Free retinal photography and me

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Today's photograph is a variation on one posted a couple of days ago. This time I wanted more emphasis on the eye and my reflection. Hence, no passers-by and a different point of focus. I also quite like to include text in a photograph where the opportunity presents itself, and this example seems more than a little appropriate.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 90mm (135mm - 35mm equiv.) - cropped to 4:3 ratio
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Ovum for Poultry

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When, in the nineteenth century and first seventy five years or so of the twentieth century, manufacturers came to name a new product they frequently delved into Latin or Greek for their inspiration. From these ancient languages they would take a whole word, a part word or a combination of these and from them coin a new word that had a bearing on what it was that they wanted to name. Examples are many:

• automobile - from Greek autos (self) and Latin mobilis (to move)
• submarine - from Latin sub meaning "under" and marinus meaning "of the sea"
• Volvo - from Latin volvere (I roll) - the parent SFK company also made ball-bearings
• Sony - based on the Latin sonus (sound)
• Nike - from the name of the Greek goddess of victory
• Xerox - from xerography which uses the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing)

One occasionally comes across odd hybrids such as Bovril, a British yeast extract and beef stock. This is a combination of the Latin bos (ox or cow) and vril, an invented word that comes from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1870 novel, "The Coming Race". The Vril-ya were a superior race whose power derived from a substance called "Vril"!

Today's photograph shows an enamelled metal advertisement that probably dates from the first half of the last century. It is fixed to an old agricultural building and advertises Joseph Thorley's feed for hens. This was called, appropriately, "Ovum", from the Latin for "egg". Knowing that, what do you imagine the company called the food they sold for rabbits? Here's a clue: the Latin name for the common rabbit is Oryctolagus cuniculus. Bearing that in mind they very sensibly called their rabbit food "Rabbitum"!

These days, of course, names are plucked from the fevered imagination of a twenty something advertising or marketing executive. You want to name a bookseller? Call it Amazon. How about a bank? Goldfish or Egg will do. A telecoms company? What about Everything Everywhere, surely one of the most ludicrous formulations of recent years, or perhaps any year! Today it sometimes seems that it's a virtue to make the company name have absolutely nothing to do with the organisation that it stands for. That being the case one wonders why brand names aren't chosen by opening the dictionary at random and selecting the first noun on the page. But then again, perhaps they are.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 8.8mm (41mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.5
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Road signs, national heroes and beer

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It has become the custom for English counties to publicly mark their geographical boundary where it crosses a main road. In the past a simple sign with the county name and the coat of arms was erected. Then, as local government tried to become more "user friendly" the county was prefixed by "Welcome to..." Nowadays most counties have a slogan as well, and in many cases they verge on the ridiculous.

Take Lancashire. A sign saying "Welcome to" (small print), "Lancashire" (big print), and "The Red Rose County" (small print), with an heraldic red rose, was perfectly unexceptionable. It told you which county you'd entered, and reminded you of the symbol that the county has proudly and publicly displayed for centuries. However, the county's elected representatives seem to inhabit a different planet from ordinary folk, and they couldn't see that changing the slogan to,"Where everyone matters", would invite ridicule. It was obvious that removing the well-loved Red Rose symbol would provoke criticism. And it was equally obvious that the new slogan means absolutely nothing: it's an empty, well-meant phrase that is not specific to Lancashire. One wag suggested that Lancastrians must be suppurating people, oozing pus-like matter! Norfolk's slogan is "Nelson's County". Now of all the fine things that I can think of associated with that fine county, Nelson doesn't figure very highly on the list. But, perhaps the sign's an attempt to make a connection between the great English hero and the county, and so raise its profile. Which leads me to the thought that many national heroes would turn in their graves if they saw the use to which later generations put their names. Would John Lennon and Robin Hood appreciate having airports named after them? Perhaps Field Marshall Montgomery would feel somewhat trivialised to be remembered by a duffle coat bearing his name. And Constable would surely have something to say about the number of biscuit tins his "Haywain" has decorated.

Which brings me back to Admiral Nelson and today's photograph of the side of a Bateman's Brewery lorry with an advertisement for "Victory Ale". A bottle of strong beer isn't, perhaps, the most demeaning use of a national hero's name and face, particularly when he's already been immortalised in poetry, with a column (and square), in countless pub names, and has a Lancashire town (indirectly) named after him. The size and colour of this lorry impressed me, and I felt the admiral, the bottles and landscape would make a quirky image when juxtaposed with a real person.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 73mm (146mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On