Russell James Smith

Glastonbury 2007 - Most Interesting

Sunset At Glastonbury, originally uploaded by russelljsmith.

I've noticed this photo has bumped in and out of Flickr's Explore pages since I uploaded it. It's definitely become one of my favourites from a festival which wasn't perhaps the best for photography. So for those of you who may have missed it in my photostream I thought I'd blog about it here, I think just maybe it captures just a little of the Glasto magic.

Now They're Coming Down! (Updated)

Now They're Coming Down!, originally uploaded by russelljsmith.

The sad fate of the CASPAR appartments here in Leeds was revealed today via a somewhat over-hyped Yorkshire Evening Post headline. The flats are to be pulled down after structural problems first uncovered back in 2006 have proved unfixable.

My New Nokia N73 & Photos

So, I got a new Nokia N73 last week (today my number transfered) so I've started to play around with some of the features and applications and I've found a couple of nice photography related tools.

Sponsor Sharon

My good friend Sharon is running the 2005 Great North Run in aid of Cancer Research UK - Sponsor her!

A moment in time

Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, the day when the daylight hours in each day again outnumber the hours of darkness (for those of us in the Northen Hemisphere at least). We'd already had a great warning here in Yorkshire with a very mild and pleasent weekend, heralding the return of warmer weather for all of us and very welcome it is to. Roll on summer.

Yesterday being the Equinox was one of the reasons it was chosen for Day In the Life Of on Flickr. A regular event which sees users on Flickr upload a set of photos representing their day. The photos are still being uploaded but you can already see my full contribution.

Finaly yesterday was also the day one of my very best friends sent over an email to tell me he was getting married to his equaly nice girl friend, great  news!

CSS Reboot

Those that have hung out on the web for a few years may very well have been aware of the May 1st Reboot. A project started to give people a little kick when it came to re-designing web-sites and moving web design forward. The premise being that on May 1st each year those sites participating will all upload new designs creating a virtual gallery of fresh new design right across the web.

Well over the years a small critisism has come to the fore, this being that the majority of the sites being "rebooted" are Flash based heavily design-driven websites. Now, impressive as some of these creations are they are to a degree removed from the day-to-day design many of us live and breathe made largely of HTML+CSS. So to answer this we now have a companion project: CSS Reboot.

I'm signed up already (this place needs a good coat of paint), if everything goes acording to plan you should be able to see the fruits of my labours right here on May 1st, wish me luck!

P.S. Tip-o-the-hat to D. Keith Robinson for posting about the reboot in his excellent blog.

Sponsor Su and Anna

Su and Anna are running the 2005 Leeds Half Marathon in aid of the Disasters Emergency Committee - sponsor them!

Sideways

I went to see Sideways last night with some friends. Didn't know much about it other than it was recommened generaly and had picked up some Oscar nominations. Enjoyed it, funny but also had a very true to life feel. Nice to see a film on the big screen for a changes that didn't feature a car chase (tho I do love a good car chase). Don't go to see it on an empty stomache though, too much nice looking food and wine, I'm not sure you'd survive!

Hot wheels

My mate Paul is lucky enough to be spending the season snowboarding in Mammouth, CA. Take a look at his website Very Exciting Times and check out the video of his new ride, a sweet 1988 Jeep Wagoneer, more beige than you'd believe they could put into a car!

Audio Scrobbler - Stupid name, interesting site

I've been playing around with Audio Scrobbler for the past couple of weeks. If you're not familiar the premise is that you allow the website to monitor the music you listen to on your computer (through a variety of plug-ins). Based on this data the website can do various things; create charts of your favourite artists and tracks, recommend new music based on the familiar "members who liked this also liked..." scenario, generate a personal radio station and also introduce you to like-minded music fans.

The site is a bit rough around the edges just now, but in six months time I could see this being to music what Flickr is to pictures. Right now however It's just keeping me amused in two ways, first it can show me that I listen to a lot more of The Human League than I realised, secondly it allows me to keep an eye on what my friends are listening to, and I guess they can watch what I'm listening to in real-time too.