Why there are fewer Men than Women – Part 2

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

When I wrote my first blog on all the idiotic and inane unsafe acts that men performed as if they possessed a death wish, I was under the mistaken belief that I had seen it all. Clearly I had not. Like the continual stream of photographs of shoppers in Walmart whilst in the most surreal forms of attire, so it is with these behaviours.

Clearly Safety Inspectors are a rarity or perhaps they are like the Dodo, extinct. If these photographs had been taken in South Africa, which clearly they are not, I would have suspected that another activity had kept the Inspectors at bay.

Surely these people are aware that they have no margin of error and that even a slight miscalculation could result in death or maiming. They should rather adopt a high risk sport such as abseiling, paragliding or base jumping.

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Twenty Five Astonishing Wide-Ranging Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

These photographs are truly eclectic in their diversity: part historical, part geographical and part physiology. Each in its own right deserves to be pondered upon. For instance the photograph on Hitler’s office without any humans in it could have been taken at any time of the day or year because Hitler seldom if ever used it and after Stalingrad never again.

From that time onwards he divided his time between Berchtesgaden and the Wolves Liar in Eastern Prussia. Finally after the precipitous collapse of the Eastern Front in January 1945, Hitler’s final office was a warren of passages and rooms under the Reich’s Chancellery.

Main picture: Hitler’s office

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An Eclectic Array of Historical Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

For me historical photographs even if they are unpretentious and unassuming provide a different perspective & keen insight on life and in particular how it was lived and experienced. This series of 25 photographs provides a mere peep into that lost world. Whilst most of the photographs fascinated me, I ultimately chose this one of the Beatles a year before they became famous as the main picture.

Main picture: The Beatles play for 18 people in the Aldershot club before they rose to fame a year later. [December, 1961]

I suspose that the main reason why it enthralled me was when I considered those 18 people that they could attract to a dance were unwittingly witness to a musical sensation in the making.  Imagine what they would tell their friends over a drink a year later.

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Photographs of snow storm in Buffalo New York

By Dean McCleland in Landscapes 1 Comment

When I first heard about the reports of the heaviest snow falls in the Eastern USA for over 30 years I was sceptical. Maybe my natural cynicism  at the Texan exaggeration – I know that the snow was in New York state and not in Austen Texas – aspect of American culture made me blase about the severity of the snow storm. A quick glance at some of the astonishing photographs emerging fr0m the USA rapidly disabused me of that notion.

The worst affected area appears to be the town of Buffalo in New York State where 6 feet [2 metres] of snow has been reported. The rate of the snow fall could rapidly trap people at work, on the highway and more embarassingly at their lovers apartment. Of course they could always claim without fear of contradiction that they were trapped in their vehicle somewhere. Meanwhile they were enjoyed an uninterrupted 48 hours in a romantic tryst!

Main picture: Don’t let the snow in!

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