Having an idea is one thing, doing something with it is altogether different....

Victor W. has added a photo to the pool:

Hiya all.
Sorry I've been away, tending to a rather sore leg after being knocked off my bicycle last week by a car (!!)

Another selfie so you'll have to put up with my mug again, at least it's still here the collision could have put paid to that.

Not complaining about lack of ideas, have plenty of those just a bit of a bugger putting together something. Realised that my home made flashes are somewhat limiting, have some new design ideas, (including capacitor bank switching, voltage adjustment and a power-pack design rather than mono-block), just need to scrounge up the components to build them. Easier said than done.

A work colleague and good friend of mine Nazish recently lent me her Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet whilst she was away on holiday. Struggled with it to start with until it hit home and I then started using it like I used to use an airbrush. Got to say it was an absolute god send, so much so that some puppy dog eyes later my wonderful wife Teresa came home clutching a box and promptly handed it to me with a big smile on her face. It was returned with the biggest smile and a yelp of delight! I now have my very own Wacom Bamboo :-)

It's a great bit of kit, makes life a heck of a lot easier and the nice thing is my Linux Ubuntu system installed it straight away, (no disc required!), also worked with GIMP with no issues. So used to it now that it's completely replaced my mouse, the pen hovering above that tablet with ease and a certain joy. If you get the chance to use one do so, it'll definitely change the way you do things, (retouching is a breeze now!)

Came across a site recently suggested by Regina Pagles somewhere in a flickr group, (sorry can't remember where), which turned out to be quite a learning experience. The site's called Phlearn and the host Aaron Nace is pretty awesome, (as is his work!)
Picked up a few pointers on his site for sure and still watching those vids with eager excitement :-)

Don't think I'll be as good a photographer or retoucher as those I revere but I'm certainly having fun trying to improve what I do.

Still learning, still struggling, (cannot for the life of me figure out compositing to look realistic!), but luckily I'm still enjoying it all :-)

All my best to all of you and hopefully catch you around on flickr.

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Strobist Info: Main light, my DIY Studio Flash set to maximum so about 100 watts. Sitting above camera with that home made white umbrella some extra diffusion gained with white cloth draped over the reflector. That bulb is real but with a home made miniature flash squeezed into it, quick charge on the mains and it'll hold it's charge for some time, about 4 watts. (Actually the main light is the bulb in the picture, the DIY studio flash was used for fill!)
All triggered optically by the cameras pop-up flash with my DIY Infra Red Filter sat over it, (so no exposure in the final).

Reinstated the EXIF, (but doesn't make sense to me as the picture is completely different from that taken), so F11, ISO 200 and 1/180th I think.