Post Christmas Thoughts

Well it's late Christmas Day, and I eaten a big dinner, and polished off a few chocolates, and my thoughts are turning to 2017, and what may happen.

2016, has on the whole been a very disappointing one; especially with all the famous people that have died this year. Only yesterday Rick Parfitt from Status Quo has passed on. And I'm not sure how Carrie Fisher is doing.

I'll keep clear of politics, both here and across the world. But the signs haven't been good.

So what about next year? Looking through my photographic archive of what to put on, I thought about holidays. We did have a very good one this year, when we went on a little road trip around Cornwall. But I cam across the photos I took in Florence, when we went on a tour of Tuscany during the autumn of 2015.

Now that was exciting.

So here's a bit of a still life that I took at one of the many tourist shops, of two things you see a lot there, statues from Roman history and Vespa scooters.

I have no idea as to where we will be going for a holiday during 2017. It will be great to see some more of both Italy and Cornwall. But then there's so many other places that we haven't seen yet; both here and abroad. Time to get some brochures and get booking.

A Matter Of Life And Death

We met up with some fellow Flickr photographers this morning at the Rock Cemetery in the centre of Nottingham.

The Rock is one of Nottingham's oldest cemeteries and full of very interesting headstones, mausoleums and statues, or 'Weeping Angels' as they are now known, thanks to Doctor Who. Blink and you're dead!

It was cold, but lovely and sunny, with hardly a cloud in the sky. Although we've past the graveyard many times, neither Gail or myself had ever been in to have a look around. Some of our Flickr friends have been before, but it was all new to us. We spent around two hours walking about and photographing the graves.

Although the sky was very blue, I quite like this sepia effect that was produced in-camera, as I took my little Olympus with me. I think the lack of colour and shadows of the figures adds a sense of menace.

We snapped a different sor of angel this afternoon, as we met up with Jurgan, a photographer friend of ours and his model Bryony up at Wollaton Park. We actually met them by accident in the cafe, as we were both hungry and thirsty after our walk in the morning.

On entering the cafe, a tapped Gail and pointed, as I could see Jurgan sitting at one of the tables near the entrance. He's a big lad, so he was easy to spot! We ordered a Devonshire style scone and a hot chocolate and then sat with them and chatted for a while.

Jurgan said that he wanted to shoot Bryony down by the lake. So we all got up and started on the long trek downhill to the very large lake. There's no boating on it, but there are lots of ducks etc. Loads of people were there too, throwing bread to them. Although I have had read somewhere that you shouldn't feed birds bread, as it expands in their stomachs, and so isn't very good for them.

So we went to a more quieter part of the lake, and Bryony stood, sat, crouched and laid in a variety of poses. The temperature had really dropped and the poor girl was freezing.  But she kept with it, not really complaining at all. Jurgan used an off camera flash for his pictures. I took this one with no extra light at all, even though the sun had completely disappeared by then.

Well, Here's Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Us Into

A Model T Ford with Laurel and Hardy. A classic comedy grouping and one that would certainly make anyone chuckle. How many times in their old short films of the 1920s did their car either get cut in half, smashed in two or just get blown up?

Of course the Model T was cheap and readily available; and Henry Ford famously said: it was only available in black. I don't know if this is an original or a reproduction. The figures obviously are. But they were a bit of fun at the Hemlock Happening.