i want my m-me

I've had my little ixus for two years and two months now and I'm considering if it's the right time to get back to a serious camera - if only. Many moons ago, I saved up my pennies and got myself an MEsuper, and it was super! It was fun; it was serious. I had interchangeable lenses; I interchanged them. It had dials, the dials had little numbers on them, you had to do little sums in your head with these numbers, and you had make little assumptions and all while sharing a little dark space with your subject; it was all very intimate. It was also very expensive. Sadly, the photographer had to put it all away when he settled down and money had to be spent on sensible things like mortgage and toilet cleaner...

But five years ago, things were looking up and I got out the camera again, had it professionally serviced, took it to Italy and...

dropped it on a concrete floor inside a bag with two bottles of cheap vino. I don't even know why we bought the vino - it's not like you can't get decent chianti at a fair price in the UK!

So here we are; Two years and two months ago I was presented with a little ixus400 and here we are.

intimacy

just curious to see if the ixus could see what I could see looking through the me's viewfinder. it's funny but it worked better than I expected. the only thing you can't see is the little column of numbers at the edge which flicker (when the battery's working) advising which shutter speed works best with the f-stop you've chosen.

Well, I went to the shop yesterday to see several contenders but what struck me most was how cheap and disposable they all felt: I tell you I had to look around to check I hadn't wandered into the toy shop next door and was, in fact, handling the latest Fischer Price. I imagined the salesperson was going to ask me to press this button sir and a yellow and green snake would shoot out! What have we done to deserve this? - it's crapitalism at its worst. As you can see, I got home and dragged the corpse of the pentax out for verification and, even though it no longer performs as a camera, it still feels and operates better than all those new ones do!

Still, I know I'm like this with new shoes and I'm sure I'll get used to it like I do them. So I will bite the bullet but I'm not as excited as I was about it last week. Btw, my ixus has gone up in my estimation as a result - it's a fabulous little camera and it won't be made redundant even if.

checkers

One of the old images taken with the me super. Unfortunately, they had to be scanned on a basic scanner to get them digital; well, the scanner's all right but I'm a complete numpty at scanning, so what I mean is it was basic scanning!

Odd that their board is 12x12 squares, but the game seems to be regular checkers. There were a few games being played in the main street, quite a few spectators had gathered sitting on old boxes and whatever else they could find - it was serious business. It wasn't until this game was over did they realise a stranger was in their midst. They gave me some curious glances, I made my excuses and left. Maybe they thought I was spying for the opposition!

kids are the same the world over

Ever wonder why we have to have kids? Yes, me too! Surely one reason is hope; they give us a perspective of optimism. They are fundementally the same wherever they are.

The image could be technically better - actually, I've cropped it from last time I used it - but I love the subject, the sense of movement, play and fun, and, not least, the story: I was soaked to the skin following several short but heavy downpours and we were sharing the joke. I can never resist studying their different faces and expressions and comparing each of them with someone I went to school with. Because kids are the same from one end of time to the next.

more offcuts

ant ques

sorry, no new stuff so I've weedled out some outtakes from last weekend's Dock trip. The sun was fierce, low and hazy - I don't know whether it was that or my mood, but I had a yen for black and white imagery. I'm not saying it's right, but I want it! har-har. oh, I take colour and keep the original files unaltered, so it's just making mistakes - the best way to learn.

candy cane tiller

some say members of an island race are always attracted to water, like they have an affinity with it. personally, I prefer a beer but there's something about the ripples which is enticing...

proof of blue sky!

chain, grains and mickey mouse shadows

windings

I'm aware one of my weak points is capturing scenes - I'm never happy with the results. The collection of photos chosen on the Docks visit didn't give much idea of what the Docks look like. I know that I like to see where other bloggers live so here's a pic across the Dock's main basin - It's actually called Main Basin. You can just about see there's a tall ship on the other side - if you squint hard enough (after knocking back a few beers), you might imagine what it was like 200 years ago!

broken

I've been having a bit of difficulty uploading this week - is it me? We rely on computers so much, I fear the day it all breaks down...

Wandering off the Docks development, the buildings look worse for wear. I admit feeling a bit apprehensive walking down this derelict street; the things I do for my art (no laughing at the back, there). Here's Cap'n Flint again - he gets about.

ahoy!

You'll hab do egzkood be, I hab a code (or words to that effect). Yes, feeling a bit tom-dick this weekend, and it's brass monkeys out, and the weather forecast wasn't good, but I'd already decided to nose around the Gloucester Docks because I'd decided to do that last weekend but the weather wasn't good then and I had to get new tyres etc.

So, despite everything, I wrapped up, borrowed the least girly scarf I could find and headed off to the Docks. As it happens, the weather wasn't half bad - bloody freezing, but very sunny.


rigging (what else?)

It's a bit strange - these Docks. Each evening, one my way home, I pass the junction for 'Historic Docks' and wonder what it's all about. You see, as anyone familiar with Gloucestershire geography will realise, we're not exactly near the coast! So, it comes as no surprise to learn that Gloucester Docks lay claim to being the most inland official Port in the UK.

Of course, 400 years ago this was great news for small ships and tall ships, but no good for today's mile long container ships, so now most of the warehouses have been turned into swanky office blocks, exclusive apartments and a small collection of shops. There's still some dry docks and boatyards which do business, mainly for leisure yatchs and narrow boats - it ain't all bad.

crane

hook

Don't know whether it was the sharp sunlight or the subjects or my thick head but I feel in a black&white mood with most of these. I read an interview with a photographer recently who claimed monochrome was the only way to capture the light in Britain - well, I don't know if that's true...

I keep all the original shots - always in colour - so if I do change my mind tomorrow...

x marks the spot

scraping off the barnacles

cable

cap'n flint

I was lucky to spot this bird, it's a rare gloucestershire parrot.

cabin clutter

proof to the contrary or exception to the rule: not everything works better in black&white?
narrowboats often look snug and cosy though I'm not sure I'd be grateful for one in this weather!

a scarecrow

(shurely, it's in the wrong story?)

well, I had my orders!

...and I knew she was right. Anne said I must get my finger out and take more pictures. Now I know I should take more pictures! I should make more mistakes...

So, yesterday I was shocked to find two bald tyres and today I drove over to Kwik-Fit to address the situation. When the guy said it would be half an hour to get around to my car, followed by twenty minutes work I thought ''brilliant!''.

''That'll do for me'', I left him the keys and went for a wander...

Watermoor isn't a part of the town I get to see much on foot, it's the other side of town. Virgin territory for me and the camera; mainly old residential properties, fast food takeaways, auto repairs and st. michael's recreation ground. I suppose it was a bit of a challenge but I had a go...


Lyons' corner.

the colourful escape.

grime, rust, algae and...random daubs of blue paint?

checker plate

escape

brick work.

the odd discolouration was effective in enhancing the texture of the wall. I refrained from tweaking it myself, hoping it would work on its own. In these times of tweak it's difficult to know what's tweak and what's not. ah well...

pussy knocker.

when I opened a flickr account, a very nice chap invited me to post a knocker to his interest group - flickr has loads of different interest groups! The way it came about was I'd been wandering about the garden desperate for inspiration and took to snapping our own lion headed knocker - which rarely gets used as we encourage visitors to come straight in the kitchen. Consequently, our knocker is covered in spider webs! I put it on flickr just to get my numbers up!

I never gave knockers a second thought up until that invitation - now I'm often looking at people's doors to see what kind they have. One day, I fear my collar will be felt for suspicious behaviour!

eyeless.

okay, it's a shutter, the eye part of the hook and eye is on the roof somewhere.

the flaming bush.

Almost expecting to find moses hanging around... I've no idea what these shrubs are called - or if the yellow one is the same family as the red - but the park gardener at St. Michael's should be congratulated on a neat bit of winter planting.

holy trinity: beyond this point.

Ixus has four settings: normal colour, colour enhance, sepia and monochrome. I only use normal. If I like a B&W shot I decolorize - way down - rather than greyscale. I prefer that slight, almost imperceptible tint. (I have no idea why I'm in an explanatory mood today.)

prohibition.

such hard times in a one horse town.

Head

sunday shopping couple.

These two passed by while I was composing the Head shot - so I snapped 'em!

amputee

Saw this on the way into town (no pun intended) and just had to stop off on the way home to snap it. One of the things I can't do on ixus satisfactory is good depth of field control so paintshop to the rescue! The background was a little too distracting, drawing the eye away from the subject, so I've drawn around it with the selection tool and muted it with a low level gaussian blur.

That, in UK, is what we sometimes call an anorak moment. :D