Sights and Sounds Sixty Nine

We are here again. Back in the UK for the new year. We arrived on Tuesday morning about about 30 minutes ahead for schedule. In fact we were so early Julian and my dad weren't even at the airport yet. Fortunately, we only had to wait about five minutes for them to show up. The drive up to Buxton from Manchester was interesting as my dad's BMW took a side swipe from an oncoming Range Rover and his wing mirror got popped. The noise scared the crap out of Dusti and I.
We arrived in Buxton at about 9:30 and had some tea and bacon sandwiches! After our second Christmas mum and dad headed back to Knaresborough. We chilled out the rest of the day and had some haddock chowder, cheese, crackers and ham for an evening snack.

Yesterday, we got up early and headed up to the Lake District. We took two cards. Julian, Sarah, Kate, Dusti and I rode together and Tom, Victoria, Sofia rode up with Matthew in his Mini. It took about three hours to get there. But it was well worth it. The first place we stopped was Castlerigg Stone Circle. When we got out of the car we got blown away by ferocious winds. I was absolutely freezing. I think the pics below sums it up.

After the dogs had a quick run around and we all froze to death we headed into Keswick for a fish and chip lunch which was out of this world. I really forget how good some fish and chip restaurants can be in the UK and this one did not disappoint.

Post chippie we went for a 4.5 mile walk to work off the calories around Buttermere Lake. It was like a scene from Lord of the Rings. But not before i bought a fleece from a local outdoor sports type shop. It certainly helped keep me warm.

It was along walk and it was pretty dark when we got back to the cars. We were lucky it didn't rain either as about ten minutes after we got back on the road the heavens opened up. We got back to Buxton about 9PM and i slept very well last night. Today we are taking it easy at the house. It has been hail stoning this afternoon and it's still very windy.

Sights and Sounds Sixty-Eight

So we spent the weekend in the mountains in Asheville, N.C., for Moogfest 2011. This was the second time they held it in Asheville and it was our second year attending. It did not disappoint. We rented a condo in heart of the town within walking distance to all the venues. The main attraction for me this year was Moby. I had been wanting to see him live since the first time i heard the song "Go" on a compilation CD back in the early 90's. There were quite a few other bands that we were eager to see including M83 and Crystal Castles and with the festival being on Halloweeen weekend again there was always a lot of great "people watching" to do.

Moby was amazing. He was very charismatic. Almost preacher like as he got the crowd going. People were going bat shit crazy.

The Saturday night the Crystal Castles played and there were some pretty amazing halloween costumes around. Dusti found herself dancing with Aliens at one point.
The Flaming Lips also blew people away with their show.
Here's Dusti and the Aliens.



We headed to Brevard to see Simon and Mike on Sunday. We took the Blue Ridge parkway. The colours were pretty awesome.

And here's Looking Glass Falls.

Overall the weekend was fantastic. Asheville is a really cool place and the festival was brilliant. We are certainly looking forward to next years!

Sights and Sounds Sixty-Seven

Recently i saw a cool photo on my friend Shannon's Facebook page of her husband skating at a drained swimming pool here in Mount Pleasant. I thought it would be fun to go shoot some video over at the pool and contacted Shannon to see if i could drop by. I went by yesterday for an hour or so. There was only a couple of people skating but i shot some footage anyway. I plan on going back and spending more time on getting some more creative shots but i figured i would go ahead and edit a little of what i shot yesterday. Check it out. Thanks to Shannon and Otis for being so hospitable!

Sights and Sounds Sixty-Six

Great week at work. Finished two more videos. One was a interview with a guy who won the Heinz award.  He studies alligators and the effects the environment has on them as their reproductive systems are very similar to humans. I'll post the video below. I also finished a video trailer for the new James  E. Clyburn Research Center. I can't post that yet 'cos TPTB are waiting a couple more days. I did however take a great photo of the building the other night. I think it may be used in some sort of publication for the building. There was a storm in the distance and during a 30 second exposure i caught a flash of lightening in the distance.

I also discovered a new band, Lanterns on the Lake. I heard them on the drive into work on BBC Radio 6. I immediately looked them up online and added their album in Spotify. I think it is just a beautiful piece of work. Here's a video i found. THe first part of the video is just a bunch of images from around the Newcastle area the song kicks in a few minutes in.

Lanterns on the Lake - Keep on Trying from oof video on Vimeo.

Sights and Sounds Sixty-Five

Here's a video I made for MUSC 9/11 remembrance.

Sights and Sounds Sixty-Four

So i recently finished work on a new video for an iPad and iPhone app for MUSC. I headed a committee set with the task of creating a overview/promo that featured the MUSC library for this app. With help from everyone on the committee we came up with a pretty good commercial for our library. We had Stephen Colbert's brother Jay Colbert do the voice over. My colleague Michael McIntyre helped a good bit with setting some of the shots up. I shot it with my Canon T2i and edited it in Final Cut Pro. It turns out that the library liked our final product so much they are featuring it on the MUSC Library homepage. It should be on the iPad/iPhone app. in a few days.

Thanks to everyone on the committee. Candace Moorer, Sherman Paggi, Josh Ivey, Stan Sulkowski, Michael McIntyre and Jeff Pritcher.

Check it out.

Sight and Sounds Sixty-Three

So we are home. Just over 1500 miles clocked up on our road trip. It didn't seem too bad at all. We left Sanibel on Monday morning about 7:30. We drove up I-75 then cut through on Hwy 301 at Ocala. This was the route the Navigator on my phone said to go and it was pretty good. We made it to Jekyll Island by 2:30 and we made two stops. It was very smoky along the Georgia/Florida border due ti all the brush fires. The temperature was a blistering 104 degrees. once at the resort we checked in and relaxed for a while by the pool. We ate dinner at the Crane restaurant which was wonderful. A juicy fillet cooked to perfection hot the spot. We took a couple of pics of the sunset through the smoke and after Dusti got some ice cream it was bedtime. We hit the road again this morning about 8:30 and we were home just about 12. It was a great holiday with fun memories. It's back to work tomorrow and my routine has to switch back from lazy days drinking beer on the beach to work!

Parting shots of Sanibel.

The sunset last night.

Sights and Sounds Sixty-One

So our week is drawing to a close. I must admit i have really enjoyed doing absolutely nothing for the last several days. I was truly capable of switching off and not really thinking about anything other than if the tide was coming in or not or if i had packed enough beer in my cooler. We have two more days here in Sanibel. I think Dusti is getting a little restless. She is currently working on a shell/art project of whichI am sure she will be blogging about later today.

So today's post is dedicated to some of the friends we made here on Sanibel Island.

This is Isabel and Ivan. Two friendly Ibises who wandered in front of us just about everyday.

This is Eddie the one legged Egret. We felt quite sorry for this guy. He hopped along in hopes of catching fish and wasn't so elegant until he took off in flight and then he was just as majestic as the other birds.

This is another Ibis which i named Imogen. This bird allowed me to get very close while she hunted for fish. Fortunately, i had my Canon at my side and was able to get a nice shot of her in action. Too bad i chopped off her tail but it's still one of my favourite pics from this trip.

Perhaps the most most beautiful of our friend was this guy. He's a Snow Egret we named Sammy. He was simply beautiful. I think this is my favourite pic.

Finally, last night we had an unexpected visitor. He just walked out from the mangrove tress right next to our bbq grill. He was a baby perhaps a two feet long.
This is Gus the gator. Upon sighting this dude I was obligated to run inside the condo and shout "GATOR COUNTRY" to Dusti (see Dusti's blog for full explanation).

Hopefully in our final two days we will meet a couple more of the local inhabitants. Not sure I want to meet Gus's parents much though!

Sights and Sounds Sixty

The first half of day three on Sanibel was spent checking out some of the shops. There isn't a whole lot which i was pretty happy about. There was a couple of pretty cool art shops though. We also had to go back to Jerry's Grocery store to buy some more supplies which included lots of water. The island water tastes pretty bad and makes tea and coffee taste a little odd too. After a lunch of fried chicken we headed back out on to the beach for while. I sipped on a few ice cold ciders and watched the pelicans and seagulls diving into the sea for fish. Dusti only lasted about 45 minutes before heading back inside. She was a worried about getting too burned as she got a little too much sun the day before.

In the evening we booked a trip on the Tarpon Bay Explorers sunset cruise. It was a 1.5 hour trip of viewing wildlife and was very educational. The entire bay is no deeper than 5 feet and is basically the ecosystems nurturing ground for all the young wildlife from fish to dolphins to birds they are learn their trade in this shallow water before going out into the Gulf of Mexico. The bay is surrounded by Mangrove trees which are the only trees in the world that can grow in salt water. We saw a turtle, a couple of Manatees and countless number of birds. The sunset cruise is apparently the best one as all the birds return to the rooks for evening. It was quite a site watching them all fly back. The guide pointed out how the young pelicans were still learning how to land on the trees as they weren't as experienced at navigating through the strong breeze as the grown up pelicans were. All in all it was a fun although i was a little disappointed not to see any Dolphins.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Nine

So this is the view from our condo.

Pretty decent huh?

This is the view i had for most of the afternoon.

Again, not too shabby eh?

Here are lots of shells.

Those pics were taken with our little waterproof Olympus. The next shots were taken with my Canon on the beach this evening as we went on our leisurely stroll.

The mission today was to do as little as possible. I'd say mission accomplished.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Eight

So i know you all can't wait for the next episode of our holiday. So here you go. Dusti graduated yesterday but due to the dodgy outfit she had to wear she would not allow any photos. She claimed she looked like an elephant. Her robe was grey and blue and she had a big hat. I thought she looked fine but what can you do.
Following that debacle we ate then went for a walk on South Beach's Ocean Drive at dusk to take some pics of the beach and the art deco hotels. We saw a cool rainbow over the ocean!

Overall we were pretty impressed with Miami Beach. It was a little nutty for us but the people were nice the beach was pristine and we enjoyed ourselves but we were ready to hit the road and get to the Gulf coast and Sanibel Island.

We took I-75 along Alligator Alley. Dusti swears she saw several gators but i cannot verify this claim. The trip wasn't bad at all. We found ourselves on the Gulf coast side of Florida by 1:30 and actually in Sanibel by 2-ish. The drive over the causeway onto the island was amazing. The view was awesome clear blue water and sunshine...we definitely felt like we had finally found our holiday paradise. We checked in and hit the local grocery store to stock up on supplies. We then headed out to beach for a couple of hours. The beach was beautiful. No one within 50 feet of us and gentle waves of turquoise water lapping up in front of us. I had a couple of Strongbows/Becks Lager (Snake Bites)and waded in the warm Gulf of Mexico. It was so peaceful after the chaos of Miami and we get to enjoy seven days of it.

We grilled steaks and bell peppers and also had corn and baked potatoes for dinner. It was majestic.

We will keep you posted.

Sights And Sounds Fifty-Seven

So it's about time that I updated the blog and what better time to time do it than while on holiday. I am sitting in the lobby of the Essex House Hotel in South Beach, Miami. The art deco hotel is pretty cool and the chill music playing throughout the nice air conditioned reception area can make you forget how hot it is outside. It actually hasn't been too hot since we got here but i have a feeling today is going to be a scorcher. Anyways....to catch you up. Dusti and I decided to get a head start and left on Thursday evening after work. We managed to get as far as Brunswick Ga. This was a very wise idea as the next day we left at 7:30 and were in Miami before 2 and that included a stop in Daytona for some Cracker Barrel breakfast. FYI-There is a Cracker Barrel at just about every exit on I-95 in Florida.
So on Friday afternoon having checked in we walked one block to the beach just to check it out. I was pretty impressed on how clean the beach was. In fact it was spotless. It was also beautiful. The water was that lovely aqua color you see in all the postcards. I was pleasantly surprised as didn't realize it was going to be clear like it is in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Having briefly checked out the beach i was in diehard need of a cold beverage of the alcohol variety. We bellied up to the bar of the Clevelander which is the Essex House sister hotel but as we could clearly see and were told is also the party hotel. It was Jersey Shore meets Las Vegas meets Myrtle Beach with an overall international flavor.
People were very friendly. A young chap from Colombia named Andres insisted on us doing Patron shots with him. I despise Tequila but he convinced me to do it and it actually went down okay mind you it was extra chilled. Drinks at the bar were very expensive and i couldn't get my head around how people afford to party like these people were. Apparently Andres had been there all day and had rung up a $300 bar tab already. The bartender told me he usually spend about $600 to $1,000 when she is working. I saw Andres running around flirting with large groups of girls buying them bottles of Champagne. He was quite the dude at the party. 4 Coronas later it was nap time.

Cheers to Andres.

I woke up about 8 and decided to head back out to take some photos. Dusti stayed in bed and slept through the whole night until morning. I wondered around had a couple of $14 Jack and cokes and took some pics.

Saturday morning i was a little worse for wear but manged to get up and we got some breakfast on Ocean Drive at a little coffee shop called Cafe News. After eating we headed out to Key Biscayne. The drive was awesome. The views of the downtown Miami were really cool and the water everywhere looked so inviting. We hung out on the beach at Crandon Park for about an hour. It was very peaceful. There was a kids beach soccer tournament going on. We heard very little English and one of the teams were decked out in Brazilian national jerseys. These little kids were very good too.
Then we drove to the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and visited a really old lighthouse. The water around this area was crystal clear and i could see the fish swimming around. The park ranger at the lighthouse told us we should visit Vizcaya Museums and Gardens so we did just that. It was pretty cool. The house was built in 1914 by John Deering and was decorated with the influences that he had seen all around the world. We weren't allowed to take pics inside but i took some of the gardens.

We drove back to the hotel and went for a swim in the ocean. It was lovely.

Finally, the last thing we did on Saturday was walk up to Espaniola Way to an Italian restaurant that had been recommended to us. The place was hilarious. Everyone was singing and shouting in Italian. There was one bloke who tried to charm all the women into coming into the place. The food was okay but the atmosphere was awesome.

On our walk back to the hotel we went up to Lincoln Lane which was really buzzing with people in bars and shops. There was a Hooka bar where a bunch of people were eating/drinking and smoking Hookas. We also walked into the Ritz Carlton just for kicks. It was pretty amazing. You could smell the money and in my case see it as i found a AMEX Platinum card on the floor. Being the honest man i am i turned it in!

So as i sit here i am preparing for the next event of the weekend...Dusti's graduation. We are heading up to Sunrise and Nova SE University this afternoon for the ceremony. Stay tuned for pics.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Six

This is interesting. This guy lives a few miles outside Charleston. I think he may have been hitting the moonshine a little too often!
Great documentary short though. I wish i'd thought of it.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Five

The last two weeks have been insanely busy for the Missus and I. I spent three hours in line like a complete nerd for an new iPad. However, I did get one for my brother in the UK so he could have one ahead of everyone else to draw some extra business for his job. Note...under normal circumstances I may not have been such a sad fan boy buying on the day of release but on hindsight I am glad i did as it's pretty freaking awesome. Last weekend Dusti and i photographed a wedding for friend at work. This was a first for us. We have taken cool shots for fun at weddings but this was a little different. Marcus and Brittany were relying on us to capture all the moments of their wedding. The pressure was on. Combined we took almost 2800 pics. We whittled that down to about 1,000 that we may give them and then we got that number down to about 45 that we would put in a book for them. It was pretty stressful and i realized i know nothing about photography...well let me re-phrase that...I know what you are supposed to do but i am still learning how to do it. I certainly learned i need better lenses for low light which cost big bucks so i dare say that will be our last attempt at wedding photography. I think we got some cool shots but with better equipment i think we wouldn't have had to trash several hundred pics for various flaws due to low light etc.
AND CONGRATS Brittany and Marcus.

You make a great couple and your wedding was lovely!

A couple of my faves are below.

 

 

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Four

So this passed weekend was spent playing a lot of football. On Saturday Dusti and I went to Florence so i could play in the West Florence High School Alumni Soccer match. There was a great turn out. Around twenty former players ranging in age from 19 to 50 something showed up. I played about 25 minutes in each half. We lost the match 2-1 but it was a great afternoon. I got to see several former teammates which was pretty awesome. On Saturday night we returned home and ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant in Mount Pleasant called Co Cou. Dusti and i spent two hours eating and drinking wine. All in all a very satisfying evening.
On Sunday i played with my men's league team in Charleston and we managed to stuff the Citadel 5-0 which was nice and thanks to my team mate Mike Tall's assist i was able to smack a bullet in from 25 yards out! Good stuff.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Three

As many of you know Dusti and I are trying to put together a documentary about our family. We have been interviewing members over the last several months and are almost done with that. We have an awful lot of editing to do but we decided to put a little sneak peek together. We hope to complete the project by the end of the year so we can show it to everyone at Christmas.

Branches Sneek Peak from Jonathan Coultas on Vimeo.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-Two

I am working on a highlight film of my Arena football team's winter season. I have made a couple of trailers. I am lucky to have a friend named Jim Doar to shoot the video with my Canon HV20 while we play. I will be shooting some extra footage from the sideline with my Canon T2i also.
Here's the two trailers.

Arena from Jonathan Coultas on Vimeo.

Arena 2 from Jonathan Coultas on Vimeo.

Sights and Sounds Fifty-One

Here's another little "trailer" with footage shot in England with Mac and Tyson as the stars.

The Roaches from Jonathan Coultas on Vimeo.

Sights and Sounds Fifty

Some good mixes on here.

RAC Portfolio by Remix Artist Collective

Sights and Sounds Forty-Nine

So we are back home after our trip home for the holidays. I was feeling a little down about the fact i wouldn't be seeing the family on that side of the pond again for a while so i decided to cheer myself up by making a Sunday roast. Influenced by the our trip i went with Pork, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, mashed potatoes, gravy and Yorkshire puddings. Having not made Yorkshire pudding in about 30 years i consulted the parents on the ingredients and directions. The was right but they fell a little flat possibly due to the mixture being a little too runny? Hopefully I'll get some feed back on what went wrong. The rest of the meal was awesome though. The fried cabbage was lovely.

And on a completely different note I also thought i'd post the of the family we took in Knaresborough.