City of London

Last night I enjoyed the talk on wildlife photography by Paul Goldstein. What was very interesting were his critiques of photos, saying there is no such thing as a perfect photo (true) and how we all fall into the trap of thinking a photo is fantastic because of the aah factor - cute lion cubs, sweet little penguins etc when it may actually be a very poor photo. He said he thinks a photo becomes special if you have the added factors of dust, spume (water spray) and good lighting. You may have seen the photos recently of the two male lions mating and read about such homosexual behaviour in animals - those photos were taken by Paul at his lodge where we stayed (and there were others from a wildlife park in the UK), and he showed those photos and discussed them. His talk was so interesting but it was an hour and a half, and then there was a long interval for book signing by both him and Chris Packham, and then Chris' talk was only due to start at about 9.30pm by which time I had such a headache that I decided to go home - so I missed Chris' talk which was a pity.

Today I did feel a bit better, which was just as well as I had a parent's arts society event organised for 30 people to visit the Silver Vaults of London. They are a fascinating place, and if you are ever looking for that special piece of silver, it's the place to go - they have things ranging from £50 to well over £1 million! Some of the Victorian table silverware was quite incredible, I can imagine the tables groaning under the weight of those platters, bowls, and elaborate wine holders, some which where in the shape of a huge multi sail ship.

We were not allowed photos in there so when I stepped out again (as they truly are underground vaults) I took this photo of one of the dragon boundary markers that mark the square mile of the City of London. In the background you can also see a memorial to the Royal Fusiliers from both world wars.

Its been a busy day and now I am off to our camera group meeting. This term we did sequential action shots in one frame, which were not so easy to do and my entries look awful.