I cut it pretty close to the wire, in the end – I had to get my Z on New Years Eve. Fortunately, Porthcawl had a number of zebra crossings right on the seafront, so I amused / irritated our hosts Rich & Georgie by stopping at each one of them to take a picture. Then the sun came out so I had to stop at each of them again on the way back to take advantage of that. But job done and project successfully completed with only hours to spare!

This was like Fate intervening in my A-Z project. We left the house to go to Porthcawl with zebra crossings on my mind, and then spotted this sign on the way there. It seemed so unlikely that we would see such a perfectly-named road on the final day of the project that I had to get Rich to stop on the way home to get a photo. I think they thought I was a bit mental.

God, I love my new lens! I’m not sure if it’s the super-shallow DOF or the sharpness of the focus on it, but it’s lovely. I will be using it a lot next year, I think.

I was fretting about not being able to think of a Y to take a picture of and was running out of year, when I realised that the only plant I’ve managed to successfully not kill for any significant length of time starts with the right letter. It’s survived 8 years of being mistreated, inexpertly repotted, chopped in half, chopped in quarters and is still fighting fit – it’s even recently started sprouting new bits. It’s like Jason Voorhees or Swamp Thing or something.

Only one letter left, and only 2 days to take it!

A bauble on my Mum’s Christmas tree, taken with my present – a 50mm f1.4 prime lens. Have been playing with depth of field all day! Happy Christmas!

Nearly there, only three more to go!

I was most disappointed when my camera battery turned out to be flat when I got caught in a brilliant snowstorm in London at the weekend, so this shot of fresh frost and low winter morning sun on a safety barrier on my walk to work will have to do the job.

I’m starting to plan my 2010 A-Z; same deal, only all the shots have to have people in. Leave a comment if you ant to be one of the letters.

Warren Ellis and Jim White of the Dirty Three at 10 Years of ATP in Minehead this last weekend. This is only borderline acceptable for the A-Z project, as I was taking pictures at ATP anyway and therefore it’s arguable that this wasn’t ‘specifically’ taken for the project. But I did decide that my V might be for Violin before they started playing, so I think it’s admissable. Also, I’m really running out of time here!

Dirty Three were incredible live. I’d say even worth missing the first Shellac performance of the weekend. You can see the rest of my ATP photos here.

I needed to crack on if I’m going to get to Z in a fortnight – I’ve been stuck on U for nearly 2 weeks. I walked home tonight in the mist, looking up for a different perspective and got this.

A train arriving into Holborn Tube Station. It was tempting to complete a little triptych with ‘U is for Underground’ but I decided against it.

The steps leading up from Charing Cross Tube station to Trafalgar Square.I decided I wanted to get S and T done while I was in London, so there’s something of a transport theme to these two letters.

My pride and joy – the Taylor Custom Shop Renegade. It’s a one-off, sort of steampunky horn made by Andy Taylor in Norwich – a heavy, heavy monster of a trumpet with a gorgeous dark tone which I am lucky enough (but nowhere near good enough) to own.

I was messing about with exposure and shadows on this self-portrait. I was considering making it black & white, but the beautiful patina of the trumpet came out too well to lose it.

Quadrivial (adj) leading in four directions; concerning a four-way junction.

I found some cracking Q words that gave me some great ideas for this pic (I was considering qualtagh and quadrupedation too), but took a different route home this evening and was quite taken with this view of the crossroads near my house. I like the Star Destroyer quality of the railway bridge in particular

UPDATE: If the image here looks a bit dark, I’ve posted a slightly lighter version on Flickr. Still haven’t quite got to grips with exporting web-safe images from GIMP