For those in Flanders fields we hold high the torch, and hold faith with those who died.
For those who've died elsewhere, we keep the flame alight for you too, and remember...
13 November 2011
20 August 2011
Four Horses, Four Ways
Highnam Court Gardens, Gloucestershire. Very beautiful, and with lots of amazing wooden sculptures set throughout. One of my favourites is of four horses, created by Dave Bytheway to commemorate the visit of The Prince of Wales to the gardens in 2010. The entire sculpture sweeps upwards, but my picture concentrates on just two of the horses.
This is it, a balance of the wooden horses in their wooded environment.
But something about the colour range doesn't quite work for me. I'm not a big user of Photoshop, but I thought it might be fun to play about a little bit with this picture so I went to find a little help in the form of a manual.
I started with a conversion to black & white - didn't need the manual for that one!
Needs something else... Perhaps a bit of blurring of the trees, and some drybrushing of the horses:
This one did need some help from the book with as I wanted to create a kind of 'other worldliness' about the image.
Four ways of looking at some wooden horses. Hmm, perhaps I prefer the third version after all.
This is it, a balance of the wooden horses in their wooded environment.
But something about the colour range doesn't quite work for me. I'm not a big user of Photoshop, but I thought it might be fun to play about a little bit with this picture so I went to find a little help in the form of a manual.
I started with a conversion to black & white - didn't need the manual for that one!
Needs something else... Perhaps a bit of blurring of the trees, and some drybrushing of the horses:
Still not sure the horses stand out enough. Let's try something else:
This one did need some help from the book with as I wanted to create a kind of 'other worldliness' about the image.
Four ways of looking at some wooden horses. Hmm, perhaps I prefer the third version after all.
Which do you prefer?
3 July 2011
A Lumix in London
Last week I went to London for a conference. As I was carting around work kit, I naturally didn't take all my camera gear, but I did tuck my smallest camera away in my bag. (It's a Panasonic Lumix TZ6, if you're interested. I didn't get on with it at all well to start with, but I have learned to appreciate its strengths.)As it happens I was very tight for time on the day, and as I was working I had no time for wandering off looking for photographic subjects. Luckily, the subjects turned out to be right in front of me.
The conference I attended was held in the British Medical Association's offices in Tavistock Square.
On my way out of the meeting room, I noticed the BMA symbols on the glass doors out into the courtyard and thought they might make for an interesting shot, as they explain visually what the building behind is all about. It helps that the BMA building is beautiful and photogenic, so provided something attractive as the backdrop!
In the courtyard were some benches. Nothing very exciting in themselves, but against the stone, with some nice curved windows and a suitably positioned small tree in a pot, there was another picture for my set. Shame the lighting was a bit flat, but you have to go with what you've got in these situations.
Did I mention that I think the building itself is beautiful? I did? Oh. Well here's a shot showing a bit more of it.
Walking back along an attractive street of stone, glass and brick buildings, I passed the Wellcome Trust, who had some huge displays in their windows:
Perhaps I could have got better shots with my DSLR. Perhaps not. But I did manage to get some interesting shots (IMHO!), quite literally all taken within less than half a mile of each other. If I hadn't taken my little Panny with me that day, I would have come home frustrated and empty handed.
It just shows that sometimes the littlies outdo the big guns. Even when it comes to cameras.
11 May 2011
Book Review: The Black Ship
Lovers of period fiction will enjoy this entertaining novel, which once again features Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple, the aristocratic and curious wife of Alec Fletcher, a Scotland Yard detective. Just days after Daisy, Alec and their baby twins move into a new house in London, their dog discovers a body in the communal garden.Despite his reluctance to be involved in the investigation of a murder which will mean him questioning his new neighbours, Alec is assigned to the case. While he works through the official channels, all too soon Daisy is becoming far more involved than she would like with the Jessops - a family who are supplying alcohol to prohibition America. She also has to deal with a bumbling FBI agent, a mysterious and aggresive American visitor, a pair of nosy local residents who enjoy malicious gossip and an assortment of other characters, including a grumpy senior policeman!
I enjoyed this book. The author creates her period setting well, and her characters are well described and interesting. There's plenty of humour, some nice twists and turns in the story, and it all rolls along to a satisfying conclusion. Recommended.
More information can be found here.
Price: £6.99
ISBN: 9781845298661
Published by: Constable & Robinson
Available through any good bookshop or online
16 March 2011
A Novice Bell Ringer Goes to Toronto
I've been learning to ring church bells for just over a year now. That means in about 40 years time I might have got the knack. For those who are 'in the club', I am at the stage of ringing Plain Hunt, Bob Doubles (sometimes fairly reasonably) and Grandsire Doubles (on a bit of a wing and a prayer).
It's interesting ringing in other towers, so when I made plans to visit Canada I sent off an email to The Cathedral Church of St James saying I would love to visit their tower, and they very kindly said 'come along'.
There were a couple of significant factors which I perhaps should have been more wary of, the main one being that St James' bells are hung one hundred feet up in the tower and spire and their ropes fall 60ft to the ringing chamber! My home church of All Saints, Faringdon lost its spire during the civil war, and has a rather squat tower. So our bells are only one floor up from the ringing chamber.
Those extra 40ft or so of rope make a big difference to handling the bells as I soon discovered!
After the morning service at the cathedral I introduced myself to the people in the ringing chamber and was almost immediately asked to catch hold and ring. My first effort wasn't good. My second attempt was worse..
Luckily I had said right up front that I was a novice! Happily for me there were some very gracious folk there who didn't say they'd rather I went away at once and left them in peace! In fact they kindly invited me to come along to their practice night the next evening. And to their bell handling practice night on the Wednesday following. So I went along to both, and learned a lot. Some of the things I learned (or was reminded of!) were:
* That 'long straight pulls' mean having to stretch and really reach at the top of the pull.
* That (especially on long ropes) the pull should get faster as you go through, because the bell swings faster as it goes through the turns.
* I learned not to over-pull. This was tricky as I didn't really understand what was meant by it at first. Basically it means don't pull too hard - but maintain the tension in the rope to avoid snaking. Oh yes, and keep on making 'long straight pulls' at the same time!
* And I did quite a bit of practicing pulling a bell off (in two stages) and then immediately setting it at backstroke. On their tiny light treble the difficulty was not bouncing it off the stay! On their heavier bells the major effort was pulling the bell off in a controlled manner to begin with!
I really enjoyed the practice sessions, which made a massive difference to my ability and to my confidence, and I'm sure that what I learned in Toronto will help me in my ringing in the UK. I'm extremely grateful to the ringers of St James, and especially to Nick and Madeleine Cheesmen who were especially kind to me and very generous with their time and patience. I hope to be able to visit Toronto again before too long, and once again ring the bells there. Perhaps slightly less atrociously next time - and perhaps I'll start off with the practice night and not the Sunday ringing!
As a footnote, St James' bells are known as "The Bells of Old York" and are rung by members of The St. James' Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers. Anecdotal tales tell that some of the metal used in the bells came from canons melted down after the Battle of Waterloo. There is a very interesting page about the tower on the cathedral website, as well as a separate page on The Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers on which there are several photographs which give a very good representation of the length of the ropes!
It's interesting ringing in other towers, so when I made plans to visit Canada I sent off an email to The Cathedral Church of St James saying I would love to visit their tower, and they very kindly said 'come along'.
There were a couple of significant factors which I perhaps should have been more wary of, the main one being that St James' bells are hung one hundred feet up in the tower and spire and their ropes fall 60ft to the ringing chamber! My home church of All Saints, Faringdon lost its spire during the civil war, and has a rather squat tower. So our bells are only one floor up from the ringing chamber.
Those extra 40ft or so of rope make a big difference to handling the bells as I soon discovered!
After the morning service at the cathedral I introduced myself to the people in the ringing chamber and was almost immediately asked to catch hold and ring. My first effort wasn't good. My second attempt was worse..
Luckily I had said right up front that I was a novice! Happily for me there were some very gracious folk there who didn't say they'd rather I went away at once and left them in peace! In fact they kindly invited me to come along to their practice night the next evening. And to their bell handling practice night on the Wednesday following. So I went along to both, and learned a lot. Some of the things I learned (or was reminded of!) were:
* That 'long straight pulls' mean having to stretch and really reach at the top of the pull.
* That (especially on long ropes) the pull should get faster as you go through, because the bell swings faster as it goes through the turns.
* I learned not to over-pull. This was tricky as I didn't really understand what was meant by it at first. Basically it means don't pull too hard - but maintain the tension in the rope to avoid snaking. Oh yes, and keep on making 'long straight pulls' at the same time!
* And I did quite a bit of practicing pulling a bell off (in two stages) and then immediately setting it at backstroke. On their tiny light treble the difficulty was not bouncing it off the stay! On their heavier bells the major effort was pulling the bell off in a controlled manner to begin with!
I really enjoyed the practice sessions, which made a massive difference to my ability and to my confidence, and I'm sure that what I learned in Toronto will help me in my ringing in the UK. I'm extremely grateful to the ringers of St James, and especially to Nick and Madeleine Cheesmen who were especially kind to me and very generous with their time and patience. I hope to be able to visit Toronto again before too long, and once again ring the bells there. Perhaps slightly less atrociously next time - and perhaps I'll start off with the practice night and not the Sunday ringing!
As a footnote, St James' bells are known as "The Bells of Old York" and are rung by members of The St. James' Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers. Anecdotal tales tell that some of the metal used in the bells came from canons melted down after the Battle of Waterloo. There is a very interesting page about the tower on the cathedral website, as well as a separate page on The Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers on which there are several photographs which give a very good representation of the length of the ropes!
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