i take a lot of photos from a low angle. and here's a good example showing the difference between an above picture of a lost broken key and a low angle version of the same thing.

to get the low angle picture i set my little compact camera to macro mode and centre point focussing, place it against the ground, and point it in the general direction of thing i'm photoing.

i usually end up taking 4 or 5 shots to get the thing i want to be in focus, with a fair bit of chimping at the time to check.

the worst bit is standing up again as i'm usually wearing my heavy backpack with laptop and various heavy documents.

the crouch is usually worth it though.

so there you go. you probably knew all that already.

of all the british coins in circulation, the £2 is the fattest, making it ideal for restyling as a key.

i assume the key cutter (key-monger?) gets to keep any scrap which is how he makes his crust.

i saw these keys on the ground yesterday morning. after taking this photo i picked them up and took them in to a nearby shop.

the lady behind the counter was a bit confused but all ended happily when a lady in the queue overheard what i was saying, checked her handbag and realised they were her lost keys !

the mix of amazement, relief and joy on her face suggested she wasn't a random key thief and my day got off to a good start.

if only i'd have taken a picture of her reunited with her keys !

as you'll know, spring, of, as they call it in America, 'spring', has now sprung and it's officially, er, spring.

that means all sorts of things start popping up. flowers mostly.

but there's a few other things. we all know that mushrooms are the mushrooms of the food world, but what are the mushrooms of the drink world you ask ?

tea bags of course.

here are a crop of round ones (and a key):

click for big

here's the key:

and here's another teabag, this time with a box of matches and a lighter: