Life Observed

Don't be afraid of the dark. Here's a low key picture. The subtext is: "What is through that door?"  It is the job of the photographer to pose these questions without answering them. The task is to surprise the viewer, to present the unexplained, to draw the viewer in and involve them. So put that flash away and don't be afraid of the dark.

Here's a moody church interior deliberately exposed low key. I do like some black in my pictures if I can arrange it. Lots of black and no people. Hmm. Worrying. Perhaps I should report myself to the authorities.

Here's a mean moody and magnificent low key picture of Canterbury Catherdal. I took this in 1972 during my university years there: Ah! Golden years, when it was cool and unusual to be young and studying electronics as an undergraduate.  Much has changed since then. Everyone takes a degree these days. The University up on the hill has expanded, with whole new colleges appearing on the campus. I would probably not recognise the place these days. Hopefully, the Cathedral has remained the same.  I assume they haven't turned it into some sort of general centre for crystal healing, colour therapy and spiritual contemplation.

I took a wrong turn on the back staircase in our north wing yesterday and somehow ended up in the servant's kitchen.   Daisy, the maid of all work, was down at the village. I had given Scrollocks, our Insolent Butler, the day off so I had the place to myself. It all looked like it could do with a good clean. Note to self: I really must review the staffing situation here at Snaar Towers.

Kingston Lacy has it's dark corners, especially now that the National Trust has lowered all the blinds and closed the shutters to preserve the interior. The NT redeems itself these days by allowing photography with no flash. A good decision. Kingston Lacy redeems itself on the top floor where the roof lantern lets daylight in and brings the magnificent plaster mouldings to life This was an exercise in exposure and crowd control..

Occasionally I have problems keeping up with stuff. The world changes so quickly these days. This weekend I did some event photography, our church was hosting a performance of "Rock" and I generally get some pictures for the cast and for the musical director to use for future publicity. I took my new Olympus E-M5 along with it's imposing battery grip and two lenses. Clearly I have to shoot this without flash, so I turn the "film speed" up to ISO 3200, and unimaginable sensitivity as far as I am concerned. The results are not just acceptable, they turn out to be spectacular.    ISO3200. Who would have thought it?

It is a difficult thing, clearing a house when a close relative dies. It is difficult deciding what to keep and what to discard. You can't keep it all and you end up throwing away someone else's memories. These are some of my Mum's pictures waiting to go to the tip. In the future this will be easier. In the future our pictures won't be prints or slides like these above. The thousand memories will simply be files that can be dragged to the bin in a single click of the mouse.

Here's a low key picture of my twenty five year old bike. An old school road bike with no frills made from genuine Reynolds 531 tubing and "only" 12 gears.  It has a fatigue detector built in to the design.  When you get really tired you find you put your fingers in the spokes when changing gear. That usually wakes you up.

Another minimal picture today. Obvious Ingredients: Limewashed golden stonework, shadow and sunlight Hidden ingredients: Members of the public that stopped in the passage waiting for me to take the picture. How kind... (In fact it was a telephoto shot well over the heads of your average punter, but it was kind of them to indulge me)   Oh, and lots of Black . I do like black in pictures ...

Continuing my Presteigne theme today, here is the Kings Head Book Shop. This is an object lesson in trust. there's on-one there. The door is open, the lights are on. It's full of old books. It's an Honesty Shop, you see. They trust you to take your money to the shop down the road and pay them. Houghton Lodge also operated an Honesty Parking and shop policy when we last visited the place. Honesty and trust. Perhaps that's a lesson for us all this Christmas.

As you all know, Snaar is the Dutch word for string, and so it is only fitting that I pay tribute to this excellent if hairy product. Just think how much of the world is held together with string... As a lad on the farm I learnt that much of British agriculture is held together with six inch nails and baling twine. Nails are much more effective than screws, they are faster and can be tapped home with a basic hammer or a Stillsons if you have no hammer. Actually, I grew up believing that the Stillsons pipe wrench was in fact an adjustable spanner , and the eighteen inch Stillsons plus a two pound hammer were the approved tools for removing bolts.

A mean moody monochrome for you this morning. In fact it's a mean and moody morning anyway, very November. Is the monochrome conversion and the sepia tint an admission that the picture wasn't good enough in it's original colours? Quite probably. This does bring to light the way things have changed. Years ago you would have to decide in advance that today was a monochrome day, and loaded the camera with black and white film.  Perhaps you had two cameras, one of colour, one for monochrome.  These days we take all pictures in colour and change them in the computer if we wish. If there is any monochrome commitment, then it is the decision to fill your inkjet with a selection of black inks to get that ultimate monochrome print.

It is the end of another day. A horse observes the two geese and the gathering gloom. Meanwhile a stable is cleaned out once again, the door to the Tack Room is open. All of this is reflected in the huge puddle that today's rain left in the stable yard. There. One picture is worth fifty words. If a picture should be worth a thousand words, then I clearly need to take more complex pictures.

Let's hear it for the Low Energy lightbulb , saviour of the planet. The only form of illumination that seems to make the rook darker when you switch it on :-) Still: It makes a nice diffuse light on these matt walls. Lambert's Cosine rule?

We found ourselves in Salisbury one evening recently. It was the end of a hot day and all the punters had gone home leaving the Cathedral city strangely quiet. Time for a pub meal, and we chose the curiously named New Inn that you find in New Street. If this 15th century establishment is the "New Inn" then  wonder how old the previous one was... The New Inn features a beer garden at the back. Here's an unexpected bonus: An unrestricted view of the Cathedral spire, all lit up at dusk

Here is the second of Snaarman's quick guides to music. Previously we mentioned Folk, Blues and Busking, and made some useful observations about Violins. Today we deal with people who play music indoors and in the dark, and firstly we feature Rock Bands . The Rock Band can usually be spotted somewhere dark and loud. Very loud, in fact so loud you can't hear the lyrics clearly. Don't worry, this is intentional. Smoke and lights are also an essential part of the experience.  Have a look around the audience and try to find the sound mixer. This is a good place to stand, if it sounds OK for him it might just sound ok for you. Now  we move on to Pub Bands . A band in a pub have the same ambitions as the rock band on stage. They would like everyone in the building to be deafened, and in this they can usually succeed. When you half fill a small pub with amplifiers and speakers the remaining space can be battered with sound quite easily.  Despite the p...

RHS Wisley - the unseen corners:  So here are a few of my pictures from the odd parts of Wisley. Fear not dear reader, there are things to see at Wisley even if you don't care for plants (pun intended) Mmmm. Nice tactile sign. Aha. Behind the waterfall. Given in Excess. A confusion of names.   Excellent* reflection! * I.e. Well gnarly, dude - if you are a young person.

Hands up anyone that owned one of these! They date back to the  golden age of motoring where car maintenance was a weekly event, and you would check the car before you embarked on a long journey of, say, fifty miles. These days cars hardly ever need attention. This is just as well, because there is very little that you can adjust, repair or even grease in them...

Hmm. It looks a lot more interesting out there than in here.  If only I could work this stupid chain thing I would sneak out for a gallop somewhere. Oh, and another thing. Why did they plait my mane. I didn't ask them to plait my mane...

Every year the longest day seems to come round too soon. We here in the northern hemisphere have not had our summer, and yet the days are now getting shorter. What an unpleasant prospect. Even more annoying is the annual change to GMT, which makes the final hours of the working day a depressing descent into darkness. Am I to live out my life cursing this foolishness, surrounded by fellow sufferers, and not see this error corrected by government? No-one I know wants the clocks to go back in Autumn, but we do it every year.  Promise me you will abolish this and I will vote for you regardless of your other policies...   Hello. Is anyone listening?