Life Observed

Note to the BBC: Dear BBC. The weatherman on Countyfile today had nothing but bad news in his forecast tonight. Apparently (so he tells us) there is rain, sleet, snow, wind, more rain and some frost due this week. Is it possible to replace him with someone that gives more positive forecasts of better weather? I enclose an example of better weather in case you are puzzled by my request. Yours  Colonel Harrumphington Brown

Aha!  I spy Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers in the biscuit pile at work. They have already been opened. In fact there are only three left, so I snaffle one. "I hope you like them, they are quite interesting " someone says. I am puzzled, and look closely at the packet. Aargh!  Salted peanut chocolate biscuit fingers.  Horrible. What sort of twisted mind would come up with a disappointment of such galactic dimensions?

A tech post today: How digits have progressed: Here are three images taken since 2003 which illustrate how digital cameras finally overtook film in almost all departments: Oh dear. My first two megapixel camera. More art than science. It was a slow start, and even three megapixels really didn't do the business in 2004. This next one is from an early Fuji digital camera, not a compact, but a reasonably serious item. Perhaps I should have waited another year before jumping into digits. Ah well. Its 2004, and now we have 8Mp and a much better lens. A very reasonable effort. Well done Olympus. Forward to 2008 and I made the jump to a digital SLR with interchangeable lenses (and a mild increase to 10Mpixels). This put me back where I was six years before with the last of my Nikon film cameras. Now at last the results are rewarding and worthwhile. Finally 2015. Here we have a 16Mpixel camera that is smaller than many of the above that can be...

Somewhere is the south of France a few years ago. I wonder where it was? Such is the nature of our instant memories these days. Click. Move on. Forget. It's not Stoke on Trent, that's for sure.

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What a lovely old four and a half volt battery spotted on a shelf in a stately home . I bet the servant's doorbell doesn't work any more.  Then, neither do the servants.

If the Russians finally invade us, it seems to me that the good folks at Southwold will be the first to know.  Last one in the Sole Bay Inn buys the beers!

The sheep's dilemma.  I wonder what is over that wall? If it is what I think it is, I wonder if it is greener?  Can I climb this obstacle somehow?  If I concentrate, could I turn myself into a Goat?

If you can't find an unusual angle , then stop when you see an unusual subject and consider if there might be a picture there. Maybe there is a story to tell.

Ah! The unusual angle.That always catches the viewer's attention. Go stand in the river (or what is left of it) to take a picture of the ancient pack horse bridge. In this case it is a strange narrow arrangement with low walls so the mules and horses could cross it without knocking the load off their backs. Then there is the vertical shot. Here we have a spiky tree in the land of Johnny Foreigner looking straight up. Honest.

Framing a shot is an old photographer's trick* and it is a useful way to focus the viewer's attention on the intended subject. This view of a county house gate would be unremarkable without the stonework. See how the clipped hedges draw the eye to that distant urn thingy. *Yes, I am indeed that old photographer...

Sometimes the shadow says more than the object. Here the shadow of the bizarre untiled roof upstages the wall and the seat. Quite why you would make such a construction is the subject for another occasion...

Working with harsh lighting is a challenge. The rule is: Take all your pictures within an hour of sunrise or sunset when the light is at its best. Equally you could forget that rule, search out a character or some remarkable architecture and take a picture at midday anyway In this case I place the sun behind my subject and aim for an impressive silhouette. In this case it is the Roman aqueduct, an astonishing construction at Segovia.

When the Sun goes down, you have to think differently.  Sometimes you have to work with available light, even if that is a Sodium streetlight. A long exposure at night in Avignon. Maybe you have to use the dusk to your advantage. Underexposure in the evening by the lake in Mattsee

Oh I do like a pattern . Repeated themes of light and shade get me reaching for the camera.  It might be a load of bent metal: A piece of Urban Art in a secret corner of Newbury. It might be old fashioned cobbles in a Yorkshire street It might be something natural. On the beach in Fuerteventura.

One upon a time, Britain waived the rules. Now we have reduced our spending on defence and we are preparing to take a back seat in world affairs* In case you are interested, this is all that is left of defence. *Unless President Trump drags us into a pointless conflict or two.