Afters and More Open Photgraphy

One of my pleasures is to listen to the Frank Skinner Absolute Podcast once a week, Frank and his crew (Emily and usually Alun Cochrane but sometimes Steve Hall) have a nice chemistry and the show they create is a little different from many of the commercial radio offerings especially the drivers for the phone-ins.

It's where you get your just deserts

 One of the 'ideas' that Frank has spoken about is a restaurant that does only deserts (it has some logic as some cuisine, like Chinese and Indian  is not to my mind really strong on puddings) well perhaps this chain (the one I've seen is just by Ealing Broadway station) is  fitting that hole -albeit on the easy end of deserts like Ice-cream.

 Very interested if you've got feedback on your experience there.

More OPEN Photography 

Last night was Photography night and we had a go the wonders of Macro (close up stuff), it's about technique, skill and application (so well out of my comfort zone).

Trying to get what you want from your camera is a great way to learn about the settings and although its not something I expect to do too much of it was definitely of value and provided an impetus to experiment with different approaches.

A  couple of photographers we were introduced to who are doing interesting things within the close-up genré  are
John J Ingles
and
Heidi Westum

The Macro has also been exploited by the sometimes controversial Robert Mapplethorpe.

A Flower close up from yesterday

Next week we'll hopefully get out and about with our cameras (and tripod) to look at what we can capture in night shooting - I've got Night and Low Light Photography (by David Taylor) from the local library to help me get a head start on the topic.

As well as plunging into the world of Macro our upcoming exhibition was discussed, an Ealing/West London  theme is likely to be the over-arching and unifying element.

For me the ideas are 'revisiting' that being tied with either  my own pictures from years back or using postcards and the like as stepping off points to address change and continuity.

I've only lived in four places in Ealing since moving to West London so I might look at these again, here's one place I called home for a while that I could photograph again after 30 odd years.

Life was like an episode of ' The Young Ones'
at 15 Hessel Road, Northfields