Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

a stage outfit worn by the supremes

i spent some time in the V and A this afternoon practising my photography-in-the-dark skills


you will have seen some of the objects before, but not quite as clearly ...


these dresses are by the entrance to the supremes exhibition


i first heard "where did our love go ?" performed by johnny anger and the wild ones on stage at beeches barn in cirencester in nineteen sixty something just before the record was released over here ...


i went there with my excellent schoolfriend robert hitchings whose dad, fred, kindly drove us over from malmesbury


the wild ones were not quite as wriggly as the supremes, all of them were stubbly males wearing black leather cuban heels and matching black leather jerkins, but they sang it ever so well


cinderella's other slipper ... click on the picture to see the nice button


the norfolk room without concert chairs ... the camera was teetering on a ledge




more old tins ... including robin hood as dick whittington as principal boy



my second best dressing gown ... too many buttons


posh frocks in low light ... now you can see the stitching



a clearer view of those gilbert bayes' figures



try milk of magnesia


typical millwall supporters ... mister nobody ... 'an 'is bruvver


in the back room at the museum


i'm sure there's a rational explanation


happy dragons


is that a green man i see before me ?


fine and dandy


an elizabethan music room


this triptych of portraits must have been too nice for the national portrait gallery


casting couch for the valkyries


next season's retro ... i wish


























charles the second frightening the children


english chinoiserie at the V and A


the old lacquer chest



lacquer and lacquer ... masterpieces from old japan



Monday, August 25, 2008

old tins






































most of the victoria and albert's possessions are conserved in very low light conditions and it is hard to photograph them without a flash ( discouraged ) and/or a tripod ( forbidden )


flash makes everything look awfully cool with any icy blue sort of light so today i tried a method which is a bit like pressing your nose to the glass


i pressed the rim of the lens casing flat against the glass


this enabled me to hold the camera fairly ... but less than perfectly ... still for some very slow exposures ... but only where the objects were at a reasonably comfortable level above the floor and a suitable distance for focussing beyond the glass

file under "champagne: for the drinking of"


georgey boy


pomona lends a hand in plutarch's garden


lot ninety-nine, laydeys'an'gennermen ... as played by george formby




nothing like this old-fashioned clockwork in your argos catalogue



the dog is bored, but even the sheep are smiling


what is she reading ?


sweet and gentle


happy cranes


a masterpiece of "visual logic" from old japan


as they say in glasgow ... she's away with the fairies