A picture– a thousand words or some number of questions

Thursday, 1^st November: I like taking pictures, although there are times when you just have to take the picture in front of you. There are photographers who plan in exquisite detail want they might want in a candid street scene and wait for the moment having pre-focused and decided upon the framing.

Now I know that I could make a better job of these impromptu pictures, either quicker focusing and framing, but whilst some might say a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes it is more the questions it raises.

Here is mine. This group turned up on the road opposite the window where I sit slaving over a hot computer. I struggled to focus through the window or to move away from the window to get a shot that wasn’t obscured.  Three young people setting up a tripod to take a picture that of something. It might be a video recorder, but rather looks to be a large format film camera – but the picture they seem to be taking is of cars coming down the road.

Also they seem to be carrying a lot of kit and three to take a picture. In hindsight I could have popped out and had a chat or even take a better picture myself. In case you were wondering I have also “processed” the picture a bit with a bit of “zoom-focus” courtesy of Picasa. My motto is “if it isn’t in focus then de-focus it even more”.

And whilst on the subject of pictures – here is one of a cyclist passing a Polling Station in Victoria Road as part of the recent elections. What elections you may well ask. The Police Commissioner ones where in Cambridge the turn out was 14.7% or less than 1 in 7 people. Now that wasn’t me on my bike – but I did cycle to my Polling Station – another advantage of a bicycle – it makes it easier to participate in the democratic process.

Here is another impromptu picture – a person riding his bike, with a toddler riding on his shoulders. The comments on the article do point out it is a bit of a storm in a teacup. When my kids were small I would tramp up and down mountains using the odd shoulder ride to keep us moving. (The Old Man was a good one.)

Here is a rather nice one of a chap and his mother, who sadly suffers from dementia. He has built a tandem bicycle specially to allow her to cycle around Cambridge.

A Christmas tree made up of around 350,000 Lego bricks. Talking of trees – pictures of some of the world’s tallest trees with people climbing them.

And finally pictures of Paris in 1914.