Roger Hyam – Page 6

Unusual light for Edinburgh

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/302016/08/30

For a treat I had lunch in Yo Sushi on Princes Street – and I actually felt the benefit of the air conditioning! Anyone who knows Scotland will appreciate how unusual this is. Waverley station was transformed by the light. I found myself taking photos again.

Mindfulness & Buddhism

One year old today

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/28

I took lay ordination into the Order of Interbeing as True Embracing Oak (Chân Sồi Bao Dung) on 28th August 2015 – a year ago today. This is my Oak Tree ordination family. From the top down Anthony Leete, Julia Claremont-Brown, Me, Margaret McClean and Patricia Diaz. We came together on…

Misc

Henry is a ghost

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/26

Misc

Henry mobbed by his public

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/122016/08/13

During my photo drought I have taken to having my X-Pro 1 with the 27mm pancake in my bag. Carrying but not using. At Henry’s book launch this evening the official photographer was a little late but just as they asked me to help out she turned up. So I didn’t need…

Photography

The first photographic portrait of a professional horticulturist?

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/122016/08/12

I just wrote a blog for work about the Hill & Adamson portrait of William McNab. The first photographic portrait of a professional horticulturist?

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Present moment – it may be just what we think it is.

Roger Hyam, 2016/08/07

I enjoyed this video from Veritasium it complements a blog post I wrote back in 2010 – The present moment does not exist – which does a similar thing but at a larger scale.

Photography

Back from the Lakes

Roger Hyam, 2016/07/102016/07/10

We have just had a week camping in the English Lake District. It didn’t rain the whole time. Very enjoyable in a gentle family kind of way. We played rummy in the evenings.

Misc

Botanic Cottage People

Roger Hyam, 2016/06/222016/06/23

About a year a go I had committed to photograph people on their allotments as my next project when Sutherland Forsyth suggested I document the people who were involved in reconstructing the Botanic Cottage at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Needless to say the allotment project fell by the wayside…

Photography

HRH Princess Royal

Roger Hyam, 2016/04/242016/04/24

Stuart Beattie, director of Scotland’s Churches Trust, liked the portrait I made of him and asked if I might photograph the visit of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal (their patron) to a function at the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. The last royal I photographed was the queen. It was 1977. I…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Secular mindfulness needs a rethink

Roger Hyam, 2016/02/132016/02/13

I’ve been reading Christian literature again. This is an odd experience. Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis and now Abbot Christopher Jamison have been working to make me a better Buddhist. In Finding Sanctuary (Orion Books 2006) Jamison differentiates between prayer and meditation roughly like this: Prayer is a personal conversation with God…

100 Portraits

How shallow can you go

Roger Hyam, 2016/02/082016/02/08

I have had an interesting evening torn between two shots I took today. Same subject and almost the same pose but one with what may be considered too shallow a depth of field but which I prefer. It is testing my artistic integrity – pompous though it sounds. I have “it…

Photography

XF14mm f2.8 on X-Pro1 & X-Pro2

Roger Hyam, 2016/02/042016/02/17

This is a quick post to host some camera phone snaps for a discussion about the new X-Pro2 and whether it has frame lines for the XF14mm f2.8 – a nifty little lens I like a lot. It is in response to a nice Ian MacDonald Photography review of the…

Edinburgh

It was briefly winter today

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/302016/01/30

It snowed hard enough to drive me back indoors but by 10 o’clock it was all but gone.

Misc

Robert from Poland to India via Scotland

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/292016/01/29

Lovely to be joined by Robert on my lunchtime walk today. He’s off to India for five months is a couple of weeks.

Hawking: Humans at risk of lethal ‘own goal’?

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/19

Can’t resist a quick comment on this article on BBC News today.Hawking: Humans at risk of lethal ‘own goal’. He says that assuming humanity eventually establishes colonies on other worlds, it will be able to survive. “Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may…

Edinburgh

Two out of three of my green spaces under threat

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/172016/01/18

Sunday evening and I’m taking the snaps off my camera. It has been dark and I’ve been hold up writing software for my Ten Breaths Map project so there are only three shots I like but by chance there is a strong connection between the photos and the project I dedicated…

Biodiversity Informatics

A future without species: The acme of my FameLab career

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/092016/01/20

Today I gave my three minute presentation in the FameLab Scottish Final at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh having got through the Edinburgh heat. Needless to say I didn’t win. But reflecting on the whole experience I think it was very worthwhile. Even after treating myself to sticky…

Misc

The New Wild : Garden Earth

Roger Hyam, 2016/01/032016/01/03

Way back in the 1980s I worked as a young researcher for Prof David Moore at Reading University on a popular book called Plant Life (OUP 1991) which I believe was also published by Equinox Books under the title Garden Earth – although I struggle to find much reference to this version on the web. Perhaps Garden…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Hedonic Treadmill: Are there just Happy People and Sad People?

Roger Hyam, 2015/12/282015/12/28

In searching around for a subject to talk on at FameLab Scotland in January I stumbled across the fact that I had possibly been misusing a very basic psychological term. I have often referred to the Hedonic Treadmill to illustrate the tendency we all have to seek happiness by acquiring…

Edinburgh

Solstice? Not Quite Yet

Roger Hyam, 2015/12/212015/12/21

I thought it was the winter solstice this morning and my feelings were confirmed by ominous sunrise. But I was wrong. It is actually at 4:49am tomorrow morning. It moves around between 20th and 23th apparently.

Misc

FameLab – First Talk

Roger Hyam, 2015/12/152015/12/15

A few weeks back Edinburgh Beltane Public Engagement Network offered a free day of presentation skills training with Mel Sherwood. When I say free I mean it was free to participants in FameLab UK. Yes there was lunch and yes it was notionally a “free lunch” so I should have been a…

Edinburgh

Thanks for the bridge

Roger Hyam, 2015/12/142015/12/14

I had a letter published in The National again today. The text I sent was: Sir/Madam, With all the noise and smoke coming from the “blamethrowers” that have been deployed since the Fourth Road Bridge closed I haven’t heard a single word of gratitude spoken and so I’d like to…

100 Portraits

Botanic Cottage: Sutherland

Roger Hyam, 2015/12/14

Over the last year my main project has been photographing the people involved in reconstructing the Botanic Cottage. This is Sutherland who is the organiser of community stuff associated with the cottage and also the catalyst for me making the photographs. I’m getting close to finishing photographing people but still not sure…

Biodiversity Informatics

Handy Links for Geneva Meeting

Roger Hyam, 2015/10/082015/12/14

These are just some handy links for me to present at a CETAF Information Science and Technology Committee meeting in Geneva, October 2015. What RBGE publishes Example Edinburgh URI: http://data.rbge.org.uk/herb/E00393164 Leads to 303 redirect with content negotiation: Humans get: Catalogue Page Machines get: RDF page Our RDF also contains a…

First Audio Leaflet: Dawyck Scottish Trees Trail » Botanics Stories

Roger Hyam, 2015/09/252015/12/15

Just posted this about the apps I’m working on. First Audio Leaflet: Dawyck Scottish Trees Trail This is also a test of the new WordPress oembed feature.

Mindfulness & Buddhism

The role of the artists

Roger Hyam, 2015/08/302015/12/14

I came to see that the human imagination is not paramount in the creative process: that what is paramount is “The Creation” and He who created it and that what the true artist is expressing is not himself but his response to this eternal continuing process of Creation … I…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Freedom of Choice

Roger Hyam, 2015/08/212015/12/14

We are constrained by the choices we have made but the most constraining choice is choosing not to choose.

100 Portraits

Sister Coa Nghiem

Roger Hyam, 2015/07/122015/12/14

I’m just back from a week at Plum Village. I’d hoped to do some portraiture but didn’t really have time. Retreats are busy places what with all the meditating and the Mindfulness. My working meditation was in the vegetable garden with Sister Coa Nghiem. She is from Thailand and speaks…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Buddha – a life of and for peace

Roger Hyam, 2015/06/272015/12/14

I gave a talk to the Uniting for Peace Inter-Faith group meeting at the Theosophical Society in Edinburgh. I made a recording so I can improve on it if I ever give a similar talk. Here it is: Summary [Brian Cooper asked for a 300 word summary for his report….

Unsung Hero

Roger Hyam, 2015/06/27

Can’t believe I haven’t embedded this before: