Thursday, September 28, 2006

Maus

Once, there was a mouse, as small as a fag end...



And Fran the kitten caught it and threw it up into the air...



And then danced the hula in triumph...

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Curious

There is something curious about the underside of swans or, rather, how swans look when they're practically on top of you. Being a tiny puppy is very useful on such occasions - small means unobtrusive, which means getting shots that other people couldn't otherwise get, you see...

And, once a swan almost walks on top of you, it becomes a different bird entirely. Gone is that graceful neck, turned - humorously I think - into something far more stubby...



And that signature yellow-orange beak just looks like something that could, if it wanted to, kebab all the elements of your precious and, now, increasingly rare Zuiko Digital 14-54mm.....



Yup, that was a really close one...

Monday, September 25, 2006

Hotal California?



This week, I went to Haworth, and stayed here. It was a really nice trip. And, yes, those are framed postcards of the Brontë sisters hanging on the wall. Funny, how one can have fond memories of a place that looks so inhospitable in photographs...

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Tattoo

Perhaps I was being a tiny bit over-sheepish in my last post:



This morning's huge mound of fortnight-old post-processing reminded me that, sometimes, I do photograph people without even thinking of my own embarassment or even personal safety. Like the other Thursday, when, approaching midnight, we fell in with a group of loud, drunken men on Beverley Road and not only persuaded them to take their clothes off -



- but also got them to compare their tattoos...

Friday, September 22, 2006

Indecisive Moment



For a split-second, this had the potential of being a perfect image. The two nuns in their habits were strongly backlit by the semi-opaque wall of Leeds Railway Station, a place as secular as any yet strangely replete with crosses and crucifixes if you look hard enough.

But I stalled. I was tired. And I felt a little embarassed about photographing nuns from the other side of the platform. And I hesitated. And, consequently, I missed the shot. A decisive moment - that perhaps only I witnessed - lost, forever. I am very, very sorry.

The moral of the story? If you're obsessed enough to carry your camera around with you on the off-chance something photographable comes your way, be obsessed enough to use it when the time comes.

This is my camera. There are many like it, but this one is MINE. My camera is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My camera without me is useless. Without my camera, I am useless. I must fire my camera true...

Friday, September 15, 2006

Big and Small

It need hardly be reiterated that we're a big fan of small here (babies, baby vegetables, genetically-altered miniature giraffes, 12" Powerbooks) so the news that Olympus was launching a new digital SLR, the E-400, was excitedly received. Why? Well, partly because I think their E-1 is the most fantastic camera on the face of the planet but also because the E-400 is by far the smallest digital SLR ever produced.



It looks bigger in the photo but, actually, it's pretty much the same size as Olympus's much-esteemed OM series from the late seventies. Which were very small indeed.

Now, Olympus made the curious marketing decision to limit the release the E-400 to Europe only and, needless to say, this has made America not a little unhappy. There are American photographers all over the net, livid that they'll have to import something from Europe for a change; that they'll have to pay European prices AND get kicked in the teeth by postage, custom duties, and handling fees; that it's all so, so unspeakably unfair.

It does seem a little odd but presumably there are legitimate manufacturing and marketing reasons underpinning the decision. That said, there is something of a poetic justice to it. America is, after all, the land of big, the land of supersize. And they thrusted upon the more unsuspecting of us, the desire for cars like this:

Friday, September 08, 2006

And there were madeleines...



And now they've all been gobbled up. But there will be more shortly.
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