Picture 1 is a Bungus photo and I think he should call it "I've got my eye on you" - nicely captured and a pleasure to publish it.Guest pictures are always welcome and now, with my google PageRanking, you will be reaching a reasonable audience.
Tonight at the camera club people who have them are asked to take in their laptops and there can be a good interchange of ideas and information. I'm also going to take in my Photoshop CS2 Bible and folks can have a thumb through it. Rather than ask me anything - because I am unlikely to know.
Picture 2 is some more orchids and I'm hoping that the pine background is more gentle than the black sheet. The picture was at f3.5 and I wonder if the depth of field should be even shallower - to blur the background. Trouble is that most of the flowers (except the one focussed on) would blurry too. I suppose easiest is to bully it into submission with Photoshop. All suggestions will be gratefully received.
Comments.....Ray.....Thanks for the RSS feed info. Much to think about and I haven't yet decided it I want to go down that path or not. But other readers mght.
And thanks also for the image hosting site.
Bungus and Rob.......My allegiance to the Telegraph comes from the time when I did the official archive for the miners' strike, part of which included press cuttings. I found that the paper was the fairest and most thorough. The only time they were 'scooped' was when Paul Foot published the famous 3 letters in The Mirror. I didn't leak them although it was suspected that I had. (Paul was a personal friend and he stayed at my house when he came to Sutton-in-Ashfield to ginger up the 1977 by-election) This was not popular either with the Chief Constable or The Security Services. And I wonder why I didn't progress further than Inspector. Anyway, back to the Telegraph. Max Hastings was the editor at the time and no doubt the paper isn't what it once was.
The Bird in Hand is still an excellent pub, as mentioned yesterday. And the licensee has a sense of humour. When I drew his attention to a walking stick someone had left he told us that recently someone had gone home without a pair of crutches. "I thought it was a miracle" he said.
Pleased to see the Sports Desk hard at work. You can't beat this delegation thing can you?
Bored at work Rob......
A star and a house point for getting 'goalposts' - I was nowhere near it. Bungus will be pleased.I'm not sure about cooking hyenas. I suspect it's been done. I had some soup once etc........... Wild Boar paté is around but my portion seemed somewhat understated I thought.
Thank you also for the Rock Art material. And a great link. I am cutting a link from your link so to speak, so everyone can share the Creswell Stuff. OK, it's an 'academic monograph' but none the less interesting for all that. And when I said chaps yesterday, it was in fact the case that Helen was not with us.
I will most certainly do my best to have you elected a NEMPF judge but as a non-exhibitor I guess I personally won't carry much clout. The main problem, as you suggest, is to break up the self-perpetuating clique. There are a few RPS people I talk to at the regional meetings but your own contacts including our Paul are much better placed. The old dictum about "Pick people off socially beforehand" is as relevant today as it ever was (I speak as the recently elected (contested) Vice-Chairman of The Mansfield Centre for The National Trust with 144 members) Let me ponder it. Perhaps one thing I could do is write a hard-hitting article for AP; not naming you personally of course (that wouldn't be good strategy) but stressing the need for new blood and citing regions that get things right!
Eastwood Photographic Society enjoyed its evening of sharing skills and laptops. The general hubbub was rewarding. My only useful contribution was my laptop ! We were lucky at our table, - we 'coggsed' (another local expression meaning booked) Mike Holland before anybody else did, and we learnt such a lot. I must spend some hours tomorrow consolidating it because while the meaning of my handwritten notes is fresh in my mind I stand a chance.
Brian has put me his Creswell Crags pictures on a memory stick and given me permission to pick one, or more, for the blog. So, watch this space.............
Stopping there. It is getting late. And my e-mail notifier tells me that Jill has already put a comment on the first draft of this post......We shall have to call her "Speeedy from Chiswick"..... Catch you tomorrow.
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This should have been on the last-but-one post, you are too quick for me. I wouldn't mind a few hyenas knocking around, after all we have beavers and wild boar. Nut think I will pass on the bears and sabre-tooth tigers....
ReplyDeleteI like the pine background, it looks sort of natural to me. Don't orchids in the wild grow on trees? Epiphytes?
Of course, that 'nut' should be 'but' - sorry!
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot to say that I loved the photo of the cat/pigeon - it's a classic!
ReplyDeleteI spent part of Thur afternoon watching an an excellent old (1948)b&w film, ‘Call Northside 777’. A ‘newspaper’ story’ (I love those linking shots of papers being printed) it was based on a true story of wrongful imprisonment. It starred James Stewart alongside Lee J Cobb, Richard Conte and several other well-known faces.
ReplyDeleteThanks for publishing my photo. And thanks Jill. It was lucky that my camera was handy.
Sorry RG, but I am not taken by the pine cupboard doors; too mundane (I think one pine panel would have been OK). I think some sort of blurry background, probably greenish, would show off the orchid better (perhaps take it outside for a treat and have distant trees/shrubbery out of focus behind?). But nice orchid, nevertheless.
You name dropper you! I never knew that you knew Paul Foot. I respect him and Max Hastings.
Re your Wild Boar paté, I feel rather the same about venison, far preferring hare which is probably my favourite meat.
The Creswell Crags link is fascinating. I must go again. Being something of a sceptic I wonder how they date these things accurately (could someone have done them in 2000 say?)
Pleased to see that you are still able to employ your Machiavellian wiles. Knowing of your other power seizing efforts, I have little doubt that you will get Rob elected’
I know from personal experience that "Pick people off socially beforehand" is effective.
I have never heard 'coggsed' before. In Mansfield and many other places it was ‘bagged’ or ‘baggsied’ as a claim for possession. We would stand in front of the newsagent’s window (he carried a small selection of toys and hardware) and ‘bag’ things alternately. I usually ended up with a mop.
It was in the same newsagent’s that I first saw sanitary towels. I thought they sounded a good idea (being more ‘healthy’ than ordinary towels) and decide that I must make my mother aware of them; for some reason I never did.
The newsagent’s son was my age and we became friends although, being Cathlic, he went to different schools.
During the war he found a stash of fireworks that his father had hidden in the spare bedroom. We had great fun burying them in the sand and blowing up convoys of dinky toy lorries.
I think the last time I saw him was when another friend and I had cycled a thousand miles around the coast of Hants, Devon and Cornwall. We stopped for a break in Lichfield, to view the 3 spired cathedral and share an apple, when who should appear but Dennis (also on a cycling tour). He then went to Chile and married a Chilean girl. So far as I know he is still there.
Rob
I think the comedic value of Saint & Greavesy (which I watched with enjoyment) was mainly down to Jimmy’s native cockney wit.
The Stags saga goes on and on.
Well done with 'goalposts'.
I may start a crossword clue comp.(my own as I composed several puzzles years ago but could not find any paying takers) which will go on as long (or short) as people show an interest.
The ‘grains of rice donations’ was probably in the 23 March edition. I cannot tell you what page because I just tore out the relevant bit but it was a single column some 6" or 7” long headed ‘This week we all want to talk about…Freerice.com’ and was on the bottom right hand corner of a right hand page.
No luck with hyena recipes. My Encyclopaedia of Gastronomy leads straight from ‘Hot-Pot, Hotch-Potch, Hodge-Podge’ to ‘Iguana’. I provisionally intend to try Wild Boar for our next Xmas Dinner. I hope it will be less disappointing than last time’s venison.
Probably most things in Sardinia are beautiful. I only spent minutes there in 1957 on my way to soldiering in Tripoli. But it happened to be at dawn and I was able to watch the distant indigo mountains emerge from the darkness and haze of the plain. Magical.
A nice reworking of an old joke.
Unattributed quote:
‘Every path has its puddle”
WoW, RG, TOTAL RESPECT MY MAN!! A personal friend of Paul Foot and he stayed with you. How cool is that? You must have been a big worry for your "superiors". I now need to Google the 3 letters and re-visit that period.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there's too much pine in the background IMHO.
Thanks, Bungus, for the Freerice.com bit - that was what I wanted and, so far, I've donated 200 grains. I now feel I need to count that out and weigh it to make myself aware of just how little that is.
As an erstwhile full-time trade union officer I think I know a thing or two about 'organising' elections so, maybe, RG, we should put our heads together. However, the appointment of N&EMPF judges is nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with dictatorship. It's not a case of what you know....... Maybe the hard-hitting AP article could refer to how people get selected as selectors and who judges the judges? On the other hand, is it worth it? I'm sure there's far more important things in life.
Just going back to 'organising' elections don't forget the Irish method - vote early, vote often.
I like the cat and pigeon picture. A well-caught moment; 16 out of 20.
Rob