Christmas is coming

Shops are full of Christmas carols, city is full of christmasy decorations and Princes Street has opened for traffic after a looooong time of tramworks. I cannot wait to hop on a plane and go to Poland to finally chill out with my mum and friends. Still two weeks to go though.

Peebles

We went out couple of days ago for a client meeting in Peebles, a kind of a Scottish Nowy Targ in my opinion. A bus goes there once an hour and takes a very scenic route through hills and valleys full of white dots of sheep. On our way back there were two men having a very vivid conversation on a bus and I have been counting that one of them used f* word 184 times, which makes it 3 f*s per sentence. I do not mind a good strong f* word to underline one's deep thought or getting emotional but doing it 184 times in space of an hour? Soul destroying.

It was freezing cold we have missed a bus which left 10 minutes ahead of schedual and we had to wait in a pub for an hour cuddling a glass of Macallan whiskey which is definitely not my favourite drink but it turned out to be much more subtle than other ones I have tried.

Hopefully a holiday break is coming soon...

An image from more relaxed times when I actually had some time to go out and have a coffee in peace (instead of a hurried take away or rather a carry out as they say in Scotland...). I just have to survive until Monday and then is all downhill from there!

Orson

Couple of weeks ago we have finally managed to venture to the Filmhouse just across the road from us, to watch a film that I longed to see for a very long time. It was Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, which I mainly wanted to see because of the cinemathography, thought the story turned out to be really good and well presented too.

My favourite were the scenes where Gregg Toland used composites of two differently shot materials to get a very deep focus (I especially liked the scene when Kane's friend writes a review of Kane's wife opera performance and subsequently gets fired from the newspaper - one character in the front fo the scene is balck and the light is focused on the main character set out by it from the dark background) and Simon's was the scene of Kanes political convention with that huge portrait of Kane shot from a very low angle. Toland apparently also designed all the necessary lenses himself and was not affraid to distort faces in close ups.

I must say that the cinematography of the film has not devaluated throughout the years since it was shot and is relevant even nowadays. I also apprecaite that Welles credited Toland at the same time (and size of credits) as himself (credited of couse as producer and director). A note to some of my clients who cannot even spell my website's name correctly...

Veronicahh has some more Orson on her blog.

The Hub

One of our comissions was taking place in Edinburgh International Festival Center known as the Hub. It is a space made of converted church (a thing that would be unheard of in Poland) and has spectacular views over the city, visible amongst its spires:

This school grounds were of course an inspiration for Hogwarts ^

Castle Terrace is down there ^

Us on the main staircase ^. When you enter the building the access there is usually blocked by some event happening in the building so you are allowed only to the caffeteria downstairs or into the boxoffice. Festival offices are on the top floor, in the tower.

A sign for a special toilet for people who are too embarassed to use any other toilets as their undergarments are held by safety pins...

After a break...

I think Simon and I took recently a term 'working hard' to a next level. Last week was a whirlwind of getting comissioned, working on new comissions, finishing dealing with old ones and then working on current ones some more. Every day of work finishes about 4 am and then starts again with some urgent phonecall around 10 am. I like working intensively but I am glad that this week is almost over. I will have the whole of the weekend to prepare my latest comissions for Monday...

There was also a very useful critique in the college about my portrait project. Since then I did 3 more photoshoots and I am having two more subjects in a pipeline for next week:

Our part of Assembly Rooms