No Smoke Without ...

In a couple of previous posts, I was demonstrating to you all how my decades long obsession with photographing smoke was progressing, so much so, that I was beginning to sound like a bore.
 
And, yet, to risk being totally ostracised from your company forever more, I'd just like to add one more comment to all of this and that is to say ... that there's no smoke without fire!

Yeah, the cold weather of these past few weeks has seen me lighting the hearth with stunning regularity but it wasn't til the other night, as I stared into the flames, trying to find evil and tortured faces within and among them, that I had a better thought.

Why not take a photo or two instead!

Which is what I did and the one here represents my new starting point. Hopefully, all sorts of demons and dragons will reveal themselves to you in the gaps and crossings of the forks and the flames as I progress, but, for starters, have a gander for a ghoul or two below to rattle you to your core!

More soon ...  

 

My latest flame!

Hidden Flame

Nothing much going on these cold, wet and wintry days so, in an effort to neutralise a phase of mid-evening ennui, I took out the camera and went in search of something half-decent to shoot.

Indoors, of course!

I did try to conjure a bit of enthusiasm around the task but the boredom wouldn't shift and set the tone for the whole assignment. After about ten minutes, I just gave up.

Now, as I crank up the PC and review the evening's work, there is really only one pic that is of any interest - a(nother) candle - this one with its concealed flame illuminating the tallow.

I kind of like the shape, the overall tulip-like outline of the wax, and for that reason, here it is.

So there's even something to be said for boredom.

Now, bed for me.

More soon ...

 

Tiptoe thru' the tedium ... ! 

Lights Go Down!

It was time to say au revoir to the Christmas lights and candles for another year last night - you tire of them quickly enough when they've no real reason to be there anymore.

Still, I took a quick snap of them for two reasons: a.) to  remember them by and b.) to re-introduce myself to the photographic idea of depth-of-field!

I kind of liked the result so here it is  for y'all.

Onwards and upwards in 2018 everybody agus go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís.

More soon ...

De-lightful evening!

Bestest Books of the Year!

I didn't read a phenomenal amount of books last year on account of being distracted with other stuff but, when I consider the ones I did read, I have to conclude that 2017 wasn't the most enlightening period ever experienced along the course of my literary timeline.

But it's difficult to go a year without reading at least a couple of great works on top of a fair ole clutch of 'fine' reads. The pic below shows, from top-left to bottom-right, the ones I enjoyed most in 2017.

It's always refreshing when a home-grown title trumps all the others and tops the list, as Mike McCormack's Solar Bones did last year for me. I recommend it strongly because, irrespective of genre, it stood head and shoulders above the others, not least for the originality of its central character's voice and perspective and for the writer's uncanny skill of making civil-engineering sound so interesting ... but for much more besides!

My silver medal goes to a book entitled Wounded, by Percival Everett, the last book I read in 2017 (published in 2008). With the brilliant portrayal of the central character and his ambivalence in matters of the heart and the story's ruthless denouement standing out as highlights, I reckon you could do a lot worse than have a browse.

Ditto for the next six or seven titles, each of which were fully in command of their respective subjects and left me pondering such diverse issues as family dysfunctionality, global economics, African American history, digital technology, criminal impersonation and the gritty realism of the 1970s.

As we move towards the back end of the pile, (the good aul yarn section) I recommend the final half dozen for doing well what all books need to do well and that's keep you interested til the last page.

My love of Georges Simenon should also be obvious to you all by now!

More soon ...

All worth a browse, each for its own reasons!