Wally Close

I suspect I've blipped this location before, but it can stand another appearance. I popped into Remnant Kings in search of one last thing for my new tripod bag, and came out with a variety of offcuts, some of which you may see appearing as backgrounds to shots this winter, and having gone in off Buchanan Street (not nearly such a fun close), I left through the other door and came down here. Anything outside was damp and grotty anyway. For the non-Glaswegians, a wally close is a tiled entranceway/staircase characteristic of tenements. This window is not, however, in anyway standard in other parts of town! Half my kingdom for a tilt shift lens! Actually, I'd go for a better camera first, but then a tilt shift lens! Actually, it just struck me that I don't have a kingdom to half, so I am suddenly very disappointed!

An entertaining evening at Camera Club, Printed Image Competition, which ended up with an almost complete reversal of fortunes from the Projected Image Competition a few weeks ago. This judge didn't seem to like landscapes, or long exposures, and was very direct in what he said, which could be very entertaining. In some cases he was right, but there were some (in the eyes of quite a few people) wonderful images which got very low marks, especially one beautiful monochrome long exposure beach shot to which he gave 12/20 (basically as low as you seem to go in Basic). The ones he gave high marks to were all very good, no question, but some people were very annoyed by the marking. I didn't do well, which actually didn't bother me, a year and a half on blip teaches you nothing but that what appeals to one person may not appeal to someone else. The images (this one (and I wasn't pleased with how it printed, and looking at it again on blip am even less pleased with the print, but I was in a rush and need to learn a lot in how to print well) and this one) entered were far from perfect, and there is plenty to be improved in them. What made me really angry were comments on photos in the basic section, including the Catacol Glen shot, but also several images from other members, that went along the lines of 'well anyone can get an image sharp and well exposed, cameras these days have auto this and auto that', as if being in the Basic section means you don't know how your camera works and let it take all these decisions for you. But several of us had a wee collective moan, told each other how much we loved each other's pictures and felt better, so that was fine! :) Off to bed now, very much looking forward to a night to myself tomorrow, after being out every night for what feels like months, but is actually only a week, and a day not at work on Saturday, yippee!