No Rhyme …

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Guthlac

Some random images I captured the other day whilst being very much me.

All photographs are a reflection of the person who created them. Is this really what I do with my time? I guess so.

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Playing Catch Up…

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Guthlac

So the theory goes: When you are a pensioner you’ll become ‘time rich‘. I am not sure who might have put forward this theory. Perhaps no one – just something I’ve thought up! (The one thing I do know is that the older I get the more my memory isn’t as efficient nor effective as it once was.). Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying I’ve been a bit busy over the past few days. So these are images I have captured over the past few weeks and have not got around to posting.

Does any of this matter? No of course not. This is not entirely true. It matters to me.

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5 Years…

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Guthlac

Beautiful spring morning. What better way to enjoy things than to sit in the garden; capture a few images of the birds as they flit, feed, and sing and just enjoy the sunshine. Five years ago of course that was just about all we were allowed to do. Many things have changed but of course one thing is the same. Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America – but that is a subject for another day.

I have reread a few of the posts I made during the lockdown. I have to say it has started to get me down. Best leave those thoughts for 2020.

Instead enjoy the photographs I captured this morning and try and not dwell on 2020 too much.

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Inside the Space of an Atom…

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Guthlac

I am not going to pretend I have anything other than the most basic understanding of quantum mechanics. Interestingly, after reviewing the images I captured whilst visiting the excellent Cosmic Titans: Art, Science and the Quantum Universe exhibition at the Djanogly gallery, a flavour of the strangeness can be glimpsed. It was not intended.

That, of course, suggests that I had any intentions. I rarely do. Instead I usually turn up and then go with the flow. It is not elegant but it seems to work for me. This approach is assisted by modern cameras blatant disregard for poor lighting. Most of these were captured in VERY dark rooms at very slow shutter speeds. Yet the sensor and IBIS smoothed out most problems.

Back in the real world normality seemed to be the order of the day.

If using the Hipstamatic photo app on your iPhone on a tram is normal?

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Five Years in the Making…

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Guthlac

It has taken five years but it is done. Gartree Explored is no more an active project. All that is left is to arrange the images in order then publish the book of the project. No problem??

It was a wonderful day to finish. One of those days that made you feel good to be alive.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,

John of Gaunt – Richard 2nd

This is even more apt than you might think. This is Gaunt’s country. He would have known Medbourne and the land around it. In Gaunt’s time Leicester was the administrative heart of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Gartree Road was still used as a major thoroughfare and no doubt Gaunt and his retinue would have traveled along it.

So the time between these two images being captured has seen four Prime Ministers; one global pandemic; two non consecutive terms of President Trump; war has once more returned to Europe and Britain left the European Union.

What does the future hold???

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Where Fools Dare to Tread….

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Guthlac

It is that time of year. Yesterday felt like spring had sprung? This is a fools game which I have played before.

In 2023 I wrote about how late February did feel very spring like. Then of course just two weeks later…

This being said there definitely was a smell of spring in the air. Oh I do hope this is the case. I’ve had enough of cold dull days.

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Last Tree?…

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Guthlac

Is this the first or last tree in Blaby District Council? I’m really not sure other than it depends on where you observe the tree from.

The same question could be asked about the ruins of St. Mary in Arden church. Was it the last church in Great Bowden or the first in Market Harborough?

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Different Views…

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Guthlac

The closer we get to the end of the Harborough project the more I have come to realise that this is my collection of images. It is not whether they properly reflect the area it is that they reflect what I saw. To understand this you have to understand how David and I work. We normally visit an area and then capture images that meet our needs: his image that will inspire a painting and my need is help create a coherent photo essay. The result of this is very very different. Yet to both us they make sense.

I guess what I am saying is that should you, dear reader, have wandered through the centre of Market Harborough yesterday you would have captured a series of images that would have been different to what either of us. They might have been better. They have been worse. Whatever the case they would have been your images in much as the same way these are mine.

It is the same with the words I have written. They are my ‘unedited ramblings’. They are not the anodised and americanised words that the WordPress AI insists would make this blog so much better. I am not an American and my language cannot be parsed to pass as one. Given everything that is going on at the moment perhaps it might be in everybody’s best interest that an American piece of software stop telling everyone else how to write.

(Note: since I wrote that last sentence the AI seems to have stopped showing what it thinks I should write…spooky. Do AI sulk?)

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Passenger Seat…

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Guthlac

Damp late winter’s day in Harborough. What else is there to do but capture a couple of images out of the car’s window. Actually, there were many other things to do and perhaps I will post about that next time?

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As One Project Ends…

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Guthlac

With a fair wind we might finish the Harborough Project before Easter. Might is the operative word here. My good friend David and I have been struck by a series of problems whilst trying to do just that. So perhaps Easter is a little hopeful. I hope not.

Anyway, time and tides and all that. So I have started my next project which is covering North West Leicestershire. Hopefully this will not take the five years that Harborough has taken to complete! yesterday I was in Whitwick, Swannington and Cole Orton.

The working title for this project is ‘Paradise Consumed’.

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