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29.11
Anyone using Blueyonder or Telewest has my deepest sympathies. Cheese on toast eating salami rubbing chimps.28.11
27.11
Happy birthday Edward.26.11.1
A marvellous site that allows you to create your own fridge magnet messages to send to friends and family.
26.11
One for the kids today. The thoughtful souls at Bonsai Kitten have added a special page showing children how to make their very own Flying Cat Christmas Card. All you need is a PC, a digital camera, a copy of Photoshop, a cat and an Articulated Feline Tensioner.
24.11
Limmy's blog drew my attention to an interesting Silence of the Lambs themed track by Greenskeepers: "The night is very cold and I'm feeling kind of weak, I think I'll make myself a cap from your right buttocks cheek". Well, what else is there to do on these chilly winter evenings?
23.11
Chris Morris is a genius.21.11
One of the perks of marketing the Photo Imaging Council is to get to know about new products as they launch. I've recently been sent details of the new digital RolleiFlex, which uses a miniaturised body of a classic RolleiFlex twin-lens reflex, mimicking the original right down to its LCD viewfinder at the top of the camera. If like me, you have a weakness for retro cameras coupled with a desire to own a Rollei, at first glance it's quite appealing.
Unfortunately I think Rollei have missed a real opportunity by positioning this, their first twin-lens digital model, as a fashion accessory. I get the impression they've also sacrificed practicality at the expense of gimmickry (eg having to turn the crank lever to allow taking the next shot). The fact that it's promoted as being able to 'dangle from your neck or wrist by its carrying strap' is also slightly unnerving.
It's a shame the first digital TLR didn't take a lead from Leica's D2 by preserving the dimensions of the classic 2.8F to accommodate a set of more respectable lenses, manual controls and a greater resolution than 2 megapixel which, these days even camera phones can surpass.
The Rolleiflex MiniDigi is out in Japan on 21st May and released in the US early November, priced around $350.
20.11
16.11
Just returned from an autumnal adventure in Hungary with Edward and Neil. As well as turning into prunes in a Budapest bath house built in 1546, we visited quirky local bars, got propositioned by some particularly well mannered prostitutes who were wrapped up in their winter woolies and then met a local called Anthony who was also offering the opportunity to sample some Hungarian 'boobies and titties' (I'm still wondering what the difference is between the two). Pictured below: the Royal Palace, the Széchenyi bridge, Neil looking morose with a busty sphinx, the magnificent interior of the Basilica and a Budapest toilet. Click to see them slightly larger.
Below is the Dohany St. Synagogue, which is the largest active synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world. During the Holocaust the shul was used as a concentration camp. Adolf Eichman had an office behind the rose window, and the Germans used it as a radio tower. In the courtyard of the synagogue, there are mass graves of thousands of Jews from the ghettos in Budapest. The remains of the ghetto wall pictured below from Károly körút kept Budapest's Jews inside the ghetto during World War II.
Another must-see in Budapest is 60 Andrássy Boulevard, also known as the House of Terror. In 1944 the building, known then as the 'House of Loyalty' was the party headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis. Then between 1945 and 1956 communist terror organisations the ÁVO and its successor the ÁVH took up residence.
The cellars beneath the buildings were connected to form an underground labyrinth of prison cells where hundreds of people were tortured and killed. The building is now a museum and memorial to the victims.
12.11
The second in a series of features I'm doing with the Daily Mirror on digital photography appeared this morning.
6.11
Bonfire night was spent with friends Edward, Dave and Garnett in the small town of Lewes in East Sussex which celebrates the downfall of the gunpowder plot in 1605 in quite a unique fashion. It was like being beamed back in time.Participants in this spectacular celebration parade raucously through the steep, cobbled streets of the town in colourful costumes, carrying flaming torches, spilling beer and letting off ear-splitting bangers. The air is thick with smoke and the sound of beating drums all but drown out the shouts and cheers of the marching men and women.
The bonfire boys and girls who represent each local area are marked out by different costumes. Some of the marchers drag huge metal barrels filled with burning tar, torches and bangers down the hill to the River Ouse where they are thrown from a bridge in the centre of the town.
The fires are lit in remembrance not only of Guy Fawkes and his men's attempt to blow up Parliament but also to recall the burning of the Protestant Martyrs outside Lewes' Star Inn during the Marian Persecutions of the 16th century.
Click to see enlargements of the pictures.
