Gaining a Little Wisdom

-



David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, diplomat and essayist and has been regarded as the greatest philosopher who has ever written in the English language.

 In 1995 a 9 foot bronze statue was completed by sculptor Sandy Stoddart and is situated in front of the High Court Building on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.


The prominent big toe of the huge statue has become a touchstone for philosophy students, children and tourists hoping some of Hume's wisdom will rub off on them.

 In 2006 The Scotsman newspaper ran a story on this new tradition HERE and interviews Sandy Stoddart about this.  He said: "The great thing is that it's so ironic that David Hume, who is the patron saint of all the atheists, should now have his toe adored." 

 While in Edinburgh yesterday we stopped to admire the statue and take a couple of shots of the toe on the Fujifilm X-T1 and 56mm f1.2 lens.  

 Did I join in the tradition?  Of course I did - well you never know!

 CLICK HERE for more information on David Hume


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE
By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION


MacLean Photographic run Tours and Workshops in East Lothian and the Borders of Scotland.  CLICK HERE for more details and availability

If you like what you see on this blog please visit our Facebook page and click 'like'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: The New Fujinon 2x Converter

-
Image
Yesterday Fujifilm launched the latest edition to the Fujinon XF lens line up, the XF 2X TC WR teleconverter for use with the XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 zoom lenses.  In April I was invited by Fujifilm to test the new converter and here are my thoughts on this new lens. Before I go into details I need to be upfront about something.  I've never been a fan of 2x converters because the optical quality of the lens is usually affected to a large degree.   I did have a 1.4x and 2x converter for my lenses when I was shooting with Nikon. While the 1.4x converter was regularly attached to my long f2.8 lenses, the 2x converter was probably used about three times in the 18 years I used Nikkor lenses.  I didn't like the results when using the converter so tended to not use it. Anyway back to the X-Series!  The 1.4x Fujinon converter was launched in 2015 and I have been a fan of this diminutive lens attachment on both the 50-140mm and 100-400mm.  The optical qu
Read more

REVIEW: Using Nikon Lenses on a Fuji X Camera

-
Image
I've been using the Fujifilm X-Pro1 for the past month and I haven't enjoyed my photography so much since I bought the Fuji X100 12 months earlier.  The only issue I have with the X-Pro1 is the lack of a long telephoto lens.  The longest lens I have is the 60mm f2.4, which is the equivalent of a 90mm telephoto; it's a great lens but I sometimes wish my Fuji system had a bit more pulling power.   Fuji have provided the X system with a telephoto zoom, the 55-200mm f3.5 / f4.8 R LM OIS and I will be testing this lens next week for three days. I will be showing the results on this blog. However my Nikon kit has one of the best short telephoto zooms in the world, the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D.  I bought this lens brand new in 1996 for £1600.00 and it has been a faithful companion ever since. I've bought and sold plenty of SLRs / DSLRs in the past 18 years but I've never felt the need to upgrade the 80-200mm because it is still optically the best lens I own and it ha
Read more

Comparison: Fujinon 16mm f1.4 v Fujinon 18mm f2

-
Image
The small but perfectly formed Fujinon XF18mm f2R has been the lens I have used the most since I bought it in 2013.  The fast f2 aperture along with the small size and 27mm equivalent angle of view makes the 18mm f2 my 'go to' lens.   However has the new 16mm f1.4 usurped this position?  The slightly wider 24mm equivalent focal length is one that I used to have when I used film cameras and for landscapes it is a great lens to have in the bag.  But how different is the 18mm and 16mm?  Is that 2mm going to make a huge amount of difference?  and will that extra stop on the aperture compensate for the difference in the physical size of the 16mm compared to the 18mm?  I went for a walk along the coastal path in Dunbar down to the harbour and took there shots with the X-T10 fitted with the 18mm f2 and my X-T1 fitted with the 16mm f1.4.  As usual for this blog I need to point out that this is NOT a technical test, I don't do that, I just report on my findings in using th
Read more