Tick Tock, Tick Tock...

Here's another blip from work. The object is a Congreve rolling ball clock, it's like an early executive desk toy. The small ball rolls down and then the plate tilts, and it go's back again, the ball acts like a pendulum would.

The other interesting items in this photo are my colleagues, Darren our conservator who was setting up and levelling the clock and Neil our photography manager who was filming the mechanism. I was doing my usual trick of sticking my nose and my camera in to find out what was going on.

It's an interesting challenge taking pictures of photographers. They're often reluctant subjects, you can't move the lights (because they're set up for the object), you can't get into shot as it spoils their work, and you can't use a flash because it sets off everything in the studio...The answer I've found is a tripod and stealth...