Steps No3.

From my Oman files.

Steps No2.

From my Oman files.

Steps No1.

More alternative visualisations/previously un-scanned negatives or processed files from Oman, starting with this one, made in 2010.

Being stopped from travel and almost locked away for more than a year, I’ve not had much enthusiasm or even opportunity for photography. So going through my negatives/slides and digital files has kept me from going ‘Doolally’, for those not familiar with this word: it means ‘lose one’s mind’, derived from the boredom felt at a British Army transit camp in Maharashtra India, established in 1861.

A. E. Houseman provides a thought for today.

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

My thought for today.

Storm damage.

Storm damage – it must have made a lot of noise when it came down.

Open doors No.6.

Open doors No.6 – from my Oman files.

A Swan on her nest.

A Swan and her eggs.
Is it possible that summer is here at long last ?

Open doors No5.

What’s left of the plaster and stone work on this ruin,
would indicate a rather spectacular entrance at some point in time.
From my Oman files.

Open doors No4.

From my Oman files.

Open doors No3.

From my Oman negative files.

Open doors – No2.

Being watched (this cat was not in the least bit worried that I was there, able to use both my Nikon F2sb and Bronica S2a) although he did move his head when the Bronica shutter tripped; for those that don’t know this camera, it’s loud!
From my Oman negative files – 1980’s Kodak Tri-X

Dhofar coast & Dame Freya Stark.

From my Oman files.
Dhofar coast: the type of coastline Freya Stark would have seen and described in the book I am now reading, also the one from my previous post – see below..

From the big encyclopædia in the sky:

Dame Freya Madeline Stark. DBE.
In 1934, Stark sailed down the Red Sea to Aden and began a new adventure. She hoped to trace the frankincense route of the Hadhramaut, the hinterland of southern Arabia. Only a handful of Western explorers had ventured into the region but never as far or as widely as she. Her goal was to reach the ancient city of Shabwa, which was rumoured to have been the capital of the Queen of Sheba.

Click cover for Amazon link and note how rare and expensive most of her hardback books have become. Ex-library or well used books can be got at reasonable cost: many of her First addition, Mint & Fine used copies are not easily found.

A late Spring – No3.

The weather is still changeable, it was lovely and sunny two hours ago, but prior to that I got soaked while out shopping. Thunder & lightning with hailstones in the middle of May !!, the sun has a lot to answer for with its sunspot activity, only went for cat food.

Hay-ho, good excuse for a glass of vino and the third book of Freya Stark’s auto biography.

Click cover for Amazon link.

A late Spring – No2.

Spring is here – No2.

A late Spring.

Spring is here at long last and with luck, no more morning frost.

Punishment stocks – City of York.

Nikon F4 / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 D with Nikon diffusion filter on T-Max 400 (original*)
from my freezer.

The stocks were used as a punishment for crimes of public disorder (drunkenness for example) throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Their use declined in the 18th century, but probably last used in the UK at the market town of Newcastle Emlyn west Wales in 1872.
The criminal being locked in by legs & hands or hands & head: they were then subjected to ridicule by the local population who threw rotting fruit and in some cases stones at them.

* 1987: so this film is over 30 years old.

Open doors.

From my Oman negative files – pushed T-Max 400.

Window with bars – N07.

From my Oman files: I found one with mostly straight walls! it’s a problem with these historic forts, there is not always much room, forcing me to use a wider angle lens than I would normally like. It tends to exaggerate the builders imperfections along with those of the lens.