What bemused you today?

[Graham]

   

                Parr?  Pah!

[deetus]

What bemused me today was the Queens official portrait to celebrate her 60 years on the throne. Now i'm no expert but the composition leaves a lot to be desired, my eyes were drawn to the door frame first, the wood panelling next, the Victoria monument next and then the Queen. 

[Reinardina]

Didn't realise it was an installation. I love the whole set up; the colour blocks, the depth, the picture you (ABERS) took of it.

[ABERS]

I was at a discussion group last evening and a chap mentioned he was going on a photographic trip to the Camargue later in the year, to photograph the wild horses there, you know those pictures of a group of white horses galloping through the water, manes flying and spray everywhere.

I mentioned that back in the eighties we spent a couple of weeks on the edge of that area and search as we might there wasn't a wild horse in sight.

He said that was no bother, where he was going they arrange for a group of horses to be corralled in an area where the water was just a few inches/cms deep and when everyone was ready some distance away the horses were let go and driven towards the assembled would-be 'Wildlife' snappers to get their pictures. He said he thought the boring part would be waiting for the horses to be rounded up so they could do it all over again

So much for photography in the wild, it's like going on safari to the local zoo!

[Markulous]

So much for photography in the wild, it's like going on safari to the local zoo!

Isn't it all a bit like that? Safaris are, in the main, tours of a particular reserve where "our 5 elephants are over there today" - but then they have been like that for decades. Soon every animal and largish bird will be tagged, named and GPS'd but then all my "wild" birds in the garden are enticed in with food - and if we go 'toggling somewhere it's usually to a spot where there's a hide and wildlife is fed and protected

Personally I dislike wildlife put on display (zoos, etc) and outrageously commercially exploited (Gigrin, etc) but I might still play the hypocrite and visit - and it's all a question of degree at the end of the day

[greypoint]

Most of bird shots are taken whilst walking my dog along our very non scenic part of the Nene Way. It's just an area of rough land with some pretty big lakes on it, nothing has been done to attract  birds so the4 ones you see are simply those that choose to fly in. When you actually take the time to look it's amazing how many different birds you can spot and try to photograph. The end results photographically might not be award winning [!] but there's a sense of achievement when you finally manage to get a new and hard to capture bird!

[Graham]

    I feel the same about those "Come and take pics of birds of prey." type places.
    An exelent way to hone your skills maybe, but other than that, not for me.
                           Graham.

[Jonathan]

Safaris are, in the main, tours of a particular reserve where "our 5 elephants are over there today" - but then they have been like that for decades. Soon every animal and largish bird will be tagged, named and GPS'd but then all my "wild" birds in the garden are enticed in with food - and if we go 'toggling somewhere it's usually to a spot where there's a hide and wildlife is fed and protected

Some people here know I once spent an instructive week in a van in the Masai Mara with Andy Rouse.  We were watching cheetahs and occasionally they would kill stuff.  Etiquette (and self interest) said that we had to radio all the other vans to bring their tourists in to watch.  Etiquette again says that they can't go any closer to the cheetahs than any van that's there before them so we always had the best view.

After 4 - 5 days of this, one of the guys cornered me in the bar and said "how come every time something happens with those cheetahs you're there first?".  I said "what did you do today?"  He described life "on safari" - up at 8ish for a dip in the pool before it got too hot, leisurely breakfast and morning game drive at about 10:30, back for 12:30 and lunch, siesta, game drive at 3 and then back for cocktails and maybe a nigh drive if they were feeling adventurous.

"That's why then....".  I'd be up at 4, out by 4:30 while it was still dark, drive over to where we saw the cheetahs the night before, hope they were still there (if not then spend a good couple of hours looking for them), spend an hour in the morning light taking portraits then settle down in the van for 5 hours or so, eating leftovers from the day before and hurriedly packed cold food.  About 2 or 3 the cheetahs may start to move and you'd watch them stalk prey.  Often they would fail and wouldn't even run.  Occasionally they would single out an animal and make a run for it.  Then you hang on while the van frantically tries to keep pace.  Cheetahs lose about 60% of the races against prey so the odds are they won't kill.  If they do you get as close as you dare and then call the tourists in.  Either way, you sit in the van until an hour after dark when they are asleep to make sure you can probably find them next day.  Then you head back to the camp to clean the cameras, eat and crack open a beer while idiots accost you in the bar.

I think we both enjoyed out holidays

BTW the plan was for Andy to get pictures of cheetahs running.  While I was there he didn't manage it.  He spent a month or so trying.  Apparently you can go to a "reserve"  in the US and hire cheetahs.  For many dollars they will run them at full speed for you a couple of times.  But what's the point?

[greypoint]

I suppose the point would be if you had a publication which wanted a picture of cheetahs running for a particular reason/article/book etc. and you were being paid lots of money to get one  I suppose to some degree the same could be said for lots of set up photo shoots if you think about it.

[Alfonso_Frisk]

WBMT ?
Just been browsing e-bay to compare HP301 cartridges with other on line sellers and cant believe the amount of empty cartridges that are up for sale on there, and the amount of people actually bidding for them 
I normally ship my empties off to a charity or a recycle scheme.
Why is there so much interest in empty carts??
Surely refilling your own aint that popular now is it ?

Alf

[Graham]

WBMT ?
Just been browsing e-bay to compare HP301 cartridges with other on line sellers and cant believe the amount of empty cartridges that are up for sale on there, and the amount of people actually bidding for them 
I normally ship my empties off to a charity or a recycle scheme.
Why is there so much interest in empty carts??
Surely refilling your own aint that popular now is it ?

Alf

   Re-selling as genuine maybe?

[ABERS]

More saddened really, hearing of the death of Frank Carson, a comedian of the old school, someone who had you laughing from beginning to end. I was introduced to him in the late '90's and thanked him for all the enjoyment he had given me over the years, his immediate response was, "Hold tight, hopefully there's many more years to come".

I was at an end of season motorsport dinner and there was a queue of guests booking in at the hotel reception and then Frank came in at the end of the line to book in as well. He immediately started entertaining the queue and had the whole reception in stitches, so much so the receptionists took even longer with each customer. Frank kept his place in the queue as the real gentleman he was.

Another good 'un gone.

[Oldboy]

More saddened really, hearing of the death of Frank Carson, a comedian of the old school, someone who had you laughing from beginning to end. I was introduced to him in the late '90's and thanked him for all the enjoyment he had given me over the years, his immediate response was, "Hold tight, hopefully there's many more years to come".

I was at an end of season motorsport dinner and there was a queue of guests booking in at the hotel reception and then Frank came in at the end of the line to book in as well. He immediately started entertaining the queue and had the whole reception in stitches, so much so the receptionists took even longer with each customer. Frank kept his place in the queue as the real gentleman he was.

Another good 'un gone.

Very true. 

[Soodge]

Signatures of certain members of this forum!! (you know who you are!!!!)

[Graham]

Signatures of certain members of this forum!! (you know who you are!!!!)

Ah yes, the personalised signatures...they can be quite off putting at first!
                  Graham.

Welcome to the Sunset Home for the Terminally Bewilderd by the way.