Through the Pumpkin, Students' Vegetable Plots, Kew Gardens

Allium Giganteum at Kew Gardens

Nokia vs Apple

So there I am at the party where we are planning a re-creation of Michael Jackson's Thriller and someone says "does anyone have the video to hand?" So I think I'll just look it up on my Nokia 5800 or whatever forgettable name has been given to my new crappophone. First off I fire up the browser - takes an age and the first page is some rubbish from T-Mobile that tries to cram in so much information the font size is measured in atoms. Note that, according to T-Mobile, the first page isn't your Homepage - oh no, the entire rest of the world may think so, but T-Mobile, they know better, they know that you will give them your life's savings if only you have been shown the delights of their advertorial. So, I go to the menu, tap on "homepage", hate T-Mobile for another few seconds of my alloted span, and wait while Google comes up. I then type in my request and hit search. Only, when I hit search, I am taken back to the text entry page for the search box. Repeat about 15 times and then, for no reason at all, it works and I am shown some search results. Next, I get a "Low Battery" warning (having started off with about an 80% charge according to the bars nonsense on the screen) before being taken to a page that tells me the video is unavailable. I try going back to the search page - for some reason there is no "back" button available. I turn the phone off and contemplate, for a second or two, dropping it in the nearest drink.

Meanwhile, iPhone man is asked to find the video. He gets out his girlfriend's iPhone which he appears never to have used before. He quickly finds there is a YouTube shortcut, he taps this and about 30 seconds later a number of the party guests are listening to Thriller's opening Vincent Price bit and I am contemplating firebombing my local T-Mobile store.

There are 350 days left of my contract.

Tree Fern, Cornwall

White tulip, Kew Gardens

Welsh Valley and low sun

Hammersmith Acid

Daisy was beloved, St Just-in-Roseland, Cornwall

Fire in the field

Bamboo, Cornwall

Dog, bench, Falmouth

Leaves, Cornwall

Path through a wheat field

Any ideas as to why the wheat nearest the path is less ripe than the wheat not immediately beside the path? Does constant brushing by people passing by mean the wheat isn't as healthy? Perhaps the ground nearer the path is harder making it more difficult for the seeds to get established there, hence accounting for their immaturity relative to their peers? Or is there some other mechanism at work? Maybe the wheat stems that are surrounded by other wheat stems feel more secure and therefore better able to mature? Nonsense, I know, but I can't think of a proper explanation.

Poppy and Wheat near Sarrat

Shot Rationale:
OK, so this has been done a billion times, but I think it is my first effort. The picture was taken this morning at about 10.30 or so in very hot sunshine on a walk between Loudwater and Sarrat. I'd gone on the walk because I'd woken early at my brother's house and was feeling shabby having overconsumed the night before and having not got to bed much before four a.m. or thereabouts - I therefore needed to clear my head and sweat off the alcohol still in my system before driving home (the walk, a shower and a large cooked breakfast all helped). I find that a walk is always immeasurably improved if I have a camera with me (and I pretty much always do nowadays, even though it weighs a fair bit), and this morning the camera also meant I could concentrate on something other than how hungover I was.
By the way, if I haven't already said this, I think that the reason I like photograp, and nature / landscape photography in particular, is that I like the idea of trying to capture in pixels / print the emotional response a scene has evoked in me, trying to make the intangible tangible. Occasionally it works, although I admit I'd be hardpressed to suggest that this particular picture meets the criteria in this case.
Shot Technique:
The bright light meant I was able to select a low ISO so as to lessen any issues with noise. I used my 50mm prime so as to ensure I had access to a large aperture so as to minimise DoF. Then, on the PC, I wanted to address the fact that the poppy came out as almost a posterised red so: a new layer, split to RGB, blue channel overlaid on picture, Darken blend mode, taken down to about 30% or so, layers merged, tiny bit of sharpening and Bing!, we're good to go.

Aqueduct, Llangollen Canal, North Wales 2

Shot Rationale:
This was going to constitute an entry into a competition, the theme being H2O. However, in the event I think I was trying too hard. I've erased some sheds (see alternative version, below) and, whilst it is a reasonable picture, it doesn't have a "bang!" impact. Some snow on the ground might have improved it, or fog, or perhaps some clouds. The angle of the light is great and I shall go back at sunrise again when I am next in the area, but somehow it needs something else to lift it. The man walking the dog is helpful, but again it isn't enough.
As an aside, if you look closely not only can you see a shadow from my legs but also, where the sun is brightest on the grass, you can just about make out the rest of my shadow.
Anyway, here's to continuing to improve!

Sometimes wisdom comes at you unannounced

"Belief is the absence of information."

The Angel of the South

From Richmond Lock tonight.
Shot Rationale:
I took a fair number of cloud shots tonight, not so much to post like this one as they mostly don't generate that much interest, more so that I have them to use as texture layers at some point in the future. However, I quite liked this one as a stand-alone.

Sunrise over Asia, Istanbul

Shot Rationale:
Woken by the sun every day of our stay, it was hard to resist getting up to loose off a few shots. Sunsets and sunrises are, of course, available by the billion on the net and elsewhere but despite that I still felt a compulsion to post this. I try and keep my very best shots for Flickr and, whilst I post a lot of them here as well, this blog is also something of a repository for memories (my own being so appallingly bad, probably owing to a dissolute and anxious youth, dissolution being as every one knows bad for the grey matter, anxiety also being a force for destruction and forgetting).
The technical details are uninteresting - keep the ISO up so that movement is reduced to a minimum, underexpose so as to prevent the whole thing washing out and losing the sky detail, yet I didn't want a silhouette of the shores. I spent a bit of time working off some vignetting, and tried to lose some but not all of the noise in the original picture.
Again, not a phenomenal picture by any means, but as an aide memoire it will more than do.