No rain is forecast for today. The day has started sunny, although a lot of the day may only see sunny spells. The afternoon may reach 27° C, and with 4pm shown as full sunshine, it could feel hot this afternoon - maybe hot and sweaty ! We should have another very mild night, but not hot enough to earn the description of "Tropical Night". Like today, there could be full sunshine to start and end the day, but the middle may only see sunny spells. From 3pm the temperature may peak at 28° C.

  Yesterday was another day dominated by Chattfest, but only the after effects. I had bought a ticket for the Sunday session, but I didn't go for reasons that I will reveal later in the narrative (and there were more than I could have described yesterday morning).

  I was definitely suffering yesterday morning - nothing agonising, but like carrying a heavy weight around...or something like that. My feet were still aching a lot, and 24 hours later they are only about 90% recovered. I was also carrying the weight of responsibility ! I had, and still have several hundred photos taken on Saturday to consider, and try and pick out the best for a bit of processing for the "official record". As a "for instance" I seemed to have taken 253 photos on my Nikon D610 just of The Life Of Brian set. There was also something like 90 taken on my Canon 600D camera.

  Yesterday I did show some pictures of The Life Of Brian, and I think they may have been taken on my Canon 600D camera with my Sigma 24 to 70mm zoom lens. For some reason, maybe I was just very tired, and only looked at a very small sample, but I didn't think I was happy with the pictures taken with the Canon and that lens, but maybe I changed some settings soon after I started taking pictures on it, and the best seemed to equal the pictures taken with the Nikon fitting version of the same lens on my Nikon D610 camera. That latter combination has been my standard set up for most of my best pictures for a couple of years now. It is nice to have a choice of camera now. The Cannon body is a lot lighter than the Nikon body (the lens weight being a constant for both).

  It feels (rather gloomily) as if it will take for ever to get through all the pictures, but yesterday I managed to get through two bands, and I'll show a selection of pictures today. The first band on Saturday was The Meows, and I know nothing about them, but I think I got a few good shots of them.
  Getting a shot of the entire band with that annoying roof support in the way is a challenge. I don't think this was a good picture, and maybe this was one that had me seriously doubting about using the Canon camera.
  One problem with all the pictures taken on the Canon was that the colour temperature was set to "Flash" rather than daylight (although auto would probably have been fine). I don't like the look of this picture, although I find it hard to point to any particular defect. I seem to have corrected the colour balance and the flesh tones look basically human. I just had a thought.....maybe the picture was just over exposed enough that some detail on the drummers face is a bit flattened. That could be good for a "model" but not for a musician.
  The Meows feature two singers who sometimes sing in harmony, and sometime they sing solo. This picture looks like it could have been taken on a mobile phone - good, but lacking that certain pazzaz that a good DSLR camera should give. Also, I doubt I would get away with invading the stage with a mobile phone. A big professional camera seems to give me licence to go on stage with no one even blinking an eye (plus these days I have a reputation of being careful and mindful when I invade the stage - some musicians who know me from previous gigs almost welcome me among them (within limits).
  This is The Meows guitar player. This photo was taken from the audience at the front of the stage. Once again I am not 100% happy with this photo. It is sharp enough to count each individual string (although shrinking the picture to show here gives the strings a gritty outline that is not visible in the proper sized picture).
  I just managed to get the entire band in one picture between two of the annoying roof supports. If I were the builder I would have used a stronger bit of wood, or even an RSJ (rolled steel joist) as a long support between two strong supports at each end of the roof, but what does a decrepit photographer know about building.....or what does a builder know about photographic art ?
  I could have shown more picture of The Meows, but I think I have show enough to give a fair idea of the band. Now on to Francis and Jax plus Lora (or Maybe Lorna). This is Francis who plays guitar for the band.
  This is Jax who sings and plays the Cajon (a type of box that resonated when you play it like a drum using the hands).
  The third member of the band is Lora, or maybe it is Lorna - I just can't seem to remember when I queried Francis (presumably the father, and with jax being mother - although that is really a wild guess).
  It is not often you see a hands free harp (mouth organ for most of us) player. It must take some practice to blow into the harp while playing guitar.

  I have plenty more pictures of both The Meows, and Francis And Jax, but I think that sample is good enough for today. Yesterday I showed some pictures of The Life Of Brian, and I may well show a few more some time later. Tomorrow I hope I have pictures of Cross town Revival, and Retro Rock Icons - if I can make the time today to do the selecting and editing !

  Working in what I dub "the digital darkroom" took a fair amount of my time and patience yesterday, and I didn't do a few things I intended to do. I wanted to go to Tesco, but there was no time for that, and to be honest there was only a couple of "nice to have in the fridge or freezer" things that I thought I needed, but I had plenty of other stuff to eat - but I drooled over the idea of what I didn't have - like plain vanilla ice cream.

  Of course the big thing would have been going to the second day of Chattfest, but I could not convince myself I had the energy to go there. Just one day seemed enough to wear me out. In physical terms I was suffering from very sore feet, and although I seem to have almost fully recovered from that now, my feet were definitely feeling uncomfortable yesterday morning. There were other secondary things too. I couldn't seem to have a poo yesterday. I did not really feel uncomfortable, but sods low says that as soon as I went out I would need to go.

  Another malady was sunburn. It was not that bad, and in many ways very good for spending hours in unfiltered sunshine. The one place where it was quite apparent, but not exactly painful, was my head. These days I have a very thin covering of hair to protect my scalp, and I am very sure the top of my head got well frazzled. It even feels like it might have blistered. This morning there is some crunchiness in my hair where (I presume) a blister has broken, and the liquid inside has congealed around some of my remaining hair. I am well aware the answer has to be to wear a hat, but I have never liked wearing hats !

  My eating was all over the place yesterday, and it was all because I wanted to eat stuff I didn't have. The silly thing is that I do have enough stuff in the fridge (not the freezer) that would make good meals, and most importantly needs to be eaten quickly before it goes off. As a for instance, I have a ready cooked chicken that is now on, or just past it's use by date. I had better eat some of it today, but I could have made something with it yesterday, but instead I resorted to "grazing" eating a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. (A chunk of cheese and some Hula Hoops would be a good example).

  I think I felt very weary all day long. I stayed up doing photos until about 10pm (although I did take a lot of breaks during the course of the day), and then I went to bed. I thought I was going to read for a while, but I don't think I managed a single sentence before I turned the lights off and fell asleep. It was not a deep sleep, and I was woken up once or twice by car doors slamming (I had the window open all night). I didn't get out of bed to look, but on one occasion I couldn't work out if someone had just come back from holiday in a taxi, or if someone was doing a midnight flit, also using a taxi.

  I think I woke up once or twice to have a pee - quite a big one - or so it seemed. I did half get up at around 6am. I had a pee, and then took screen shots of the weather forecasts, and then went back to bed. It seemed I would not get back to sleep, but suddenly it was gone 8am. I got up again and had another pee, but once again. having a poo eluded me. However, when I weighed myself I found my weight had not changed at all (although that didn't not happen until after I had eaten breakfast). Maybe if I had managed the substantial poo I had, and had it before I had eaten breakfast, I might have even seen a tiny bit of weight loss.

  My blood glucose was complicated this morning. Two of my meters gave between good and good enough readings of 8.2 and 8.1 mmol/l, and the third a very slightly bad 9.4mmol/l. The average of all three was a fairly good, or at least "satisfactory" 8.57mmol/l.

  I am unsure how I feel this morning. Passing a nice poo was a definite good thing, but I still feel sort of tired. I think it is a reaction against the work I know I have to do. Maybe I would like to spend a couple of hours sitting in the park with Margaret, but I also know I just have to get back to my "digital darkroom" and make more progress to finish all the photos I have taken so far.

  Next Saturday is Petts Wood Calling day - another long day of photo taking. It is a better experience there - or I hope it will be. I am fairly confident that I will get my usual back stage pass that I have been getting for the last 6 or 7 years (maybe). It allows me unfettered access to the front, back and even on the stage, plus access the the Green Room (which has a real toilet (everyone else has to use a Portaloo), and I can slip out the back way to go to the pub when I feel I have taken enough pictures of the occasional band I really don't like. I do make a point of earning my backstage pass by taking my best pictures of every band while I am there. Also, I can sit down in the Green Room to get my breath back when needed. If the trains are behaving it is a much better journey to Petts Wood compared to Chattfest.

  Today I was thinking about joining Margaret in the park, but I feel pushed for time. I may not even have the time to go to Tesco either. My day may go.....select and edit another bands photos, have a snooze, do another band, then another snooze and fill in some gaps with some sort of lunch and some sort of dinner.  I will feel much better when I have done all the Chatt Fest photos, and have a few empty days, but on Saturday it is Petts Wood Calling, and more photos. The Saturday after that there are two bands playing in the Bromley Churchill Gardens amphitheatre, and possibly more than two bands. One is The Life Of Brian who I will be wanting to take hundreds more pictures of (because I am almost part of the family, and once upon a time in the past I might have literally become one of the family). The only other band I know of who will be playing there is Unorfadox. They are a punk inspired band, and I seem to recall they are very good - and the lead singer presents loads of poses for the camera (although it is really for the audience). It seems an odd combination, and that is why I wonder if here may be other bands. It would be nice to think that this is a try out of the venue for a future festival.