Road Trip

A v interesting photo I think.

In 1947 Miroslav Zikmund and Jiří Hanzelka drove a mass-produced Czechoslovak passenger car, a Tatra 87, through Africa and South and Central America.

There is some more text and a couple more pics here.

I've changed my mind ...

... my karma ran over my dogma.

What the Guardian really means ...

Peas

Pictures on a Page

A pic in friend's Facebook post reminded me of this fab photo. The friend's pic was of 3 school aged boys - the two younger ones bouncing about happily, the older standing somehow separated from his companions' chaos by his calm stance and pristine white school top.

I had seen the above pic ever so long ago in a journalist's photography text book. The formally dressed boys are Etonians on a day trip, doing their best to ignore and offend some locals. After the recent Facebook reminder I spent quite some time searching the net for a soft copy of the photo - finally succeeding (woohoo!).

Ironically - the journalist is my wife and although I had assumed we'd left the book on the other side of the world, it was in fact within easy reach of me all the while. It would have been a lot quicker to scan a copy. Never mind.

I think the genius of the Eton photo is that the pictures' background separates the boys almost as clearly as their circumstances.

So - the book - it's "Pictures on a Page: Photo-journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing" by Harold Evans. Finding a copy on the web is left as an exercise for the reader. If you're lightning fast there is a copy in the Oxfam online 2nd hand bookshop for £14.99 - a bargain for a weighty hardback. Other than that there has been a recent-ish reprinting in softback.

If you like photography I recommend this book. I think I shall re-read it.

But the sign said ...

... crocodiles can't swim.

La Déesse

You see why blogs are for writing, and not for reading? Here's an example.

I had one of these for a while - and dearly loved it. While many, or perhaps most people, find them wilfully repellent - to my eye they are achingly photogenic. So - for my amusement - here are some nice pics of a few pristine examples.