Life Observed

Breaking the rules is what Art is all about.  Here we have the camera pointed straight into the sun. It is a colour image with almost no colour. Does it have a message? Does it even have a subject? I'm not certain. I do know that it was a "must snap" moment. I can't define what makes a must snap scene but I know one when I see one...

Compact and practical town car.. Boarded seventeenth century farm barn. Juxtaposition of photographic elements.  Contrast.  Counterpoint.  Social comment. Yellow and black.

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise. Hidden in the woods commanding a fantastic view is a wonderful modernist haus. That's the sort of place I would like, but alas it isn't mine. So I went off in  a huf.

I'm worn out. Leave me alone. I spent all day ticking boxes and filling in forms. After all, that's what we do now, isn't it.

Rush rush hurry rush. It's another Monday. What are you doing looking at this picture, get back to work. :-)

Winter:  When a lesser Sun reluctantly dispenses daylight in meager amounts on a need to know basis. The wind is stilled and the trees drip sullenly. This time of persistent low cloud and fog is known as Anticlyclonic Gloom. Enjoy...

I was at home doing my school homework fifty years ago. My parents were out doing the Friday night shopping at the brand new thing in town: A supermarket. I remember them coming home rather shocked and announcing that Kennedy had been shot.

Here lies old Primitive Me. I hope I have left that far behind: Behold the new Sophisticated Me. Yes, now I am a pretty nifty Chape.

Be very careful. You wouldn't want to end up like this, would you.

Winter on the Berkshire downs. The low sun lights the chalk fields and the last of the leaves. You need to take care when the sun is this low. I may have got part of my shadow in this shot, but I think we can ignore it.

Will it snow? That is the question.  I had a nasty moment with my recently fitted cheap Winter tyres last week. As a result I took them off again and fitted fresh Summer rubber. In the same way that Summer tyres are no good on ice and snow, then Winter tyres are no good when the temperature is above 5 degrees. So, the tyres wait in the garage. The daily question remains, will it snow?

This individual is warming itself next to a south facing window, protected from the frost outside by double glazing. I somehow suspect it won't see next year. Butterflies and moths are very unlikely candidates for flying, they always seem to be far to fragile for the great outdoors. How they get through the winter is a mystery to me.

Philip's friends stood around for years waiting for him to return. It was all a bit of a mystery.

I've invented a new composition rule for photography. We've had the rule of thirds and various guides regarding symmetry. There are leading lines and foreground to background tension. This is the new New:  The L shaped composition.  Keep up with the trending Trends, it's all here on on this blog.

I will snap this only once....

Our company is now firmly in the grip of the Quality Management System, which is a joyous and wonderful creation that ensures our products are very well made indeed. However, if you fail to fill in the correct form or use the proper Work Instruction, you will be hunted down by our crack team of Maasai Warriors and ritually humiliated in front of all the employees, like this:

Here we have my localised phase change reactor, pictured during a maintenance period after a materials production experiment last night. The reactor requires extensive cleaning as a result of the reaction by products, but it is ready for use immediately after the process is complete. Narrow depth of field courtesy of extension tubes on my 45mm f1.8 Zuiko prime. No ideas were poached during this posting.

Low angle lighting is the defining point of many a photograph.  So much so that the time that the sun is low on the horizon, sunrise and sunset, is often called the Golden Hour . In the winter the Golden Hour can last all day in these northern lattitudes. Here's a nice contrasty picture of Highworth Church lit with November sun on a crisp afternoon.

You know how it is, it happens all the time. You are trying to get a nice picture of two blokes talking when a Maasai Warrior walks into shot and upsets your composition. 

We have Gardeners on the trading estate. This is the new Gardening. A bloke turns up with a weedkiller spray strapped to his back and he squirts bits of the greenery for an hour or so. Then he straps a leaf blower on and moves all the loose leaves around. Job done. That's how it works these days.  Forget those intricate gardening shows. They are well out of touch.