Snapper

will have to see what I have here at work. Otherwise it will mean delving into the home library. Watch this space....

Sorry Bodge, No it was for pleasure. They always are!

Greetings. It's Friday..as a shiftworker, this is of little significance - but this weekend I am free to do stuff. So, here is the last gallery of the week. This lot show scenes from Culdrose in 2002. The black Hawks are the Fleet Support Air Training Squadron, a flight of planes used to test the air defence capabilities of the "Fleet". They were taking off in crap weather to play with an unseen group of ships offshore out in some really terrible conditions. The pilots are ex-service instructors. One of the RFAs had to brek off and shelter near Mevagissey, where I was staying. There's another Napoleonic scene from the first Military Odyssey and a view of an old friend some of you will know from Hampshire days.....more anon. MB

continued....

Some time ago I mentioned the fortress of La Mola in Menorca, or Minorca, depending on whether you prefer Catalan or Castillian Spanish. The fortress was built in the 18th/19th Century after the British had finally been kicked off the island. It is a gargantuan place with all the old style Vauban influenced defences mixed in with Victorian era barracks and defences added from the Franco era. The main features of these are two huge 15inch gun turrets. One is open, but the other is on loose ground and is in a dangerous state. Turrets like these were built elsewhere on Menorca and Majorca and mainland Spain. During the 1950s one turret was destroyed when a powder bag ignited in the hoist killing dozens of gunners. The nastiest thing about the gun is a small conscript would be made to crawl the length of it to clean it. Scary. My family last visited the fort in 2002. It is near Mao/Mahon and was only open to the public for guided tours on Sunday morning. We had to be there by 1030 or there was no access. The volunteer guides are great - the admission is cheap and it is not often that you can see something like this. Adjacent to Mahon is Es Castell which used to be the garrison base for the town. The old parade square is all still there and the officer's mess is now an artillery museum. There are some superb guns outside, but little of hardware consequence to see inside. There are NO military vehicles. Es Castell is a great place to watch cruise liners sailing by on a fine evening. If you are going on hols to Menorca - make this a definite visit for your Sunday...... pix here and to follow...

We'll have to see you there one of these days. Maybe there should be a HMVF tour next year. The logistics may be a bit of a nightmare - but I can certainly make an itinerary. I would need to rope in my main team chaps from Essex - but it isn't impossible. I'd even consider camping in the summer. Early thoughts! Watch out for more battlefield snaps in due course....

Have a great time!

Brilliant pix from both of you chaps. More please. I'm glad I started this now. The Hop Farm are looking for early show stuff. I only started in 1998. I don't know how I missed all the earlier stuff, but that's life. Spilled milk!

lucky sod. I'm going to Chelmsford.

You've got something here. I am generally against trying to make pix look overtly original/contemporary in the ordinary sense, and never convert mine into mono; but as a project this is a new area. More please. It takes ages to do - but pleaase continue. The aerial collision snap interests me most. Maybe in the exteme you could get some general cloud scapes to add these to and really go for it! I always remember the scene in Memphis Belle when Mother And Country is sliced in two and wonder how much better the SFX would be now.

This is interesting. I think that it makes the plane look a bit fake, almost like a model, while increasing the contemporary effect of the jeep. You are right about tones, of course. All the early colour film in general use favoured red and yellow far too much - but that's how Kodak did things until Fuji frightened them. But you have got really close - especially with the boxes in the jeep where the half tones come in to play. If I can waste your time, I would suggest you find a less bold angle for a plane pic to take some of it's dominance out of the image. But having said all this, you should put this on a post card. It is a lovely job. Photoshop gets better and better and I know it a bit thanks to my work; but I don't think it can truely match the combinations of the chemicals that made the "slides". As for original pix - look out the three volumes of snaps by the genius Charles E Brown - who I am sure you know. He knew what he was doing. I am fortunate to possess a small number of mono prints he made himself. A colleague of mine knew him...but couldn't offer any interesting anecdotes. As a final aside, I snapped an M3 half-track in the Beltring arena two years ago and a mixture of luck and design gave me one of those propaganda or company publicity type pix of the day and I've often considered mucking about with the colours to make it more WW2-ish. Keep on going...

My wife said that to me once....They didn't do Viagra in those days...we made do with whelks and Fullers London Pride. They both tasted of soap. Fourteen weeks. Blimmin' nightmare. I'll see what I can do. Someone has turned the volume down now and Friends is on. No antidote. Trash. Twenty minutes to go and I race for the Southend train. Thank God for a digital radio and a good book. cheers!

This is a job for England's favourite Dutch detective Van der Valk (show your age chaps....). Where have the dancing girls gone? I don't think they are on the Great War Forum. The last time I was on there they didn't like my sense of humour....Keep Right On To The End Of The Road...Keep Right On To The End. Sing along with me, Great War Truck; looks like we need some new entertainers. Stryker is a budding bass guitarist and nifty on the keyboards. Any more musicians??? I can pack his bass for the Hop Farm if someone can power the amplifier! I'd still prefer the dancing girls to come back though. Perhaps they are on Big Brother or competing for kidneys on Dutch TV?

Due to the quality control failure - there is a dupe from yesterday - here is a bonus pic. I'd like to see the snap one of the Brit infantrymen was taking. One of these gentlemen demanded money for having his picture taken. I was a punter at the time - not "press". Haven't seen him since....

finally........BTW if anyone turns up in these snaps please let me know...... I have tons of this stuff on my firm's database and piles of it at home. So run to the hills.....

more.....

plus.....

I am sitting here trying to keep sane. I have my back to two TVs blaring out Big Brother on E4 and C4. My mind is mush. Meanwhile a squadron of boilers from something called Grease Is The Word have just swanned in... So here to get some sense to the world are some more snaps from late 90s Beltring, early 00 Duxford and an Indian Navy Sea Harrier from Farnborough 1981. There will bee a dozen snaps in all.....

Yes - this is the Brockway 666 pontoon vehicle. I did snap it, but due to issues of blood, honour and the Indland Revenue these snaps are in the hands of a certain publication pending hopeful appearance. When and if they appear I will put some more up on this site.

Good question. I think it is always getting bigger and with that you get bits of better or worse depending on your outlook. For me it can go whichever way it likes. I love the show and think it is a window into a brilliantly eccentric world. I have met some of the best people (plus a few tossers - but the football terraces were no different when I lived there). All I want is more and more variety. I just love the mix. I've never been to Overlord or the main MVT event, but have enjoyed Duxfords and Tilbury Forts..and of course Kelvedons - all other "regular" shows seem much more purist. Lizzie Ware compared Beltring to Glastonbury. She is 100% correct. In my day it was the old Reading festival. I've never really recovered from the cheap lager and dope cakes from those years...but at Reading I never got my hat run over by a tank. No contest. See you all there, I hope!

finally. Hope you like this lot....more anon. MB

and

plus..........

here are some more snaps. You may get days of these - but I'll do them as new posts. I am now having to get my head round dealing with masses of snaps of the latest Big Brother contestants..zzzzzzzzzzz. These pix come from Beltring and Duxford in 2001 and from the first Military Odyssey. Just for balance there is also one of the cutting edge of the Greek army in 1984. I wouldn't mess with them...

Some pix of Berlin in 1984 and a vew of my grandad Gordon's grave in Newcastle.