuse to paint with some ink So there you have it. Fifty photos in fifty days shooting with a 50mm lens. I want write up my thoughts in a separate post so for now I’ll simply finish by saying it’s been an enjoyable project but now I’m ready for a break from daily shooting. Photography, Project 50, 2010 2010-08-20T17:49:57+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_six/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_six/#When:17:25:43Z Week six has been a mixture of inspiration and… well, not so much. Despite that I kept on going, really just trying to find my feet with off camera flash. Day thirty-seven ~ Magicman I’ve been interested in close-up magic on and off for the last ten years. I don’t really practice any more but still occasionally pick up a deck of cards to play about with some shuffles and flourishes. I used to do this about a million times a day Day thirty-eight ~ Concealment Following yesterday’s shot I decided to keep the magic theme going. I may keep it up for a few more days depending on how many ideas I can come up with. I still practice palming even though I’ve no use for it Day thirty-nine ~ Making the cut I’ve decided to play with the magic theme again this evening. I’ve not done single-hand cuts for years. I can still do them! Day fourty ~ Furious sky By far the most popular shot on the project so far. It even made Explore! I positioned the flash behind Luisa to give her a halo look Day fourty-one ~ 8faces A really simple shot and set up, sans-strobist, this evening. Yesterday I received my copy of 8faces, a new limited edition typography magazine. It really is a thing of beauty from cover to cover. One of my favourite parts of the whole design is the silver logo on the front which is what you see here in it’s reflective awesomeness. Set up was achieved by pointing an angled light and reflecting into the lens, up the f-stop to block out the rest. Job done. A beautiful magazine to look at as well as read Day fourty-two ~ No ideas I’ve been trying to come up with something all day. A location shoot wasn’t feasible as we had an appointment with a florist which took longer than I expected (not a bad thing when it comes to wedding flowers :D) but it was late when we got back. All I wanted to do was eat pizza and watch my new DVD. If all else fails, get a Sharpie and some pizza Day fourty-three ~ By candle light Today’s been another busy one with little time to set up a proper shoot and the weather has been really shitty so a location shoot wasn’t really on the cards. Instead I snapped a few shots while out having a few beers with my cousin in town. I always like shooting candles. I’ve no idea why   Photography, Project 50, 2010 2010-08-13T17:25:43+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_five/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_five/#When:19:10:33Z Five weeks in, only two weeks to go! This week has been interesting as I’ve made the first small steps in to strobist photography! Using Rick’s recommendations, I got my hands on some great gear for a decent price. I’m still working out how to get the best results but I’ll get there eventually. On with this week’s round-up! Day twenty-nine ~ Waiting After work I head to the train station to meet Lu, then we walk home together. Today I had a bit of time to kill so I decided to wander around town and take some shots. There were some interesting shots but this one sums up what I spent most of the time doing. Passing time in Halifax town centre Day thirty ~ Friday Tonight I went out straight from work and proceeded to get a little drunk. With drinking and flowing conversations going on I almost forgot to take a photo. As a result, I produced this rather piss-poor attempt. This is what happens when you mix beer and photography projects Day thirty-one ~ Friday I drew this at my Mum’s, initially started out as just a random doodle and eventually turned into a self-portrait. I’ve no idea why I didn’t put a t-shirt on this. This is what happens when you mix beer and photography projects Day thirty-two ~ Monkey returns Trying out the shaped bokeh technique (no idea what it’s called), this time using a banana shape. Monkey makes a return. You know you love it. Day thirty-three ~ School night After a rather hectic day, a beer was required. Beer beer beer beer beer beer Day thirty-four ~ Doppelganger I’m happy with the general idea for this shot but there are a few things I’d like to improve on (and would have re-shot had the light not died down). Things I would change if I decide to re-shoot in future:- Up the f-stop a bit so the background figure is a little more in focus Try it with some strobist action Feed the camera into my laptop to ensure the foreground is in perfect focus Imagine two of me walking about. Oh the horror. Day thirty-five ~ Bandit Today I got my new flash and light stand. Mix them with the triggers I got the on day 34 and a tutorial from Rick Nunn and Whack! This is what you get! I took many more shots but this was my favourite. This is my first attempt at any strobist work. Plenty to learn and improve on. My gorgeous model gave me plenty of poses to work with Day thirty-six ~ Uninspired Today I’ve had what I felt were pretty solid ideas but when executing them, they required more planning than I’d first thought. It also didn’t help that I was shooting in our back garden and got the distinct feeling I was pissing off the neighbours with the flash. In light of abandoning the flash, I decided to use it as my subject. A difficult evening for shooting but I managed to pull one out of the bag   2010-08-07T19:10:33+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/new_exercises/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/new_exercises/#When:22:21:01Z For quite some time now I’ve been eager to pick up my pens and pencils again to do what I spent most of my teenage years doing, drawing. Before I discovered the wonders of the web, I was very much an analogue type of person, the only time I touched a computer was to create the odd piece of final artwork for college, listen to music or watch movie trailers online. Up until I got my job working in the web industry, I did everything on paper. I carried numerous sketchbooks around with me, a habit I keep up today albeit for different reasons, I used to constantly jot ideas down, draw little doodles which I’d later turn into a comic strip or maybe an ink painting. My life has changed so much since those days that I rarely get a chance to draw these days and it makes me sad because I’d hate to lose that part of me which, for the longest time, most people knew me for (although to be fair, people still think of me as the guy who draws things), so this weekend I’ve decided to set myself a little project called Daily doodle. As you can guess, I basically post up a new drawing everyday. I have to be honest, the term daily doodle isn’t entirely accurate as, having done projects which require attention 7 days a week before, producing a new piece every day isn’t always possible for one reason or another. That’s not to say I’m not going to even attempt to draw every day, I’m just not going to get flustered if I miss a day or two every so often. My main hope is to try get my creative mind thinking without the need for a computer before I lose the ability altogether. I don’t have a particular type of illustration in mind to post, some will be personal, some will be linked to a project I’m working on and others will just make no sense whatsoever. I must point out that not everything I post will be decent quality, some will be utter rubbish but it’s not necessarily quality I’m striving for, more getting back into the habit of picking up a pen and working my brain-meats. On a technical/navigational note, the Daily doodle section currently only displays one drawing at a time. I’ve managed to sort out the code for the navigation thanks to the help of Wil Linssen, I just haven’t yet finished the styling but I hope to get that sorted very soon. Hope you enjoy the new section! 2010-08-01T22:21:01+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_four/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_four/#When:07:15:25Z Nothing much to write as an introduction this week. Some days I’ve been filled with inspiration, others I’ve been completely lost for ideas but still keeping it going regardless. Day twenty-two ~ Starman This shot was inspired while browsing a blog post displaying some lovely examples of bokeh photogrphy. There were some shots which utilised a technique to change the shape of the background lights. There are plenty of tutorials online but I think I may write one up here just for fun so stay tuned… Using cardboard to create a shaped lighting effect Day twenty-three ~ Brew in The Piece Hall I had a few days off work, some I spent at home working on a few personal projects and others I actually left the house, this was one of those days. I needed to pay a visit to work and timed it right to have lunch there. One my way home, I decided to stop off for a cup of tea and sat in The Piece Hall watching the world go by while I drank. I’m not endorsed Costa Coffee, it just happened to be the closest shop Day twenty-four ~ ...heart Luisa, her Mum and myself headed into London for a garden party. I took a few shots at the party but I just loved the word placement on this shot and the fact that it leaves a sort of Blankety Blank style open ending. My immediate thought to end the sentence was heart, what word pops into your head? Day twenty-five ~ See you on the other side I had another idea for today’s shot but by strange coincidence, Rick had a very similar idea for his shot. As it’s the half-way point in the project, I intended to do a self-portait today, cropped to show the right side of my face then the same tomorrow showing the left, the idea being shown side by side they form a sort of mirror effect (I know it wouldn’t really be a mirror image but, meh…) Anyway, I was still wanting to latch onto the “see you on the other side” title so after a long 5/6 hour journey home, I kept it simple by taking a shot of Lu looking to the other side, wherever that may be… What’s on the other side I hear you ask? I’ve no idea Day twenty-six ~ Looking on the other side A kind of follow up from yesterday’s shot. This view is one of the greatest things about where we live. The view from our garden is amazing on clear day Day twenty-seven ~ Sunset Today was my Mum’s birthday and we went down to see her this evening. The natural shot would be a portrait of her but she hates having her photo taken so I opted for this instead which bears no relation to Mum’s birthday, just some cool flowers sitting in her window. I’m beginning to love taking silhouette shots Day twenty-eight ~ Behemoth Today I was struggling for an idea so I decided to look at the Dictionary.com Word of the Day and run with it. I have this massive bear that my Mum gave me when I was in hospital which I thought, as I have no monsters lying around, would fit the bill when up against a small object like a keyring from China :) When inspiration is sparse, look to the Word of the Day Photography, Project 50, 2010 2010-07-31T07:15:25+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_3/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_3/#When:06:13:57Z Another quiet week for inspiration I’m afraid this week. Despite lots of things going on this week, I’ve not really been bookmarking a great deal of things. Still, I’ve got a few cool things to pimp so here goes. 8 Faces issue #1 released A brand new typography magazine created by Elliot Jay Stocks in which 8 type and graphic designers are interviewed concluding with answering one burning question: If you could only use eight typefaces for the rest of your life, which would you choose? The printed version, of which there were only 1000 copies, sold out in less than two hours but more may be on the way! For now you can still order the PDF version for just £3 and if you have an iPad, drop it into iBooks and get reading…. The PDF alone would be amazing. It’s great on the iPad Flipboard for iPad I came across this yesterday and after only a couple of hours playing with it, it’s fast becoming my favourite iPad app to consume information from Twitter and Facebook. Check out this video and see what it’s all about. Phaeton Kevin Cornell is an American artist and illustrator, who aside from being known for his work in general, he’s known in the web design community for his work on A List Apart. He’s recently collaborated with designer Randy Jones to create his first font which has a beautiful hand-made quality to it and at just £35 from Veer, it’s a bloody bargain! 2010-07-23T06:13:57+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/get_textpattern_on_the_move/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/get_textpattern_on_the_move/#When:12:36:27Z My mate and local web designer, Oliver Ker, is a long time fan of a particular flavour of CMS called Textpattern. I tried it once for a project but for some reason I found ExpressionEngine easier to get my head around. Anyway, for the last few months (or possibly longer, I’m not entirely sure) he’s been hard at work creating a mobile version of the admin interface allowing you to write and edit posts on the fly, right from your phone. I got a quick preview last week and I have to say it’s looking rather nice. The interface is really clean with simple navigation which gives you quick access to the sections you need throw in little touches like an expanding text area for long blog posts and more, it’s something you should try out for your self. At the time of writing it’s still in the testing phase although I think he’s been sending early previews so I imagine it shan’t be long until it’s fully released. If you want to know when you can get your hands on it, head on over to the site and send him your email address. Web, Community, Web design, Web development 2010-07-22T12:36:27+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_three/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_three/#When:19:17:38Z It’s that time of week again, for a round-up of the last seven days. Like last week, it’s been pretty tough to come up with ideas and it hasn’t helped that the weather has been poor. Anyway, I managed to keep up with a shot a day. Day fifteen ~ Luisa Day fifteen happened to be Luisa’s birthday so I asked her to model for me. This shan’t be the last time you see her in the project. My gorgeous wife to be modeling for me Day sixteen ~ Doodlin’ Not the first time this has appeared on this site but no harm in posting it again. The fruits of half an hours labour Day seventeen ~ Drink To celebrate Luisa’s birthday, we had a bit of a birthday bash with lots of drink and silliness. I think this sums up the evening quite nicely. Jack Daniel’s was flowing that night Day eighteen ~ Aftermath The day after the party was very much a wasted day with lots of sitting around doing as little as possible. Towards the evening I ended up doing some much needed cleaning but that was about it. Luisa’s sock slippers protecting her feet from all the spilled drink Day nineteen ~ Brew I decided to spend the afternoon working from home so I took the opportunity to use Luisa’s new teapot to save me from walking up and down stairs. I think in the end many people thought I was just being lazy, oh well… Lots of tea without having to keep boiling the kettle Day twenty ~ Execution When I saw Toby Howarth’s shot for day nineteen, titled Invasion, my mind immediately thought of the word "Execution" for some reason. I decided to put Bender behind the blindfold since he was a good model last time. I planned on using Buzz Lightyear as the executioner but it didn’t quite work out how I imagined it. Bender was allowed one last cigar before the end… Day twenty-one ~ Vibrant My original Flickr description was rather pretentious but what the hell Awww a pretty pink flower That’s your lot for this week.   2010-07-21T19:17:38+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/preparing_artwork/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/preparing_artwork/#When:06:16:07Z A sneak peek at artwork I’m preparing for this site I’ve decided to make a few changes since the launch of the journal. The typography I’d chosen wasn’t working for me and it looked a bit too clean for what I wanted. I’m going to try adding some illustrative elements to the design and to do that I need to get out my trusty Moleskine and pencils… This is just the initial stage of the illustration, I need to do some shading and a bit of cleaning up (if I could find an eraser). I’ve got some cool ideas in my head for how I want these illustrations to work on the site so fingers crossed I can pull it off. Until then be sure the check out my Flickr stream as I’ll be posting bits and pieces up there as I go through the process. Process, Design, Web, Web design, Personal 2010-07-17T06:16:07+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_2/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_2/#When:08:45:06Z This weeks inspiration has an array of things for you to nibble at. Some are inspiring, some are just amusing and others are simply off the chart of awesomeness. Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop This video cropped up on Twitter or Delicious (can’t quite remember where) showing an interesting concept. I think I could get on board with some of the ideas, like showing the countdown on the boiling kettle but for me there’s way too much guff to look at which seems to obscure your view of the real world. Still an interesting watch. Charlie Brooker on the Twilight Saga Having not seen nor have any intention of seeing the Twilight Saga, I tend to avoid anything to do with it, but throw Charlie Brooker into the mix and I’m there. This is a hilarious rant on how some portrayals of vampires in movies these days are far from menacing. Charlie Brooker doing what needs to be done to the Twilight Saga Grain & Gram A beautifully simple design and inspirational content. This is how all website should be. Beautifully crafted design mixed with perfect typography BIG BANG BIG BOOM A video that is just shy of ten minutes long had better be worth it in my opinion. This definitely is. All the small things by Relly Annett-Baker An audio recording of Relly Annett-Baker’s excellent presentation about microcopy from this year’s Web Directions @media conference. Slides to accompany the audio can be found on the Web Directions site. All the Small Things - Relly Annett-​​Baker at @media 2010 on Huffduffer Reversed Logotype I’ve got to be honest, I don’t read as many blogs as I used to, I simply don’t have the time to keep up with my RSS reader these days. I do keep up with certain blogs on a regular basis, Jon Tan’s site, however, is one that I haven’t visited very often and I really am going to start. Jon Tan discusses the effects of an optical illusion and how to combat it Superhero art I stumbled across this by accident in a related links section of a site and it spurred me on to get my pens out and start drawing again. The work is that of illustrator Christopher Uminga. Keep you eye on my site’s design in the future to see how this has influenced me. Christopher Uminga demonstrates his talents with his own spin on superheroes Inspiration, Weekly 2010-07-16T08:45:06+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_two/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_two/#When:18:55:23Z Continuing on from last week’s round-up is week two of Project50. This week has been quite tough, a couple of days I was lacking inspiration and others were no brainers. On with the show! Day eight ~ Reflection First self shot of the project. I experimented a bit with the reflection of the camera and my face. I settled on a reflection of the camera in it’s own lens. The camera is reflected back in it’s own lens Day nine ~ Lights Lacking inspiration, I decided to point the camera out of the office window and see what came up. A few interesting shots were taken but a full on bokeh shot ended up winning the fight. Bokeh-tastic! Day ten ~ Hogroast My friend and work colleague hosted his 60th birthday party at his house. Lots of drink and lots of stuff to do whilst drunk (the big inflatable slide was awesome) and the hogroast, named Tom, went down a storm. Tom the pig got a good tan Day eleven ~ Bonsai I’ve always wanted a bonsai tree and now I have one! Finally got a bonsai tree Day twelve ~ Head We went to my mum’s house for tea which afforded me the chance of taking photos of some of her ornaments. The head which hardly anybody likes Day thirteen ~ Baking In preparation for Luisa’s birthday, we made some buns for her to take to work. Baking cakes is always fun. Not as much fun to give them away though Day fourteen ~ Monkey The PG Tips monkey makes a return to my photo projects. The last time was during Project365 in 2009. Monkey makes a blinding return I have some time off work next week so hopefully there will be some varying shots in the next round-up. Personal, Photography, Project 50, 2010 2010-07-15T18:55:23+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/sainsburys_missing_a_trick/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/sainsburys_missing_a_trick/#When:07:55:53Z This morning I went to my local Sainsbury’s to pick up a few ingredients for a birthday meal I’m cooking for Luisa. I wandered around with my shopping list and picked up what I could find. After my shopping trip, whilst eating my breakfast I decided to look up the remaining items on their website to see if they stocked what I needed and also to get an idea of what kind of packaging I need to look for when I nipped back later on. Once I’d finished searching, I decided to browse the site for a short while and ended up looking at a few recipes and this is where I think Sainsbury’s are missing a huge sales opportunity. A recipe page on their site is fairly typical of recipe pages on the web. There’s a nice photo of the finished meal, cooking method, rating system and of course a list of ingredients… The ingredients for French toast with zest of orange & maple syrup Now you might not think there’s anything wrong with it, which in reality there isn’t, but from a shopper’s point of view, what would they have to do if they wanted to order these ingredients? They would have to leave the page, search for each item individually and add them to their shopping list. With a small addition, the page could not only become more useful to the shopper but could help increase online sales. The addition of a one-click order feature could increase online sales In the rough example above, I’ve added a button (and made it very obvious for the purpose of this example) which allows the shopper to order all the ingredients they’ll need for the recipe in one click. After clicking, they’d perhaps get a quick message saying it’s been added to their basket and leave the shopper to continue browsing the recipe page until they are ready to check out. Lots of variations of this idea could be applied, but if they allowed users to buy what they need with such little effort, I think they’d see a dramatic increase in sales.   Design, Web, Web design, Web development 2010-07-15T07:55:53+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/oh_hai_journal/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/oh_hai_journal/#When:07:56:06Z For the last year or so I’ve been using this site to experiment with design, giving each entry a unique look. When I first started out doing it, I knew it was going to be a time consuming task to publish a post so I resigned myself to writing at fairly irregular intervals which I began to find frustrating because I think of things to write about on a very regular basis. Couple that with more frustration over the navigation of the site and general rendering issues on mobile devices, I decided I needed a change. I’ve been planning to set up a regular blog or journal for some time but it’s only come into fruition in recent weeks. My main challenge was working out the best way to lay out the type of content I plan to publish. I ended up settling on a standard blog format laid over a simple 8 column grid and sticking to a basic navigation allowing people to browse all the contents of the journal or drill down using categories. But what about the articles? I’ve temporarily removed the articles from the primary navigation until I can integrate them with this site. I’m in the process of converting them to HTML5 so I’m going to take my time until they are right bu they will return! They will still have their unique designs and I do plan to continue with the art directed articles but they’ll be kept in a separate section from the journal. For now I’m going to concentrate on getting into the habit of writing again and once I’m in the swing of it, I’ll look into making odd design improvements here and there. Web 2010-07-10T07:56:06+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_1/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/weekly_inspiration_dose_1/#When:07:26:47Z As I stated in a recent entry, I am big fan of Delicious and use it on a daily basis to bookmark titbits I come across on the web. I get a lot out of the stuff I find so I figured why not start publishing my top rated bookmarks every week so if people don’t wish to scour through my bookmarks but still want to know what I’ve been looking at, all they need to do is look here every Friday and they’ll have a some nice bite-sized links to browse over their morning coffee. So without further ado, lets get into the first dose of weekly inspiration. BBC News website redesign I’ve been eagerly awaiting to hear news of this ever since I first heard about it and I have to say my first instinct really likes what they plan to release. As with any redesign, the real test is when it’s out in the open but I think it’s definitely an improvement. A screenshot showing what appears to be a much improved home page A List Apart | Prefix or Posthack Eric Meyer discusses the advantages of using browser prefixes for CSS3 and the potential problems that could lay ahead if we were able to take the simpler route of not using them at all. Eric Meyer writes about the pros and cons of browser prefixes A List Apart | Supersize that Background, Please! Bobby van der Sluis shows some interesting examples of how CSS3 can allow background images to be more flexible according to the screen size. Bobby van der Sluis shows some cool examples of using background images and CSS3 Non Hover Trent Walton writes about using the CSS :hover pseudo-class and the potential problems web developers face with the emergence of touch screen devices. Trent Walton writes about potential problems we face with touch screen devices I must admit it’s been a rather quiet week but to be honest, I’ve mostly been reading offline. I’m sure there’ll be one or two more next week. Design, Web, Web design, Web development, Inspiration, Weekly 2010-07-09T07:26:47+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_one/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/project_50_week_one/#When:09:21:58Z It’s been 7 months since I finished the behemoth project that is Project365 so I decided it was time to start another one. My decision to start Project50 was greatly influenced by a few photo buddies wanting to do it too. Project50 is very much like 365 in the way that you take a photo every day although it is limited to 50 days and all photos must be taken with a 50mm lens. So here we are, one week in and we’re all going strong, although I must admit, my lack of equipment, namely a decent flash, is limiting my shooting options although having said that, I like the particular flavour a non-flash image has. I also must admit that this view is probably fed by the fact that I have very few options. Anyway, enough waffling on, time to get down to business. Here is a round-up of the first weeks photos. Day one ~ Ring For the first shot, I wanted something simple to ease into the project. I also wanted a decent shot of Luisa wearing her engagement ring. Having not taken a proper photo of Lu’s engagement ring, I felt now was a good time Day two ~ Enlightened The first Friday of the project so I thought it would be fitting to take a shot in one of our regular haunts. Friday means one thing, time for the pub Day three ~ Bear Luisa and I visited the National Media Museum, primarily to see a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (which I highly recommend given the chance) but we also took advantage of the Saturday afternoon to have a look around. This was taken in the Animation exhibit. Taken in the Animation exhibit of the National Media Museum Day four ~ Christening Rather than celebrating Independence Day like some English people we know, we attended the Christening of my friend’s daughter. Taken after the Christening outside the church in Rishworth Day five ~ Woody Since we got our cats, I’ve taken hundreds of photos. Woody seems quite accustomed to me shoving a camera in his face and is quite often willing to sit for a photo. One of many shots take of Woody. For a cat he makes a good model Day six ~ Drink I was quite stuck for an idea for a shot and just as I was getting ready to take a rather mediocre shot, I found Woody in our bathroom drinking from the tap. I swear he does this every morning Day seven ~ Bender First toy shot of the project. This is a wind-up Bender toy which my brother won years ago (and gave to me quite recently). I took a few shots in full light but they weren’t particularly interesting, then I remembered an interview I once saw with Matt Groening talking about his thoughts on character design. His theory was that iconic cartoon characters can be identified in silhouette (Batman, Mickey Mouse etc) and used it as a basis for the Simpsons. This shot is a sort of test of the theory. The first toy shot and probably not the last silhouette shot So there you have it, check back in a week for the next round-up. Photography, Project 50, 2010 2010-07-08T09:21:58+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/posting_in_tandem/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/posting_in_tandem/#When:07:48:01Z For years now I’ve been running ExpressionEngine and Tumblr side-by-side. EE has played the part of the standard blog and Tumblr has been used primarily for a place to post random images and videos. I have used Tumblr in the past for blog posts but with me having a full working blog here, I feel like I’m sporadically moving between the two all the time, which means my posts on both sites look inconsistent, irregular and mainly, two different types of content stored separately when really they should be together in one place. Having said that, the thing about Tumblr I love is the social/community aspect to it. I find lots of inspiration by simply browsing my dashboard. So, despite me wanting to keep things together on ExpressionEngine, and not leave the Tumblr community behind, I’ve decided to post things to both. Seems like a silly idea to give myself twice as much work but that way I get the best of both worlds. I get to keep adding fresh content to nocturnalmonkey on a very regular basis (which in the last year has been my primary concern) and still contribute and gain a lot from being part of Tumblr. Only time will tell on how long I keep it up for… Web, Web development, Personal 2010-07-07T07:48:01+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/simply_delicious/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/simply_delicious/#When:07:30:25Z I’m a relatively new user of Delicious, despite signing up some time ago, I only actually started to use it regularly in October last year. Since then I’ve become addicted to it. It’s been almost a year since I bookmarked anything on a local machine and it’s proven useful on a number of occasions when showing people things. My future wife and I have even worked out our own tagging system so we can bookmark things for our wedding and easily find things relating to it on each others bookmarks. Now onto what I was writing this for in the first place. I hardly ever scour Delicious for things to read, I simply don’t have time, so when I open up the site, I head straight for the network section. I now follow many people who provide me with information, resources and inspiration on a daily basis. If you’ve never used Delicious and want to but don’t know where to start, I’ve put together a short list of people in the web community who may bookmark pages and sites that are of similar interest to you. If you like your breakfast with a dash design inspiration Harry Roberts, Colly, Jason Santa Maria and David DeSandro are great people to add to your network, posting not just inspiring site designs but also plenty of informative resources relating to typography, grid design and much more. For an added dose of design related bookmarks with Web Standards and more tech stuff mixed in, I suggest you head over to see Si Jobling, Dan Donald and Jasper Tandy. They’ll supply you with a nutritious diet of web design and development resources. That’ll do for now I think. Even if this is a starting point for you, the best thing to do is just play with it yourself, find your feet and add people to your network organically. That way you’ll get a feel for what certain people bookmark but you’ll also not be overwhelmed with hundreds of bookmarks to sift through, which would undoubtedly happen if you added 20 users at once. Web, Community, Inspiration 2010-07-06T07:30:25+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/up_there_documentary/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/up_there_documentary/#When:09:08:01Z An excellent short documentary about New York advertising painters keeping an old trade alive. Process, Design, Film, Inspiration 2010-06-28T09:08:01+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_future_is_geo-based/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_future_is_geo-based/#When:08:43:38Z Originally posted on my company’s site Yesterday, photo-sharing website, Flickr, published an article detailing a number of improvements they’ve made to the user interface. Among them a more prominent Map feature, allowing users to add geo-location data to their photos which harks back to my thoughts on the maps feature in the new iPhone iOS4. Sharing geo-based data as part of people’s usual social media is becoming more popular. Location based services like Gowalla and Foursquare have encouraged people to be more open with their whereabouts, allowing them to publish to Twitter and Facebook. Add the improved map feature on Flickr and the iPhone into the mix and we’re one step closer to seamless, timely, location-based information and images to share with our friends and family on the most popular (and/or appropriate) social media sites. Web, Community, Social, Web development, Photography 2010-06-24T08:43:38+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/iphone_ios4_update/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/iphone_ios4_update/#When:10:25:45Z Originally posted on my company’s site Yesterday Apple released their latest iPhone software update. I wasn’t as quick off the mark as some of my friends so this morning I deliberately ignored Twitter and other social media so I could make my own mind up without being influenced. I don’t like doing major iPhone updates as there hasn’t been an update yet where I’ve not heard stories of iPhones crashing and generally being worse than before. Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid any problems and get to experience the new features as though I’d opened a brand new iPhone! I’ll be honest, the update last year wasn’t all that great in my opinion, the features I found useful day-to-day could have probably been counted on one hand. Since hearing about the new features of iOS4 I’ve been waiting in anticipation to play with the new features and already putting together a small list of things I love about it… Folders Folders is an easy one to start with as they’re pretty self explanatory. Basically, iOS4 allows you to group your apps together making your home screen less cluttered and more organised. The automatic naming of folders (using the apps you’re grouping to find their common category eg. Games, Social etc) makes the process quick and easy to do. 5x Optical Zoom My experience in the past with Digital Zoom on any kind of camera has been less than fun. The results were often poor and pixelated making it about as useful at capturing an image as a Rhino with a paintbrush. With it’s reputation already tarnished, I wasn’t expecting much when I took a few test shots and for a moment I was again left disappointed. I opened the camera app and pointed it to a random subject and zoomed in. The onscreen representation was pixelated and poor quality at which I huffed with disgust, then I went into my photo album to check the end result. The image was good quality and relatively sharp for a digitally zoomed image. My opinion of digital zoom was swiftly changed, it can be done! Photos and Places The photo album on iPhone has gone pretty much untouched (as far as I can tell) for the last few years so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Apple started to use geo-tagging in a way that’s useful to iPhone users. When browsing your photo album there is a new icon named “Places”, touching this brings to you a map view. Geo-tagged data is retrieved from the photos stored on the iPhone and applied to map based on where they were taken. I think it’s a different but useful way to view photos. With this feature I can quickly find photos I took at my wedding venue,  a friend’s wedding or on a recent trip to London. Personally, I think Places is the best improvement I’ve discovered so far. It gives additional functionality and an alternative way view photos while encouraging iPhone users (whether they know directly or not) to apply more useful data into their photos, which in the fast world of the Web could lead to new and interesting applications for viewing photos. Technology, Apple, iPhone 2010-06-22T10:25:45+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/whats_the_point_of_running/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/whats_the_point_of_running/#When:10:51:13Z Recently, Luisa and I have started to walk to work, to help save pennies and get a bit of exercise at the same time. Luisa gets the train from Halifax to Leeds and each morning I wait with her on the platform until her train arrives. When leaving the station, I’m always met with people racing to catch the train. It’s at this point every morning I see something strange… The people I see running suddenly stop to pick up a Metro, which might sound like nothing but Halifax station is so small that if they carried on running rather than wasting 5 seconds, they might actually catch the train. It doesn’t bother or annoy me, it just makes me giggle. Personal 2010-06-09T10:51:13+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/user_generated_advertising/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/user_generated_advertising/#When:15:36:53Z Originally posted on my company’s site Recently I’ve become a regular user of Gowalla, a location based social networking app which allows you to tell friends where you are via Twitter and Facebook. Using the iPhone GPS, it finds your location and provides you with all the information it has on businesses and attractions (called “spots”) around you, allowing you to “check-in” when you visit them. You can also create new spots yourself, encouraging the growth of information available in the places you visit. As I spend most of my week here in Dean Clough and other places in Halifax, there are a number of places I check-in more often than others. A few weeks ago, while picking up lunch for the Connected crew at a local cafe, I pulled out my iPhone and checked-in. It then occurred to me that the cafe staff probably had no idea that I was promoting their business as they were serving me. This was live user generated advertising. As the social web gains more momentum, this type of service could shift the way advertising and promotion is approached. We’ve already seen a big take up of all business types using Facebook and Twitter to promote their businesses, throwing in live location based data could make things very interesting. Web, Community, Social 2010-05-06T15:36:53+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/first_impressions_on_the_ipad/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/first_impressions_on_the_ipad/#When:13:12:05Z Originally posted on my company’s site For the most part, Connected are an Apple loving company so there was a lot of excitement among us yesterday as we awaited the arrival of Apple’s latest piece of kit. Despite my initial scepticism when it was announced, my opinion quickly changed and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I had the good fortune of being the one who had first dibs on the little critter so like a child at Christmas I opened it up, threw away the “Start up guide” (who needs them really) and fired it up. Aside from the physical device itself, the interface is a thing of beauty. Yes, the home screen does resemble the iPhone but as an iPhone user, that meant instant recognition of the User Interface (UI) and within a minute (literally), I had email, contacts, calendars and bookmarks all synced from my MobileMe and GoogleMail accounts. Obviously, this is in part due to the transferability of account information afforded to us by cloud computing. I spent a bit of time getting reacquainted with my Inbox using the Mail client, responding to email, filing etc and the whole process feels like a seamless linear task. Holding the device landscape you get a fairly conventional layout displaying the contents of your inbox (or folder if you’re looking through your stored mail) with your selected email on the right. Turning the device to a portrait position allows you to focus on your chosen email, hiding the inbox/folder contents within a button in the top menu bar allowing you to access the information when you need it. Of course I was still working so I did have to put it down and get on with other things but I periodically took a short break to browse various websites, reading blogs and news items and for me this has been the most eye opening experience so far. I take a great interest in web design and read many blogs which are (like my personal site) designed in a way that each article or blog post is individually designed to fit the content, much like printed magazines, and I think the iPad makes this type of implementation really stand out. Ironically, they seem to resemble magazine articles more than blogs or websites. This isn’t limited to design based sites either, all the sites I visited had a fresh new look about them, they suddenly became easier to navigate and information was more digestible. I must point out, this opinion is based on the orientation of the iPad being held portrait. Bizarrely, turning it to landscape, I think sites become normal again. Room with (more of) a view The problem with landscape is the orientation is the same as what we’re used to on computers, it’s the same letterbox shaped window with the site’s header, navigation and maybe the top 5 lines of body copy. Turning it portrait opens up 50% more screen real estate which gives you a much better view of the information available on a page allowing your eye to digest more in one go. This view is very subjective and many sites I visited I was already familiar with the site’s layout and structure so others may (and will) have a different opinion on the matter. One thing for sure is if tablet computing picks up speed and becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones, it’ll add a whole new dimension to the fun debate of “the fold” There are obviously downsides to getting to play with this early, namely the absence of the iPad app store (it’s currently only open in the US). My first 24 hours with the device was limited by what you can do with it’s native apps, which to be fair is quite a lot, but the real test will be when apps become available and I can test out the apps I use regularly on my iPhone to see how they fair. Overall my opinion is set, I want an iPad of my own that I can carry around with me. I’d love to hear your opinions on the device, have you got one early? What do you think of it? What impact will it have on our day-to-day lives? Technology, Apple, iPad 2010-05-05T13:12:05+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_beauty_of_an_empty_inbox/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_beauty_of_an_empty_inbox/#When:14:03:16Z Originally posted on my company’s site Over the last few years working at Connected, we’ve gone through a change in process and attitude to all things digital. What was once stored on one’s own machine is now stored up in the cloud and pretty much nothing is hidden from one another. Part of this move to cloud based computing has included forming a new habit encouraged by Martin, our CEO, to keep inboxes as clear as possible. A clean, uncluttered inbox leads to a clean uncluttered mind. Inboxes can be horrible places. If you get an influx of new messages that need to be dealt with, you can get flustered and even get a bit stressed with having to deal with that as well as all your other daily duties. There are a number of effective ways you can deal with email. One such way is to set aside 2 time slots each day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, where you do nothing but sort your inbox, responding, deleting, filing etc. This allows you to keep on top of your mail and ensures clients aren’t left waiting for responses. I happen to be quite lucky that most of my email tends to come in the form of notifications from Basecamp, the collaborative online application we use to manage our projects, so my inbox is very easy to keep on top of. Whether you receive 10 emails a day or 200, sorting through your inbox and leaving it empty allows you to stay on top of things and keeps your mind focused. Process, Design, Web 2010-04-23T14:03:16+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/by_invitation_only/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/by_invitation_only/#When:13:12:02Z I’ve had a dribbble account for some time and have found it to be quite an interesting site. You get to see other designers’ snippets of works in progress and are able to give feedback. Likewise you can upload works in progress and get useful pointers and opinions from friends and colleagues. The site is currently in beta and you can only create an account if you are invited by an existing user. The other day I managed to “score” some invites to send out to people. I was faced with a choice, sit on them until I notice someone asking for an invite or send out a tweet and give them to the first who replied so they can start using it too. I didn’t think too much about who I was giving them to, I based my choice on a first come first served basis, but within the @ replies there were some from colleagues asking me to ensure their work is up to standard before sending invites. While I agree in principle that dribbble would soon be pretty rubbish if newcomers began to use it inappropriately but I couldn’t help asking myself, who am I to judge whether someone is worthy an invite? Perhaps I’m reading too much into it and I was only being encouraged to ensure those who get an invite will make it worthwhile and not waste the opportunity. I certainly hope this is the case as it didn’t really feel in keeping with the openness and collaborative spirit of the web community that I know and love. Web, Community 2010-03-26T13:12:02+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/283_365_the_busker/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/283_365_the_busker/#When:20:15:32Z The local legend playing at the album launch We went to the album launch of Roger Davies’ new album, The Busker. It’s currently only available on CD but it’ll be on iTunes in the near future. Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-10-10T20:15:32+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/280_365_collie/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/280_365_collie/#When:23:02:24Z My first Jon Burgerman toy posing for a shot For my birthday, Luisa’s niece and nephew bought me my first Hero of Burgertown toy which happened to be named Collie. It’s kinda strange since I’ve got a mate named Colly who shares a studio with Jon Burgerman. Todays photo is dedicated to those chaps down in Nottingham-land. Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-10-07T23:02:24+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/276_365_the_alps_at_36000_feet/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/276_365_the_alps_at_36000_feet/#When:08:34:21Z I couldn’t have asked for better conditions for this shot Today we flew back from Malta. Lu spent most of the flight resting but I was looking out of the window at the sights. We flew passed Sicily, along the west coast of Italy, over the Alps and across France. Unfortunately, the clouds got heavier the further north we flew so we couldn’t see Paris. This view made up for it though. Note: The murkiness of the shot is caused by the haggard window. Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-10-04T08:34:21+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/264_365_maisie_blue_eyes/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/264_365_maisie_blue_eyes/#When:22:38:47Z Look at the wisdom behind that eye Tonight we went over to Mum’s for tea. One of Mum’s cats who usually runs a mile when I’m around came and sat on my knee with no encouragement. I thought I’d document this momentous occasion. Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-09-21T22:38:47+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/snow_day/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/snow_day/#When:19:36:37Z Today saw the first decent amount of snow in these parts for around three years. Just as the light was fading I took a walk around the business park where I work. Many of the pics I took were pretty mediocre but I think this one was pretty good Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-02-02T19:36:37+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_vignelli_canon/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_vignelli_canon/#When:18:15:47Z A 96 page PDF download from Massimo Vignelli found via thegridsystem.org Design, Graphic design, Inspiration 2009-01-23T18:15:47+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/how_much_can_you_fit_in_a_jamfactory_bag/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/how_much_can_you_fit_in_a_jamfactory_bag/#When:12:58:36Z Today I’m travelling to London for an overnight stay with Luisa. I’m attending an engagement party this evening so I needed to bring some extra clothes. As we’re planning on spending a bit of time wander around London, I couldn’t really bring a holdall so I’ve turned to my trusty JamFactory bag. On the outside it looks like it couldn’t really fit a great deal but here’s what I’ve managed to cram in: 2 pairs of socks 2 pairs of boxers 1 Diggnation t-shirt 1 MacBook 1 MacBook charger 1 pair of shoes 1 shirt 1 pair of trousers 1 jumper 1 tie 1 peaked beanie 1 point and shoot camera 1 card reader 3 pens 1 tub of hair stuff 1 bottle of CK Crave 1 can of body spray Hand cream 1 DSLR battery charger 1 iPhone charger 1 DSLR USB cable and… 1 DSLR carrying strap Not bad for a tenner. I’m not sure how many Gavin has in stock, but if you want to find out head over to the JamFactory store. Now it’s back to my film because I’ve still got an hour and a half left of this train journey : ) Design, Personal 2009-01-09T12:58:36+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/experimentation/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/experimentation/#When:12:25:22Z For the last couple of days I’ve been playing around with my camera, seeing what kind of effects I can get by taking shots using a slower shutter speed and waving a small blue light around. I’ve now reached a point where I’ve taken many photos in a restricted space and the results are becoming less interesting each time. I think I’ll take a break with these types of photos for a while and move on to something else. Personal, Photography 2009-01-04T12:25:22+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/ive_been_a_busy_boy_today/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/ive_been_a_busy_boy_today/#When:20:19:11Z I’ve been spending a lot of time experimenting with my camera recently. Today alone I’ve taken 124 photos so far and have only stopped to recharge my camera battery. I just wanted to write a quick post to pimp some of the stuff I’ve been throwing up on Flickr. Project 365 (ongoing) Experiments with long exposure and light Alphabet (and extension of the light experiments) Enjoy! Personal, Photography, Project 365, 2009 2009-01-03T20:19:11+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/next_year_im_staying_in/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/next_year_im_staying_in/#When:12:08:30Z After a morning of dodging manic last minute shoppers I’ve decided that next year, I’m going to lock myself away the week before Christmas. I’m an impatient shopper at the best of times, but during the last two weeks of December, I become very irritable when I have to queue for more than two minutes and I see red when people walk by and whack me on the back of my knees with their bags. Next Christmas I’m going to avoid all town and city centres at any cost… Personal 2008-12-20T12:08:30+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/ie6_sorry_its_just_not_working_out_between_us/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/ie6_sorry_its_just_not_working_out_between_us/#When:23:57:40Z With IE8 on the verge of release in the next month or two, I’m probably not the only developer in the world who can’t help but think this may actually be the beginning of something good. There’ll (hopefully) be a lot less headaches and fewer wasted hours fixing CSS problems. I for one am looking forward to the day when I can create a page layout and not cringe when I launch Internet Explorer. There is one draw back to this lovely prospect and that is we now have three versions of Internet Explorer in which we must test sites. At work, we still code and debug to ensure sites look and act like they do in standards compliant browsers, because like it or not, people still use IE6. Until today I was worried that when IE8 was released, I would just have another browser to add to my testing list. My worry disappeared this afternoon when it was decided that we as a company will be stopping actively supporting IE6 in future developments. That is not to say we are going to leave IE6 users in the dark, we’re just going to use the Transcendent CSS approach of giving IE6 users a basic user experience and concentrate on the really cool stuff for more modern browsers. Looking to the future this has got me really excited. As I need to concentrate less on IE6 support, I can start to concentrate on, and implement more advanced CSS and using it to it’s full potential. I’m looking forward to seeing how far I can push myself in the coming months… RIP IE6, you will be dearly missed *snigger* Web, Web development 2008-12-17T23:57:40+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/inspiration_close_to_home/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/inspiration_close_to_home/#When:02:03:37Z My older brother recently started a blog. I may be bias but I think he’s putting out some awesome work : ) Inspiration, Personal 2008-12-13T02:03:37+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/if_i_could_change_anything_on_the_iphone_3g/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/if_i_could_change_anything_on_the_iphone_3g/#When:19:18:07Z ...it would be the ability to flip between apps without returning to the homescreen. Today I was watching Cloverfield and got a text. I hit “Reply” which pulled up the keyboard. Once I’d sent the text, I had to return to the homepage, access the iPod and find my film. Not a particularly arduous task I admit, but when I’m having a text conversation, I want it to automatically restart my movie where I left off. I bet you all really wanted to know that. Now it’s time for food. Later! Technology, Apple, iPhone 2008-12-10T19:18:07+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_plan_to_print/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/the_plan_to_print/#When:18:19:25Z 2008 has been a crap year for me in terms of doing art work. Although I know many people who are a constant inspiration, my lack of self-motivation has meant that as we approach the end of the year, I have no work to show other than some sketchbook pages. The plan for next year is to really pull my finger out and get working on some real pieces. The first step is to enroll for a printing course at a local workshop. Having studied print in college, I think I can get away with taking the (cheaper) 5 week course to refresh my memory. Making the assumption that I’ll be able to print whatever I wish, I am going to create a series of Chaplin posters. I’ll do a few prints to see how they look and if they are good enough, I’ll print more which I’ll post up here for sale. As well as printing some posters I will be looking into other methods and techniques such as life drawing. So with a bit of determination and motivation, my portfolio will soon be packed full of stuff. Design, Process 2008-12-07T18:19:25+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/now_its_starting_to_feel_like_christmas/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/now_its_starting_to_feel_like_christmas/#When:14:46:08Z I created a time lapse video of myself putting up my Christmas tree. Merry Christmas!   Film, Personal 2008-12-06T14:46:08+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/i_feel_a_rant_coming_on/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/i_feel_a_rant_coming_on/#When:14:42:50Z Just a quick one while I eat my sandwich. I’ve just been to Sainsburys and there was a guy at the checkout who really, really, really annoyed me. He was buying a fair amount of items and asked for some bags. Sainsburys now charge 10p for a standard plastic bag and this fella didn’t like it one bit. He started having a dig at the checkout lady, saying the prices were too high and her reply was “I just work here, I don’t decide the prices” which is a fair comment. He then began to tell her she was “part of the establishment” so she automatically has to take responsibility for how Sainsburys set their prices. Again, she replied “it’s not my job to decide the prices”. His total came to about £25 and his reaction was that of horror. He grumbled something about the prices being far too high then proceeded to pull out a huge wad of cash! There must have been £200+ in his hand. This really got on my nerves because he was unnecessarily holding up the queue at lunchtime. He was shopping at Sainsburys! They’re an expensive supermarket, get over it! And he quite clearly wasn’t going to struggle to pay for his shopping and he was giving the poor woman a hard time because… well… because he’s a wanker. Rant over, sandwich eaten. Time to flee. Personal 2008-12-03T14:42:50+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/hillman_curtis_artist_series/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/hillman_curtis_artist_series/#When:08:25:13Z A series of short films featuring artists, illustrators and designers. I found the Paula Scher film of particular interest. Design, Graphic design, Film 2008-10-28T08:25:13+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/is_css3_rgba_ready_to_rock/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/is_css3_rgba_ready_to_rock/#When:12:45:22Z                   A great video by Andy Clarke on CSS3 RGBa, be sure to check out the original blog post for transcript and code examples. Take notice of his warning, you may use this for educational purposes only, unless you want your legs bitten off. Web, Web design, Film 2008-10-27T12:45:22+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/this_weekend/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/this_weekend/#When:22:47:14Z ...I’ve been out for drinks, made another short film, had a long overdue meet up with friend, had a pub lunch, been frisked by two bouncers in the gents of a pub in Headingley (apparently winter clothing makes me look like a drug dealer), been out for more drinks, redesigned my website (again! but this time it’s really fucking great, even if I do say so myself), started and have nearly finished building the aforementioned design, been shopping with Mum, seen a double rainbow, bought a new puzzle for my desk at work, watched a great documentary about the conspiracy theories surrounding WTC tower 7 and nearly fallen asleep on Mum’s couch. Now I’m going to bed. Personal 2008-10-26T22:47:14+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/experimenting_with_still_photos/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/experimenting_with_still_photos/#When:09:41:41Z I’ve been busy this morning. After taking a shot of the sunrise, I thought it’d be cool to try making another film, so I got dressed and legged it up the hillside and shot this. It’s not the greatest but that’s what experimentation is all about   Photography 2008-10-25T09:41:41+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/my_day_yesterday_21st_october_2008/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/my_day_yesterday_21st_october_2008/#When:07:52:24Z Here’s the final cut for my addition to the ‘My day, yesterday’ Flickr pool. I ended up editing in the early hours of this morning because I was finding it hard to sleep. I’ll try editing a longer version so I can get some more bits in. Enjoy! Film, Personal 2008-10-22T07:52:24+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/a_day_to_remember/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/a_day_to_remember/#When:23:12:13Z My day of filming is drawing to an end and I have to say it’s been an enlightening experience. I started looking at my normal monotonous world from a new perspective. It hasn’t been life changing but I know this is a day to be stored in my memory forever. The simple task of chronicling a days events makes it stand out from the rest. I’ve managed to gather about 15 minutes of footage which I need to whittle down to 90 seconds so I have my work cut out tomorrow. The amount of footage is still growing as I am still on my way home. I really hope this turns out well. Wish me look for the editing stage… Film, Personal 2008-10-21T23:12:13+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/my_day_yesterday_production/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/my_day_yesterday_production/#When:10:04:58Z We’ve just hit 10am(ish) in England and so far I’ve recorded my progress since getting up at 7am. I tried the old school style of trying to edit as I film (to save me time later on) which has turned out okay but I’ve accumulated about 6 minutes of film already so I’m still going to have to cut some shots out. I’ve still got lunch, rock climbing and meeting up with friends to film too! I intend to create two versions, a short edit for the Flickr pool and a full one for anyone who is interested : ) Film, Personal 2008-10-21T10:04:58+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/struggling_with_motivation/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/struggling_with_motivation/#When:21:44:36Z How do you stay motivated and focused in a world of distraction? I’m teeming with inspiration and ideas but I can’t seem to rustle up the energy to start bringing the ideas into fruition. After getting home from work and eating food, my brain starts to shut down. Does anyone have any tips on staying motivated? Design, Process, Web, Web design, Inspiration 2008-10-20T21:44:36+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/fifty_people_one_question_new_orleans/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/fifty_people_one_question_new_orleans/#When:15:59:01Z This was posted on Cameron Moll’s site and thought it was pretty awesome Film 2008-10-20T15:59:01+00:00 http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/a_few_doodles_for_a_sunday_afternoon/ http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com/journal/entry/a_few_doodles_for_a_sunday_afternoon/#When:22:58:04Z This weekend, I started a new sketchbook and thought it’d be pretty cool to put the pages out there for my mates to catch on Facebook and Flickr. For some reason I decided to film the process of doing a few doodles and what you see is the result. You can keep track of the progress of the sketchbook on Flickr In case you’re wondering, I was listening to ‘Psyence Fiction’ by UNKLE : )   Design, Process, Film, Personal 2008-10-19T22:58:04+00:00