Elliot Erwitt revisited

Photographers, Photographs

The master comedian of the camera.

One of the best measures of a man is whether he likes dogs. If he does not, fughedaboutit. It hardly comes as a surprise that the cretinous psychopath just booted from the Oval Office was the first US President in over a century not to have a dog. Heck, even Nixon had a dog, though I very much doubt any sane, rational human being would want to meet that dog’s owner.

So it’s a pleasure to read that that master comedian of the camera and all around dog lover, Elliot Erwitt, is still at it aged 92.



Elliot Erwitt’s Cairn terrier. Click the image for the article.

And if you must be choosy, it’s Scottish dogs which must feature high on any list. As a former Scottish Terrier owner, I know of what I speak, so it’s hardly surprising that Erwitt’s favorite was his Cairn terrier, a breed which hails from north of Hadrian’s Wall, like so many good things in life. Blood pudding, kilts, Scotch whisky, Harris Tweed, the bagpipes – all Scottish. And don’t forget James Watt and James Clerk Maxwell.



My Border terrier, Bertie. Click the image for a slide show of my dog snaps.

iPhone 12 on order

iPhone

The best camera in the world gets better.




I have gone with the larger Max model to experience the premium camera features not available in other versions.

It’s selling like hot cakes – as I wrote (9am MST) delivery is already up to 3 weeks distant.

Serious magic

iPhone

Night Mode

With the nights getting colder, it’s time for the annual overhaul of the propane heater on the patio. This exceptionally bad design dictates that something fails annually. Over the four years of ownership, the pilot has got clogged, the tilt switch failed and finally, this year, the pilot had to be completely replaced as it was beyond redemption. (The main burner will not ignite if the pilot is faulty). $18 and some sweat equity did the trick. Quite why so commonly used a device should stick with 1950s technology last seen in the Eisenhower administration defeats me, but the chances are if you eat at an outdoor restaurant equipped with these propane heaters, half of them will not be working. The lead chap at Chernobyl probably cut his teeth on propane patio heater design.

As an example, the tilt switch, which is a safety device intended to disable the main burner in the event the heater is accidentally tipped over, uses a mercury switch last seen 50 years ago in domestic HVAC systems. It is designed to fail and I simply bypassed it when it did so. The risk of a tip over in my location is zero. One thing less to go wrong.

The spark starter finally failed this year and I have given up on replacing it in favor of a wand type gas lighter. Simple, fail proof and cheap.

To cut a long story short I finally got the heater working and when it works it really is an object of wonder, putting out amounts of heat that electric alternatives can only dream about. A 5 gallon propane tank last for many hours.

Add the firepit (no pilot, no sparker, no tilt switch and bog reliable as a result), which also uses bottled propane, and you have a pretty jolly setting for watching the TV at night. As we fired up another episode of the wonderful ‘Endeavour’ series about the early life of Inspector Morse, starring that fine Welsh actor Shaun Evans, an actor far superior to the overrated John Thaw in the BBC original, it struck me that it was time to again report on the magic of Night Mode in the iPhone 11 Pro.

Winston enjoys some late night TV.

The sole illumination for this snap was the two propane sources plus the smallish flat screen TV some 10 feet from my son. This image is ‘straight out of camera’ and hand held. Night Mode kicks in automatically when needed.

The just announced iPhone 12 Pro further improves Night Mode by enhancing focus accuracy using the newly added LIDAR detector. I can’t wait.