Ae Fond Kiss, and Then We Sever
Macro Mondays this week falls on January 25, the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Normally this is a cause for celebration as Burns Night, with much music, dancing and whisky - but sadly not this year due to the COVID restrictions. But I wanted to try and incorporate Robbie Burns into my image for this week's theme 'Lockdown Song'.
Burns was a regular visitor to Edinburgh, and while there he had a platonic relationship with Mrs Agnes Maclehose. Burns wrote Ae Fond Kiss after their final meeting in 1791 before she departed Edinburgh to be with her estranged husband.
Ae Fond Kiss seems like a very suitable lockdown song, for those who have had to be away from family, friends and lovers due to the COVID restrictions on travel and meeting others. The first eight lines are as follows:
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me,
Dark despair around benights me.
It is Burns' most recorded love song, and a wonderful version was recorded by the late Andy M Stewart www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWnuEbwlGA
As always when photographing snails, I set up the shot first, taking care to keep within the size limit and to do test shots to determine the most suitable exposure and depth of field in order to minimise the photoshoot time. The image shows bagpipe music for Ae Fond Kiss and the end of my Scottish smallpipe chanter.
Clearly, two snails were going to be required but getting two snails in adequate focus is difficult, but as I was using f9 (to ensure the title was in soft focus but still readable) I thought it could be done. I went to get the snails, and I found these two youngsters snuggled up together! When I placed them on the chanter, they immediately moved towards each other and displayed this behaviour - it's difficult to avoid anthropomorphising, but this might be interpreted as affection! In all my years as a student of snail behaviour, I have never seen this before, but it has been well described previously (Love, M.L. (2001) Proc. Natl. Acad. Gastropod Sci., Vol. 23, 37-42 ).
The day was fairly dull, but brightened up a little while later, so thought to try this again with better light - but the two snails must have satisfied their lust in the meantime and showed no interest in each other, in fact crawling off in opposite directions (we've all been there...).
No snails were harmed in the making of this photograph.
Ae Fond Kiss, and Then We Sever
Macro Mondays this week falls on January 25, the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Normally this is a cause for celebration as Burns Night, with much music, dancing and whisky - but sadly not this year due to the COVID restrictions. But I wanted to try and incorporate Robbie Burns into my image for this week's theme 'Lockdown Song'.
Burns was a regular visitor to Edinburgh, and while there he had a platonic relationship with Mrs Agnes Maclehose. Burns wrote Ae Fond Kiss after their final meeting in 1791 before she departed Edinburgh to be with her estranged husband.
Ae Fond Kiss seems like a very suitable lockdown song, for those who have had to be away from family, friends and lovers due to the COVID restrictions on travel and meeting others. The first eight lines are as follows:
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me,
Dark despair around benights me.
It is Burns' most recorded love song, and a wonderful version was recorded by the late Andy M Stewart www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWnuEbwlGA
As always when photographing snails, I set up the shot first, taking care to keep within the size limit and to do test shots to determine the most suitable exposure and depth of field in order to minimise the photoshoot time. The image shows bagpipe music for Ae Fond Kiss and the end of my Scottish smallpipe chanter.
Clearly, two snails were going to be required but getting two snails in adequate focus is difficult, but as I was using f9 (to ensure the title was in soft focus but still readable) I thought it could be done. I went to get the snails, and I found these two youngsters snuggled up together! When I placed them on the chanter, they immediately moved towards each other and displayed this behaviour - it's difficult to avoid anthropomorphising, but this might be interpreted as affection! In all my years as a student of snail behaviour, I have never seen this before, but it has been well described previously (Love, M.L. (2001) Proc. Natl. Acad. Gastropod Sci., Vol. 23, 37-42 ).
The day was fairly dull, but brightened up a little while later, so thought to try this again with better light - but the two snails must have satisfied their lust in the meantime and showed no interest in each other, in fact crawling off in opposite directions (we've all been there...).
No snails were harmed in the making of this photograph.