Longrider

I’ve set up a Coppermine Photogallery. Over the next few weeks I’ll transfer the picures from my photoblog to this gallery. Coppermine allows me a little more flexibility for images than Wordpress and there’s an added bonus that guests can upload images should they so wish.

While on the Isle of Man last week, I noticed a couple of tall ships in the harbour. I hoped to get the chance of seeing (and photographing) these magnificent vessels under full sail. The only time I saw this was on Thursday lunchtime while walking along Douglas sea front. Unfortunately, by this time, they were about a mile or so out. The distance, combined with haze made them difficult to make out with the naked eye. Ever the optimist, I walked to the shoreline to get as close as possible and rattled off a few shots. The results were disappointing. Viewed on the camera’s LCD screen, the ships were little more than fuzzy dots on a fuzzy horizon.

Although disappointed, I left the images on the CF disk, deciding to see what they looked like when viewed on a 17 inch monitor. The results were still not too good, frankly. That said, there was rather more detail than I had at first realised. Given that the hazy blue colour was somewhat monochrome, I decided to de-saturate the image to grey scale. Better, but sepia toning it gave it a little something extra. I may not have the image I originally wanted, but this one is more than I thought I’d got. It is all the better for having recovered a half decent image from gash.

Here, then, is the final effort:

As I’ve not had time to see any news (apart from the hideously shite Olympics logo), I’m in a good mood. A mood that will doubtless evaporate at the first whiff from Westminster to hit the headlines. So, while I’m in a good mood; let’s make the most of it. I spent a glorious week on the Isle of Man. The first day’s racing was postponed due to weather and on Sunday, it tipped down, so it looked pretty bleak. Then on Monday, the sun came out and stayed out all week. What followed was a fantastic week’s racing in brilliant sunshine. I even had to buy some sun lotion…

Here, then, is a small selection from the oodles of pictures I took during the week:

And for those of you not interested in bikes:

Normal service will, doubtless, resume shortly…

Once more our annual visitors are with us. So, for your delectation, three-in-a-bed toad porn a group hug.
(To view the image full size, click on the post title).

The Felix Domesticus 2007 calendar is available on Lulu.com. Featuring the usual suspects and with a guest appearance from Honey in France, this is an opportunity to enjoy these cats throughout next year.

You can buy it here:

If you are interested in landscape, there is an alternative calendar available; Landscape and Nature. 12 images that reflect the changing seasons (and one still life) in England and France taken during the past 12 months.

Becca Bland, a photographer from Brighton wants us to stop and admire the world about us. So driven is she by this idea, that she is proposing a non photography day on the 17th of July.

A photographer from Brighton in southern England is urging the people of the world to take a day out and stop taking pictures.

Becca Bland has launched “non-photography day” - planned for 17 July - through a website together with a sticker and flyposter campaign in various cities in England.

Ms Bland told BBC World Service’s Culture Shock programme that the idea has “gone global” with interest in Manchester, Leeds, London and Brighton, and even further afield in Australia and Japan.

Ah, now, here I have a problem… I’m all for taking time out to just be, to look at the world and experience the moment; be it the balmy warmth of a still summer evening, with the cats gathering for their crepuscular activities or that moment when snow falls for the first time in winter. To take in the scents of summer flowers and to look up and watch the high clouds joined by distant vapour trails; or to grab the camera and sneak out to the common early on a winter morning with the frost crunching underfoot, to take in the delicate frozen filigree on the foliage before the sun evaporates it and it is gone forever.

I’m all for that. I do it on a regular basis; just stop and take in the moment. Sometimes, so taken am I by that moment, that I get the camera out to capture it. How else would that Larzac sunrise ever be caught for posterity?

Yes, that one.

I can go along with Becca’s sentiment when she quotes D.T Suzuki:

‘The thing is there before our eyes, for it refuses to be ignored; but when we endeavour to grasp it within our own hands in order to examine it more closely or systematically, it eludes  us and we lose it’s track’

What I don’t need is organisation. I don’t need to be told on a particular day to abstain from a particular activity because I have an aversion to being organised by others and, which is more, I really object to people telling me what to do, or not to do:

She added that people really committed to the idea could join the “non-photography police” - a group who are telling people about the day when they see them taking pictures on the street.

No! No! No! If I want to take pictures in the street on the 17th of July, I will – and woe betide any “non-photography police” who try to stop me. My response will be somewhat sharp, so don’t even think about it.

By all means take the time to savour the ephemeral moment, just don’t spoil it with organisation and don’t just do it on July 17th. It is best enjoyed because it is snatched from the daily routine, because it is a brief stolen moment that will never come again and, importantly, was not planned.

Felix Domesticus, the book, is now available to buy on Lulu.com. Published in US Letter size; 11”x8.5” it has 79 pages with over 90 full colour photographs. The book is taken from the stories and images found on the Felix Domesticus blog. The cost is $18.88 + P&P for the paperback and $31.36 for the hardback. If you want to, you may preview it here

So, if you want to help replenish Longrider’s depleted coffers and enjoy a coffee table book into the bargain, then click on the button and order a copy today…

Softback US$18.88

Hardback US$31.36

Cross posted from Felix Domesticus

The Western Counties Photographic Federation held their weekend away again this year. This time it was “secret Dorset”. Saturday was a blustery visit to the Abbotsbury swannery to see the swans with their newly hatched cygnets. A small point, here; signs to the swannery proudly exclaim “baby swans”. You’d think that they would at least call them by their proper name – ignorance from those who should know better smacks of dumbing down, and it irritated. Young swans are cygnets, what’s difficult about that?

Minor gripes aside, the relatively flat lighting made for some nice close-up shots of the mute swans. There are also black swans nesting there and this is something of a rarity – the first time for 600 years apparently. Anyway, here’s a picture:

The mute swans also provided some photo opportunities:

I’ve posted some more over on my photo blog.

Sunday took us out to one of my favourites; a bluebell wood. This is so typical of the English countryside in late spring.

Fortunately, my latent migraine that surfaced mid morning on the Saturday and again on Sunday (staved off with copious doses of “migraleve”) didn’t put too much of a dampener in that I have a couple of hundred pictures to wade through.

The final insult was the bike not starting and having to be ignominiously transported home on the back of a flatbed. The problem appears to have been a damp connection causing a discharge from the battery – at least that appears to  be it… The bike is starting now after a night connected to the battery charger.