Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
On first seeing this scene I felt a bit confused. The trees were reflecting in water and I was having difficulty figuring out what were the actual trees above the water and what were the reflections. I decided to exaggerate this confusion by flipping the picture so that the water is at the top of the picture rather than at the bottom. That’s why the trees look so odd. It’s a bit disorienting.
Taken on the grounds of a nearby mansion. I liked the juxtaposition of the quite new looking bench and the obviously much older statue. The somewhat eroded statue made me think about the passage of time and the way they stand isolated in this bucolic setting aroused a feeling of loneliness (this statement is a little misleading. It’s true for the picture, but not for the reality. This grouping actually stands quite close to the large mansion. So it’s not as isolated as the picture suggests).
In the preceding post I mentioned that we recently hosted a meeting of our local garden club. After the presentation refreshments are traditionally served. At one point the refreshments were getting quite elaborate and some members complained that this put pressure on them to provide food and that this made them reluctant to host meetings. So the head of the club announced that in future refreshments would be limited to coffee and cookies. This lasted for a couple of meetings, but you just can’t stop people from making things and bringing them along. So eventually what was supposed to be coffee and cookies became a full lunch. This was the case with our meeting. This photograph shows about half of the refreshments table.
Included in the picture are some cucumber sandwiches – a traditional British delicacy. My wife was going to make them, but she got caught up doing other things so I ended up doing it. I’m familiar with simple cucumber sandwiches i.e. buttered bread with cucumbers inside. Pretty boring and I don’t generally like them. However, my wife’s version included mayonnaise, mustard and chives, which was a big improvement. I must say that I rather enjoyed them.
It was taken with a Sony NEX 5N and Zeiss 58mm f2 Biotar pretty much wide-open. I think it has a lovely “glow”.
In earlier posts I’ve mentioned that my wife and I belong to the local garden club. It’s been great to be a member as we’ve met many incredible people who also belong to the club. Every year the club organizes two major events: the Christmas Party; and the Garden Tour where members visit a number of gardens belonging to their fellow members. In addition to these events there’s a monthly meeting hosted by one of the members. At these meetings there’s usually a presentation on a specific topic. Last Sunday was our turn to host the meeting and the presentation was on herbs: how to identify them; how to grow them; how to preserve them etc. About twenty people participated.
I don’t normally like taking pictures at this type of event. It’s not my preferred type of photography and I’m not particularly good at it. However, my wife wanted the event recorded so out came the cameras.
Here are a few of the members watching the presentation.
I’m British and always find it hard to understand why Americans pronounce the word ‘herb’ without the ‘h’ i.e. as ‘erb’. After all you wouldn’t say ‘erbert’ would you?
Source: “One Lucky, Very Lucky Shot” | THEME. Usain Bolt @ Rio Olympics 100-meter semi-final | Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
And no I didn’t take it! Although I’ve been to Rio a few times I wasn’t there for the Olympics. Incredibly the photographer, Kai Pfaffenbach had this to say (in a Reuters video) about his iconic picture:
The German photographer is humble about his work. In this Reuters interview he says he was “just playing around and had a bit of fun.”
See, you dead serious photographers? Start playing around and have some fun!
Let’s loosen up a bit, experiment, as the best things in life are hardly ever planned.
Pfaffenbach went for a 1/50th panning shutter speed, “trying to do some arty shot.” Framing, composition, detail and out-of-focus areas, all just perfect.
“One lucky, very lucky shot,” says Pfaffenbach.
I should be so lucky. I’m sure this photograph will go down as one of the greatest sports photographs of all time.
Grinning Usain Bolt, winning the semi-final to his third 100-meter gold medal at three consecutive Olympics (a first!), and still having ample time to smile back at his drudging, smaller-than-Bolt pursuers, captured by Pfaffenbach — simply iconic