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Miscellaneous photos 2

This page follows Miscellaneous photos. It too holds photos that do not belong in any of the other categories. At least, none that I could think of at the time.

Hang glider art

Unlike Mark Stucky, who also started hang gliding in 1974, I never became an astronaut.

Debs, the sister of one of my hang gliding friends, suffered from multiple sclerosis. She ended her own life in 2014. For more, see this Daily Echo report on 8th November 2014.

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In 2003, I bought my first new hang glider since 1974. It was made by Aeros, originally part of Antonov, in the Ukraine. I collected it from Sywell aerodrome, home of Flylight.

In this photo the red star is almost complete: Made of sticky-back sailcloth from a sailboat chandler, the result of this effort on my Aeros Discus was dramatic. It had a plain white upper surface and leading edge and a plain red under-surface.

I had previously added pre-WW2 US stars to my UP TRX 160.

More scenery

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This insect, photographed in 2009, had a 25 millimetre span and was 14 mm long. (I do not recall how I measured it.)

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This monster was in the back garden in July 2012. I thought at first it was a prank by one of my hang gliding friends who also flies radio control helicopters…

After it landed on the fence, I took this photo from a safe distance. Likely it is a Southern Hawker (judging by this dragonfly identification web site). I assume that any hawk it encounters dies of fright on the spot.

We rarely have snow settle this near the south coast of England.

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I took this pic of the moon with a Fuji Finepix HS 30 EXR through a break in cloud cover during its close approach on August 11th, 2014.

Anoushka, in fur coat and hat, is a life-size doll made in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2010.

Late afternoon sunshine in February 2019 illuminated this flower poking up over the yard fence.

I obtained the idea for the photo of Christchurch Priory from Hengistbury Head from a photo by Roger Hollman, whose photo from the same spot on a clear sunrise must be seen. The Priory is about two miles from the camera and St. Catherine’s hill is three miles farther than that.

I taught myself to fly a hang glider from the north-east slope (the far side) of the hill in 1974. In early 1975, after being discovered by Bournemouth air traffic control, I reached an agreement with them that I could continue to fly as long as I did not go higher than the anti-collision beacon towers (on the horizon in the photo).

Emily and David, from North Carolina, were fascinated by the historic buildings and landscape of this part of the Dorset coast when they visited me in May 2019.

Comments

From Emily on 2019/05/28 at 8:57 pm:

Those last two photographs of Brownsea Island and Christchurch priory are quite bright and beautiful…I feel as though I could be standing right there! 😉

My reply 2019/05/29 at 9:02 am:

Haha!
(She was standing right there during one small trip on a wonderful long weekend: North Carolina, USA, meets Dorset, England.)

Vintage photos

Here, the models look smaller than they really are because Raymond Campbell paints his wine bottle scenes larger than life, or at least these prints are larger than life. Note that the apparent inner wooden frames, on which the shadows of overhanging cheese and bottle opener are cast, are part of the paintings.

See my page Motocross in miniature, Building Joël Robert’s Suzuki motocross bike in 1/12^th scale, and Mr Moto Cross, My Revell 1/12^th scale Husqvarna motocross bike.

I have the light coming from the wrong side to match that in the paintings. Oh, well…

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Hang gliding