Sitting in a hide for an hour or so allows time to contemplate many things. How comfortable the bench starts to rise up the list of things that are important the longer you stay there. Today I spent sometime in a hide at Calke Abbey and apart from the bench becoming more uncomfortable I had an enjoyable time.
If its Sunday then it must be time to visit villages in Harborough that I have missed. Today it was Newton Harcourt. For anyone unfamiliar with Newton Harcourt it is a small village around 10 miles outside of central Leicester. Its only real claim to fame is you have to rich to live there. However, on nice, crisp winter Sunday afternoons it is also where a lot of people come to walk in the countryside. I did not know this and it came as something of a shock. No matter the light was worth all the frustrations caused by the people and especially their cars.
Walking through the centre of Leicester.
I have started to work on my third iPhone book. It would be nice to pretend that I intended this as a series of books but that wasn’t the case. Last year, I made two books: Mono (see above) and Chroma. They were meant to be a complementary, stand-alone series. That was the plan. However, two new book projects have suggested themselves: Squared and Street. More on Street in a later post. For the moment I’m working on Squared.
Whilst editing the images I noticed that many of the very early images were created using the venerable Hipstamatic app. I have not used this app in years. Did it still work in 2025? Well the answer is yes. So this morning, whilst visiting one of my local coffee houses I grabbed a few images.
It did bring back some memories. Perhaps the best memory was that in the past. I used to be far more freewheeling with the images I captured with my iPhone. I am not like that now. Also I was not that bothered about image size. Today I tend to capture RAW images with my iPhone as opposed to the JPEG’s that Hipsta produced. (Which are tiny compared to the RAW files). Yet I find the Hipsta images more immediate which is very rewarding. So maybe I should go back to the future with my iPhone and see what happens. The only problem is that if I keep making square-shaped images with my iPhone, I’ll not finish the project. Thank goodness it is a vanity project. It has an audience of one. I can make up the rules as I go along.
Cold, damp and grey. The perfect conditions to capture some images. As it happens it was. For five years, my good friend and I have visited all the villages in Harborough District council. We create images that reflect what we have seen. Of course that has required some solo visits. Today was one of those days. My mission was to capture the edges of the district. The first was at Highcross on the Fosse Way. Here two counties, three district councils and two Roman roads meet.
I could complain about the bitter wind, which it was. However, the reason I was feeling the cold was because I had not put my glove on my camera hand. So perhaps I shouldn’t complain too much.
The second location was a few Km’s away at the southernmost point of Leicestershire: Crossing the River Avon between Catthorpe and Lilbourne. It is a very strange place. It is located deep in rural England. However, the roar of the traffic using the M1/M6 junction constantly reminds you that modernity is just a moment away.
At one level I’ll be sad to see the end of this project. It wasn”t suppose to take five years but a certain unknown unknown got in the way. If you don’t know what that might be, the first images were captured in early spring. This was in February 2020. Can’t think what might have happened soon after that?
I’ve got a cold. Boo Hoo. I felt a bit under the weather for a couple of days. Now I am starting to feel a whole lot better. Maybe that is why the two drawings I made this morning are looking so bilious! They don’t in real life.
This morning I was feeling well enough for some of lunar watching. Let’s hope that tomorrow I’ll feel better still to maybe venture further a field.
As anyone who is following this blog will know. I have got a thing at the moment about ‘widescreen‘ ‘cinematic‘ crops for my images. The other day I watched a video from Chris Brockhurst. It was about setting your Sony A7CR or C2 to frame images to be ‘cinematic‘.
After a bit of huffing and puffing on my part I set my camera up. Next step: off to my local shopping centre/mall to test things out.
It is too early to say whether this is useful after just one session. It certainly adds to the interest.
From the freezing blast of full sun we’re now back to standard winter fare…gloomy gray days. Perhaps the only good thing is that as everyday passes we get around 1 minute extra sunlight per day. This lead me to sit on the cold bench in the garden, see what flew by and try to make an interesting image or two. I surprised myself with what I caught.
The prize of the day was the Reed Bunting (above). It is several years since I was aware we had buntings visiting the garden so their presence gave me a lift. Perhaps the most satisfying thing about this morning was that all these were captured in appalling light. I used my CR with the Sony 200 – 600mm lens. Many of the talking heads say this combination shouldn’t work. What do they know? To top it all they were all handheld. I have to say it was impressive to see the camera selecting the birds eye through thick cover.
before I went out my mood matched the cloud cover. Now I have a renewed bounce in my step.
Not sure why but it always fascinates me that you can capture two totally different image from the same spot. Not sure what that means? If it means anything at all.
When one is slowly freezing I find strange things enter my head. This morning a question that my ever perceptive wife asked me came to the fore. “What’s so great about a Leica camera?” This was was prompted by me watching a number of reviews/love ins for Leica cameras on YouTube. I wasn’t able to answer that question other than the reviewers are rich. Over the years I have found that cameras are cameras. They have improved in almost every aspect over the last few years. This in no small part is driven by the ever presence of smartphones. In short today’s camera packs a huge bang for their buck. I should know I’ve just bought one.
Is my camera as good as or better than a Leica? I haven’t got the first clue and I don’t really care. If someone can afford to pay double the price of my camera for the Leica experience. I wish them the best of luck. I just doubt the images I would make using a Leica would be any better than those I make now. I could be wrong but I doubt I will ever be able to test this theory.
The one thing I do know. Whatever camera I used this morning wouldn’t have stopped my fingers freezing.
Simon's Blog 