Simon's Blog

I am trying not to get too excited but I have just received some encouraging news – I have just ‘ …One … of your pictures have been short-listed for the final round of judging…’ of the very prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer.   Now I know there is a huge step between being short listed and actually being selected.  Never the less it is a real boast.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

The latest quirk – annoyance.  When the computer wakes up from going to sleep sometimes the sound doesn’t work.  This can be very frustrating.  The only way around this is to log off and log on again.   I suppose this doesn’t happen with Apple.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

I have to say I don’t believe it but according to some source on the web Belgrave Hall is the most haunted place in Britain.  There are youtube videos and assorted stories.  Well I have been around the building at the dead of night and I can’t say I didn’t see any ghosts.  However, the gardens can be a bit spooky.  They are slowly being allowed to degenerate – now this might be due to budget cuts or for some other reasons.  Whatever the reason is when you are down at the bottom of the garden there is an awful amount of strange noises and rustling going on.   Now these tend to be wood pigeons squabbling amongst themselves in the over grown trees but it can be a bit unnerving.

Anyway I went to photograph the plants.  It is still too early in the season for many flowering plants but there was one cameilia   – cameilia x williamsii  – anticipation that really caught my eye.  Most cameilia  tend to have medium size flowers but this one had rosettes the size of adult man’s hands.  They were an enticing salmon pink and when captured against a green background look great.   I will work on the rest of the photos over the next day or so but the cameilia is my favourite.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

I know this is me being really pedantic but I have had to clarify the rules in the recently announced RHS Garden Photography Competition.   One of the first things I do when considering whether to enter a competition is to paw over the rules.   In this case it was Rule 11 that I felt the need to clarify what was meant:

Rule 11:   Digital prints must be clearly marked as such on the reverse…now I think you mean any print created from a digital file using a computer and printer.  Does this include film images that have been scanned into a computer and then printed?

Rule 11: …if any digital enhancement techniques have been used they must be declared.  What does this mean?   Does it mean that I have to declare on each print  that I have corrected the colour in an image and removed any blemishes that might appear on the sensor of the camera?  Or does it mean that I only have to declare if a I manipulated an image if I have cloned out/removed items from the photograph?  Also what if I have only cropped the image – does this need to be added to the any declaration?

Now I think I know what they are after – if you have corrected the image with software, such as Photoshop, it needs to be declared.   However, I feel the wording is rather woolly and clearly open to misinterpretation.    And what about the category for ‘abstract’ which as their website says ‘…is open to interpretation…’.

It really can be a minefield setting rules for competition – especially know that the digital genie is out of the bottle.  However, many of the techniques that can be done with Photoshop can be done in a darkroom.  It is just easier to do with Photoshop.

My I am a pedant!

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

I have just been clearing out my spam folder and came across the usual emails offering riches…
 

These are just a sample of the ridiculous scam emails sent to me over the last few days.  Do these things really work?  Are people so stupid to believe them?   Why am I asking this because their existence proves that somewhere someone is so desperate they will answer these emails and so will start the slow road to loosing their money.  Still I always like to read them as I always like a good laugh. 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

I was up early this morning and decided to walk down to the paper shop and collect the paper.  It was a wonderfully uplifting experience – the dawn chorus was in full swing and it was almost deafening but at the same time beautiful. It never ceases to amaze me how such small creatures as birds are able to produce melodious sounds that carry.  I was walking next to my local main road the other day, the normal traffic was roaring by and yet from the other side of the carriageway I could hear the song of a goldfinch.   

So this put me into a good mood and after breakfast I decided to make some photographs in our garden.  We had this designed and built last year with on of the key design features was the encouragement of wildlife.  To date it has been a real success and we have a wide variety of fauna visiting.  However, one of the down sides of this is that well, not to put too fine a point on it, they poop all over the place.   Now one good shower and this is usually washed away but none the less it is a problem.   So this morning out I strode, snapping away at the flowers and plants and then i noticed a strange foot print on the path.  At first I couldn’t quite work it out and then it dawned on me – I had just walked into a freshly deposited pile of bird poo.  Great.   Still this is a price worth paying.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

So what have we learnt from the election debates?   Well the first is just how resilient Gordon brown is.   Agree with him or disagree with you have to say it took guts to stand up on the stage instead of curling up in a ball and wanting the world to go away.  However, that won’t save him come election day – although the electoral system might – I think I have made myself clear on this point so there is no need to go one about it.

The second is that David Cameron is not that good in these situations.   This is always a very subjective thing but I felt that he had the appearance of a rabbit caught in the headlights of an on coming car.  The third thing is that Nick Clegg is actually very good on stage.  He may not have the most coherent policies but I felt he cam across as the most relaxed and open of the three.  This, in no small way has made this election wide open.  I still believe that this is a once in a generation chance to change the way we vote and therefore the way we are governed and Nick Clegg’s performance has contributed to this.

Now for the big question that all three frankly refused to answer.   We all know that after the election whatever complexion of government is formed they are going to have to cut radically the size of the government spending.  The parties may pretend to get our votes but cut it they will.   The next government might try to pull the trick of using ‘efficiency savings’ as a means to achieve these cuts but these will simply not work.    All this talk about not cutting until 2011/12 will also disappear.  There will be big cuts this year.

So how will a minority government deal with this?   I suspect better than it is assumed at the moment.  No politician will be willing to go back to the country in six months time in vain attempt to get a majority – it just wouldn’t wash.  They will have to get on with it.   The external pressures will be such that each party will cut.  Oh they will try and make it look like it isn’t a cut but it will be – and don’t believe that pledges to ring fence budgets  – they will all be cut or frozen, which given the inflation in health spending will be like a 10% cut.   There will also be increases in tax – VAT being the most likely to rise almost straight away.

And so for the good news.   We have been here before and survived.  We are not Greece we are much bigger country/economy.  We have a tradition of delivering – it will not be easy but it will work and out of the other end we may well have a much better governed country to boot.  However, the road between here and there is going to be tough but as a country we will make it – I think…
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Gordon Brown RIP.  I have just witnessed a Richard Nixon moment.   Gordon Brown today put his foot well and truly in the soft stuff after talking to an ordinary person he was wearing a radio mic.  In what he thought was the safety and confidentiality of his car he then was very disparaging towards the women.  This was caught on the mic and immediately played back to the women.  Needless to say there was a media storm and he went back to the women’s house and apologised.  Now I have a certain amount of sympathy for Gordon Brown over this, not because of what he said but because we all are, at times do these sort of things.   I first heard about this on the radio and whilst it was disastrous and confirmed much of what I thought about Gordon Brown it wasn’t a real game changing moment.   

However, when I saw the footage of what happened the whole thing became 10 times worse.   Hence the Richard Nixon moment.   Nixon apparently won his famous/infamous debate with John Kennedy to those listening on the radio.  On the TV however he lost and the rest is history.   Non verbal communication is so important to humans and of course you don’t get any of that on radio and what shocked me more than anything else was that the women in question was really not a ‘bigot’ at all but just caring grandmother and looked that way.   Gordon Brown when he came out of her house after apologising to her was smiling and across with having no real sincerity.   He had been found out and yet was trying to make light of it.  In short all the allegations of bullying came rushing back into my mind and this time I don’t think they will go away.  They now have hard evidence to back them up.   Gordon Brown is not fit to be prime minister.   

This is not a John Prescott moment – which actually enhanced his reputation.   I have always thought that Gordon Brown, whilst not being a very good prime minister, was a decent man.  Now I am just not certain .

One final point.  Whilst the TV debate may have been a turning point Nixon only just lost the 1960 election and went on become the 37th president of the United States so perhaps we should all just take a deep breath and reflect on this.   Somehow though I think this is far more series for the political career of Gordon Brown.   We will have to wait and see.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

You know when spring is in full swing when you hear your first cuckoo.  Well that was what it was like when I was a kid but recently cuckoos have been disappearing, they are a Red list bird,  so it was great to hear one this afternoon.  I was walking through Narborough blog and couldn’t believe my ears when the famous onomatopoeic call was heard.  A real pleasure.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

A photograph of mine has  just came third in an on line photo competition on Flickr.  I have to say I knew very little about this until the award popped in my flickr account.  The competition was run by the **FLICKR’S got TALENT**  group.  So this was rather nice.  I suspose I should have read the rules so I know how I cam third – but I have got other things to do.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini