In the window of a secondhand bookshop . . . . . The Romance of Modern Photography by Charles R Gibson, published in 1910.

 

Pretty weighty tomes! Did you buy them?

 

No, a bit too weighty for me!

I was wondering were the 'romance' came in though!

 

I guess it's that inner satisfaction of getting it right! Pipe dreams.

 

Here's a couple of books I bought about 10 years ago - both volumes of the Modern Encyclopedia of Photography from 1938. As you can tell from the picture I haven't read the entry on depth of field yet...

 

Just the sort of thing that would go on my camera shelf, with the Zenit as a bookend! Alongside a 1915 Ensign catalogue, a 1928 Kodak Catalogue, and a Kearton Brothers book...

Ooh lookie, a Grauniad piece on the Keartons! Roving Mike would love the effort they put in to get to a bird's nest... https://www.theguardian.com/environ...tons-inventing-nature-photography-in-pictures

 

Kind of makes our moaning about whether our carbon fibre tripod and camera is too heavy look a bit daft doesn't it?

 

Wonderful. A lesson for us all I'm sure. Love the ladder up the tree and abseiling.

No more "I couldn't get closer, there was a cliff edge" sob stories.

 

The ladder in the tree does display a certain determination!

 

They've got me wondering whether they ever met George & Ashley Abraham, the great Lake District photograhers. I do hope so - I can imagine that a splendid evening of thoroughly enjoyable note-comparing would have taken place!

 

I told my son about this last night and be had heard more (lots on the internet) I liked that they had a hollowed out, stuffed Ox that they used to use either as a prop or cover. There is a photo of one of them passed out while carrying it, Ox on its back and 6 legs in the air. https://images.app.goo.gl/Tn17J4wHrSenVa3d9

 

I found this in the street - from a distance and with my dodgy eyesight, it looked like a £1 coin.

On closer examination, because it appears to have IR on the back, I assumed it was Irish and wondered who the woman was - some Irish goddess or other? So it was off to Google. Actually, it's RI, it's Italian and the woman is Venus, from Botticelli's the Birth Thereof. So I did a bit more digging.

Between 2002 and 2010, 1,863,851,000 of these coins were issued. In fact, in the same period, a total of 21,384,367,255 coins were minted in Italy.
No figures by year for the UK, but apparently, in 2016, there were 30,139,000,000 coins estimated to be in circulation. Allowing for lost coins and further issues, there must be even more in circulation in Italy.

That's a lot of metal!

 

Interesting stuff - I've just discovered that the 'CM' between two of the stars refers to Claudia Momoni, who did the engraving for that side of the coin.

The other side was engraved by Luc Luycx, hence the tiny 'LL' to the right of the zero in the number 10.

I also learned that the copper alloy from which the coin is made is known as 'Nordic Gold'.

Incidentally, the 'RI' stands for for Repubblica Italiana,

Thanks for sharing that - I've learned something new today!

Cheers, Jeff

 

On the subject of Nordic Gold, there is quite an (unintentionally) amusing thread on the subject on one of the numismatism(?) sites.

And you thought some people on this forum were nit-pickers!

 

Not so much of a nit picker, more of a pleasant plucker

 

Got some funny looks taking this, a photograph of a photograph with rubbish bags in front . . . . . . when I only had to turn 90 degrees to photograph the real thing

 

But is it art? As at the end of the day, it is a load of rubbish.

 

That's probably what they said when it was built.

 

Bleedin' rich geezers swanning in here and building their bleedin' mansions all over our beauty spots.

 

This woman has hut moving powers

huts loose by Dan, on Flickr