Or snooker to those of you in moister climes.

When I was a lad attending the School of Engineering at University College, London, it was a well worn saying that had it that a Third Class degree was the Gentleman’s Degree, suggesting, as it did, that the honored recipient had done just enough studying to pass, while devoting the bulk of his time to the role of Gentleman About Town.

One of the vices enjoyed by that urbane boulevardier was, of course, the civilized game of snooker. Change things around a bit, number the balls and you have pool on this side of the Atlantic. It’s as fine here as there.

And while Hollywood would have it that pool players generally hew to the personality of Bogart and the ambience of smoke filled, dank halls, the reality is that it has always, at its core, been a gentleman’s game. The Victorian connotations of the ladies retiring to wherever ladies retire while the men light up a stogie and pour another one (sort of like Alan Greenspan) remains accurate.

At least to this pool player. For while my degree most certainly was not Third Class – the poor kids of parents as foreign as a fruitcake have no time for the town – my affection for the pastime of knocking a few balls around on a piece of felted slate remains firm. And the communal facilities just happened to sport a snooker table.

Well, to cut to the chase and get the photographic content in, I finally acquired a pool table after three years of nosing about in CraigsList. Realize that the population density in central California is just a tad lower than in LA and San Francisco. So specialized toys like pool tables can take a while to find.

Brunswick Hawthorn in place. 5D, 20mm.

Mine is a Brunswick Hawthorn, beloved of presidents (Ol’ Abe, no less, was a customer) and rock stars, and numbers one Julian Lennon amongst its owners. Add new felt and cushions, a bit of surgical work on the lovely Art Deco brass corner pieces by yours truly (poor design ensured they were constantly falling off as you can see above) and more time than I care to relate on a ladder installing the lights, and my gross investment of $750 doesn’t seem so bad. Priced new pool tables lately? We are talking Italian slate here! We are knee deep in solid mahogany from back in the days when we knew how to handle those rain forests.

Well, after all the efforts of installing the slate, the felt, levelling, lighting, etc. it occurred to me that a good photograph for the wall of the home theater/pool room was called for. So, not 90 minutes ago I snapped this and hope that you enjoy it.

Warm overhead lights. Added some yellow to enhance the antique look in Aperture. 5D, 85mm, 3 seconds @ f/22.

Oh!, and by the way, the 18″ x 24″ print is coming off the Hewlett Packard DesignJet 90 right now. If you would like a print, drop me a line. See what the 5D and a fabulous lens can really do.