Skip to main content

(My) photo of the day



I thought that today would be little more than a mundane companion piece to yesterday’s photograph. Walking through Parliament Lawns as I usually do of a weekday morning, I noted the two council workers clearing off all of the leaves that I posted yesterday. Naively, I had assumed that this would be achieved with huge rakes and good old-fashioned muscle. Alas, I was wrong. I should have known that bulky (and extremely noisy) leaf blowers are all the rage these days. They were corralling the poor frightened leaves into the centre of the park, where a truck was waiting to haul them off to oblivion. That was that (I thought), 'a slice of Hobartian life for the world to peruse at their leisure'.

As noted, I thought that this was the end of the story, I would post the photo and be done, but in the act of resizing it to make it more user-friendly, I noted something odd in the background. Like David Hemmings in the classic film Blowup, there was a strange character lurking in the background (I'll keep you updated if I have a naked romp with two models later in the evening - if confused, go and rent the movie!). Focusing on this section of the photograph, I decided to ‘blow it up’ and have a closer look. Now I could be mistaken, but it does appear to be someone taking a photograph.



‘What is he photographing?’, I wondered. It could be the council workers, but I already had that covered. It could be of the leaves, but he wasn’t really pointing at the huge pile, they were too far to his right. There were no other people around, and nothing special going on. No, the evidence is clear, he is pointing directly at me!

Now, I am not sure if it just the John le Carré Cold War spy thriller that I have nearly finished (wonderful stuff, by the way), but now I am wondering if the whole “one photo of Hobart a day” thing is not threatening the security of the state (or at the very least a risk to innocent children). I know that many of the visitors to this blog are active ‘Daily Photo Bloggers’, so I am sure that you are aware of the current ‘sensitivities’ around photography in public spaces. USA Today and the BBC have more.

So either I have gone mad, or the world has gone mad. Which is it people?

Comments

Sue said…
I am disappointed that they took the leaves away! They look so good and aren't they supposed to be good mulch? Isn't that environmentally unfriendly to use a machine to get rid of them???
By the way...what John Le Carre novel are you reading? He used to be my absolute favourite author! Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy... George Smiley...aaaahhh! A great TV series too with Alec Guinness (before he became Obi-Wan Kenobi)
That may be a 'Circus agent' taking photos of you....be careful...trust no-one! (hahaha)
Kris McCracken said…
I plan to finish the The Russia House tonight. I haven't read any le Carré for at least 15 years, and had forgotten how great they are. I picked this one for no other reason than it was the first one in the rack in the library. I have got Stephen Fry's Making History already out, but the Quest for Karla trilogy (including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy...) is next on my list to knock off.

I've done a few trilogies over the past year: the Hitchhiker's Guide; Updike's Rabbit series; Richard Ford's "Frank Bascombe" novels; and Melvyn Bragg's Wigton trilogy (of which a new novel has been released). I've enjoyed them all in their own way, but am very much looking for a little Cold War intrigue!

I already trust no-one. In fact, I've had my suspicions that Henry may be an agent for a FARC sleeper cell, but I'm keeping quite about that for the moment.
Sue said…
Yes, it's been many years since I read that lot (Le Carre)...but I still remember how much I enjoyed them all. I confess (without torture) that I love a good spy novel/film. I have never read Stephen Fry...but I should imagine he would be a very witty writer.I always enjoyed his appearances in Blackadder (oh how I miss that show!)
I miss reading...I just never seem to get enough time for it anymore. Because I can't put a book down once I start...I avoid it as it wreaks havoc with my sleep and then my ability to function properly at work! I think I will have to get a job that is a long, long way away and then travel on public transport to get there so I have a lot of time on my own to fill in (and thus not feeling guilty about sitting and reading)!!!
And do keep your eye on that Henry...MI5 are known to recruit their agents young!
EG CameraGirl said…
Ha! You taking a photo of someone taking a photo of you! Who'd following whom? ;-)
Kris McCracken said…
As far as I know, I wasn't following him, but you can never be too sure these days!

Popular posts from this blog

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.

Can you believe that it is time for Theme Thursday already? Today we are not talking chocolate , toddlers , mess or ignominy . No, today we're dealing with ANIMAL . Now I could have posted a picture of a possum, numbat, wombat, wallaby or any other furry killing machine that roams our fair isle, but I figure that I'd use a far more deadly creature as an example of an animal . Some people - I know them as fools - have chosen to embrace that highfalutin idea that human beans are for some ungodly reason superior to animals. Of course, what these imbeciles seem to forget is that were are simple animals ourselves ! Anyone with a baby, toddler, teenage boy or Queenslander in their household could tell you this. Look at Henry [above]. One chocolate frog in the back of the car on a sunny day and all of a sudden it's Elagabalus meets Bacchus for a quick shandy in the Serengeti and we're down on all fours carrying on like a cat in heat. Fair dinkum, anyone who chooses to ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...