The Scots and English invaded the U.S. and about time I say. The Jocks drank Boston dry, that should have been Canada surely. Meanwhile in Dallas the English hit a bar and drank 5,000 pints of beer. Come on boys you can do better than that! Imagine if Ireland had qualified for the World Cup. An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman walk into a bar - and another and another. I read many comments regarding the “invasion”, quite a few from ex U.S. military. During joint exercises with us around the world they were seemingly issued with a card that read “The Brits are coming. Do not drink, gamble or fight with them. YOU WILL LOSE”. We’ll leave football there with a quote from Bill Shankly, a Scotsman and one time manager of the English football club Liverpool, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” Not totally sure about that, besides there’s another much, much more important competition than the World Cup coming soon - The inaugural Street Photo Rumble which is the brainchild of my friend and Hawaiian Street Photographer Tim Huynh @wordonthestreet.
My street photography isn’t life or death, that said, it is important to me. You’d think I’d spend more time on it. When I do manage to get into Bath it’s a fleeting visit, an hour is enough. I’ve turned into street photography’s answer to Goldilocks, too hot, too cold, too many people, not enough people. Not enough commitment is the answer. If you want to take reasonable Street photographs/snaps you need to be on an actual street almost daily to get your eye and reactions trained. If I want to win the Street Photo Rumble, or avoid receiving a photographic assassination by the competition judge, jury and executioner on his YouTube Channel, I need to sharpen my game. I look for gestures, layers and so forth. In itself that’s fine, but there needs to be more. I find the mundane interesting, mundane doesn’t win competitions. Not that I enter any usually, unless of course they’re free which Tim’s is.
One photo only, it’s free to enter and Tim will destroy it (well, my entry at least) and eventually announce the winner live on his YouTube channel. The entry must be taken in 2026. I don’t fancy my chances, but why not try yours? I promise it’ll only be me that gets ‘roasted’, Tim is a really nice guy and you won’t be subjected to any of that. I was watching an interview with Kate Bush aged 21 a few days ago. The interviewer asked what she thought of criticism, good or bad - “ I don’t listen to it” she said. “If you listen to others then you become them. No longer an individual or creative”. Wise words. Next a few grabbed shots from my short trip to the coast with my youngest daughter Amélie last week. That’s not her in the first left hand shot by the way.
Amélie finished her GCSE exams/secondary school a few weeks ago. Another competition, one I lost at, but she’ll win for sure. It’s party time for her and they’re seemingly endless, essentially lots of collecting her at midnight, which is at least six hours past my bedtime. Not only that I think she’s become an alcoholic! And that’s coming from me. I took her to the Dorset coast for a three night break. It’s not far from me, beautiful beaches, one we used in the grid below on a Saturday afternoon, 30C and hardly a soul. Of course the New Forest, its quintessential villages and wild horses/ponies is only ten minutes away. A few of the party girl in Dorset, pre-party and before her school prom.
Just “Dottie” in the background of that last shot. We lost our friend and good boy Bertie a couple of weeks ago. Amélie has been beside herself. I miss him hugely, we all do. I’ll finish off with some family memories/photos. The diagnosis was that he had an enlarged heart. As Amélie and Louis poignantly said “His heart was just too big”. As the vet administered the injection my ex-wife Sam sang a made up song he loved. Essentially along the repeated lines of - I love you. I love you. I like to think a slight wag of the tail hearing that until the gate to the field swung open and off he went.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails. Not that it matters they were made using a Leica M with a Summicron 28mm lens fitted. Photos of Bertie 1 & 3 in the grid as a puppy with a Canon. I used an Apple keyboard to type it all out.
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