April already!
April, here we come.
Day 121. Snapchap's April 2013 Review. The end of another month and one third of the course covered so far. Thanks for bearing with me. I was a bit stuck for a picture today so did a slideshow of the past month's works instead. I left it to the software package to come up with a suitable show and fit it to the music so that's why there is duplication and weird cropping!
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Day 120. Day up in London Natural History Museum I'm here to see the Sebastião Salgado photo exhibition. More later maybe!
Post Script! Please, please, please... if you get the chance to visit the Natural History Museum before this exhibition ends on 8 September 2013 then it really is worth the £10 entry fee. The photographs are STUNNING. All B&W; think Ansel Adams with more contrast and clarity and you might be close to the truth. I left the museum with my eyes and mind totally boggled and clutching £45 worth of exhibition catalogue. So fabulous even Mrs Snapchap was totally gobsmacked. If you see no other exhibition this year, go and see this one... please. You won't regret it. You can watch a video here http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/salgado-genesis/index.html |
Day 119. Like father, like sun. I'm still dashing around and too busy to post much - when I say dashing around, we have been out walking and have turned in eight miles per day of brisk strolling up hill and down dale for the last two days so dashing is out of the question - or so my legs are telling me! I was lost for a picture today until I noticed these two terracotta plaques on the wall and came up with the title.
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Day 118. Bluebell Railway Fish and Chip Supper Special Is it a filler? The video I mean, not the Fish and Chips. Yes I took all the pics and the clip last night but I built them into the video clip today. We had a smashing time, thank you.
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Day 115. Three Sixty Five. Dedicated to all you wonderful people out there because you really are the Salt of the Earth. A big "Thank You!" to all of you, my friends. Definitely drawn freehand, no pencil outlines, only sharpening in Photoshop and I apologise for missing bits and oddly shaped wobbly bits.
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” Winnie the Pooh |
Day 114. Twelfth night. "If music be the food of love, play on". I love my music and it is going almost constantly whether I be in the house, garden, car or wherever. I know I did something similar way back in March but I have a zillion and one things to do today so must get on hence the rather unoriginal picture. Anyway, seeing as today is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, I thought the quote was timely. Happy St George's day to all the English out there!
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Day 113. Clutching at straws. Me... clutching at straws... I was desperate for a photograph as usual and I had this idea about clutching at straws. I had meant to drop these brilliant coloured drinking straws into my hand but this was a test shot to get the focus right. Despite being shot at high ISO (you should see the noise!) the shutter speed was slow enough to blur the straws as they fell.
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Day 112. Silently waiting for Dennis. This chap and his five buddies stand outside one of the local fire stations, smiling silently and just a bit sadly to the passers by who tend to ignore them. Why is he waiting for Dennis? Well, most of the fire engines in this area are made by a company called... "Dennis" http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6806992628_b5301600c5_z.jpg
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Day 111. Cheers Charlie! There's no doubt about it, I was stuck for a photograph today. Until I came across this vivid splash of colour. The seat was dedicated to the memory of Charlie someone or other and made such a splash of colour that I couldn't afford to ignore it. So, once again simplicity rules.
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Day 110. The time is gone, the song is over. Storm Thorgerson, the designer of the iconic "Dark Side of the Moon" album cover, died yesterday. That album cover was an important part of my teenage years. This picture is my small tribute to the man and his work. Please listen to this whilst contemplating the picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkTmPN50u80
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Day 109. Ball and chain blues? I noticed that the large, glass friendship globe in my study was very dusty. As I cleaned it off I noticed that the sun reflecting off my phizog created a selfie that made me dash for the camera and tripod. 365project is a bit like a ball and chain for me because I feel the need to take and post a picture each day and I struggle at times - it makes me feel like singing the blues. For all that, 365project is a great discipline and is an opportunity for an unashamed plug for the late, lamented Gary Moore and his hit "Ball and Chain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ9OiU5ZPl4
WHY has the EXIF changed to say I am using a [Ptui!] Nikon? Not true guys! I use a [Ptui!] Canon instead. |
Day 108. Facebook... or "Like my wall" is the alternative title. Do you recall the convex mirror shot from a couple of days back? This is one of the walls done as a photo montage. I make no excuses for the focus quality or the different exposure. I just blazed off seventy odd shots and stuck 'em all together. There is only one photograph of mine on this wall, the rest are prints and woodcuts. I will leave you guessing which one. SOOP (straight Out Of Photoshop) and proud of it. View large and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dabH45Af2bo
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Day 107. Team With due respect to @spirrowshoot who is a genius at this!
Team noun A mythical unit of work where two or more members each try to stamp their authority on a task thus causing any given task to take ten times as long as it should do and not have the desired result. |
Day 106. Sunny bunny. Mrs Snapchap was working form home today so I was rather stretched for time again. I managed to get my responses done and a lot of comments made but ended up without today's picture. The sun began setting and I needed a shot right NOW! then I caught sight of this fun bun limned with sunlight. Bingo!
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Day 105. And a good south wind sprung up behind. Snapchap has been doing familial duty today, visiting Mrs Snapchap's parents and gardening (and I am totally nadgered to put it bluntly!). I had a brief few minutes on the beach at Hillhead to try and get the photographic muse in gear. I managed a few dreadful shots before I came across this small painting on a beach hut and my mind ran to Coleridge's epic poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariners' hollo! In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shine.' 'God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-- Why look'st thou so?'--'With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross.' |
Day 104. Drain bamage... I mean.. crane bandage... brain damage... Donna and I bake cakes for the local monastery for high days and holidays. They leave bottles of monastery cider on the doorstep. Fair exchange... They call it wine but wine doesn't do what this stuff does. Black background, lit from low down with a wireless flash. Now if you'll shcuuse moi, I musht ge' back to shlurping my mishtakes.
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Day 103. Pot luck. I was a bit short on inspiration today so I decided on "Pot luck". I walked into a random room, in this case the bathroom), selected one of the many pots on the shelves (I chose this tine casket because it looked different) and said "Whatever is inside will get photographed". I was rather lucky that I chose this particular receptacle because the pot next to it had a paperclip and a screw and on the other side there as a collection of foreign coins and a screwed up bit of paper! I decided to shoot it in a sort of @wind_of_the_sothern_sea style.
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Day 102. Fish eye envy? Yesterday someone posted a picture which someone else mentioned "fish eye envy". I don't own any particularly wide angled lenses so I had to make do with a shot of one of my mirrors. This convex mirror is in our dining room and gives quite a neat view of at least two of the walls and a selfie. Taken at a bit of a funny angle to avoid getting the camera in too. Best viewed large.
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Day 101. Just remember... Mrs Snapchap was feeling bright enough to volunteer for this picture, for it is her arms and hands. She was as good as gold and sat still while I applied all the paint to her hands, a very lengthy process... Just joking! She sat for the hands portrait and then I had a bash at the Displacement Map filter in Photoshop to put a map of the globe on her hands. You see? I spoil all your illusions, don't I? The words came naturally and all I ask you to do is to play this while you look on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYSXBsGOVuc Oh. It probably looks brill enlarged and on black but I can't tell you for sure until I upload it.
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Day 99. Le Brouillard Dans La Montagne. (Tchang Fang-Yeou, 13th centiry, Chinese). I bought a stunning book of Oriental artwork in a charity shop on Saturday. It is dated 1936 and is a French catalogue by the noted conservator René Grousset. Unfortunately, in the past, someone has cut three of the plates out of the book. There is a special circle of hell for people who practice biblioclasm - I will wish a plague on them before they even get there! I posed the figures of the eight Taoist immortals before using this fabulous picture as a suitable background. Yes, there is some easy Photoshop blending involved - I didn't want to hurt this book any more than has been done already.
P.S. I might be a bit tardy responding today. My child bride has come down with a stinking head cold so needs some nurturing and TLC. |
Day 98. Snakeskin where it belongs. So the weather turned nice rather unexpectedly so we took a stroll around the local bird sanctuary (http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/p/pulboroughbrooks/) I was just about to have a rant about careless dog owners not scooping up their dogs doings when it moved! I managed to get within two feet of this adder to get this shot. She (probably a female given the girth) was out and about and basking; soaking up some rays. I couldn't help but be fascinated by the patterns of her scales so I have cropped in right up close for you.
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Day 97. Not a bright idea! Wretched low energy bulbs! They don't make for good ideas at all. Talking of "not a bright idea", I would like to dedicate this to the government of Tanzania which wants to evict the Masai of Tanzania from their ancestral lands. This grasping government wants to allow rich Middle Eastern sheiks to shoot lion and leopard there instead of allowing the Masai to live there peacefully. I'm not big into politics but if anyone wants to read the story and then add their voice to the million and a half concerned citizens from around the world then please visit https://secure.avaaz.org/en/maasai_fb_ss/?tQDrvbb .Thanks
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Day 96. She dances on air and laughs at the moon. I'm feeling a little blue today (probably after the high of yesterday - or the cold). Regardless... If you have never listened to Marc Cohn's eponymous album from twenty one years ago then I humbly suggest that you should. The title of today's picture is from the track "Walk on Water" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DEjAhahh7o
"Baby when the bands and the barkers go home They say that Venus she rises From out of the foam She dances on air and laughs at the moon And watches young lovers in fiery dunes." Venus was bought in memory of our good friend Sonia. |
Day 93. Time Flies. Guess who broke his trouser zipper this morning? At the last minute... no time to change? Had to rush out of the house into a freezing cold breeze, to drive his child bride to the station? Yup. Me. It did give me the idea for this picture though, combining a set of flies and clocks ticking my life away... Best viewed large.
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Day 92 I like to be, under the sea... After a tiring day yesterday, with too much rich food, we settled down to a simple supper of water biscuits, cheese and a few tomatoes. I noticed that the water biscuits resembled the moon and Donna that the green tops of the tomatoes looked like stars. So today we have created this using a silk blouse, a nibbled water biscuit, some gilded tomato tops, some curly pasta, a half clove of garlic and a mermaid. We will be eating well later!
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