It Must Be Love

Posted By Mark on Jan 29, 2013

Unrelated to the photo, but I thought I'd share something that happened today. It's because I'm a sharer. In addition to the job-stress-relief that comes from whipping the camera out I had a duty to perform this lunchtime; we have a housewarming/birthday to attend this weekend in Basingstoke which necessitated a brief stop in Hotel Chocolat to pick up some goodies. I was accompanied by my colleague. He's male just like me (in case you've never caught on). This will become important. I picked up some gift chocolates for the weekend and some chocolates for personal consumption too (because it's the law) and then proceeded to pay for them at the till. A very friendly woman attended and offered the pair of us some fruit-filled, white chocolate hearts to let melt on our tongues while we waited for the card reader to read my card. Some small talk about chocolates and signing up for emails proceeded along with a few grins and nods and lies about already having signed up. "Ooh! Mojito truffles!" said the woman suddenly, picking up some of the treats I'd picked out for our own use. "These are lovely!" she confided. "We certainly hope so!" I replied with a smile. "Your wife will really like them," said my colleague. Loudly. Deeply. I glanced at him. He looked a little… puffed up. We left the shop – after the transaction had gone through, of course – and I gave my colleague that look that says "what in the name of all that's unholy was all that about?" without using words; it does use an eyebrow and enough muscles to raise one side of the upper lip. "She thought we were a couple!" he hissed. "So?" was my laughter-accompanied reply, but in addition to the laughter there was also regret; oh, the missed fun that could have been had with a sexuality-threatened colleague if only I'd spotted the signs earlier. But I know for next time. Google+: View post on...

Love Books?

Posted By Mark on Jan 28, 2013

Dorothy does. She's so pleased with her new purchase she feels the need to text her friend Mary back at the office. "I've picked up a new book." Dorothy doesn't go in for all that text-speak nonsense. "GR8 WOT?" comes the reply. Mary doesn't share Dorothy's stance on sending messages using full words. Or correctly-spelt ones. And her phone needs a firmware update to fix an annoying issue that only permits uppercase characters. "50 Shades of Grey…" is the reply from Dorothy. She glances nervously at the bag in which her book is located and then around her to ensure nobody has seen over her shoulder at the phone's small screen. There's a man with a camera on the bench over the road but it seems unlikely he'd be able to get a decent shot of her from there. A trill from the phone indicates that Mary's replied. "GOT IT ITS SH1T LOL". Mary's probably not laughing out loud which annoys Dorothy – one should never claim to be doing something that one isn't, after all – but not as much as the missing apostrophe, punctuation, and self-censorship. Dorothy smirks, though, and taps away swiftly on the keypad in her hands. "… the pop-up edition!" she continues. By way of response there's nothing but silence and Dorothy wanders off to find somewhere private for a bit of a read. Dorothy loves books. Just not very good ones. Google+: View post on...

Rejoice

Posted By Mark on Jan 26, 2013

Thanks to Colchester Camera Repair Service (http://camera-repair.co.uk/ – autostarting video, grumble, grumble) I have got my Canon 5D Mark II back. For around £230 inclusive of VAT that got me a replacement shutter unit fitted as well as a full clean of sensor, mirror, etc. and delivery via UPS. I would have got my camera back last week had the snow not caused chaos (I can't really complain about that, though, as it got me a day off work). I would have got my camera back early this week had UPS not forgotten to put it on their van when they went out for delivery (which kinda makes a mockery of the whole tracking service if the website says it's out for delivery but it later transpires it's still in the warehouse). And I would have got my camera back the next day had I been in when they tried to deliver but I wasn't and had to rearrange delivery to my work the day after that. Importantly: I've got the camera back now. I decided to put the camera through its paces and popped along to the Bishop's Palace Gardens in Chichester so that I could play around with macro shots, wide shots, long exposures to test for sensor dust, and so on. I'm happy to report that all is well in the world once more. There wasn't a lot of life in the gardens but you don't need a lot of life to take a nice photo. Google+: View post on...

Pleasantries

Posted By Mark on Jan 18, 2013

Under Cover

Posted By Mark on Jan 14, 2013

I dunno. You wait ages for a photograph and then two come along at once. It was snowing this morning on the way to work. As this is England that meant I had plenty of time to observe its prettiness as I sat there inching along in the traffic jam that had suddenly formed because absolutely nobody in this country appears to know what to do when snowflakes turn up on the scene. It was lovely looking at the inch or so of snow that formed along the side of the dual carriageway, and the boughs of the trees looked truly beautiful. I was genuinely looking forward to getting out at lunch and take some shots. Did I mention this is England? Well, this is England. The snow had gone and rain had replaced it all within a few hours. Arse. Google+: View post on...

Confusion

Posted By Mark on Jan 14, 2013

I still don't have my camera back from the repairers but +urszula masilela was apparently missing me, so since I've been taking my old 350D out at lunchtimes (with very varying levels of success) here's something to fill the gap… They looked one way up the street, then the other, then back again. He looked up one street, she looked down another. They glanced up and down. Brows were furrowed. And then I caught their eyes. "Problem?" I asked. "All these leopards!" the man tutted. He resumed looking confused and I decided to join him in that state. "Leopards?" I asked. I made a mental note to stop asking one-word questions. The woman shook her head in irritation as a rivulet of water ran down her temple and cheek. The man grunted and pointed into the sky and then at the ground. He shook himself. "Leopards!" he said. "We call that stuff rain around here," I offered helpfully. A perplexed glance was shared between the damp couple. "Never heard of it," said the man. "Do you call those candles?" he asked, looking up and then squinting awkwardly as a drop splashed into his eyeball. "Nope. Those are called clouds. Everyone calls them clouds because they're clouds. Candles are something else entirely." "Not where we're from," he replied. His companion busied herself looking around anxiously. "You're still looking a little confused," I remarked. "We've been here ages and there hasn't been a single sense of impending doom." "That's the sort of thing you step onto and it takes you from one place to another?" They nodded and I saw a bit of a smile. "Well, at least a sense of impending doom is the same in this weird place," the man said. I decided not to correct him and instead led the pair of them away from the centre of the pedestrianised precinct and to the nearest bus stop. At least, that's what I told them. It was actually a tree. I can only assume they're still there. Google+: View post on...