The Blog of Graham

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Posted on December 28th, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Photography | No Comments »

Yet another Christmas has come and gone (pretty much)!

We got to the beach a bit late this time, so I didn’t have any time to change lenses (so all these are taken with the 50mm f/1.4).

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Some late arrivals:

Most people leaving at this point…

I quite like this shot, some people still in the (cold) water, others on their way in and the man and child drying off and watching.

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Posted on December 27th, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Photography | 1 Comment »

I have finally had time to upload some of the photos that I took during the official opening of the new building for RICE

Mr Sheppard, Chairman of Trustees with his opening speech.

Terry talking about RICE:

The unveiling of the plaque (most important bit)…

The audience…

Terry being presented with some gifts from Roy Jones, the current director of RICE.

Tricia Mugridge being presented with flowers for all her hard work for RICE

Tricia presenting Terry with the wizard-like veil used to cover the plaque.

Some shots of the new building, inside and out…

the reception area

the lunch spread

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Posted on December 12th, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Photography, Random | No Comments »

These are some of my shots from the photo shoot I organised and opened up to all students at Bath University; only two people actually attended, maybe more advertising and persuading were needed.

We had Ieuan juggling etc.

Along with Alex

Posted on December 3rd, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: PhotoSoc, Photography | No Comments »

Had a fun time doing a photo shoot with Nicole! I will let the pics speak for themselves. If anyone else is interested in having something similar done, let me know :)

Love the texture of the jeans in the photo above :)

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Posted on November 25th, 2008 by Graham
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I went back to Jamie Oliver’s in Bath for some shots for Impact (Bath Uni newspaper). This time armed with a tripod (and selection of lenses although I only used the 50mm f/1.4). Thanks to the general manager, Tom James, for permission. Here is an interview with Tom by Francesca Brkic along with the pictures I took while eating there.

front…

back…

Service :)

On the way out…

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Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Food, Photography | No Comments »

This was a really nice sunset, but I was driving back from Uni while the sky was ablaze, orange/red coloured clouds filled the sky. When I eventually got back I grabbed the camera and tripod and rushed to my near-by sunset-picture-taking spot.

Whipped out the 70-200 after the following shot because there was too much difference between the orange sunset band and the gradually darkening sky for it to look good with a wide shot.

Started to get darker from this point on, so I thought I would head back and take some pics along the way.

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Posted on November 19th, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Photography | No Comments »

Three of us went to Jamie Oliver’s Italian Restaurant. The food was great and we had a good time. These are a collected of some of the images I took while there. I have more photos of Jamie’s Italian here.

Interview with Tom James, General Manager

TJ: Jamie has been coming to Bath for many years. He likes the look of the city, the ambiance and the fact that there is a real buzz about food.

FB: What do you think is the restaurant’s aim and purpose, with regards to the choice of customers and culinary dishes?

TJ: The main mission of Jamie’s Italian is to provide world class Italian food in a relaxed, informal, and accessable environment. One of the key factors to its success is the fact  it is so reasonably priced for the quality of the dishes. I don’t know any other restaurant where you can get a truffle tagliatelle for less than 8 quid! We wanted a totally non-exclusive restaurant where 4 students would be equally as comfortable as 3 people having a business lunch.
In terms of the menu, that all comes from Jamie with help from his mentor Gennaro. Its a combination of classic Italian dishes and some more contemporary dishes inspired by Italy.

FB: What do you think sets Jamie’s Italian apart from the many other Italian restaurants that can be found in the country?

TJ: I think the products the chefs have to work with. The mozzarella is made exclusively for us, as is the olive oil. The pasta is made fresh each morning, using a recipe that took 6 months to perfect.In fact the sourcing of produce has probably been the most time-consuming aspect of opening, but we weren’t prepared to compromise anything. Every supplier knows how passionate we are about our food and so they know they have to deliver, from the day boats that supply our squid to the Devonshire red chickens.
The other key factor was staff training. Before opening we had all the staff together for 2 weeks; eating, cooking talking about food, talking with Jamie. That 2 weeks was very special and has helped create a real family atmosphere.

Someone else’s food I thought looked like it needed a photo of it taking.

Our starters

(Two of) our pasta dishes

Before, After:

FB: If you had to describe the restaurant’s atmosphere, what would it be?

TJ: It’s a real family Italian. Full of atmosphere, smells of fantastic food, and warm rustic surroundings.

Some spilled water made an interesting shape on the table.

FB: What were the reasons behind the architecture of the restaurant? It’s quite a melange of styles, from the large glass windows and the modern lounge feel to the wooden bathrooms and tables.

TJ: A lot of the design has come from Jamie. Its a combination of features he has seen and ideas he has had. I think the restaurant works really well and we are getting a lot of customers coming back to sit in the different areas. A meal on the terrace in summer is a totally different ambiance to a December night in the cosy Georgian room. The only thing that doesn’t change is the quality of the food and the great service!!

Taking a look upstairs…

FB: Has the presence of two populous universities influenced this decision in any way?

TJ: Yes definitely. We were looking for a vibrant city and Bath is a fantastic university town. We employ a lot of students and love the fact that we have a great reputation with the universities.

FB: What are the reasons behind an open and exposed kitchen?

TJ: It’s to create that link between the chefs and the customers. The chefs love to be able to talk to customers and let them see what they are doing. Also we like the transparency of letting customers see exactly how we make the great food they are eating. It’s why we put in a 8ft projector screen of the chefs too!!!

FB: Would the restaurant be willing to give special discounts to students, on a certain day, to market the restaurant within the university with the help of Impact?

TJ: It is something we are certainly considering for the future!

Lights outside as we were leaving.

Fin.

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Posted on November 12th, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Food, Photography | No Comments »

Finally got 5 mins to put up some of the photos I took while out with this year’s PhotoSoc members on our taster session.

We took a walk from campus thorough the forest at the back of the Uni near the golf course. It was probably one of the best days we have had this month.

Fellow PhotoSoc’ers

Minimalistic shot:

Bath Abbey:

We all went for food at this point and then most people went home afterwards; I stayed out with Fran while the light was still good.

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Posted on October 19th, 2008 by Graham
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When trying to compile some java code on my x86_64 (amd64) 64bit Gentoo machine I was greeted with the following error message:

* javac is not available for sun-jre-bin-1.6 on x86_64
* IMPORTANT: some Java tools are not available on some VMs on some architectures

This can be fixed by installing and/or setting the jdk to system as below:

To see what VM’s were available:

# eselect java-vm list

Available Java Virtual Machines:
[1]   sun-jre-bin-1.6  system-vm

sun-jre does not contain tools such as javac and jar, so we need to install sun-jdk:

# emerge sun-jdk
# eselect java-vm list
Available Java Virtual Machines:
  [1]   sun-jdk-1.6
  [2]   sun-jre-bin-1.6  system-vm

and then selected as the system wide VM:

# eselect java-vm set system 1

The end.

Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Graham
Filed under: Linux | No Comments »