The Photographer
The Old Curiosity Shop
The strangest earrings I’ve ever seen…
The Spouting Cock
The Woman
The Nimrod
The Security Men
The Tracks
The Front Door
The Crane
The Band (revisited)
Road Runner – a new HD video to replace the old one
The Band (revisited) – Road Runner – a higher definition video to replace the old one
The Kiss
The Driver’s Seat
The Quick Way Out (…maybe)
The Crash Test Dummy
The Tired Old Chopper 3
The Last Bit of the Vulcan
A sad end to a majestic and iconic British aircraft…
The Tired Old Chopper 2
The Tired Old Chopper 1
The Aircraft
The de Havilland Aircraft
The Horse
The Readers
The DH Tiger Moth
The Sun Worshippers
The Jet Fighter
The Auster
The Chopper 4
The Chopper 3
The Chopper 2
The Chopper 1
The Woman
The Woman
The Lancaster
The Chickens
The Woman
The Mother and Child
The Bees
The Police Officer
The Hurricane
The Officer
The Bride
The Dodgems
The Girl
The Woman
The Chocolate Shop
The Kiss
The Woman
The Drinks Counter
The Bomber
The Fun of the Fair
Join me a the fairground and hear the sounds of old fashioned fairground organ banging out it’s jolly tune.
The Fast Jet
The Chopper
The Cornish Pastie Shop
Join me at the Cornish Pastie shop at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham in the UK. The Cornish pasties were edible but not the best I have ever tasted. The NEC is generally very busy (as you’ll hear) and the food outlets do charge top dollar for their mass-produced products.
The Airport – Aberdeen International Airport, Scotland
Join me in the departure lounge at Aberdeen International Airport in Scotland as passengers get ready to board a British Airways flight to London. Aberdeen International Airport is a cosy, friendly but small regional airport. Friendly staff, and not at all like some of the UK’s bigger airports (Birmingham, Luton) which, it could be argued, should be avoided. I travelled via Birmingham Airport this week and met with some deeply impolite and unfriendly Logan Air ground staff at check-in. Not quite the friendly Scottish welcome I was expecting. A disappointing response. Get your act together Logan Air!!!
The Sleepy Fox
The Punk Rock Chicken
I can’t help thinking that this chicken was issued with the wrong feet…
The Pink Chicken
The Chickens at the End of the Ramp
The Big Chicken
The Chicken Itch Scratched
The Monochrome Chicken
British Airways Blues (‘Your call is important to us’)
Join me as I listened for a total of over 3 hours to of ‘music on hold’ and ‘your call is important to us’ messages whilst I waited for British Airways to answer the telephone today. After a total of three hours of no reply, I gave in. British Airways, and before it BOAC and BEA, is or was something we British used to be proud of. I did get hold of one unhelpful chap from BA who dismissively gave me another number to call because I had ‘the wrong kind of Business Class ticket’ (yes, Business Class!) and the number he gave me promptly disconnected me and so I went to the back of the queue again.
Sadly… we live in changed times. Is the UK going down the tubes and taking British Airways with it? It’s certainly beginning to look like it.
British Airways – such a disappointment (and I speak as an IAG shareholder!!!!).
The Stuff of Nightmares
The Winking Chicken
The Chicken
The Pals
The American Eagle
The Audience
The Woman
The Suck, Squeeze, Bang and Blow…
Join me for my rather warped idea of what it would sound like if you were sitting in the middle of an internal combustion engine. Best with headphones on….
All done on my Machine Mikro.
The Sound of Swooping Swallows…
Join me as I try to imagine the sound swooping swallows would make as they fly around the sky over our heads. I always think that swallows are avian jet fighters and yet so graceful. I could watch them for hours…
All sounds created on my Machine Mikro (what a clever little box it is!)
The Electronic Seascape Soundscape!
Join me as I have a bit of fun with my Mashine Mikro and create an electronic seascape soundscape complete with buoys and lighthouses…but only synthesised sound of course. If only I knew what I was doing (I think it is called making it up as you go along?!).
The Golden Age of BBC Radio – Come in Tokyo
Join me and listen into some clips from the golden age of BBC Radio Comedy from the 1950s. I remember listening to the radio (no TV in those days during the day) to BBC Radio Comedy programmes on a Sunday afternoon. Names like Tony Hancock, Keneth Williams, Keneth Horne and many more spring to mind.
Radio always had the best scenery…
I created the background music (if you can call it that) on my Native Instruments Maschine. I have no musical knowledge or training it (and it shows). I just plug noises into the spreadsheet arrangement (image below) which is the Maschine 2 software, push the button and see what pops out. It seems to work and, of course, it is royalty free!
You can listen to my musical efforts on their own by clicking here.
The Man in the White Suit (best ever sound effect)
About 300 years ago when I was young and good-looking, I used to take every opportunity to watch the 1951 Ealing Studios film, ‘The Man in the White Suit’ (1951) staring Alec Guiness. No video recorders or DVDs in those days. One of the main reasons I liked the film was because of the fabulous sound effect used in the film (unmistakable if you know the film).
And so, I made my own version of the sound effect which I combined with the original – you can hear in the clip below. After that, you can hear the ‘White Suit Man’ sound effect I created (a tribute to the original sound effect!) on its own.
I created my White Suit Man sound effect on my Native Instruments Machine.
Here’s the original sound effect + mine. Then, below that, my creation.
And here’s my version of the sound effect on its own (image courtesy of IMBD)
The Crazy Sound of Surf
This is what happens when you put the sound of surf crashing onto rocks (see my previous post) through Adobe Audition filters (flanger, phases and echo). Quite a noise! Best with headphone on.
The Sound of the Surf
Join me on the cliffs east Portsoy, Scotland and listen to the waves crashing onto the rocks far below us.
I recorded the sound using my Zoom H6 sound recorder and used my parabolic microphone (with two mics for best stereo effect). The sound was processed in Adobe Audition.
The Cacophony of Birds
Join me at a bird colony on a rock which sticks out of the sea just West of Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. If you listen, you will hear the sea washing around the column of rock and the birds, who cling to and nest of the sheer rock face (see image) and make an almighty noise. You can hear the natural echo as the bird sounds bounce off the cliff faces which surround the rock column. You will hear seagulls, gannets, razorbills, cormorants and many other birds – all squawking away. You’ll hear ‘peak squawking’ at about 2 minutes.
Recorded using my parabolic mic and a Zoom H6 (my Zoom F6 still missing in transit!)
The Old Morse Key
Me and my Samson ETM-3C double paddle Morse key have been together rattling out messages in Morse code for over 40 years now. The key has never let me down and we have travelled the world together. I’m pleased to report that both me and the ETM-3C are still going strong with a whole lot more dots and dashes still in us providing our respective batteries don’t conk out. Come in Tokyo!!!
To generate dots and dashes, you have to ‘key’ the two paddles side to side. One paddle generates continuous dots, the other paddle generates continuous dashes and, if you squeeze both paddles together, then a stream of dots followed by dashes will be sent. The trick is to manipulate the paddles in order to build up the Morse code characters.
The Stream Meets the Sea
Join me on the beach at Portsoy, Scotland where the stream that flows down from the hills crossed the beach and flows into the sea.
The Sound of Portsoy Beach
Join me and listen to the waves crashing onto Portsoy beach. Portsoy is in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and was the setting for a Peaky Blinders episode last year. Portsoy has some wonderful walks in and around this most delightful town. The harbour is also well worth a visit. By the way, I used my panoramic microphone (1 dish, two mics) to record the sound.
The Lion
Calling Poland – Ukrainian Crisis
I see people from Poland are looking at my blog (from Flag Counter)
Like thousands of other people in the United Kingdom, we are offering the spare room of our house to refugees from the Ukraine. Our British Government is moving at a very slow pace and, until we can identify a refugee from the Ukraine in Poland (or any country near to the Ukraine), we cannot start arranging travel for these people. In fact, I feel ashamed to be British when I see what Boris Johnson is failing to do (all talk, no action and lies, lies, lies).
And so, if you are in Poland and if you can put us in touch with an agency/NGO who is trying to find accommodation for refugees in the UK (Scotland), then please send me an email at info@rids.co.uk and we will do our best. We have one spare bedroom, it would suit mother/child or older couple (senior citizens?). Naturally, we would NOT be charging rent for the use of our room. We want to help.
The Man in the Hat
The Other Rock Singer
The Rock Singer
The Beard (2)
The Beard
The Washer Girls
The Boaters
The man and his flag…
The Donkey Who (supposedly) Leads Us
It really is time for Boris Johnson to go (along with his cronies).
The Monochrome Madness (2)
The Monochrome Madness (1)
The Builder
The Camera Girl
The Rope Lady
The Meal
The Crow and the Tractor
Join me as as I tried to record the sounds of a crow but then a tractor came along and ploughed the nearby field. The field was close to the woods at Duff House, Banff, Aberdeenshire. You can hear the tractor driver lift the plough, rotate it and lower it again before turning round in order to plough in the opposite direction.
The Wonderful People of Liberia
I will never forget the wonderful people of Liberia and Sierra Leone (previous post) who had to live through the Ebola crisis. Despite the often overwhelming and devastating challenges they faced day after day, it was never difficult to find a smile.
The Wonderful People of Sierra Leone (1)
Richard Broom Photography 