Hope you had a great Christmas. With my leg getting a lot better I took the opportunity to do some walking in the and around the area. However, as this at Christmas I found myself out and about before everyone else got up.
I also tried my new camera out in the dark. It was really impressive considering the pixel count. Also all the long exposure were handheld!
Looking forward to the New Year. What adventures will I have.
I couldn’t help myself. I just had to get out and about with the manic shoppers as they queued up just before 6 am this morning. I did have a few bits to pick up but nothing compared to gathered throng. I hope they all got what they wanted and that tomorrow Santa brings them something nice as well.
Let us all hope that tomorrow is a loving a peaceful day. (As I write this Christmas day has already started in much of the western Pacific and Antipodia.) A forlorn hope? Perhaps, but without hope there is no future.
Merry Christmas
Oh A.I…so schmaltzy…
Sunrise in this part of the world is around about 08:00 hrs at this time of year. That is thankfully moving in the right direction as the winter solstice was a couple of days ago. Yet the car park at my local shopping mall is full up. That can only mean one thing: M&S has opened early – let the 2024 Hunger Games begin.
For those of you outside of the UK who might be reading this M&S is not a budget store. As this years advertisement might proclaim: These people aren’t buying Christmas food they’re buying M&S Christmas food. That included me.
Tomorrow will be even worse as the fresh turkey brigade will descend. Then it really will be a battle. Can’t wait!
PS: Anyone who might be interested my leg is feeling a lot better. Thank you for asking.
I am the first to admit that I am one of the world’s worst patients. I am semi house bound at the moment. I spend a significant amount of my time with my leg resting on a stool. It is is hell. (This is me moaning rather than me being in any actual pain). There are so many things I want to do outside but I just can’t. I have to keep reminding myself that it is for my own good. That doesn’t help.
What it does mean is that I can start to plan for the yearbook of 2024. I am not sure whether it will be in two volumes or one. What I can do is start to prepare some of the art work. Last year I put together the above collage which I felt worked quite well. So I am working on this years.
For me the most interesting thing is that political portraits have disappeared from my collection. This is only partially an editorial choice for the image. However, I really didn’t make that many political portraits.
Hopefully my leg will be in full working order for the new year (my long suffering wife will certainly be relieved).
I have no idea whether I’ll post again before Christmas. Just in case I don’t, may I wish anyone who reads this post a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Snow at Christmas? There was a time when this seemed a possibility. Nowaday, well not so sure. Evidence of a warming world? A bit too anecdotal – maybe but that is the thing with global warming. It creeps up on you slowly at least on a human sense of time. That is unless you live in a low lying country and every year you notice the tides getting a little higher.
I am not an art critic. I have a working knowledge of western art history. However, I do know quite a bit about the history of Leicestershire. (Note: Over the years I have thought I knew a lot about a particular subject. Again and again I have been disabused as to the depth of my knowledge. So I now know that whatever I might know there is far more to know and that I will be on the this journey for the rest of my life – you might think this somewhat apt!)
The other day whilst out capturing images for our latest art/photographic project my friend David and I visited the parish church at Lutterworth. As soon as you walk into the Nave you are meet with some very rare surviving medieval religious painting.
Then over the north door there was a second set of paintings:
“There are at least two paintings that date from the later middle ages and may be influenced by Wyclif’s teachings – John Wyclif served as rector from 1375 until his death in 1384.
Above the north door is a C14th painting of three figures in fine clothes, engaged in hunting with falcons. The image as a whole had probably been painted on top of an older scene – a priest and cardinal from this were restored and can be seen embedded in the lower right-hand corner of the present image.
Over the main chancel arch is a C15th image of Christ reigning in glory over the general resurrection. Christ is at the top, seated on a rainbow, surrounded by angels. In the bottom half are at least 29 men and women, some skeletal, rising from their graves. It is unusual since it does not also show the judgement of the dead.” Hornbeck 2014
The church itself is of some religious significance as John Wycliffe, a significant voice in the early stirrings of the English reformation, was once the vicar until his death. Wycliffe’s best known contribution to the reformation was to translate the Bible into vernacular middle English. However, after his death he was declared a heretic; his body was dug up and burnt. The ashes were the ‘drowned‘ in the local river.
Fortunately for Wycliffe history has been kinder. Wherever you look in Lutterworth you find references to Wycliffe. Perhaps at the end of days he will be one of the people rising out of the grave, as depicted in the great painting in his church, whilst his accusers will be cast down into hell. Of the many things I don’t know that is perhaps the most profound.
Hornbeck II, J., P. (2014). Wall Paintings in Wyclif’s Church: Evidence of a Reformer’s Legacy?. Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol 88, Leicester: Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society. pp. 47-54.
https://doi.org/10.5284/1108203
We embarked on our latest ecclesiastical to Gloucester the other day. The purpose of the journey was to visit the Cathedral which is fine example of just what England as a country lost with its split from Rome. Up and down the country monastic institutions were dismantled and all we’re left with now are stones and hardcore that couldn’t be flogged off. The magnificent Abbey church at Gloucester was saved because it became the seat of a bishop under Henry VIII’s reforms.
It is, of course, the last resting place of significant royalty: Edward 2nd and Robert, Duke of Normandy (eldest son of William the Conqueror) . Neither of these rulers were blessed with much wisdom – hence their resting place in Gloucester rather than Westminster Abbey (Edward) or Caen (next to Robert’s father).
The last time I visited the cathedral circa 20 years ago it had been a lovely sunny day. As a result of this the whole building was bathed in beautiful light. Visiting on a gloomy winter’s day changed the lighting completely. All I can say is thank the lord for modern cameras and post production software. It was a challenge.
Of course the cathedral today is probably better known to millions around the world as being the location for scenes from the Harry Potter movies.
The final potter connection is just outside the cathedral close. Here you’ll find a small museum dedicated to Beatrix Potter’s book The Tailor of Gloucester.
So the cathedral is a great place to visit it you find yourself in the area. However, I suspect next year might find things a bit restricted as the new Harry Potter TV series is being filmed. Assuming they use the same locations then they will be reusing the Cloisters as a substitute for Hogwarts. I’m sure as I write this the final touches are being made to the contract that will allow the coffers of the cathedral to be substantially topped up by that lovely Warner Brother’s coin.
The start of wonderful relationship? I don’t know but I am certainly infatuated. Have the stars aligned – Black Friday, early Christmas present or months of planning? Probably a bit of all of them. I’ve splashed the cash and bought myself a new camera – a Sony A7CR. Today I feel like I have come home to a form factor that suits me best.
Of course there are many things I still need to set up as well as learn about the characteristics of camera which will no doubt change my view of the camera. The one thing I can say for definite is that, for me, the shorter Zeiss Batis lens fit the camera perfectly. I have watched several YouTube videos about the latest Leica Q3 43. Most of the reviewers seem to have an insane devotion to this camera, as well as its sister the Q3. Now I have no idea whether this is warranted but I am starting to have same feelings about the CR and the Batis 40mm. Of course this could be dismissed as an old man’s folly and it may well prove to be that. I hope not but I cannot discount the possibility.
One final thought. I have been able to build up my entire Batis collection as well as the new camera body for less than the cost of the Q3. Does this matter? At one level clearly the answer is no. A photographer uses the best tools available to them and cost shouldn’t matter. But cost does matter to most of us. It has taken me four years to build up my lens collection and now it feels like the CR was the last piece in a puzzle I didn’t even know I was trying to work my way through.
Oh I do hope I feel so positive in six months time.
I have been sorting out some very old digital images and this one has always been my favourite. It is an image I made somewhere near the start of my digital image journey back in 2003. I used to think I was quite knowledgeable about digital images, and to a degree that was true. However, with the benefit of 23 years of extra knowledge I have come to see that I didn’t know as much as I thought.
Of course I couldn’t resist the challenge of making a 2024 version. and these are the two attempts.
I was able to throw all that accumulated knowledge as well as computer technology undreamt of back in 2003 at the image. Whether the resultant images are better is a matter of taste. What is not beyond doubt is that today we have so many more opportunities to make images than we did in 2003. Whether we take advantage of those opportunities is really down to us.
Who needs the latest and greatest camera gear to make decent photographs? These images were captured in on this day in 2012. The camera I used was a Sony NEX 5N with it standard kit lens.
Anyone who knows me will smile at this. They know that I suffer from gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) and that is true up to a point. Of course I have remastered these images using the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. This has enabled me to bring out details that I couldn’t back in 2012. But the digital images were captured back in 2012. Using a camera which by then was out of date and had been replaced/updated by Sony.
Will I stop buying new photographic equipment? I doubt it. But I have almost reached the end of this journey. Both camera gear and computer technology chase ever decreasing improvements in performance. An example of this is latest iPhone. Yes it is a bit better than previous year’s iPhone but not really by that much. Hence the drive for Apple Intelligence which of course you have to have the latest chips to use.
Is this the wisdom of age? Possiblyish…
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