I write here quite often that having a a few picture themes as ongoing strands to explore is a way of keeping one’s eye in.
Occasionally, a random combination of strands pops up, as here: a window and a group of three. In such moments, it’s nigh impossible for me to resist call of the camera.
I promised Peacebear over at "Eye of a Lens" that I’d post my next phone camera picture. We’d been talking, on and off, about making pictures of lighted candles.
Tonight, after my weekly guitar lesson, I needed to escape from some tricky fretboard practice which was stretching not only my mind but also my fingers. A set of new, thicker strings had dealt its own sadistic challenges to my dexterity.
I hunted out a box of matches (no mean feat in the middle of house-moving preparations, as says it meself) then lit three waxy red stalks, the better to play with the buttons on my Sony Ericsson mobile.
I liked what the “Night” setting was doing. After that, all I had to do was keep the tiny, fixed-focus lens far enough away from the flames not to crack it, then press the OK button a few times.
As for that guitar, it insisted on being the subject of the final phone picture of the night. The deliberate loss of colour conceals some sanguine sweat and tears, dripped during the riffs and licks I made earlier this evening when jamming .
No, not the musical kind of flats, or, sounding even worse to my ears, punctured tyres, but three apartments sharing one front door.
The thing about choosing a never-ending series of threes to pursue is that pictures pop up in front of my very eyes all the time. No thought required, really.
Occasionally, taking a risk with a pocket camera pays off in the form of an unusual picture. Playing such games in a public wash room hones one’s sense of timing to a very fine edge indeed, believe you me.
I’ve been fascinated by odd reflections for about as long as I’ve been studying light. There’s a website dedicated to this kind of photography: The Mirror Project. It has accepted a few of my submissions along the way.
Place names in Devon have a certain flavour about them. Churches in The British Isles liberally sprinkled their own unique condiments into the cauldron which cooked our nation's history.
The Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel, Chagford, is in the Diocese of Exeter. It is the largest of the Whiddon parishes of Dartmoor, which is a benefice formed of Chagford and her five adjacent sister parishes of Drewsteignton, Spreyton, Hittisleigh, Gidleigh and Throwleigh1.
The Church of England has its own jargon, much of it inherited from The Church of Rome, though many meanings have changed since The Reformation. A diocese is an area controlled by a bishop. A parish is an area cared for by a priest. A benefice is a group of parishes under one such parish priest.
1Source: "A Walk Around", a leaflet on display inside the church.
You need a lot of air to work a church organ.
In the days before electric blower motors were installed, it was the lot of one of the hapless choristers to pump the heavy lever which operated the bellows. The organist at the console watched a rudimentary air pressure guage, the rate of descent of which was regularly the cue for some (mostly) non-verbal communication between the two individuals involved in that mechanical music making operation.
My labels read “empty” and “full”.
The story behind these two portraits began a long time ago. I’ve been waiting quite a few years to add something of mine to it.
I use Photoshop regularly. I know that not everyone has that luxury, so I set myself the challenge of seeing what could be achieved with some simpler, free software.
Picasa is one of several applications available at no cost. The simple download installed itself in a well-behaved fashion. Once it had finished indexing the pictures on my laptop, I was able to delete quite a few unwanted images from folders I'd forgotten all about .
Simple abstractions, like the picture above, can quickly be turned into greetings cards, or used for web design. I made this one in a few minutes, merely by playing with some of the various effects offered by Picasa. I liked that I could undo my changes at any stage, and that the original shot was preserved. Also, the on-line help made it easy for me to discover how to export and re-size the image, making it ready for uploading to this page.
We learn best by playing. I'd say Picasa has quite enough tools to encourage easy, worthwhile experimentation on a minimal budget.
Here's the original point-and-shoot snap, for comparison.
The new(ish) word “bogoff” seems to have all but replaced the word “twofer”. Buying two for the price of one has been eclipsed, courtesy of those hidden persuaders in our supermarkets, with “buy one, get one free”. This imperative practically forces unwary shoppers into accepting the offer, whether or not they actually need two identical items at the time. It may even contribute to rising obesity here in the over-fed, greedy west.
The powerful marketing psychology concealed within a bogoff offer is presented, misleadingly, about how the consumer “saves” money. It's never about quickly shifting old stock that isn't moving. Newsflash: we customers spend money when shopping. We can only ever save money in our piggy banks.
I did think that applying the seductive term to shoes, as illustrated here, created a kind of oxymoron. I’ve always been content buying my footwear in pairs.
