Zany Zoom

Well, we have reached the end of the Alphabet Challenge. 'Z' was always going to be tricky unless you have access to a Zebra, Zoo or happen to live round the corner from Abbey Road Studios and remember the classic Beatles "Abbey Road" album cover.

Actually, I did consider a Belisha Beacon from a zebra crossing: somewhere I have a doll's house sized one one made of glass. It was made by my grandfather, a scientific glass blower, for his daughter (my mum) when she was a child. I never knew him as he died before I was born, but have a few odd pieces, including the aforemention object and a glass love meter. This is a sealed glass vessel with a coloured liquid (alcohol) in its bulbous base joined to a second bowl by tubes. The idea is to hold the base and depending on how passionate you are, the liquid zooms (or not) through the tubes to the top. The tubes in this case spell out the name of my nan, Norah.

However, since I suspect the beacon is stored safely away in the attic, I decided on a quick blip using a technique of zooming my lens while taking a photo of the Heliums I blipped earlier this month. It took half-dozen or so attempts to get the zoom and aperture speed right to give a smooth result, but I rather like the final result.