Friday
The evening sun that illuminated one of my favourite views near where I live was especially dramatic this evening. And this little photo of how things looked is surprisingly effective I think. Even the little thumbnails I got I scrolled through all the pictures in Photoshop to choose a good one looked rather impressive.
But if you would like to see this rather bigger, then click on it.
I suppose there are some readers of this blog who will say, when confronted by images like this: what has this got to do with blah-blah-blah-ism (or whatever word they choose to give to the political assumptions and axioms we tend to favour here)? But, even though many readers may be puzzled, the fact is that our standing orders here are to write about what is on our minds. And what was on my mind when I went shopping earlier this evening was not the EU or the level of taxation or the importance of consenting relationships. It was how beautiful that usually quite mundane building over towards the river can look when it catches the evening sun just so, and especially when the sky behind it is also doing dramatic things of its own.
This kind of thing does make me want to have a more expensive camera, though, plus some lessons in how to use it. Because what my cheap little camera shows you is only a pale shadow of what I myself saw.
We have a posting category called "How very odd!". Now I want one for "How very beautiful!" Meanwhile, "Architecture" will have to do.
What's on my mind, having stared at this picture, is what on earth you could possibly have been shopping for in Pimlico! Has it changed? Last time I was there, all it had to offer were some very iffy corner shops with out-of-date Hovis and cans of catfood (all at only twice the usual price!).
The architecture, however? Ugh!
As for a better camera, I heartily recommend an Olympus. Even without the tuition course, they produce great pictures out of the box.
And no, I do not work for them!
Posted by GCooper at June 19, 2004 12:57 AM
If I blogged about what was on my mind....well, that's what Ubersportingpundit.com(Link) is for, isn't it?
I save Samizdata posting for when I actually have been thinking.. hence the paucity of posts lately!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 19, 2004 01:52 AM
The fact is that our standing orders here are to write about what is on our minds.
Hm, Brian, I am not aware of any such standing orders. I am afraid you really overestimated Pimlico's ability to contribute to the meta-contexual. :-P
Nice picture though.
Posted by Adriana Cronin at June 19, 2004 09:49 AM
Nice light - it would look a lot better if you tweaked it to correct the leaning verticals and sloping horizon. Put the grid on in Photoshop and you'll see what I mean. It's a simple matter to do and dramatically improves the picture.
Posted by Mark Ellott at June 19, 2004 10:26 AM
I have never received standing (or non-standing, for that matter) orders from the Samizdata gods to write (or not write) about anything. Editorial guidance I have received has generally been along the lines of encouragement. ("Please finish that piece you started writing"), and observations that articles about subjects that the readership might not be expecting are actively good. Obviously if I started out posting pieces explaining how Britain has gone downhill for the last 150 years and it is all due to the abolition of the Corn Laws, or that we are all doomed, Doomed, DOOMED due to global warming and it is time to ratify the Kyoto Accord at once, or that the Soviet Union was a noble experiment gone wrong and that if just a few things had been different we would all be living in a great socialist utopio, someone would no doubt tell me to stop it.
Posted by Michael Jennings at June 19, 2004 02:11 PM
I don't know. I am afraid I have become too partial to Perry's photo travelogues of eastern european babes to appreciate the inner beauty of this one.
It just needs more curves...
Posted by Sylvain Galineau at June 19, 2004 06:27 PM
Great picture. Why is everyone driving on the wrong side of the street?
Posted by Bob Whaley at June 19, 2004 11:39 PM
Brian, have you ever snapped Canary Wharf from one of the central London bridges with the setting sun on it? It looks like a brilliant gold column. Glorious (but I think it only works in the winter when the sun sets in the southwest.)
Posted by Cydonia at June 20, 2004 10:35 AM
Cydonia
No but good idea. I intend making a trip to Docklands soon, when Summer resumes.
Posted by Brian Micklethwait at June 20, 2004 12:55 PM
