Forced perspective

This week’s Photo Challenge was on the theme of Perspective.

Perspective. Think about the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer.

For example objects nearer to the viewer appear bigger than objects which are far away, and straight lines leading away from the viewer (such as roads) converge on a point. Take a photo which illustrates perspective, looks at the world from an unusual angle, or otherwise plays with our expectations of perspective.

Here are some examples: http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/top-20-forced-perspective-photos-photos/

And here’s the Youtube video which prompted this suggestion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivlVfChBkzg

And here’s what I came up with.

It looks like it has been Photoshopped, but it hasn’t. At least, not in the way you think it has. The toy car is really there – all I did was crudely clone out the plastic spatula in GIMP. And before you say – editing is allowed according to the rules of the Photo Challenge!

I tried to soften the focus on it using a localised Gaussian blur but I’m not really very experienced with image retouching so I gave up before I ruined it.

Takeoff!

Today’s sunshine found Hana and me on the Downs for a picnic. As usual I brought the camera and managed to snap this photo of a bird taking off.

Unfortunately it’s not in perfect focus because the autofocus on this Tamron 70-300mm lens can only be considered fast by glacial standards.

Fortunately, this cyclist passed around where we were sitting on a perimeter road and I had plenty of time to focus and track him.

Royal Fort Garden

At lunchtime today I went for a walk in Royal Fort Garden. It was the first really summery day of the year, and a lovely day to eat lunch outside.

These daffodils are in front of the physics building (left) and Royal Fort House (right).

This robin was very tame. Given that I was sat on the bench, the robin was well within arm’s reach. It had previously been even closer – about a foot behind my neck, but by the time I reached for my camera it had retreated a bit.

While I was distracted with the robin, a squirrel came and sat by my feet too. I felt like Doctor Dolittle!

Incidentally, I had such a pleasant walk that I decided to look up and email the head of grounds and gardens at the University.

Dear Alan,

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say that Royal Fort Garden is looking absolutely fantastic in the spring sunshine today. The daffodils add a real splash of colour.

Please pass on my thanks to your grounds staff who clearly work so hard to maintain the garden and keep it as an oasis of peace in the middle of a bustling campus.

Best wishes,
Jonathan

And I was pleased to receive his reply…

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you very much for the compliment which we will pass on to Karen and Clayton. As you indicate we are fortunate to currently have such a professional and dedicated team of staff.

Ahhhh spring (at last)!!!

Kind regards
Alan Stealey

St Paul’s Church

My dad is the webmaster of St Paul’s Church and has been working on a prototype for the new website. He wanted a banner-shaped image for the site header, and so we went for a walk around the churchyard to find something that might suit that format. There was nothing particularly suitable due to the church being quite tall, and the churchyard being quite overgrown.

Eventually, we decided to take a panorama of the inside of the church. I took ten photos and stitched them together with Hugin. I think it works quite nicely.

I also took a close-up of the war memorial (which you can see in the panorama) for personal consumption.

Google sat nav?

No, I’m not savvy to some leaked press release or anything like that. But I was wondering the other day how long it might be before we see a Google sat nav device on the market.

Think about it – they already have maps of most of the world and software that is capable of route planning and they have an operating system suitable for mobile devices (Android). It’s only a small step to create a small touchscreen device with a GPS receiver that it designed to be used primarily as a sat nav.

I expect such a device would also have 3G so it could get hold of live traffic information faster than a TMC receiver. It would be able to sync with Google Contacts so your sat nav would know where all your friends lived. It might be able to send them a text message if you were going to be late.

And, of course, it would track you wherever you went. Scary.

The Church of England

My youngest brother will soon be sixteen, which means he will have come of age in the eyes of the Church of England. He was given a form to register on the church’s electoral roll, meaning he can attend and vote at PCC meetings, and probably entitles him to hold other positions of responsibility too.

However, I just glanced over the form and it seems so antiquated and difficult to follow that I am really not surprised that attendance is falling at Anglican churches!

A note for those of you who aren’t familiar with churchy stuff: church with a lower case C refers to a physical church building, or a single church. Church with a capital C means the wider Church; e.g. the Church of England. Confused?

APPLICATION FOR ENROLMENT ON THE CHURCH ELECTORAL ROLL

Full name: _________________

Preferred title: ________

Full address: _______________________

I declare that:

  1. I am baptized and aged 16 or over (or, become 16* on ___)
  2. I am a member of the Church of England (or of a Church in communion with the Church of England) and am a resident in the parish, or
  3. I am a member of the Church of England (or a Church in communion with the Church of England) and, not being resident in the parish, I have habitually attended public worship in the parish during the period of six months prior to enrolment, or
  4. I am a member in good standing of a Church (not in communion with the Church of England) which subscribes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and also declare myself to be a member of the Church of England and I have habitually attended public worship in the parish during the period of six months prior to enrolment.

I declare that the above answers are true and I apply for inclusion on the church electoral roll of the parish.

Signed: ______________ Date: ________

Notes

  1. The only churches at present in communion with the Church of England are other Anglican Churches aand certain foreign Churches.
  2. Membership of the Electoral Roll is also open to members in good standing of a Church not in communion with the Church of England which subscribes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity where those members are also prepared to declare themselves to be members of the Church of England.
  3. Every six years a new roll is prepared and those on the previous roll can re-apply. If you are not resident in the parish but were on the roll as an habitual worshipper and have been prevented by sickness or absence or other essential reason from worshipping for the past six months, you may write “would” before “have habitually attended” on the form and add “but was prevented from doing so because” and then state the reason.
  4. If you have any problems over this form, please approach the clergy or lay people responsible for the parish, who will be pleased to help you.
  5. In this form, “parish” means ecclesiastical parish.

It’s spring!

This is the back of Osborne Villas, as seen from the tops of the buildings on Woodland Road.

This chap was sitting on a bench in Brandon Hill park one lunchtime, reading. Hana thought it was me! Slightly offended – that guy was probably in his 60s and bald with glasses. Perhaps Hana needs glasses 😉

This view is from the top of Constitution Hill.

I think photos of flowers in black and white are unusual – probably because flowers are noted for their colour. I took a few floral photos on this roll of film, and they were mostly quite average. But this one appealed to me for some reason. I think it’s the bokeh in the background.