Photoreflect.blogspot.com Website Review

Photographs and reflections from Lincolnshire, England, and beyond My hiatus from blogging has proved to be shorter than I thought - in fact, hardly any time at all. I decided that the answer to my problem was to close PhotoReflect and start up a less labour-intensive alternative. So that's what I've done in the form of PhotoEclectica I'm taking a break from the blog for a while - it will be good for both of us. How long is a while? I don't know at this time; it could be a few weeks, it could be a few months, it could be longer. Photo Title: The Boat House Pool, Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire Camera: Olympus E-M10 Mode: Aperture Priority Focal Length: 42mm (84mm - 35mm equiv.) I remember doing a quiz many years ago in which one of the questions was, Which is the only country not to feature its name on its postage stamps?. The answer, of course, was the United Kingdom, the country that introduced the adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, following the ideas of Rowland Hill. This method of paying for postal deliveries was adopted across the world. Designers and artists were tasked with devising designs for the stamps, and unwittingly their endeavours set in motion a hobby - stamp collecting (or philately) - I collected stamps as a young boy and was particularly pleased when the UK's Post Office started to produce a wider range of stamps than those featuring just the head of the reigning monarch. Many interesting and often beautiful designs in a variety of sizes have been produced down the decades. Moreover, each Christmas a distinctive and seasonal set of stamps is issued and reported on in the press. Perhaps its my age, perhaps its designers exhausting the possibilities, but I feel that stamp designs are less inventive than formerly. Today's photograph shows part of a sheet of stamps featuring this years Christmas design for the 2nd Clas* (i.e. slower and cheaper) postage. The paper cut snowman and surround are fine but lack the bold, jewel-like qualities that I remember from my youth.