Jumping Jive

Mar 14, 2010 | Legs!, snap!

I went for a walk down the hill earlier on and noticed what I took to be a fresh dog turd on the footpath.  I was just about to mutter curses about inconsiderate dog owners when the supposed turd jumped towards me.  Courtesy of the camera on my mobile, here is the culprit.

It is as well that it was bright daylight: at dusk or at night it would have been a prime meal for a passing fox.

Before that I went for a run.  It was one of my usual routes down to Roseburn and back via Murrayfield Stadium and it felt quite good although it took me a couple of minutes longer to run it than it would have done last September.  Aside from tiredness from lack of fitness I didn’t have any great difficulties but for most of the afternoon and evening my right ankle has been problematic.   The swelling that I got from the reaction to medication a couple of weeks ago seems to have reignited some old aches and pains dating back to when I sprained my ankle four years ago.   It has already been causing some problems at Rapper and I suspect that I shall have to give up my plan to run the Edinburgh Half Marathon in order to make sure that I can dance at DERT and, later, DART.

I’ve been carrying my camera around with me more recently as well with the aim of trying to get a decent shot per day. The pics. to the left and below are from these shots – nothing particularly original but I quite like them. I hope shortly to have a gallery attached to this site so that I can upload a whole pile of shots taken over the years.  Had I the time or the inclination I would scan in some material from my 35mm SLR days as well but that may take a while.

I’m still keeping my eye on eBay for a couple of things too.  In an ideal world I would love to get my hands on a Leica D-Lux 4 but they are way too expensive for me.  There is an equivalent Lumix though – the DMC LX3 which is exactly the same as the Leica (except for some software difference) but a couple of hundred quid cheaper.  Unfortunately it is now discontinued but there are a lot on eBay at present.  The prices are still marginally too rich for me but a bargain might come along.

Should one crop up at a reasonable “Buy it Now” price and I went for it then my plan would be to have it more or less permanently set on Black and White and I would be aiming to use it for “stealth” shots and grab shots predominantly.

I was discussing this with Emma, a colleague at work with a sideline as a photographer, and I am fairly clear that I don’t really want to get into digital SLRs (unless someone offered me a Canon D5 in which case I would bite their hand off).  I like my Lumix for general photography and, while it would be nice to upgrade it, there is no urgency about it yet.   Something like the Leica or the LX3, however, are links to the tradition of Brassai and Cartier-Bresson and classic street-photography (as well as the great American photographer William Eggleston) – which is where I’d like to be playing right now I think.