'And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. '

Listen.

NB: One of my fist attempts with my new flash bounced off the ceiling. The room was pretty dark with a red tinge because of the red curtains, so I think it worked really well!

Los perfumes de primavera

Por ti junto a los jardines recién florecidos me duelen los perfumes de primavera. ~ Pablo Neruda

I love Pablo Neruda, the poetry in Spanish makes me melt.

Full Text and Translation

A bit of music and fashion...

I've been too busy over the past few weeks to day any photography or digital imaging, work stuff. I've also become quite obsessed with the prospect of buying my first DSLR (planned adoption end of March the pennies permitting!), so much so that my poor old camera has been snubbed the more I read about Nikons and Canons which do not only have super-sonic image stabilisation, bags of megapixels, and an ISO bigger than 400, but will also walk the dog and give you a foot massage at the end of the day!

I shouldn't have been so harsh on my poor compact Olympus however. After being inspired by Portishead on Jools Holland, a crazy model who takes photos in designer clothes stores' changing rooms and armed with the magic of photoshop, it and I managed to produce some decent pictures.

This one is called "Can't anybody see", a lyric taken from Portishead's track "Roads". It's a bit of a juxtaposition with the model's bright clothes and plain background, she can be seen but no one sees her, see can see but she chooses not to look. There are also a few other lines in the lyrics that make sense with this picture, about internalization and being alone. Her clothes and pose are strong, but her own composition is not.



To begin with I had very strong preference for this picture to be in colour, however I tried it in monochrome and really like the high contrast effect (below). I've entered that into this weeks Digital Photography School Competition on monochrome.

On Passing the Menin Gate

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,—
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth for ever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

(Siegfried Sassoon)

Morning Sun

Sometimes I feel like I've been living much too long
And I've wasted too much time
I think I've lost the inner harmony that flows through me
And my body and mind

Like the shoreline that divides the sea and sand
I'm a surface ever changing
I get burdened by the things I just don't understand
And all the mountains left to climb

But then the morning sun comes shining through my window
And it's good to be alive
It's gonna be a golden day
Wings unfoldin' day
Green trees, blue sky

("Morning Sun", Carol King)

Just like a woman

[Inspired by probably my favorite song of all time]
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That Baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman,
She makes love just like a woman,
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
(Bob Dylan)

Fade Away

...I won't be afraid
Just because you don't need me
I will not be ashamed
Just because you don't believe in anything that I say
Now I turn and I walk away from you

I won't fade away
I won't fade away again

I find you down the road that I have walked before
And I know you're alone again
You try to find a better life
Somewhere far away from here
But I need you to believe in me

You try to make me fade away

(Fade Away, 12 Stones)

But you don't see me...

For you, I will always be waiting
And it's you I see,
But you don't see me
And its you, I hear,
So loud and so clear
I sing it loud and clear
And I'll always be waiting for you

So I look in your direction,
But you pay me no attention,
And you know how much I need you
But you never even see me
(Shiver, Coldplay)