Photographs and other fleeting things.

I had a trip to London last week. I was pretty excited as it was central and I had a couple of hours to myself to take as many pictures as time allowed. I should have known that it was too good to be true. The weather was awful, incredibly windy and rainy but, for those that know the UK, could it really have been anything else?
I was accosted by a older woman with half her teeth missing and she insisted she was a romany gypsy. I insisted that I had no money but I didn't get off that lightly. I had to go through the drama of the palm reading etc. She did tell me that I would marry the woman of my dreams so I told her that my wife would be interested to know that. She also told me that I would be good.....I laughed....So she told me that my personality would make it so. Pretty funny as it's usually my personality that gets me into trouble.
When I stopped laughing, I told her again that I had no money so she snatched the flower off my lapel that she had so carefully pinned there and stomped off. I was a little disappointed that I didn't even warrant a curse.
I did manage to take some nice shots of the London Eye in the fleeting moments of weak sun, and as that is such an ugly landmark, I was quite chuffed.
I then took a trip to Kensington Gardens. The weather had brightened up so it ended up being quite a good day. Since then, the weather has been awful and it's been a struggle to motivate my lazy backside to go out and take pictures. I have managed some studies rather than anything of any worth. It does get tough coming back from a City and looking around the local area for anything that inspires.
Talking of inspring, the local Christmas decorations were turned on last week. Usually we get a dreadful lookalike act to perform the dastardly deed of flicking the switch, this year we didn't even get that, we had a no mark from the local radio station. We do have the greatest Town Christmas decoration ever though, it reads "Aylesbury a great place to grow" and has a picture of a whale's tale in lights. I'm not sure what it means, maybe a great place to grow illiteracy? Drugs? Gangs? Trouble? I'm not sure what's wrong with Merry Christmas but I am so inspired by this abstract decoration that it is going to be my Christmas Card this year. I intend to make the most goddawful, boring and mundane card ever. Believe me, it will be easy!

I think that the sudden change in weather and shortening of the days has been getting to me this week. That and the fact that I upgraded my PC to Win 7 and that appears to be great, nearly all the drivers and software worked straight away. Unfortunately those a***holes at Canon don't support Win 7 on anything but the latest Cameras. My DLSR, just a year old, has no Canon software available under Win 7. I heard that Nikon are the same (unverified). Next time I'll buy Sony, shame as I love my Canon but I don't use Photoshop or any professional software and I was using the Canon software to tweak the colours, I'll have to fork out for lump of software that I'll use such a small part of. I'm not a graphic artist, I'll leave that to the experts, I take photos and don't intend to doctor them anymore than I need to. If the photo comes out of the camera with the bulk of the work done, software processes should be minimal.

I swear, as I get older I am becoming a grumpy old man. I seem to have developed an opinion on everything, no matter how little I know about it. Various facts seem to appear at my fingertips and I later find out that I inadvertently made them up. My tolerance levels are low and my mouth is getting bigger, enough that I seem to be able to fit both feet into it, several times a day. Maybe memory and tolerance are also fleeting things? Maybe it's just that damned Brown and his cronies making me intolerant to everything.
I did chuckle when I saw that Blair didn't get that Monarchy post in the EU, sure, President they may call it but that numbnuts behaves like a big Queen. Good to see it went to someone that no-one has ever heard of. I have no doubts that UK press will have a field day dredging up all the terrible things he's going to do to us. By the end of the week I will undoubtedly believe them.

Enough of my blathering, I'm going to bed.

Marks poetry

I used to write a lot of poetry but as I got older, it petered out and it seemed as if it was a youthful thing that I'd left behind. I realised that I had left my creative side totally behind me.
A few years ago I visited a place that was so inspiring that I had to write about it. The poem was, I feel, a little clumsy but I was loathe to change anything about it. Since then I have written the odd poem but that was the start of my latest journey. More recently I have written some funny poems about friends, for particular leaving parties, etc and have started to find my tongue again. I have a way to go but at least I have started. At some point I will show you where the last odyssey ended so you can see where I have come from but for today, here is the start of the current voyage:

It was raining lightly and grey
Taking the colour out of life
Painting a setting for this day
For this very special day

Within these tree lined aisles
Out of these many buildings
Would march the rank and file
Sixty years ago

Engaged in their construction
Making room for more of them
Did they know of the destruction
A thousand yards away

Within a mound there is a chamber
With room for the two thousand
Had they known about the danger
When they were herded in?

Next to the chamber burns a fire
Within the belly of a furnace
Three at a time for the funeral pyre
Unnamed they are cast aside

Their souls escape in smoke
Leaving an image in this place
Of tightening throats that choke
A final prayer before they still

Are the given lessons learned
Are they etched within your heart
Or have they too been burned
Too charred to now be read

© Mark Stahlmann 2002

Greetings to one and all.

Just a brief bit about me. I have just had a birthday on all Saints Day. I am 42 and feeling every day of all those years today. I ran yesterday morning with my youngest daughter (11) and it nearly killed me. 8 O'clock on a cold Sunday morning, 5 miles, the only saving grace is that it's followed by a Costa to wake me up. This morning we had freezing fog and we ran 3 miles, that was harder and colder. I have no idea why I find the week day 3 milers harder than the weekend 5 milers.

I have been a little unispired with photography very recently, maybe it's the Winter kicking in. A glorious Autumn has passed and all of a sudden everything is bare and grey so I guess it takes awhile to adjust. However, I was inspired by the fog this morning, I tried to emulate a fantastic shot that I saw recently of a pine forest in mist. I failed miserably but did get another shot that I've yet to look at in detail but looked good at a glance.

I missed Bonfire night as I fell asleep. I was really looking forward to going to a firework display at one of the many glorious castles or at the local lake, I had big ideas on what I was going to do, amazing back drops, reflections of fireworks in a moat or a lake, long exposures with multiple explosions and unlike last year, it was a perfect evening for it, totally clear and unusually warm, oh it sounded to good to be true. I had such a busy day that fell asleep early, woke at 3am and crawled into bed missing everything, I didn't get a single shot.

I do have a habit of missing things. There was a photography competition in one of the local towns recently. I spent days, mornings, weekends and evenings taking shots and took a few that I was very proud of. I missed the closing date by 3 days. I nearly entered another competition for clouds but missed the deadline for that. I am currently missing the deadline for a portrait competition. After that I think I may miss a Christmas photo competition.

Anyway, enough of my late night ramblings!