sting, oh salty tears
sweet, anticipation
of a day, on the water
once was,
and now
gone
anticipation for wordpress weekly photo challenge
anticipation
Personal
How would it be, if everybody did that?
How would it be,” the police officer asked him severely, “if everybody did that?”
– Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Douglas Adams may not be an established literary giant, but for me (at least) he has long been an inspiration. His original The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy series, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, captured my heart and mind many years ago. Captured my mind as I was figuring out who I was, what I wanted to be. Gave me an early insight into alternative perspectives.
Made me think.
Last week, I (or at least my business alter ego) was privileged to be invited to speak at the Baltic Project Management Forum 2016. The subject of my presentation Cultural Diversity: Making the Project Fit the Culture.
In the lead up to the Forum, I was invited to give an interview to Simas Čelutka at IQ magazine, a Baltic publication affiliated with The Economist.
The questions posed to me, the contributions of my fellow speakers, the warmth of the welcome extended to me by the organisers of the Forum reminded me of those days long ago when the world stretched out ahead of me, waiting to be discovered. And so, again, I realised that no matter how rich one’s experience, there is so much more to be learned.
The interview I gave to IQ, transcribed below, reminded me of how lucky I have been, of the opportunities I have had, to learn more about our world, about how much more there is to learn.
Always.
For we can never stop learning.
Or sharing.
Continue reading
vilnius(streets)
I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle.
― Marilyn Monroe
I’ve been invited to present at a conference tomorrow morning here in Vilnius. I had two hours sleep last night and have a busy day ahead. It’s cold and raining. As I watched this city unfold in front of me as my cab driver brought me to my hotel I was reminded of another city, one that brought me great joy, and some photographic success, it also brought to mind this old Buzzcocks song and these lyrics (adapted)
Ever fallen in love? (Love…)
In love with some (city)
You shouldn’t’ve fallen in love with
Oh, Vilnius!
frame
That’s rule number one for a photographer, isn’t it? Fill your frame?
― David Cronenberg, Consumed
For WordPress weekly photo challenge – frame
*Shot with Nikon D700 and AF 80-200mm f/2.8 D lens, ISO200, 200mm f/2.8 1/5000s, edited in Lightroom CC and Analog Efex Pro 2*
See also my contribution on salamancastreets
old chapel
I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
fenced in
ashen
dare you?
laid bare
peeled and scrubbed
baked in
bright red tomatoes
just don’t
yes, indeed
do not remove
out of place
disused
emptied
well stocked
lucky
Images shot at The Old Chapel, near Crickhowell in South Wales, with Nikon D700 in manual mode at ISO200 and Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G and Nikkor AF 80-20omm f/2.8 D lenses.
fun
Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being
― Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
Shot on the South Bank with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G lens set at ISO200, f/2.5 and 1/250s, edited in Analog Efex Pro 2
My contribution to this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Fun
sardines
We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
iced
stirred
tapped
salted
burned
queued
smoked
shovelled
seated
forked
deserved
served
consumed
All shots taken with Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 lens in Manual mode and ISO200. All other settings made on the fly using the camera’s on board exposure meter, plus I confess to drinking and shooting.
cherry (well, olive) on top
I never see that prettiest thing-
A cherry bough gone white with Spring-
But what I think, “How gay ‘twould be
To hang me from a flowering tree.
– Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep As A Well
My response to this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo challenge – cherry on top – is (and is meant to be) ambiguous. The olive (which I am strangely proud to have planted, watered and nursed into life) or the lonesome cloud.
Who (which, what) is on top, and does it matter anyway?
(ps – this shot was taken with my iPhone 6S and so is not a particularly good example of my newly embraced manual approach)
changing seasons | v2 | seven
As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
Lemon f/1.4 1/500s ISO200
Orange f/1.4 1/400s ISO200
Prunus f/1.4 1/6400s ISO200
Membrillo f/1.4 1/640s ISO200
Some kind of tree that I need help in identifying please 😉 f/1.4 1/6400s ISO200
Olive f/1.4 1/6400 s ISO200
Rosemary f/1.4 1/1600s ISO200
Lavender f/1.4 1/6400s ISO200
In my piece out in the midday sun | 4 I wrote about my decision to go manual with my camera, the gallery above is my first real attempt at doing so (well, at least the first time to do so for many years).
Each shot was taken with my Nikon D700 and my favourite Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. All the shots were taken with ISO200. I selected an aperture of f/1.4 each time because I was looking for a very shallow depth of field. One side effect of using such a shallow depth of field at this lens (at least in my experience) is that the images are not so sharp, but I still love the effect. The only auto setting that I left in place was white balance which I left sitting at auto. The images were recorded as NEF (Nikon’s proprietary RAW format) which I left at 12-bit (maybe I will switch this back to 14-bit). I used the camera’s on board exposure meter to help figure out the best shutter speed to allow the wide open aperture that I had selected, it was a very sunny day, without a cloud in sight, so some of the shutter speeds were very fast.
I developed the images in Lightroom CC applying the lens correction tools to ‘remove chromatic aberration’ and ‘enable profile corrections’ for the lens that I had chosen. I must also confess that I did also tweak the exposure setting, and add a little sharpening, on a couple of the images, so my experiment was not as pure as my original intention.
But, by and large, these images were as shot using manual settings. I have no plans to revert to any auto settings any time soon, what do you think?
Also, this is part 7 of changing seasons, I missed parts 4, 5 and 6 but then nobody’s perfect.
Oh, and as you can see, I am busy growing a selection of things that can be dropped into drinks, although I forgot to include a shot of my first vine.
andy townend 