Showing posts with label photos of nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos of nature. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Fishies in Bed
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Holland Park
Friday, 16 July 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Saturday
On Saturday, I managed to get to the latter half of the Save 6Music demo. I was pleased to be there but I wish I'd had a chance to make a banner!
After the demo, there was a free Magic Numbers gig going, but I didn't fancy it. Instead, I went to the Royal Academy to see the Paul Sandby exhibition. Paul Sandby was a watercolourist and engraver who began his career by satirising Hogarth and ended by being nudged out of style by young gun JMW Turner. He spent most of the time in between painting views of the United Kingdom. As many of his contemporaries jaunted off to Europe to paint ancient Roman ruins, Sandby left us with a unique visual record of Britain during his lifetime. The landscapes are calm, ordered and beautiful. But he also had a cheeky sense of humour, so there are often funny characters in his paintings: like a grand vista of rolling green hills with a folly at the top, and if you peer inside the folly, you can see a cad trying to persuade a reluctant woman to have a cuddle. I was also tickled by the painting of an army encampment in Hyde Park which featured, in the bottom left-hand corner, a soldier doing a wee against a tent.
I love stuff like that: quirky details in art which remind us that people in the past were as witty and silly and ribald as we are now. While I was recovering from my laser eye surgery, I spent a lot of time listening to the History of the World in 100 Objects podcast. I was so excited to have my sight return -- it usually lasted about half a day before I needed to go and lie in the dark -- because I was desperate to visit the British Museum and see some of the objects I'd been learning about. It was a little frustrating, as I had to pause and sit on a bench by some Babylonian clay tablets to take my regimen of medicated eye drops... And there was also a tiny, detailed gold chariot, and I peered at the panel text and it said, 'an image of the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes can be seen on the front of this chariot' and I thought resignedly, 'can be seen... pfft.'
Anyway, there was a set of Celtic flagons which had been described in the podcast as 'funny and really rather moving.' I wondered in what way they were moving. The handle is a model of a dog, and there are two dogs moulded onto the lid of the flagon too. They are chained up. On the spout there is a little duck -- so when wine or mead was poured out, it would look as if the duck was swimming away, while the dogs were straining to get at it. And at first I thought that was a funny gimmick, quite charming -- and then it hit me, that these were our ancestors and this was their little joke -- and not a hilarious one, perhaps as chucklesome and surprising as Big Mouth Billy Bass, but still, it was a gag that dated from 450BC and it still made me grin today. It made me think of its makers as living people with a sense of humour, rather than vague, unknowable figures from the distant past. A hand reaches out from the mists of time and you take it, and you find it's holding a hand buzzer. A lame joke by a jolly uncle; one who lived several hundred generations ago, but still family. Bzzt. I welled up; but that could also have been the eyedrops.
Back to Saturday. Having spent the hottest part of the day in the aggressively air-conditioned RA, I went to buy a book from Hatchards with my birthday book token, then had some sushi. After that, I caught a bus to Hyde Park, and sat in the last of the bright sunlight, reading and enjoying the greenery.
When I got home, I found that the water bottle in my bag had leaked all over everything. The only thing it didn't get to was my phone, but everything else was sodden. Including my nice new birthday book, which looked as if it'd been dipped in a bath. I put it in the airing cupboard with some weights on it, but it refused to dry out or unripple itself. Three hours, I managed to keep that nice.
After the demo, there was a free Magic Numbers gig going, but I didn't fancy it. Instead, I went to the Royal Academy to see the Paul Sandby exhibition. Paul Sandby was a watercolourist and engraver who began his career by satirising Hogarth and ended by being nudged out of style by young gun JMW Turner. He spent most of the time in between painting views of the United Kingdom. As many of his contemporaries jaunted off to Europe to paint ancient Roman ruins, Sandby left us with a unique visual record of Britain during his lifetime. The landscapes are calm, ordered and beautiful. But he also had a cheeky sense of humour, so there are often funny characters in his paintings: like a grand vista of rolling green hills with a folly at the top, and if you peer inside the folly, you can see a cad trying to persuade a reluctant woman to have a cuddle. I was also tickled by the painting of an army encampment in Hyde Park which featured, in the bottom left-hand corner, a soldier doing a wee against a tent.
I love stuff like that: quirky details in art which remind us that people in the past were as witty and silly and ribald as we are now. While I was recovering from my laser eye surgery, I spent a lot of time listening to the History of the World in 100 Objects podcast. I was so excited to have my sight return -- it usually lasted about half a day before I needed to go and lie in the dark -- because I was desperate to visit the British Museum and see some of the objects I'd been learning about. It was a little frustrating, as I had to pause and sit on a bench by some Babylonian clay tablets to take my regimen of medicated eye drops... And there was also a tiny, detailed gold chariot, and I peered at the panel text and it said, 'an image of the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes can be seen on the front of this chariot' and I thought resignedly, 'can be seen... pfft.'
Anyway, there was a set of Celtic flagons which had been described in the podcast as 'funny and really rather moving.' I wondered in what way they were moving. The handle is a model of a dog, and there are two dogs moulded onto the lid of the flagon too. They are chained up. On the spout there is a little duck -- so when wine or mead was poured out, it would look as if the duck was swimming away, while the dogs were straining to get at it. And at first I thought that was a funny gimmick, quite charming -- and then it hit me, that these were our ancestors and this was their little joke -- and not a hilarious one, perhaps as chucklesome and surprising as Big Mouth Billy Bass, but still, it was a gag that dated from 450BC and it still made me grin today. It made me think of its makers as living people with a sense of humour, rather than vague, unknowable figures from the distant past. A hand reaches out from the mists of time and you take it, and you find it's holding a hand buzzer. A lame joke by a jolly uncle; one who lived several hundred generations ago, but still family. Bzzt. I welled up; but that could also have been the eyedrops.
Back to Saturday. Having spent the hottest part of the day in the aggressively air-conditioned RA, I went to buy a book from Hatchards with my birthday book token, then had some sushi. After that, I caught a bus to Hyde Park, and sat in the last of the bright sunlight, reading and enjoying the greenery.
When I got home, I found that the water bottle in my bag had leaked all over everything. The only thing it didn't get to was my phone, but everything else was sodden. Including my nice new birthday book, which looked as if it'd been dipped in a bath. I put it in the airing cupboard with some weights on it, but it refused to dry out or unripple itself. Three hours, I managed to keep that nice.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Monday, 10 May 2010
Friday, 30 April 2010
Petal Carpet
Today it was overcast and humid, with a few spots of rain during the day which turned into a downpour in the evening. In the park, I saw that a brisk wind had blown the blossom off the trees sideways -- so that it hadn't dropped evenly all around the trunk, but in patches next to the trees; like a bedside carpet made of petals. So I took a snap.
I was a bit disappointed that the weather had made the lighting for these pictures rubbish, but I decided it couldn't be helped. Five minutes later, just as I got back to the office, sharp, clear sunlight burst through the clouds, making everything beautiful. Damn it.
I was a bit disappointed that the weather had made the lighting for these pictures rubbish, but I decided it couldn't be helped. Five minutes later, just as I got back to the office, sharp, clear sunlight burst through the clouds, making everything beautiful. Damn it.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Friday, 23 April 2010
Hipstamatic App
Hipstamatic is a fashionable iPhone app at the moment: you can use it to take photographs that replicate prints from an old-fashioned automatic camera. Leaving aside the inherent pretentiousness of the whole concept, it is a really fun app to use and it takes very pleasing images. Here are a few of my early experiments:
My favourite thing about Hipstamatic -- apart from the unusual and interesting pictures, obviously -- is the noises it makes. I think the shutter click is the same as the one made by the usual iPhone camera, but there's also a little flash button which makes a tiny electronic whine when you activate it, a spot-on perfect copy of the noise old cameras made which I haven't heard in years. The first day I had the app, I kept opening it just to make it do that noise.
However, there is a lack of clarity about the choice of lenses and films on offer. The app comes with a small selection and you're encouraged to buy more at the Hipstamatic online store. But click on that link and look at the product descriptions. For example: 'Ina’s 1969 Film: Ina has a bakery today but 40 years ago she was rocking some pretty serious instant film. Peel away the boring with this fine film.' What on EARTH is that supposed to mean? They're all like that. 'Jimmy Lens: James was cool, but Jimmy could walk through flames. This lens rocks the daylight, the nightife, and everything in between.' So... what -- rounded edges, or...?
And there aren't any big, clear examples of what effect each bit of equipment will have on your photographs, so when the text lets you down, you can't turn to the visual either. You can download an 'owner's manual' PDF which is slightly better, but that still leaves much to be desired too. Answering the questions 'what are you selling, and why should I buy it?' seem like marketing basics to me.
If you Google about, you can find fans of the app who've posted their own demo sheets, comparing all the different lens and film combinations (er, I found one the other day and will link to it if I can find it again) but I think you should be able to find that easily at the shop.
Anyway, I didn't set out to do a proper review, so I'll cut off here -- this is a fun toy, I love how it makes my own photos surprise me, and I can see myself using it quite a lot in future.
My favourite thing about Hipstamatic -- apart from the unusual and interesting pictures, obviously -- is the noises it makes. I think the shutter click is the same as the one made by the usual iPhone camera, but there's also a little flash button which makes a tiny electronic whine when you activate it, a spot-on perfect copy of the noise old cameras made which I haven't heard in years. The first day I had the app, I kept opening it just to make it do that noise.
However, there is a lack of clarity about the choice of lenses and films on offer. The app comes with a small selection and you're encouraged to buy more at the Hipstamatic online store. But click on that link and look at the product descriptions. For example: 'Ina’s 1969 Film: Ina has a bakery today but 40 years ago she was rocking some pretty serious instant film. Peel away the boring with this fine film.' What on EARTH is that supposed to mean? They're all like that. 'Jimmy Lens: James was cool, but Jimmy could walk through flames. This lens rocks the daylight, the nightife, and everything in between.' So... what -- rounded edges, or...?
And there aren't any big, clear examples of what effect each bit of equipment will have on your photographs, so when the text lets you down, you can't turn to the visual either. You can download an 'owner's manual' PDF which is slightly better, but that still leaves much to be desired too. Answering the questions 'what are you selling, and why should I buy it?' seem like marketing basics to me.
If you Google about, you can find fans of the app who've posted their own demo sheets, comparing all the different lens and film combinations (er, I found one the other day and will link to it if I can find it again) but I think you should be able to find that easily at the shop.
Anyway, I didn't set out to do a proper review, so I'll cut off here -- this is a fun toy, I love how it makes my own photos surprise me, and I can see myself using it quite a lot in future.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Walking Around the Serpentine
Making the most of the brighter weather, I went for a walk around the Serpentine. I saw this heron and was able to get really close, even though there was a little crowd of children nearby shouting at him, 'HEY. HEY. MR OSTRICH. LOOK OVER HERE!'
(As someone on Twitter said, I managed to catch him just as he was about to have his shower.)
(As someone on Twitter said, I managed to catch him just as he was about to have his shower.)Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Midsummer Night's Clouds
I went to see a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the park, under a sky full of ominous, rain-threatening clouds. But it stayed fairly dry throughout, and the play was energetic and silly and fun.
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