Supercargo's blog/

Background and face

Three weeks ago - or thereabouts - I uploaded a picture to the Critique Group for comment. I took the response to heart and have been trying to improve the picture since then. Today I finally decided I should upload the work in progress. It's all gathered into an album here, but you can see one of the pics to the right.

I've been low and tired lately. It helps to be fiddling around with photoshop and listening to music, loud, through headphones. (You what to know? Patty Smith, Talking Heads, PJ Harvey, Vibrators ... now what does that tell you?)

I have also had my arm twisted into joining up to Facebook and have discovered a whole slew of former students (also one or two older friends). Facebook's small print makes for interesting reading. I don't intend to publish anything but the absolute minimum of my own work there!

Another interesting thing: you can tell the world your religion and political affiliation - but while Facebook is a worship-free zone (and neither atheists nor agnostics are excluded), politically Facebook doesn't recognise anything to the left of liberal. There's a limited set of choices which runs from ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal and includes 'libertarian', but social democrat? socialist? communist? anarchist? environmentalist? No. does this reflect Facebook's origins in the US college system?

Rain-filled tire track

It’s foul weather again. The rain has been falling and the wind lashing it against the windowpanes for most of the day. Really, not a lot to choose between this and the weather we were having during July. Colder, of course, and the days are much shorter (dawn this morning at about 8.30, dusk coming up in about half an hour or so at 3.30). But while it is daylight, the sky is just as heavy and grey and the rain is just as persistent.

On Wednesday 19th December, the first day of my Christmas holiday, it looked quite hopeful. The temperature had dropped below freezing the day before and the moisture in the air had frozen and danced in the sunlight like glitter –too fine and ethereal to catch with the camera. All through the Tuesday, hoarfrost built up on the leaves of grass, on the branches of trees, on the lattice of chain link fences. Then when the snow started to fall, not flakes, but a fine salting of light grains, the frost burden on every surface grew thicker but uneven. Wednesday morning, I had a train to catch, but I put off travelling for an hour, took the camera out and tried to catch the look of the world. Here are a few of the pictures I was most happy with.

Grass under frost

Hedge under frost

Branches under frost

Frosted apple

Post frost-furred

Look at this. It’s a metal pole holding up a street sign. The hoarfrost and then the snow have furred it so differently in texture from the frost-and-snow-covered branches of the hedge behind. The sharp edge is the metal of the pole in what I guess was a wind shadow. It’s so sharp you’d be forgiven for thinking I manipulated the picture, but I didn’t.

All that was in Falköping, which is inland and about 200 meters above sea level. Down by the sea in Gothenburg, an hour away by train, there was no snow, and the forecast for a grey-green Christmas held good.

 I didn’t use the camera much for the next few days, though I did play around with pictures. Poor Fredrik Reinfeldt, our Prime Minister, always looks so sad. It’s those big dog eyes he has. I think he was probably a bloodhound in a former life.

Christmas Greetings

I also had a go at making some clipart and animations. I was working with MSPaint  – also known in this household as MSPainfullySlow. My poor laptop seized up more than once when asked to render a relatively simple Gif. It seems that something the WindowsOS needs to work (svchost.exe) was multiplying and stealing more and more of the working memory – I only have 512K in that machine. Oh well, I managed to produce an e-Christmas card in the end.

Greetings

Candles reflected

 Christmas Eve was celebrated Swedish-style with my wife’s family, and the only picture from that occasion I want to share is this candle flame with a triple (triple-glazed) reflection. (After looking at it for a while, you’ll realise the reflected image can’t possible be of the same candle flame, but must be from another candle which is just out of the picture.)

On the 27th, yesterday, that is, we took a long walk from Hjuvik to Torslanda by way of Sillvik. It was a blustery day, and the ground was waterlogged, but there were glimpses of blue sky and even some sun. At one point the sun spot lit a little rocky skerry out on the sea just off shore.

Sun on rocky island

In amongst all the grey and muted colours, sometimes a spray of dry grass or a blanket of green moss would stand out in sharp contrast. I tried to catch some of these. Then there were the tracks in the mud. There were plenty of paw prints – big and small – but finding one with good contrast and holding some water proved more a lot more difficult than I expected. When you look, you never know what you’ll find, though this Rex-the-Runt-look-alike was a surprise.

Spray of dry grass

Moss on dry stone wall

Windblown rushes

Rusted bucket on cairn

Tracks in the mud

Found object 2

My final offering (and a complete change of mood): these two self-illuminated mannequin torsos in a window on the way into town. I took these this morning at about 8 a.m. Appearances to the contrary, this isn’t Gothenburg’s red-light district and the shop isn’t a sex store, just a down-market retail clothes shop.

Window display 1

Window display 2 (Passion)

I reckon this will be my last blog of the year, but I’m planning to continue to add to this on and off during 2008, and especially during and after the summer. I have a sabbatical year coming up, from June 2008. My intention is to spend much more time writing and working with pictures. I’m also hoping to create my own Internet site, though I’ll carry on publishing here. Watch this space!

Happy New Year!