Hooks

Opening my box of hooks this morning, I thought that they looked interesting in the light and would possibly make a decent blip.

Plan A - So I took a good handful and arranged on a plate. But the hooks were difficult to control on the slippy surface and the background was intrusive.

Plan A1 - So next, I arranged a towel and poured the hooks onto the material. I did have subconscious misgivings about this idea and they were immediately justified. A nightmare was unfolding.

Every time I moved a hook, the four other hooks attached would move and all the hooks that tangled with them would move and on and on, which meant that every hook in contact with the towel moved and attached itself. Very soon, I found that I could not arrange the hooks because the toweled hooks were now fixed, which fixed the hooks that tangled with them, which in turn fixed all the hooks above and of course, the hook that I was trying to move.

Well and truly committed to the towel thing, I felt that I had no choice but to add more hooks to get what I wanted. So I picked up another chandelier of hook, attached to hooks, attached to more hooks and more hooks. I draped them across the prickly mound. A little pulling and pushing, pinching and prodding and these too were locked into the towel. Just one more chandelier should do the trick. Then it struck me. The chandeliers looked much better than the prickly mound. A new , plan was rapidly evolving, but first I had to figure a way to rescue the towel. I took a few shots and proceeded with the deconstruction.

I know what you are thinking, ?I think his cheese slipped of his cracker? (the Green Mile).

Plan B - First job, how to hang the hooks. Also, from a single hook, forming a pyramid, or from a line of hooks to form a curtain. I thought the curtain seemed like a good idea, hanging from the door frame. Lots of light and a bright, blurred background, feeding light through the hook curtain. The neighbors were intrigued and jabbered away at me, presumably wanting to know what I was doing or calling me crazy. But my Indonesian speak is very poor and waving my arms around, charades style, was not going to get me out of this one.

A couple of screws into the door frame 8? apart. Tied some chord to a bamboo BBQ skewer to make a ?swing? and proceeded to hang the hooks. Funny, when you want the hooks to bind together, they refuse. Pretty soon blood was oozing from my foot, profanities pouring from my facial orifice. At this point the nosey neighbors thought it prudent to leave me to it, as things were getting serious. So I sat down, smoked a Marlborough and applied my engineering brain to the problem in hand.

Plan B1 ? I placed a bucket under the curtain of hooks. That works. I set the tripod up and took a few test shots. Disappointing. The lighting was all wrong and such an edgy, angular subject required sharp focus. The arty, blurry thing just wasn?t working. Also, the entire mess was swinging ever so slightly in the light breeze, causing more blurring.

Plan B2 ? I used the smallest aperture and fill in flash and the image sprang to life. I was about done here and seriously considering tapping into the emergency bottle of Absolute, but it was 10am and I had some shopping to do and bills to pay.

My internet service was cut at midnight through lack of payment, but what was I supposed to do. The telecom shop has been closed for the last two weeks for the Ramadan holiday. What a pain. I am hoping that the internet café will allow me to plug in my thumb drive, to upload this contribution.

I'm now in the internet cafe, sitting on the floor. My lower legs have gone numb. The system is incredibly slow. I cannot read the letters on the keyboard, they are either worn away or so covered with crud. I feel I will need a tetanus top-up when I am done here.

I can tell that this is not going to be a good day, I hope y?all do better.

Dave