A Dangerous Question
It was an old building, a theatre built in the 18th century but taken over for the evening for purposes other than performing. In the crowded, noisy room the man in the dark shirt sidled up to the blonde by the fireplace and leaned in close to her ear. "Tongue?" he asked. By way of reply he received a look of ice. The man edged away slightly, his eyes darting around to see if anyone had noticed. Nobody had. Conversations continued; laughter rolled across the sea of heads from one corner. "It says here that it's a blonde, crisp ale with citrus notes," the man pressed, leaning in again. The blonde's shoulders relaxed a little and her face softened. "How about a Gobble?" he asked with a smile. She slapped like she'd practiced slapping before. The crack across his face was loud and a few heads turned in the vicinity. The man pressed a hand to his reddening cheek and waved the brochure in his hand like someone surrendering. "From the Great Oakley brewery in Northants," he sputtered. "A straw-coloured beer with a large smack of hops at the end." He grimaced as the word "smack" came out of his mouth, aware of the irony in what he'd described. "I'm sorry," said the blonde. "I'm on edge tonight. All these people here. The noise. I don't cope well in these situations. I hope I didn't hurt you." She tried a smile but it was thin, forced, and cool. The shirted man shook his head, rubbing his face gingerly. "I've had worse," he said. "Look, I didn't mean to offend you or anything. Hey, if you're on edge why not try a Public Rubbing?" The blonde's fist clenched and her nostrils flared for one second before she caught herself. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and steadied herself. She looked at the man again. He'd flinched. She couldn't blame him. The blonde relaxed. "Why don't you describe that to me?" she asked. The man let out the breath he'd been holding too and laughed. "Oh, it's not a beer," he said. "I'm just a ridiculously rude person seeking cheap thrills at other people's expense." He turned and darted through the crowd, lost almost instantly in the wake of bodies of shoved out of the way and angry heads flipping around. * Yes, I was at a beer festival last night. Google+: View post on...
Wild Oats
Wild oats: some people like to sow them. Some people like to sew them and sell them on Etsy as something organic and odd. Some people like to be them. These two buskers fall into that lattermost category. It's the name under which they perform in case that's not clear. I didn't catch much in the way of their music yesterday as I spent more time listening to a jazz quartet busking one road over covering tunes from Toy Story and Star Wars; this, however, proved to be a slightly better (i.e. not ruined by pedestrians wandering through the shot) picture. #StreetPhotography Google+: View post on...
Chairs and Tables and Leaves
Oh my. I often pass this sandwich place at lunchtime where my colleague grabs something upon which to munch; I, of course, stuff myself at my desk (it is the only proper way for a software developer to eat), dropping crumbs all over and between the keys of the keyboard, making sure that the consumption of my lunch actually takes place during what are technically working hours rather than wasting any of the time out of the office when I might possibly miss an interesting shot because I'm picking corned beef off my chin. This isn't a particularly interesting shot but it was unusual to see it empty of diners. I liked the leaves on the floor (slightly less so when I slipped on some on the approach) and the reflections in the shop window also appealed to me. I'd have submitted it for the Window Wednesday theme but the swine are all on holiday this month. So I shan't. Google+: View post on...
A Google+ Photo Journey
I was browsing Google+ today, leaping from stream to stream like a social networking salmon, when I thought to myself: wouldn’t it be good to find a picture from someone’s stream, post it here with a note describing why I liked it, leap randomly via someone who’d interacted with that stream in some way to discover a new picture, and repeat a few times thereby giving me something to post on my site? And then I thought: no, that’s not good at all. That’s the opposite of good. And then I decided to do it anyway. Here are five shots from five streams browsed one after the other for no other reason than that I wanted to. It’s the best reason there is. So, first off was a quick look at my Street Photographers circle, one of the two main circles I’ve created that I check numerous times a day. And the first photo to catch my eye was this shot entitled “Love, Work, Create… Ride” (although I think it should be live not love) by Garth McKay: Lovely warm tones from the low sun behind the camera and gorgeously lit with that same light reflecting off the store windows and into the street; this creates some great shadows and reflections onto the road surface. The bike neatly framed with the words around it is excellent too. Someone who liked that photo was Andre Behrmann so a quick scroll down his stream brought me to this: Great sharpness picking out all the textures especially in the foreground and obviously lovely symmetry here. Particularly nice is getting the natural light from the sun directly overhead so as to cast great light and shadow right down the middle of the photo. This shot led me via one of the commenters on it to the following photo by Thorsten von Eyb: Three things I love about this photo: firstly, it’s the moment in the centre of the shot; the hug in the middle of the crowded scene and the working of the camera phone by the hugged individual. Secondly, there’s the angle of the shot; always nice to see something off the vertical or horizontal and in a crowded shot like this it works well to convey claustrophobia to me. Finally, of course, it’s the woman in the white trousers who – for some reason (ahem) – is actually the focal point for the picture. Liking Thorsten’s shot was Serein Lee and I know I’m always going to see good shots from him so off to his stream and this shot is the one I wanted to pick out: The girls are...
Dining Outdoors
I don't see the appeal in eating a meal outside. Not ever, and especially not in October in England. Outdoors can be very noisy. Why would anyone want to eat where it's noisy? I know it can be noisy indoors too but it's a different type of noise; there are often fewer pneumatic drills, buses rolling past, or people asking if you want to buy the Big Issue. And it's cold outside in October in England. The sun might be out but it's a weaker sun than just a few weeks ago with less radiation getting through the increased depth of atmosphere. And the wind has an edge to it as it blows across the food and strips it of its microwaved heat. A cold meal? How dreadful! And outdoors has insects; things that walk and slither but most often fly and either land on the food or hover in front of the face as part of an elite insect distraction team while covert crawlies swipe tasty morsels from the ends of forks or stand in gravy and stick two antennae up at you from the plate. There's less protection from meteorites when you're outside. Indoors you've usually got at least one roof over your head but it's typically two or more. There's tiles and insulation and floorboards and plaster to slow down those meteorites to survivable levels, plus there's a better chance that the lump of rock will shatter before it gets to your table. That means you get to finish your meal. Outdoors? Not a hope! Cutlery everywhere, a smashed plate spinning to the ground, and your dinner partner nursing a horrible case of missing-half-a-head. Why, people? Why would you want to eat outside? Outdoors dining? Two words: airborne plague. One word: door. Airborne plague has not mutated to the stage where it can open a door so performing a little mental arithmetic quickly tells you that you're better off eating indoors unless you're the sort of weirdo who enjoys dinner conversations along the lines of: "How's the meat?""It's a little tough and I'm not keen on the sauce.""Your nose has fallen off and there's a steady stream of blood and mucus running down your face onto your plate.""Well that explains why the garlic paté doesn't smell so overpowering." You're not one of those weirdos, are you? No! Outdoors dining? I don't think so! For #StreetPhotography curated by +Tatiana Parmeeva +Thorsten von Eyb +Maria Roco and for #StreetPics #StreetSaturday Google+: View post on...
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