Category: flickr

London

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Google Trips tells me that I am spending the day in London today.

Yes, the train from Paris arrived here yesterday evening, but then it was all about the dash to get down to our hosts’ place after a day of travel.

Today, we get to explore.

Last time we were in The Big Smoke was just 10 months ago on a day trip down from Sheffield. [pics]

The light was awful that day. But perfect if you wanted to get a menacing shot of a Tower of London raven.

It’s also Tynwald Day in the Isle of Man. According to Google Trips, we’ll be popping over there on Saturday morning.

Dun fishin’

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The chances are that we will be doing some fishing when we get over to the Isle of Man. But although we are currently living and traveling on a canal/river (depending on how the journey North has been going) (pre-written post, see?), I’m not too keen to chuck a line over the side here.

Yeah. That talk of fishing was merely an excuse for an arty quota photo of a puffer fish which we found washed ashore on the beach at Suiderstrand. Its remarkable appearance, coupled with some early morning light and the addition of a subtle muted preset or two on Lightroom gave a striking, minimalist image.

Lots of dead stuff washes up on the beach in Agulhas. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I think it’s just a natural thing. Nothing lasts forever, and when it doesn’t last forever somewhere out at sea, it’s likely that it’s going to end up washed up onto a beach somewhere. When it is washed up on a beach near us, we find it, because we’re observant like that.

Examples of this at Suiderstrand include birds, seals, puffer fish (see above) and – importantly, not seagulls or turtles.

Paris last time

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It was 2012 when we took the kids to Disneyland Paris. Not really my scene, but you adjust your expectations and you have a great time (see my recent Sun City review to see what I mean).

We were there for a few days, and what surprised me more than anything else on that trip was my 6-year-old son’s desire to spend a day in Paris. One would imagine that an entire amusement park literally on his doorstep would have been more than enough entertainment, but no, apparently not.

And so we (just he and I – his sister wanted to go and meet Cinderella) caught the train into Paris and we went up the Eiffel Tower.

The lifts were fully booked, and so we had to walk up the stairs to the 2ème étage. Despite the dreary conditions, it was a lot more fun that you’d likely imagine. It was the first time that the boy had requested “a big thing” and we’d gone and done it, solely because he wanted to.

You can see a few more photos in this album.

Anyway. This all happened on the 26th June 2012. Exactly 6 years ago today.
I’m not planning to get into a regular June 26th trip to Paris every six years: this was entirely a chance occurrence.

Still, who knows where we’ll be on June 26th 2024?

Silhouette

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It’s a dismal day in Cape Town today with no opportunity for photography, so I whizzed back through my Lightroom archives to find a quick quota photo option. Here is that option:

I’m no expert, but I think that this is an African Mantis, Sphodromantis viridis. He (she? it?) was flitting around the garden in the early evening about a month ago, and I couldn’t resist having a shot before he (she? it?) disappeared into the bush.

They are weird, alien-like creatures, but they make great subjects for photography.

No photos

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“Why?” the call went up.
“Why are there no photos from your Sun City trip?”

Well, to put it bluntly, because the vast majority of them were really rather rubbish.

I’ve had a long look through the shots I took, and I’m of the mind that the blame for their disappointing standard can be laid fairly equally between the camera, the photographer and the lack of any decent, meaningful relationship between the camera and the photographer.

Simplifying for x, it’s basically down to me and the camera.

I’m not motivating for new bit of kit here, because I’ve looked at the potential options for new bits of kit and they’re just foolishly expensive.

Would I have got better photos if I had a better camera?
Almost certainly.
Would the camera have got better photos if it had a better photographer?
Yes. Yes, it would.

I did get a nice wildebees though.

Although, looking again now, did I?

[/self doubt]

It does look better on black here. And yes, the idea was to get it to hide away in the bush, because even though it was right there, just 15 metres from us, the camouflage was impressive.

I’m going to have another look through the photos from that weekend, not because I think they’re going to magically get any better, but more to try to work out what went wrong, and how I can prevent the same thing happening again.

One lives, one learns.
Onward, upward.
Citius, Altius, Fortius and all that jazz.