I decided to take it a little further than she did.  While she just showed off what was on screen, I’m sharing what is on my desk too.  So, let’s get to it.

While that’s the entire of my ‘screen real-estate’ it doesn’t exactly show you how I work or live, so I’ve changed things a bit. Feel free to click the image to go and see the large image with notes attached.

I hope you enjoy the craziness which is my computer setup. I do live pretty much on it as my work station, so I hope you like the look and enjoy the experience it brings.

To save you from the worst of the tagging experience for the user, I won’t be tagging anybody for this. Instead, think of yourself as one of many possible candidates–and if you think you’ll enjoy doing this, then do it!

It’s simple.  Just take a picture of where you work, and explain what’s in the picture that makes it work for you.

I’m going to adapt this to be a full fledged post on the fusedrealitystudios blog in a few days, but I’d like to see how you work too!

So, here’s out first view of my desk.  Unfortunately, it’s very rarely you’d see this in such a clean state.  Often it’s piled by papers, cds (often important ones facing the wrong way) and utensils from various meals.

I’ve got all of the important things to hand.  On the left, my espresso machine is always ready to dose me in caffeine, while my iPhone on the right is docked and ready to accept calls.  The screens however, are the life… and death of my work.   As you can see here, I was supposed to be working, but instead you can see not only twitter open, but also BBC iPlayer with a little but of QI.

The desk cover is actually 4 very large mouse mats.  It was the cheapest option that didn’t cause me to have to run all the way to Ikea, and so far have worked out great.  On it are my Wacom tablet (rarely used but helpful in the start of the design process, drawing, and often just fiddling about), my Apple aluminum keyboard and gaming mice.

This is my desk overhead, taken a few days later.  As you can see, the mess is back… as well as a few other interesting items.

I’ve got remnants of coffee drunk long ago taking over the desk, and of which really should be refilled pretty soon.  But nothing has really changed, except my desk is now riddled with notebooks.  So, what’s in them?

From left to right:-

Moleskine #1–mainly used for sketching little doodles as well as a few web ideas that come to mind.

Moleskine #2–used as a rough web sketch journal as well as a place to put new ideas for websites.  Right now, if you look closely, it’s showing all of the WordPress templates I’m working on for fun for the next 6 months.

Moleskine #3–This holds this blogs secrets, as well as all the little improvements that are coming pretty soon.

The Rhino Journal–Bought in the economic downturn when I can’t afford moleskines, this contains most of the design and planning of fusedrealitystudios.  It’s showing the website’s latest (and only) blog post to date, which I wrote before desiging it.

These moleskines hold most of my brain’s thoughts and ideas, so I’d be nowhere without them.

Feel free to post your own, I’m interested!

I’ll be back soon!

I can’t articulate right now.  But they’re not, but they are.  Arrgh, it’s hard to explain.

I can’t write.  I don’t want to write, here’s some pretty pictures I took a couple of weeks ago instead.

That’s my sister, we went on a little photowalk around Dundee for her course.  I miss going on photowalks a lot.

I haven’t shot in a while, I feel that fact.  But it’s nice ot have the camera in hand again.

Ok, this isn’t exactly ‘pretty’ but sends an important message.  I live right outside an AA.  It’s not bread in that brown bag.  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this.  There is only so much you can take before the people think you can’t overrun the substance – I speak from knowledge and experience.  There’s a point where stories don’t matter.

I’m sorry.  It’s been a bad Monday and I won’t go into details.  I’ll see you tomorrow.

And I can’t find my laptop because it’s currently hiding from me. EEPCs are so small that way. Don’t worry – I’ll find it tomorrow to write a better post.

Just to show you how messy my move is right now (from attempting to find everything I need) here’s a few picks.

I’m sure I’ll find everything… Well, I hope. There’s also a pic of the boxes most of my stuff is in. Those minimalist urges are really helping me pack small.

The rest of the collection can be viewed here.

Here’s some of my, and flickr’s, favorites.

My favorite of the day…

I’d ask you to take a guess of which country these guys are from… but it’s a little TOO hard not to notice.

Now, taking footage with my camcorder was easy. No problems whatsoever. I could even say I had a little fun. See:

Sunny Day from Craig McCreath on Vimeo.

Then, after walking a few miles I found a nice warehouse that had seen better days. It was boarded up and even had some bollards marking where they would prefer the general public not to stand. I didn’t. I took this picture from the pavement (a completely legal act, might I add) and was confronted by a man who demanded that I stopped shooting.

I had only taken one shot and I was hoping to get the bigger lens out of my bag – but this guy kept insisting that in no way I could shoot here. Here’s basically what I remember from the event:

Him: You can’t shoot here.

Me: What I am doing is completely legal.

Him: No it isn’t–this is private property.

Me: Well, I’m on a pavement and last time I checked that was public property.

Him: [quietened down a little, I think he was getting a little unsure of the whole situation]

Are you press?

Me: No, I’m just an amateur photographer. If anything has happened here I don’t know about it. I only walked by thinking that this was an attractive building and I thought I’d take a couple of shots.

Him: You can’t shoot here… unless you cross the road. If this is for a school project (what age am I?) or whatever, just cross the road. As long as you’re not going to see it to the press.

Me: I don’t see how that would be any more legal, I’m on the pavement. But I’ll do what you ask only due to courtesy. But I know my rights and I suggest you learn about them.

Him: [leaving slowly.]

How come so many people don’t seem to understand the rights of photographers in the UK? That is twice now (in a row) I have been asked not to shoot a specific building because it is private property. It’s not only me – many photographers I know have been stopped by complete strangers and sometimes even police(!) that don’t know the law. With the fear of terror in the UK and especially in London there’s a negative sigma placed on photographers and somehow I don’t think me taking a picture of an off load bay would constitute and act of terror or would aid in planning one – or in this case, give me extra money if I did sell it to the press.

From now on, I’m always going to carry a copy of Photographer’s Rights in the UK so that the people I meet and try to invade my right to take photos can leave with a better knowledge of the law and therefore not disturb a photographer or let others do it in their steed because it’s really getting annoying now.

Extra - Thanks to islandboy for sharing the BBC’s Article ‘Innocent Photographer or Terrorist?’

Unfortunately, you won’t find many of your photos to be of your liking to begin with. It’s more of a practice-makes-perfect kind of hobby. Chris Marquart once said in his podcast that it’s more of a 100-to-1 relationship for even himself of photos that he considers to be good.

If you think inspiration is stupid you won’t get very far. Every artist uses it and can offer a different perspective than you may see normally.

It’s not always about the camera. While it’s good to have a decent resolution (6+ is a must for dSLRS) I still love to use my LOMO LC-A when going around. Even a small portable digital camera is useful but of course normally doesn’t give the customisation a dSLR will provide.

It’s not bad to experiment either, I’ve found that out too often. I love to shoot wildlife but it’s always difficult (what wildlife except from pigeons can I find easily?) – I’ve even go so far as to say it’s my favourite subject to shoot whenever possible. Then it’s people (also pretty hard without looking posed), architecture and landscapes. But if you’ve not tried something, do it anyway. You’ll never know what you’ll like if you haven’t tried it. It also fills the holes until you get into things that you prefer to shoot.

I try not to get stuck on the same settings too often. I normally choose a wide angle lens, 18mm, taking shots at f3.4. If everything starts looking the same you won’t impress yourself or others. Experiment.

That’s mainly what it is. Experiment. You or I will get nowhere unless we do. It brings new ideas and offers new solutions when you’re down. See, give it a try.

Do it!

Enjoy.