Returning to the scene of the crime - Take 2 - Thematic Photography

I hope you studied the crime scene well. Just to remind you this is what it looked like.

Of clues there are plenty

• The pole is leaning towards the fence
• The yellow tape identifies it as electrical. a street light perhaps

If we move in closer:

• No impact marks on the pole
• Tyre marks in the mud
• But traffic goes by left to right, the pole slopes in the opposite direction
• Broken tree branches in front and behind the pole.
• What is the time frame involved?
• An eyewitness saw a council wagon early on Monday morning on the opposite side of the road attending to this.

Has the culprit got its comeuppance?

It's dangerous to jump to conclusions. There may even be an element(ary) explanation.

It was a dark and stormy night (I've always wanted to start a story with those words) on Sunday

The wind becomes the prime suspect.

You mind not be so sure if you knew this winter had been the wettest in England and Wales since 1766. The roots of the tree could have been badly loosened.

Broken Roots

However there is yet another suspect which enters the frame. Have the roots been fatally attacked. The centre of the tree trunk was rotting.

Rotting trunk (center of cut end)

It might even be the green ivy that started the chain of events.

No matter what we decide, the streetlight can be replace and a tree replanted. A comparatively short time to replace the light but it will take at least 150 years for a tree to reach the size of the one that was lost.

As usual you can find the answers to other photographic puzzles at Carmi's place

Rain - Sepia Saturday

It's hard to work up enthusiasm for rain in the middle of a heat wave as this week's rainy prompt requires.

 A dip in a swimming pool would be much more enjoyable.

Hartlepool Bathing Pool

The open-air swimming pool was opened in 1923. It was badly damaged during the great storm of January 1953, and was never fully repaired. The surviving remains of the pool itself are mostly obscured by seaweed, and all of the shoreward structures have long gone.

'Bathing Pool' area - 1953

A local beauty spot where children were often taken to paddle was Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale but not on a day when the river was in flood.

Aysgarth Falls

Aysgarth Falls are a triple flight of waterfalls, surrounded by forest and farmland, carved out by the River Ure over an almost a one-mile stretch on its descent to mid-Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales of England, near the village of Aysgarth.

In Cornwall the River Fowey can flood quite spectacularly as it did in 2008

Somehow I don't think that there would have been many boat trips round the estuary that day. You would also have been struggling to go for a pint at the King of Prussia.

Fowey Parking - 2008.

It may have been OK for The Beatles to sing.

But for me it's Adele who has the right idea.

Meanwhile while you check out other rainy themes at Sepia-Saturday-185. I have to get ready to take my wife out for a birthday meal.

Mirror, Mirror! - Thematic Photography

Winter has returned to Scotland and the North of England today, golf was aborted as a result. This meant I had time to check out some mirrors, real and virtual.

Lounge Mirror

To understand what you see you have to remember Snell's Law - the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection. So what you see is the lamp and pictures on the walls to the right of the photo.

If that's too difficult, let's look at a framed picture acting as a mirror on my office wall..

Map of the County of Lincolnshire

The reflection comes from the window off scene right. I hope you can make out the branches of some trees.

In the bathroom a shaving/beauty mirror stands on the window ledge and gives this effect.

Bathroom Mirror

What interests me about this shot is not the image shown in the mirror, but the frosted glass window behind it. It is not green, The lawn outside is what makes the background colour.

When I saw the result of my next shot I though immediately of Alice and Through the Looking Glass.

Hall mirror with the image of the front door

I eventually got sent out in the rain - I took my camera with me. 

Reflections in the rain

And when I saw this I thought of Gene Kelly.

Puddle reflections

 

So I guess that we need to do now is to dance off  to Carmi's for some more mirror images.