“I don’t wish to be the symbol of anything. I’m only myself”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
All images shot with Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF 80-200mm f/2.8 D lens in manual mode at ISO200 and various combinations of shutter speed and aperture.
London
(good) morning!
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
Shot, for WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Morning, in manual mode with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 lens set to ISO200 f/1.4 and 1/400s
built (environment)
A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines
― Frank Lloyd Wright
I felt inspired this afternoon and so I rounded things off by shooting one of my favourite locations in London, the Tate Modern, and more specifically the new extension tacked on to the back.
*All shots taken with Nikon D700 with Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 lens with ISO200 in manual mode, some of the settings I like to claim to be ‘creative’, or maybe it was that Mexican beer?*
poetry | 101 | rehab | smile
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
blue eyes
that
hold, no
lies
sparkling smile
that
holds, no
wile
(nor guile)
words
softly, spoken
not, just
words
what lay,
inside
all
those
years
it is clear,
to me
now
smile
This week, my poetry prompt is simple, it’s smile. Why not?
narrow
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness
― Mark Twain
Wandering the streets of London, taking a break from working, I found my road blocked by the Prudential RideLondon Classique, apparently the richest women’s one-day race in professional cycling and awarded UCI WorldTour status by the world’s governing body for cycling, the Union CycIiste Internationale (UCI), the race was taking place on a spectacular 5.5km circuit in central London.
And, as luck would have it, I had my camera with me. In manual mode.
For the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Narrow
*Shot with Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 g lens at ISO200, f/1.4 at 1/1600s*
victory (?)
This post is a combined response to ‘Day 7: Let social media inspire you’, last Tuesday’s prompt on the WordPress Writing 101 course (which asked us to respond to one from a selection of embedded tweets), and to the Daily Post Weekly photo challenge which this week asked us to share a photo that would make us forget the sad times, ‘this week, it’s all about revelling in a win’.
The prompt ‘Victory’.
I was about to do that.
And then, on Friday 13th things changed.
Again.
Shit, as they say, happens.
So, in responding to both prompts, this post goes a little ‘off piste’, as I used one of my own tweets and, decided to reflect on the concept of Victory in the light of recent events and my own experience.
On the morning of 7 July, 2005, I walked out from the door of my apartment and walked about 200m towards the London Undergound station at Edgware Road. For some reason I had a sudden change of mind, I decided to take the bus. Instead of walking straight on and down into the station to take the tube I normally took, I turned left and jumped aboard a bus. Moments later, well, moments later is now history. My decision to turn left meant I am not (yet) history.
Both of these photos were taken from the balcony of our apartment in London.
For days afterwards, weeks, months, sleep was impossible, the streets were closed, within a few hundred metres lay St Mary’s Hospital, London and Paddington Green Police Station.
That day in London, the day after all of us who lived and worked in London had celebrated the ‘victory’ of being selected as the hosts of the 2012 Olympic Games, turned into a day from hell. A day in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured 700 more. A few days later, an innocent man was gunned down at an underground station because he was thought to be a terrorist.
Who is the victor here? The suicide bombers, who despite the intense security after 9/11 managed to evade the security put in place by a (once) powerful nation? The people of London (and I was one of them) who the next day defiantly boarded tube trains to show we would not be intimidated? The military personnel who guide drones to kill from the skies?
None of us.
There are no victors in this war.
The world will not be at peace until we find a way to resolve our differences.
WordPress Writing 101 (November 2015): Day 7
half / half
‘one half of me is yours, the other half is yours,
mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
and so all yours’
― william shakespeare, the merchant of venice
‘i take pictures photographic pictures bright light dark room’
depeche mode, photographic, 1981
(for dp weekly photo challenge – half and half)
vivid
"all the robots descend from the bus" - daft punk is playing in my house, lcd soundsystem
(city of london, window dressing)
(for wordpress weekly photo challenge – vivid)
*shot with nikon d700, nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens at 200mm, ISO450, 1/125s and f/4, edited in lightroom cc and color efex pro 4, who’s playing in your house?*
vivid on belgianstreets
perspective
“windows are the eyes of the soulless” ― thomas ligotti, the nightmare factory
how big was your bonus?
could you afford this week’s groceries?
on whom is the onus?
to ease,
their miseries?
(for justine’s eclectic corner)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens, irony lost*
andy townend 