Perplexed.

 

Um Yeah, er which end do I shoot with again?

Perplexed – By Bob

To puzzle….bewilder…confuse. The glare captured in this picture might loosely be described as “perplexed” because the traindriver thus caught has to decide whether he has time to berate the photographer or go and get more hot water for his elevenses. In the end, perhaps fortunately for me, he chose the latter.

mike’s “Perplexed”

From my old and trusty (and that’s very old btw) Concise Oxford Dictionary 5th ed. (told you it was very old!):

Perplex Bewilder, puzzle, (person, his mind); complicate, confuse, (matter): entangle, intertwine

Hmm. Sounds a bit like my virtually permanent state of being.

So here we are then, my first contributions for this month. And be warned… I may well add one or two more!

Instruction Manuals, User Guides, why the hell do there have to be so many of the damn things? Wouldn’t it be far simpler just to have a sort of “Universal User Guide”, something along the following lines…

1. Switch on
2. Do the business
3. Switch off

How am I supposed to remember all these damn instructions, “tips” and whatnot… what with me an’ my crap memory an’ all? No wonder I can never remember which button does what with my head crammed full of different sets of instructions.

I’d really like to know why it is, when I’m thinking I’ve plugged my computer in, that some entirely unrelated bit of electronic gadgetry seems to start up of its own accord?

I’m confused!

Just as well I keep the computer kit and stuff out of the kitchen, else I’d find myself switching the kettle on for a cuppa every time I’m thinking of sending an email.

Hmm, now I come to think of it I suspect I do that anyway.

November Theme?

Perplexed.

(Sorry that I haven’t been around for several weeks but I hope that this topic challenges you all adequately…..!!)

Ramblings of a Deranged Mind

Texture

Down to the wire, eh?

Strange. When I first put forward the topic Texture for this month’s theme I had a number of ideas already running through my head. Yet, with each passing day I either: (a) did not find that for which I was looking, or (b) discovered something, but found it completely lacking once in picture-form. Not exactly the smashing return to Flickr for which I was hoping. I had been thinking completely in big and dramatic for this project. I had this vision of photographing bark on trees, the veins of leaves (like you, Tamela), broken bits of roadway (which is what I thought you had done, Darren, but I was mistaken – I’m still quite interested in knowing what it is you have photographed – quite the mystery), diamond plate steel….you name it and I was thinking about it. But in the end nothing I tried seemed to work and little that I saw inspired me during the month (for which there is a reason, but I won’t go into that here). It really came as a big surprise that I wound up going macro instead of big picture as I had hoped and planned.

Alas, I did manage a result and from the most unexpected of places, and by “unexpected” I mean it just suddenly came to me as opposed to having been planned.

And…

The bee, and many/most insects in general, are wildly entertaining to me in the various textures their bodies exhibit. Just look at my bee! The wings have beautiful folds and ripples. The legs have the most delicate, but distinct hairs. Much of the body is covered in either yellow or black fur/fuzz that must be incredibly soft to the touch. Even the eyes have a texture, which appears as a sheen in the photograph. If only I had a more powerful lens or a greater number of pixels so that I might have cropped and zoomed even more.

Of course, with these successes also came failures. The peanut was an early contender, but I was never really happy with the overall result. I tried a variety of lighting techniques and fiddled with the depth of field, all in hope of helping to make the subtle yet distinct textures more visible and apparent. In this endeavor I failed. But I only failed in obtaining the result for which I wished, but I did not fail for a lack of trying, which is something (quite a lot actually) when it comes to photography. Or so I think.

The photo of the small, winged insect may have gone better had I two things: (1) a higher powered macro lens or greater pixel count (for crop and zoom), and (2) a different orientation of the insect in relation to the camera’s sensor. The shot really needed to be taken from the bugs side in hopes that I could pull enough resolution from the image such that the fuzzy nature of the insect’s abdomen would have been more readily apparent. Unfortunately the little dead creature would not stay in position and I was forced to shoot in the manner which I did before I ended up breaking and/or crushing its incredibly fragile body.

So this month I’m considering myself rather lucky. My original plans and ideas were, for the most part, complete and utter rubbish. As such I had to abandon my original plans and create new ones, which I did. But these new plans met with limited success, but some success was found and for this I am quite grateful. It is this tenacity to keep trying and recognize when things are not working and deciding to move on that is so important not only photography, but so many disciplines in life.

Texture

Through the eyes of a stranger

With this theme, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do but disaster struck, my Pentax came down with swine flu and is currently in intensive care getting the treatment it needs to get better, so I had to go back to using my point and shoot which, to be honest isn’t up to the task, much to my dismay.
Panic sets in, falls on my knees hands in the air shouting why!(think there may have been a slomo involved, no explosion tho).
And so after much deliberation and I must confess a little help from Mike( he’d already done his so thats ok innit?) here it is my new theme photo and it reflects my mindset at the moment.

“Through the Eyes of a Stranger”

These were a group of travellers passing through Dover mid-morning. All three of the guys were already on the beer but the one in the highly coloured jacket interested me by his detached expression. Perhaps he was taking in what to me are familiar surroundings but, to him, are the eyes of a stranger.

“Through the eyes of a stranger” ~tam

I was the stranger wandering through these arched rooms. Once filled with gunners and canons, now empty. Only the arches, walls and floors are left.

This was my first trip to Fort Morgan. Oh sure, I have read a lot about the fort and the battles fought there, but to actually walk where so many lived, fought and died, was incredible.