Close but no cigar - photographing the Fastnets
The Fastnets I suspect that when the Astronomer Royal, Sir Robert Ball, got his photos back from the pharmacy (ask your parents, kids) in 1903, he'd have been kicking himself. So close, but not quite the effect he'd been looking for. Feck! he probably said, causing his wife to look up from the stove in horror. It could have been entitled Birth of a Lighthouse , a moment in time when the shell cracked and a brand new baby lighthouse stood up and yelled for its mother. It could have been entitled Hybrid Lighthouse , a photo for all time seemingly showing one lighthouse constructed in two different styles. Maybe the constructors divided into two, and one team started at the top and the other team at the bottom and it was only when the teams met, they realised they had been working from two different plans. It could have been entitled Death of a Lighthouse , the old 1854 structure being sucked, kicking and streaming, down the throat of a new monster emerging from the depths. I...