An occasional Photo Blog
Stopping to buy a lottery ticket on the way home a couple of nights ago, I was fortunate enough to miss my regular train. This gave me time to stroll around within the shelter of the main station and watch people run about in the heavy shower outside.
Looking at my recent postings I noticed that I haven’t been very productive recently – photographically speaking of course. We’ve had some mixed weather, a cloudy day or two here, a bright sunny day or two there, but the weekends have been fairly uninspiring and I have thus been quite idle.
But Friday evening drew me into town. A glass or two in a very cosy piano bar and the first interesting rain for quite some time. Motivation stirred within and I let my mobile phone feel the cold, damp night air…. I’m not sure whether they just might have been more interesting in Black and White? – Comments welcome.
Christmas lights are everywhere, the smell of mulled wine and all things festive fills the air.
Where then, you may rightly ask, are all the Christmas market and pretty lights photos?
Well, I’ve certainly been doing my fair share of mingling with the masses but the camera has always been sitting at home.
A colleague pointed out to me this week that my last blog posting was about a month ago!
But, as luck would have it, I missed my train last Tuesday evening and decided to use the time wisely;-)
A Selfie!
For some reason Celebrities seem to do it regularly and various politicians are making quite a name for themselves doing it too,
so I suppose it’s only natural that I too should put my very outdated mobile phone to questionably ‘good use’.
My selfie is unlikely to reach the boulevard press, but that wasn’t really my aim.
I didn’t want to embarrass my family or shock and disgust the world at large either, there are plenty of others willing to do that it seems.
But I thought perhaps a shoe, a knee and a hint of leg would elevate me to the ranks of famous and influential without damaging my reputation.
The other photos were also taken whilst waiting for the train in the recently finished new bit at the main station.
It’s that time of the year again, an office party here, an informal get together there, a quick glass of something before plodding home through the night. There’s no doubt in my mind, the choice of camera has an enormous influence on the choice of subject. If I’d have had my DSLR with me on the way home from the office do, I would quite possibly not even have taken the lens cap off. If I’d have had the compact Lumix with me I’d most likely have sought perfection and spent far too much time trying to create nice sharp, well framed images. But as luck would have it I was simply carrying my mobile phone in my duffel coat pocket. The phone has quite a reasonable camera but I don’t expect wonders. So, not worrying about all those reflections in the tram window or whether an f stop more or less may be better, I simply pointed and shot. Total freedom.
During the last few weeks I’ve been walking past this building site a couple of times a day on my way to and from work. In the morning the whole site is a hive of activity, bulldozers shovelling stuff from one place to another and a huge lorry with big fat tyres driving purposely about, seeking some sort of load no doubt. In the evenings it’s all quiet, and the various machines are to be found scattered across the site, ready to begin another hard day the following morning.
Friday evening is, however, quite different. Before leaving the site the builders park their vehicles in a nice straight line in the middle of the site. All the bulldozers together, all the dumper trucks together, perfect and orderly.
Photos have been a bit rare this month, so imagine my delight when I saw the sun shining through a glass of water on my office desk. Luckily the mobile phone was near at hand.
The view from the office window, not exactly breathtaking scenery but somehow fascinating on a cold winters morning.
… when the sun shines directly into the local station’s pedestrian subway, casting fascinating shadows of hurried legs, laptop bags and rolled up newspapers.
In the evening, just opposite the village station, a refreshing pint and a browse through the newspaper under the shade of a horse chestnut tree.
The first week of May brought us some beautiful sunny evenings with typically dark clouds, rainbows and all sorts of interesting stuff. As usual the camera was idling at home while I had to make do with my mobile phone.
Helped on by the warm sunshine, definite Springy feelings have been making their presence felt this weekend.
Sauntering around the village on Saturday I was greeted by folk I haven’t seen in months. Neighbours were spotted pottering about in their gardens and I actually took the car for its biannual excursion to the car wash.
Wise old weather prophets are forecasting cold weather for the coming week, and the village elders are suggesting that we haven’t seen the last of the snow, so I hope these buds are hairy enough to survive the next cold spell.
