Well we'd of been somewhere this week but that's not - couldn't really - be happening so my mind such as it is has been looking back at a few things one being an interesting of mine being flowers.
This is a sunflower we have presently indoors taken on the Sony camera I got after February's adventure when the old one just died on me.
As you can see it does have surprisingly good resolving power even if the programmed exposure usually needs tweaking a little after the event.
I find sunflowers interesting.
This life perhaps unlike the expectation you may of things online is very much for real, I don't as close friend knows collect 'friends' like some may collect trading cards because being a friend actually means something and not just another set of people for sites and social media to collect information about and make money from.
My camera comes into this too because it's a memory preserve which believe me when your memory is badly impacted as mine is by various things is a godsend and this was a picture I draw in a class taken by that friend in 2017 of a Monster that having given a presentation on, we were to undertake this task.
She struggles at times with things as indeed I do but she got it together pulling that class off so well.
Let's hope we can get together in the near future.
We're kind of moving to wearing "facial coverings" - better not use the "M" word - come July 24 although as ever there appears to be some confusion over where it is you should.
Let's simplify this: You won't be arrested or refused service IF you are wearing one so the number one place this applies is to visit a shop. Any shop.
Doesn't matter if it's Lidl, a sandwich bar or the jewellers and the entire point is to prevent you from spreading Covid which you may be carrying without realizing it from anyone else so when we all do it we're not potentially infecting each other.
It will help with virus infections such as flu and the common cold too which is why most people in South-east Asia just do it.
In England and Scotland you are doing this on the train, subway, tram and bus already because it's a condition of carriage presently - no mask, no travel, period.
Only car drivers and cyclists don't have to.
Places where you won't will be include places to eat or drink on the spot such cafés, pubs, and restaurants although there is no reason for your mask not to be one while lining up to be escorted to your table which may take minutes rather than seconds.
That's cos food and needs access to your mouth and even with crazy straw designs you still SHOULD NOT TOUCH your mask front while fitted so no you can't start feeding straws underneath of it.
It's highly likely the premises will have a sign saying the require it or it may be found on the shops Facebook or other website.
Today's post was brought to you by the letter M and the number 1.
JUST DO IT!
The week has been a damp one, this is being typed when it is too damp to be out, but much happened over the weekend such as a few more types of businesses being allowed to open such as Public Houses of which one of ours did for drinks.
They decided to leave meals a fortnight until they what demand is and if the lockdown doesn't return as this was the week before last the worst district in the West Midlands for Covid infections.
One other significant thing was the reopening of Barber's and Hairdressers from 6 AM Saturday as many places started on the dot as they had a large number of people to see.
This meant after a very long wait the mess that was my hair could finally get trimmed and tidied up on Wednesday although the trinity of PPE, Social Distancing and Hand Sanitizer were all present and in our case everything was appointment only.
Conversation was side and back in line with Public Health England guidelines and obviously all equipment including chairs disinfected and hair swept away before the next person was done.
I'll swear I weigh less for having it sorted out at last!
On Thursday last June 25th, It was announced that Olympus would no longer make cameras and that the different divisions such as optics would be repurposed.
To me there was no sadder day previously than when in 2003, it was announced Minolta/Konica were sold to Sony and that brand with a large legacy would be no more.
Olympus made photographic history often getting to them before Nikon and Canon and today I'll touch on a couple of notable cameras of theirs and why they mattered.
The Olympus OM1 in differing forms was one of longest running cameras in production from its introduction in 1972 until being phased out in 1987, beginning a whole new line of cameras.
Prior to its launch, system cameras that used separate lenses and had a single lens reflex system with a mirror so you could see the image focusing it before the picture was taken were very heavy being designed more for photo journalists.
It was a manual exposure only camera with just the suggested meter reading powered by a battery of if that failed you could continue to film so long as you had some means or figuring what the exposure 'should' be as you set that by hand.
Everything on this camera bar the metering is mechanical, made of cogs and metal, a feat of miniaturized engineering.
Other small systems lacked the full range of extras such as attachments for taking pictures from microscopes, lenses that covered every focal length you could want and even winders with film packs to take masses of film for industrial use without having to wind the film on by hand that Olympus offered.
It had everything a photographer wanted in a small, sleek design.
The OM1 was massively popular with explorers and travel writers because they now had a lightweight full system camera that could go more or less anywhere with them in jungles and up mountains not having to rely on pocket cameras with limited control when in confined spaces.
This in its 1983 version is one I know and loved first hand because by this point, the camera's in the OM system had gained Aperture Priority auto exposure when for any given setting it set a suitable shutter speed, making quick picture taking easy, especially when it metered it at the moment of actually taking it rather than just before which when also matched to a specially designed shutter blind resulted in some of the most even automatic exposure systems ever.
This had also been carried over to the flash system that could take multiple in series flash guns for advanced work and had macro flash units to fit around lenses for extreme close ups evenly illuminated.
It added two wonderful things for serious photographers, an auto exposure lock so if you needed to get an exposure reading from one part of scene only to ensure it all came out well (as all reflected light systems can and do fail), you could hold it for up to 60 minutes and at the same time balance that Exposure Value in the camera to any combination of aperture and shutter speed.
It also had a extremely good up to eight position spot metering system which with the exposure lock enabled meant you had the means at hand to deal the trickiest of exposures getting perfectly exposed slides no matter what.
It was also blessed with a very easy to use set of controls on the top plate with everything you needed to hand so you for all that sophistication just get on with taking pictures and not hunting menus and hidden buttons.
That in its last form remained on sale until about 2002 and was wonderful.
Introduced in 1968 and only discontinued in the late 80's, this was a fully programmed compact camera fitted with an exceptional 40mm lens which was powered by solar power no less, taking some of the best pictures possible on such a small compact camera
The Olympus XA from around early 1980 was a unique compact camera that used a superimposed image that when aligned with the main one in the viewfinder allowed easy accurate manual focusing on mirrorless camera.
It was backed up with a Aperture Priority auto exposure system making it possible to use a bit of creativity in a small compact camera which again was fitted with a top quality lens, this time a 35mm moderate wide-angle.
This was a popular model for photographers who had a system camera but wanted something very good to literally put in their pocket and use anywhere.
It came with a detachable automatic exposure flash gun which could be used for "fill in flash", helping with outdoor portraits.
That is just four reasons why I miss Olympus as a owner of several bodies and numerous lenses.
If you never got to grips with metrication for some strange reason or other perhaps now you should.
That measurement of length, The Metre, is going to figure in your everyday life from now on for the forseeable feature because it is becoming the new social distancing minimum in England from next month.
It's about three adult foot paces and a smidgen and it's there because the previous distance, two metres was becoming more of solution in search of a problem making it difficult to conduct everyday life while not providing that much extra protection because our sneeze droplets can go as far as six metres and frankly a face mask is a much better protection at preventing transmission which is why in England and Scotland you have to on public transport.
It allows more things to open up because not only did the built up infrastructure not work well two metre distancing with delays forming as people wait to get in, also it made it potentially unviable to reopen some where a metre plus a few measures to control transmission would work better.
It may help with the mess which is trying to reopen schools for all five days a week.
It with masks and no dry hair cutting is allowing hairdressers and barbers to reopen from July 4th having booked my appointment already that would of struggled otherwise.
Just gotta relearn the distances after the last three months or so.
One increasing trend as retailers adapt to and reopen in the Covid-19 environment has been to change payment systems typically replacing traditional cash for contactless debit or credit cards for small transactions.
These are typically small stores that sell items of low value which traditionally we'd of payed for by cash such as Bakers like Chatwin's locally who sell marvellous bread and cakes and Greggs who famously sell sausage rolls following sector advice not accept cash in case the virus is on it.
That can be a problem for those who don't have bank accounts with cards or for shopping for others who may find it too difficult or are staying home because of extreme vulnerability to infection who even if they had a card should not be providing some one else their PIN number.
This might even had worked had such stores accepted regular credit or debit cards but these store are refusing to accept the UK's chip and pin system where a chip is read and you are prompted to enter a four digit PIN.
This is because they also fear transmission of the virus from your hands to others via the touch pads.
The contactless card currently with a £45 per transaction limit just requires being held and waved over a reader that then beeps when the transaction is made.
The problem is some typically older customers were never given the option of having the contactless sort at the outset and others were refused because they would not be issued to those whose credit score fell below a set figure.
Thus in this much altered world we've added social exclusion from certain shopping for sections of society.
After a half an hour trying to get someone at their bank because bank staff are working from home, my elderly folks were elated to get a person issue them new cards which are contactless as they were increasingly struggling to shop because of this issue.
This week Black Lives Matters supporters launched a campaign to remove any statute or name that in their opinion is racist, benefited from or supported slavery, imperialist and a host of other isms.
First to go with this.
Toppled by the group, Edward Colston like many Bristolians was involved in the slave trade to which no one today would argue was morally right BUT his money made from what was a legal business people accepted then was used to found school, halls, hospitals as he was benefactor, improving the lives of Bristol's residents, making the city what it is today.
That was what he was given the statue for, not his business.
How does daubing in red paint, pulling it down, vandalizing it before drowning deal with the inequalities of Black and Asian Bristolian's today?
Under threat of removal and vandalized, Winston Churchill's statue because of his support of the Boer War.
He has always been a controversial person however without Churchill, this country would of been occupied by Nazi's who would of murdered blacks, asians, jews and anybody not a nazi like the protestors themselves.
Would of you of been living today had it not been for this admittedly flawed leader?
I would of been murdered as a learning disabled person by Nazi policy had they of taken this country over.
This man means a lot to millions, Robert Baden-Powell founded Scouting a international, non racist inclusive movement that has made a massive difference on five continents and of all races and nationalities.
Today he is being removed by Bournemouth and Poole Council because Black Lives Matters say his involvement as a member of the British Army in the Boer War and his preparedness to personally see the German Hitler Youth, which he rejected means they have him down to be toppled and thrown across the sea for being racist .
How many Black and Asian girls and boys have benefited from what he did making men and women who made a difference to their communities and their own lives?
Millions but this doesn't matter to Black Lives Matter nor does it that the Scouting Association to talk about and support opposing racism, taking action if anyone tries it with the organization.
Shakespeare is synonymous with English literature and the theatre and yet his plays were written to appeal to an Elizabethan audience and patronage do have anti-semitic characterizations by such logic should pictures and statutes of him be removed?
Should Stratford upon Avon be classed as a town that makes its money out of racism?
No, because we know he wrote for what people thought at the time, that he did a lot and actually it provides us an opportunity to explore, expose the attitudes for what they are and it shows us how we've moved on as imperfect as society is.
Something else to consider: If your families have lived here for centuries, grew up with any and all of them seeing the flaws and the good people did taking a rounded view, how would you feel if all your past is being removed even destroyed before your eyes by people, the majority of which only go back three or more generations without any reference to democracy or rule of law?
More to the point, try destroying the Egyptian Pyramids made on back of slavery or taking down the Great Wall of China because of the genocide of non Chinese Moslems and Buddhists in Tibet which they invaded in 1950 and see how they'd respond? Is it different and if so, why?
