Category Archives: photography

books, food+drink, memes, photography

Listography – Things I did this Summer

I’ve been somewhat lacking in the last few weeks in keeping up with Kate’s Listography. The spirit has been willing but there just haven’t been enough hours in the day. Why? Well see my previous post, and consider that I’ve been working a minimum of 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, for at least 6 weeks on Society/conference business.

But better late than never here’s my response to Kate’s Listography from last week. These are some of the things I did this summer …

Organised and ran an international literary conference. I think I hardly need say more.

Completed and released my photo book – a month earlier than planned. I don’t expect it to make me tons of money. I did it because I wanted to; it was fun; it was for me.

Wrote an academic paper and submitted it for publication. Not because I had to for work or anything, but just for the sheer hell of it!

Drank afternoon tea with an Earl. Yes, a real Earl. No names, no telling. Just a pleasant cup of tea and a chat, tête-a-tete, while he signed some books.

Ate too much fish and chips – several times. Well who wouldn’t?

Glamorous? No. Mostly damned hard work!

books, personal, photography

Available Now: Zen Mischief Photographs

[Fanfare of trumpets!]

It’s here! The first spin-off from this blog, my new photo book, is available at last. Yes, it’s been a well kept secret and been in gestation for quite some months, but eventually it’s here.

Here’s (some of) what I say in the Introduction:

I am fairly sure I took my first photographs with my father’s Kodak Box Brownie although I don’t know how old I was. But I do have a series of old 620 roll film images of my parents and I on holiday at a nudist club when I would have been around 9 or 10; and as the series contains one of my parents but not me, it seems reasonable to assume I took it. And I know had my first cheap camera by the time I was about 12.

I’ve been taking photographs on and off ever since. And that’s now 50 years … But this book is not really designed as a celebration of my 50 years taking photographs. It is intended only as a collection of images I like from the last few years …

I do not pretend that these are world-beating images. Nor would I claim to be an especially good photographer. I’ve had no formal photographic training, but learnt the basics at my father’s knee and by going to camera club with him as a teenager. It was more difficult then: we didn’t have cameras which did everything for us; exposures had to be calculated; every shot cost us real money to develop and print; and you had to wait days or even weeks to see your successes and failures. Like the rest of modern life photography is now cheap and instant.

My approach to photography has always been to take what I see; what interests, intrigues or amuses me. It is about trying to see things and make them into a picture …

Available now on Blurb. Not yet on Amazon, but it should be eventually.

Keith C Marshall
Zen Mischief Photographs: Images from a Space-Time Warp
McTigger Books, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9570017-0-1
RRP £37.50

memes, personal, photography

[35/52] Rainbow

[35/52] Rainbow by kcm76
[35/52] Rainbow, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.

Week 35 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

Rainbow seen from our study window. Should I be measuring the quality of the summer by the number of rainbows we’ve had this year: rainbows are probably inversely proportional to the goodness of the summer. If so then this has been an awful summer. But there have been lots of good rainbows.

memes, personal, photography

[33/52] Small Glum Child

[33/52] Small Glum Child by kcm76
[33/52] Small Glum Child, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.

Week 33 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

One from the archive. Here’s a small very glum-looking child. Yes, it’s me. I must be about 5 or 6, I guess, so we’re talking around 1956/7. I also guess it was taken by my father somewhere in Hertfordshire, Essex or Kent – most likely somewhere in the Lea Valley. Beyond that have no idea where or exactly when.

Sartorial elegance never was a strong point of mine!

natural history, photography, topographical

Weasel!

Weasel

Weasel!

Weasel??!!??

Blimey, that is a weasel!

Something I never expected to see in suburban London — at least not in broad daylight. And I think it is only the third time I’ve ever seen a weasel, the previous two times being fleeting glimpses in the twilight as they disappear out of sight at breakneck speed.

This one was running around on the pavement and road (trying hard to get run over – stupid creature) on the busy Greenford Road right outside the Bridge Hotel about 1130 yesterday morning. (If you go to the “Location” tag at the bottom of this page, or to the Flickr image, you can see exactly where this is on the map.) The beastie is here seen lurking under a piece of metal barrier; (s)he’s probably about 15cm (6 inches) long in the body.

It was so fast it was a question of point the camera out of the car window in vaguely the right direction and hope. I got one shot in before the lights changed (and I almost missed that!). This is a tiny crop from the middle of that one shot.

photography, pleasures

More Pussy Porn : Rosie

Meet Rosie …

Rosie
She is our next door neighbour’s young Persian cat who is currently being fed and watered by Noreen.

She is also about to drop a bundle of kittens. The owners get a female cat, don’t have her spayed and then wonder why every tomcat in the area comes to call. They then bugger off on holiday for 3 weeks – although to be fair they have gone “home” to Lebanon because the husband’s father is seriously ill. So Noreen has had to man the breach. Fortunately they’re due back today, although who knows if that will materialise!?

Rosie
Fortunately Rosie is a placid and amenable pussy, although that lovely soft, long fur needs a lot of brushing to stop it getting matted. I love her Hobbit feet – in this second photo you can just see the tufts of fur between her toes.

photography, pleasures

Pussy Porn : The Lodger

Meet “The Lodger” …

The Lodger
She appears to have been abandoned (she’s been around for some months) and decided about a week ago she wanted to adopt us. She was clearly starving hungry and is very friendly and easy to handle. Sadly our current two felines are very not impressed, so she’s having to live in a box in our front porch for the time being. After a week she is still hungry but is already looking in much better condition.

The Lodger
This morning we took her to the vet (we were taking our two as well for their injections) to get her the once over. It turns out she has been chipped and the registered owners live a few streets away. She’s clearly in reasonable health and as there is no sign of kittens she’s likely been spayed. The vet reckons she’s probably about a year old.

The vet is going to try to contact the registered owners and see what gives; he’ll also hopefully contact our nearest vet’s where she may be registered. If there’s no dice in a week or two we’ll get the OK for her to move in with us @ndash; the present two permitting. It would be nice if she does move in as she’s a lovely, friendly small cat who deserves a good home.

Meanwhile she’s doing sentry duty at our front door.

memes, personal, photography

[32/52] Rainbow

[32/52] Rainbow by kcm76
[32/52] Rainbow, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.

Week 32 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

Rainbow seen this evening from our study window. When Noreen first drew my attention to it, it was very bright, almost a complete arc with a second fainter rainbow outside it. By the time I got a camera on it, leaning out the window, it was beginning to fade. Still it looks like someone in the next street has a crock of gold for a TV set.