General mutterings

29 May

We sat here looking forward to getting off out yesterday morning and right up to the point of getting up to get ready, and my hip seemed to explode in pain. Over the next half hour or so it slowly eased off and we thought we’d be OK. No sooner had one side eased up, the other side started, not a huge hit this time but enough to stop me moving. And that was how the day went up till around 3pm, when I finally decided to take some oramorph, a liquid morphine that Jan is proscribed. I know it’s good but it’s also very sweet and sugary and that puts me off using it all that much. I’ll keep an eye on the weather for tomorrow and perhaps we might get to the part at least where we can do the flower shots we wanted.

While I was sat here I yesterday, I set up a number of flikr groups to post my images to and got a few added. They’ve changed it again though, and seemed to take me ages to find my way around the changes, especially when searching for groups. I was really disappointed not getting out yesterday because I could have got a lot of new shots to post. But you know what? All this palaver may have done me a favour really, cos now I can start it all off again with this year.

Jan is off to church this morning and was up sometime before me. When I was up and dress and came through she was looking rather pleased about something and it took me a while to find out why. Maxi is out of his cage and is sat in amongst a huge great cactus that we have here. He hasn’t moved since I got in here so I need to move a bit slower, or at least a bit more carefully so as not to spook him and set him flying about in fright. We had hoped he would be free flying in here, he just needs to gain the confidence to fly off when he wants to.

My copy of AP arrived on Thursday this last week; it’s a bank holiday and it always comes early on these weekends. Anyway, I finally got to read it last evening and one of the items struck a loud chord with me when someone wrote that he was happier behind than in front of the camera. As much as I love photography, I hate having my photo taken by family/friends, even more so when I’m asked to pose for it. I get frustrated because while these worthies are playing about taking just one shot, I could get four or five in the same time frame.

Yesterday my copy of Nphoto arrived, and there’s a lot in there that has caught my attention, and we’ve cancelled the subscription now. Part of the reason for the cancellation was that I got fed-up with not being drawn into any one issue. I’ve also noticed that all the monthly titles tend to follow each other in content and just one tutorial per subject per year is enough for me.

One genre that they do return to pretty regularly is that of landscapes, and I’m sorry, but I just don’t get on with them. Part of it that I can’t ‘see’ them. There’s also the issue of when is the best time of day to go out to get the shots, with sunrise and sunset being the ones that attracts most snappers. Sunset I can do, but sunrise is a no-no for me. The venues for these shots always seems to be far off up the hills and mountains, again, a big no-no for me.

And yet, I remember reading about another snapper who ignore these two extremes and shot in the middle of the day. Think about it a wee bit; think of all those dream mag – err, sorry, holiday brochures that seem to pack with full daylight landscapes. Think also of the various mags aimed at specialist interests, like caravanning, camping, walking and hiking, cycling and so on. They all show landscapes shot in full daylight.

One snapper I know who mainly shoots landscapes, is very careful to exclude all humans or signs of them in his shots. His hit rate seems to be very poor and if I’m honest, it can be boring seeing his same few shots in photo contents and so on. Yet for me, our land looks better for having some sort of human activity. A line of cars I can see as being a drawback, but a house and garden, or people out hiking, add interest to the shot, as well as giving a sense of scale. With digital photography these days, a lot can be achieved post-capture. But that opens up a whole different can of worms.

Today’s photo …

Me, taken by Jan. Can’t remember where we were when she took this one but I do remember that she was messing with my camera and I looked and smile for her; for once she was quick enough on the shutter to keep me smiling. I’m not sure about this one, though. You can clearly see the effects of my weight loss over the last few months, and the lighting is from Jan’s left but behind me which seems to blow the left side of the image.

Today’s funny then …

Doctor, Doctor, I keep thinking I'm a goat.
And how long has this been going on?
Oh, ever since I was a kid.