Birthday presents

The weather has looked unremittingly dank and grey from the windows here today, and I've had plenty to do indoors. So I thought I'd try my hand at a still life, using one of the two studio lights that my son and his fiancee had given us for Christmas.

But what to take? Well, it was my 60th a month ago, so I decided to use some of the presents that my daughter and sons had given me then. Now, the tutor on our recent and excellent photography course had warned us that shiny objects could be tricky, so a polished tankard and two cufflink made from sixpences were probably not the best objects on which to learn the ropes. In twenty or thirty exposures the cufflinks kept misbehaving. This was the last and the most acceptable. The objects in my next still life will all be matt, very matt!

Looking forward to FastAperture's return from the South tomorrow.