Flickr is amazing. I got an email overnight from a US political magazine asking to use one of those Darfur demo photos.

A couple of days ago Norm sent me a link to an article about the death of the photographic original. You’re bored already by my “real film” fanaticism, but even in the days when there always was a negative or slide people didn’t trust photographic images; now when you look at a print you can’t even be sure if what you see ever had a real existence.

Yesterday when I was at the photo lab I picked up a high-resolution scan of a slide photo I took three years ago. It’s one of two of my favourite photos of fathers and sons together.

Sebastian looks at a globe with his son under an apple tree in Nigel and Honor's garden
Now you see it…

[click image to enlarge]

I love it because it’s a beautiful moment, a pleasing composition, and because it’s one of those occasions where I’ve got the exposure right with slide film. (I don’t use it any more because, when you have no control over the light, even the automatic exposure sensors get it wrong a lot of the time.)

The thing is, the composition would be that much “better” without the second plastic cup.

the same photo again without the aesthetically displeasing second cup
…Now you don’t.

[click image to enlarge]

Do you think I might be able to get a job with Reuters now?