Well I looked out the pastels and realised I need a lot of practice again! Ha! My first go after about 15 years! Couldn't get the right green but will keep playing.

 

Was looking at some stunning pastels today (Paula Rego).

 

Wow! Wonderful.
I also like the way Degas combined different media, pastels and oils.

 

Degas was also a half decent photographer. Quite possibly had some influence on his compositions.

 

I go see way too many movies .... and where I take snaps


Cheers,

Jack

 

That first still has to be one of my favourite pictures I've seen posted on these forums.

 

Fabulous! Love the guy with the head lamp.

 

Thanks very much, Zou ... very much appreciated

Cheers,

Jack

 

Thanks very much, Kate , and I was just glad that he turned it off during the movie
Cheers,
Jack

 

My sleep is all-to-pot at the moment, so there I was at 4am wondering what to do. I decided to take a few pictures for this challenge - here's my statement in support of them:

I play and collect guitars and usually have three or four on stands around my lounge. A couple of them were a bit dusty, so I gave them a clean, but not enough of one, as my pictures revealed! I decided to use the pictures anyway, but the only way to make them look half-decent was to make the final pictures even more messy than the guitars actually are.

I hope you like them:

Acoustasonic Tele by Jeff Johnson, on Flickr
Gibson12 by Jeff Johnson, on Flickr
Bass by Jeff Johnson, on Flickr
PRS by Jeff Johnson, on Flickr

Cheers, Jeff

 

Good stuff! You have reminded me of the time that my two elder children both ended up choosing to go to the cinema to celebrate their birthdays. Unfortunatey they both wanted to see the same film (Spy Kids 3D - dreadful) but as I wasn't up for supervising twelve kids at once we went twice. The first time, Mr Geren and I took K and five of her friends. Mr G fell asleep after five minutes. Later that month I took J and five of his friends, with my mother as co-supervisor because Mr G refused to go again saying the film was appallingly bad, almost as bad as Happy Feet and he wasn't sitting through it twice. Quite how he felt able to make that judgement is anyone's guess. And note, I was still expected to go again. Mother fell asleep after ten minutes. I wanted to. So badly.

 

Lovely. I wish I could play something. My daughter plays keyboards and uke and guitar. She had a lovely purple ukelele. Which she covered in glitter when she was ten. I'd prefer dust to be honest.

 

.... I can understand your reluctance to take the kids to the cinema, Geren and Mr. Geren, , as, yesterday, I saw a
Dad with 10 or so kids coming out the cinema, after watching "Sonic - The Hedgehog" and I mentioned
something about herding cats and he said that would be much preferable ... As for falling asleep, I
done that with a number of adult movies .... perhaps, I should change that to "movies for 13 and up"

Cheers,

Jack

 

I guess my hobby is drumming, at least that's how it all started.

Besides playing the instrument I am fascinated by its tone and timbre and these are dependent upon the materials and the tuning.

The first shot is a drum made from steam bent rosewood. Most drums are plys, the thicker the shell made from using more plys then the higher the pitch. A solid shell, such as the one below, produces a more sustained note. This Pork Pie snare drum is difficult to control the overtones but it has such sensitivity it is a joy to play

hobby-2 by Dan, on Flickr

Then it comes down to tuning the drum. The lugs that are prominent in the next two shots are my tuning pegs. Tuning a drum can be a process of attrition but I have grown to love tuning drums and will happily play for hours getting the drum to sound the way I like it

hobby-3 by Dan, on Flickr

hobby-4 by Dan, on Flickr

Playing the drum set led me to discover the Djembe, a large hand drum from West Africa. This discovery took me out to Senegal to study the the rhythms associated with the drum and the beginning of a cultural adventure.

hobby-7 by Dan, on Flickr

From playing the djembe I attended a drum festival where there was a didgeridoo workshop, at which I learnt all I needed to know to get me on a hillside with a flask of hot tea, some sandwiches and a piece of waste water pipe. I spent the afternoon and many more after that practicing the didge.

hobby-11 by Dan, on Flickr

 

five entries so far, come on folks, get snapping

 

But, ya gotta admit,Tony, that this is a quality over quantity thread

Cheers,
Jack

 

Was going to make this multi-sport, but footy is cancelled (although I like the idea of no markers within 2m, I might score a few more goals) and I'm working from home, so even though we are now into commute by bike season that's currently not happening. So running it is.

I posted a couple of years ago worried that I was interested in running (and most of the forum advice was "don't!" but I ignored it). So here are my shoes, and where they have taken me.

The 3 stages of running shoes: past-it, wearing in, brand new



On my bike I would tend to go further afield, but whilst running I get to see my local community up close, and have more time to enjoy it.

Out & About in East Lothian







Then there's the other part of the journey; where has my running taken me, as a person? Well, cycling was a good start, but running has made more of a positive impact on my health than any other single thing I have ever done. From being someone who could barely run 50m for a bus without wheezing asthma and burning lungs, to this (and I'm still annoyed I didn't screenshot it when it was 50 just before lockdown!):

I can breathe!



So it has really been quite the journey.

 

That is pretty amazing Zou!

 

Thanks all, posting the vote thread now.