We went up to see Mum and Dad at the weekend and ended up watching the old cine films. Apart from the joy of the nostalgia-fest, what stuck me about the old days (well, our old days, at least) was the complete lack of any regard for Health and Safety.
Amongst the weddings and the smiling children and happy picnics was footage of babies in prams on cliff edges, kids rolling around in front of open fires, me chucking a brick at my brother's head, oh the list goes on.
Try this for size. It's me in a dinghy in the sea at Auchmithie, a small fishing village on the NE coast of Scotland. It's in 1978 I think so I was 15 years old.
It doesn't look too bad, but notice the black things in the water. They are sharp semi-submerged rocks. It's a really rough bit of coastline with sheer cliffs on one side and a broken down harbour on the other. I rowed all the way round the harbour wall, then out to sea, then round the rocks at the base of the cliffs. (see this site for images of the surrounding area:
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/arbroath/auchmithie/index.html)
It was such fun that I went back for my bro, aged 13, and went out and did it again, with proud parents and grandmother watching on.
I do remember strugging against the tides and when we lost sight of the beach as we went further up the coast I also remember feeling a little uneasy....
No lifejackets. I don't think they were invented in those days. The boat was a cheap little kid's toy from the local shop, and the oars bent like sapplings in a Spring breeze.
Happy days though!
Here's the vid. It only shows us at the start and end of the voyage but you'll get the idea.
Following discussions about my ability - or lack of ability - to tell different species apart (previous post) The Fat Capri has sent me these photos.
Ha what a cheap trick though; sending images of the Male and Female of the SAME species! You'll have to get out of bed earlier than that if you're going to catch ME out mate.
And here's the girl:
As mentioned before,
(http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2012/01/answer-to-what-is-it-244-panasonic-sd900-.html)
the fantastic and cheap Pixco Wide Converter lens, WC-46E45 0.45X, is also a Macro lens. You just unscrew the back fitting and attach to camera.
I'd tried it with stills but not with the video function.
Walking in the graveyard yerterday I saw that the bees are back! It's alomst 2 years ago to the day that I got these photos in the same spot:
http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2009/02/spring-is-here-.html
But now, of course I have my trusty SD900 with me at all times so was able to take video with the Macro attachment. The results? Pretty darn good! I found that you can zoom to 3X with the Macro lens attached, and it's still sharp at the centre.
it's worth watching full screen in HD.
I suspect most of us have been members of the Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society at one time or another. I was active in the early 90s and went to a lot of the conventions. If nothing else it was a great way to meet girls. (Ok, that last bit's a joke)
I also made the pilgrimage to Stan Laurel's birthplace in Ulverton, and the Laurel and Hardy museum.
I was in the Helpmates (Uk) Tent. Here's my ticket from a particularly great night back in '91. Ah heady days...
And I see that the next convention is in the same town as the one I went to, just over 20 years ago!
http://www.laurelandhardy.org/convention.html
My dream was to watch and to own all 105 Laurel and Hardy films. I'd scan the TV listings every week, desperate to add another film to my list of recordings but alas I only got up to around 20 films, and of course I had no chance with the rarities.
How times have changed; I was in HMV at the weekend, and saw the Laurel and Hardy collection. 21 DVDs containing 68 HOURS of L&H footage, including rarities, foreign versions and computerised colour versions. It was a snip at £30, down from an original price of £100.
I'm working my way through them right now. What joy!
Here's an alphabetical list of all L&H films. I'll be ticking them off as I go:
Following our recent discussions on Tigers and Leopards (previous post: comments) I see that Waterstone's are selling models of them.
I don't know which is which; in fact I don't think there's any way to tell the two species apart for sure, but they are both beautiful creatures anyway.
Many times when I was in the forests in Venezuela I'd see little birds flitting about in the canopy but they moved so quicky and the light was so poor that I had no chance of identifying them, far less of photographing them.
Now with my new toy I think I'll be in with a chance. The SD900 gives you such control over aperture, shutter speed and focusing that you can have a go at just about any bird even under the most adverse circumstances. This Goldcrest was deep in the woods in low light but with cropping and slowing the clip in Powerdirector 10, it's good enough for a clear ID.
Can't wait for Summer!
A cropped still:
And the vid:
It's 170 pages long. How hard can it be, for goodness sake??
Is this a powerful metaphor for the alienation of modern man in a fragmented and ultimately meaningless universe, or just a cheap trick with an ipad? The debate continues.
Before going out birdwatching in temperatures of -5 degrees on Saturday (video tomorrow) I thought I'd put on the lovely thermals that Uni M got me for Xmas, but on closer inspection I saw this, and realised that there was no way I could support such a grammatical abomination so I had to leave them in the packet.
Blimey it was cold
Cheap China Shoes gets it!
Fingers over a lens?
Posted by: Cheap Shoes China | February 13, 2012 at 09:35 PM
It's actually fingers over an under-lit pedestal at the Bowling Alley in Rugby, but to deny CSC the chocs would be sheer pedantry, something which you could never accuse 4AoS of, or more accurately; something of which 4AoS could never be accused. And anyway, since CSC hasn't identified himself/herself yet, I have nowhere to send the chocs to, so we're all winners really.
This is nephew Luke:
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