My first cover photo!

I have had one of my photos on the cover of a magazine (The Rother Homes update magazine) before, but it was just a small part of the cover. This months (July issue) Hastings Town magazine uses one of my pictures for the whole cover! A pretty big achievement for me. There is also another four photos of mine inside, three on an article about the Alexandra Park War Memorial restoration project and another in an article about Lesley Carver's life as she was growing up in Hastings. Its a new magazine (only up to issue 6), but a very interesting one with many stories of Hastings past. I moved to Hastings for the first time in the early 90's and I have learnt a lot about the history of Hastings from every issue I read. It does also feature many things about today's life and events in Hastings and even the future plans for the town. Aspex Design (i.e. Me!) is a non profit organisation, so my payment for the photos was nothing, but its a great bit of publicity!

Hello Jim and Gemma (The people behind the magazine) if you read this.

Getting experience without experience.

A friend of mine is training to be a counsellor and has been trying to get a work placement somewhere in the local (Hastings to Brighton) mental health field, I know a lot of people working in mental health and I really thought I would be able to find something for her, but people don't seem to like people without experience. Without experience you can't get experience, with experience you can get experience, so how do you get the experience without having the experience! (My head hurts!)

A step too far?

A bit of advice, if you are already disabled and on crutches, then go for some minor surgery and barely leave your home for a fortnight, don't decide it might be fun to then go and walk along the Cuckmere River down to Cuckmere Haven taking photos! Been there, done that, spent most of the next two days in bed! I only decided to go as my daughters school were going there that day and as I had never been I thought it would be somewhere different to go. The weather was incredible and the views were great, so it was worth it (not sure I would have said that the morning after!). Hopefully I will get the chance to get back down there for some more when I am feeling better. I value any constructive comments on the photos. My Cuckmere river photos. For those who do not know it, the Cuckmere River ends at Cuckmere Haven between Seaford and Eastbourne in East Sussex

VIP visit and Music events

So what's new in the world of Aspex Design?

I had two events to photograph last Friday (4^th of July).

In the morning we had local MP's and Councillor's from around the Hastings area coming into Activ8 to help out and we actually got them doing real work! Some of them were outside working very hard scrubbing down the outside of the building (it kind of needed it!), others doing various jobs inside. I got a chance to have a nice chat with Councillor Philip Scott while he was cleaning the outside of the doors and he seemed like a good down to earth person who was not afraid to get his hands dirty.

In the afternoon I was over at Centre Stage in Bexhill at a small music event. Free food and live music, what more could you want! The event went well, not exactly a sell out, even when it was free, but everybody seemed to have a good time. Music was provided by local musician Jamie Harris and then a new band called the Referrals.

Photographs of both events are on my photography site.

My new blogs resolution

I used the blog on myspace for a while and also another place that I can't even remember, but stopped doing them both. Now I really want to do a better blog and hopefully remember to add things to it. I am a web designer, running my own graphic design and photography sites and a few for other people, I am also a photographer, not professional, but I have won a few competitions and had my pictures in a few magazines! Everything I do is non profit, even my "day job" is working for a few local charities as a voluntary worker, doing everything from web design, event photography and even teaching computer graphics and more. Due to being hit by a car a few years back I am permanently disabled, plus I have a few other health problems that mean doing a "proper job" is out of the question for the foreseeable future. I am a very open person and happy to try to answer any questions.