A few more images from walking around the local area with an iPhone…summer is fast descending into autumn and these warm sun afternoons will soon gain a sharper edge. The nights are now really starting to draw in.
Soon be time to start taking the vitamin D the bones aren’t getting any younger.
I’m relistening to The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry and this inspired the sketch above. The book is about a fallen poet, Ted Wallace, who is sent on quest by his goddaughter at the grand country house of his oldest friend. In truth it really is a thinly veiled caricature of Fry himself with the Wallace, a burnt out metropolitain snob, and a screaming queen director called Oliver Mills acting as two sides of Fry’s own character – well at least that is how it appears to me having consumed a couple of his biographies. The advantage of the audiobook is that it allows Fry give these two characters their full throated roar. Wonderful.
The film of the same name is an edited version of the book but is still so much fun with Roger Allam as Ted and Tim McInnerny as Mills. Both are on great form. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t do each of their character’s full justice but what you get is still very good.
Life is a very strange experience – very strange. We struggle though somehow and yet do we really understand what the hell is happening? I really don’t think so unless we are so Donald Trump delusional. I suspect most people are just happy the creep into their bed at night knowing they got through another day. Or is it just me?
Take me. A month ago I was convinced that my latest iPhone’s camera really wasn’t that good. I’ve written(?) about it on this blog but then someone asks the obvious question and suddenly I have to go back and reappraise how I’m using the iPhone and now I have changed my mind. However, a lot of things have happened in the last month to change a lot of things in my life so perhaps these might have had an influence as well?
I don’t know what mixture of influences, stray comic rays or ineffable plans have come together but I have changed my mind.
See life is strange.
What is there not to like? A warm late summer afternoon, a camera, a selection of excellent lenses and a sky to die for. It was so nice to just enjoy capturing images.
The extra bonus comes from the fact that these images can be used in a long running project called Gartree Explored, the third of a series of projects to capture images in the district council areas of Leicestershire. This was started back in 2020 and then, well, COVID happened which somewhat put a stop to things. Lets just hope it doesn’t take another 3 years to finish this.
Humble Pie is being consumed. I know I bitched about the camera et al on the iPhone but it would seem that what the real problem was with the operator. Perhaps a bit harsh and melodramatic but it is true. The difficulty getting reasonable images out of my iPhone was me or rather I wasn’t working the images before passing them onto my post production system. Know the main problems with iPhone images is physics: crap lens and incredibly small sensor. In the world of image quality size really does matter. However, as an everyday camera the iPhone has regained its position and I am so glad about that. Yipee. (I have no shame)
Over the past few months I’ve been moaning about the images I have captured with my iPhone. Then yesterday I had a short exchange with a fellow blogger about my views on the iPhone which got me thinking…is it the iPhone or is it me? So I went back over 14 years of images (yes it has been that long!) and then the penny dropped. I really should start to engage with the current iPhone app rather than just dismissing it. When I did that I found that images that I had previously abandoned suddenly became interesting.
I have been so energised by the process that it has inspired me to create a new book. Life is funny at times.
Footnote
This is what the WordPress AI thought of this post….
To improve the post:
1. Consider expanding on the specific features or techniques of the iPhone app that were found to be beneficial in capturing interesting images.
2. Elaborate on the themes or concepts that inspired the new book to provide additional context for readers.
3. Explore the emotions or thoughts behind the process of going through 14 years of images, highlighting any significant discoveries or insights.
The current structure and inclusion of images effectively support the content. Ensure the post has a strong conclusion that summarises the overall impact of the iPhone app and the author’s journey.
I’m really glad I don’t give a fig about these things…(BTW that was written by a human – ME not AI)
I know, I know, I don’t like the iPhone camera or rather what the software does with the images captured. But when the iPhone is the only camera you have with you then you have to make the best of a bad job. Actually this make it sound like I was suddenly transported into this strange lightshow unprepared but that wasn’t the case at all. We had planned to see the Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience at All Saints church in Leicester for a couple of days so I could have taken a better camera – but I didn’t (what does that say about me?). So I can’t gripe about the camera but I will anyway – as anyone who might read the above will see.
The show itself was really quite good, although we did baulk at paying an extra fee for the Virtual Reality experience. I have seen a number of Van Gogh’s greatest paintings in real life so I don’t need to see a ‘virtual‘ version.
For whatever reason I have created more and more art in the digital realm whilst making fewer drawings in the real world. I think it is about time that I changed that just a little. I made this sketch of the Star Wars character Ahsoka this morning (oh I really hope Disney doesn’t screw things up in the forthcoming series – only time will tell) and I think I’m a little rusty. There is only one get rid of this rust – more drawings!
I was wading through the images I have captured using the Lightroom app on my iPhone – the best way I have found to access the RAW (sort of) data of an image – and came across these images I captured over the past few days. This is about a random a collection as you’ll find and say more about my life as anything else!?!
The last two have a strange circularity to them as I have been thinking once more about my camera set up. Around 12 months ago I was going through the same thing trying to answer the same questions as I am now and it cost several hundred pounds to realise I came up with the wrong answer. I don’t think I’m going to do that again…am I?
What does it mean to be a football fan? Nowadays it is really not that clear. Am I a football fan? I really don’t know. What I do know is that when 4:45pm comes around on Saturday (I know football doesn’t work that way the games are spread all over the place but humour me) the one result I look for is Leicester’s. I have done that for most of my life. Would I go to a game? No. I have attended too many games in my life to have had that knocked out of my system. But still Leicester is the only team I really care about.
This is why I don’t believe the long term future of football isn’t in the deserts of the Arabian peninsula nor the boardrooms of financial organisations. Football, as far as England is concerned, is the team you care about. Leicester has been lucky over the past few years but that luck ran out last season and they went down. I read in the Athletic that Brendan Rodgers is a 3 season manager. If he stays any longer then it doesn’t go well for the team he is incharge of at that time. Well guess what he was at Leicester for nearly 4 seasons.
So a new season, a new division and a new manager Enzo Maresca. The first game was a victory – that is good even if they were lucky but 3 points are 3 points. It is a long way to May and hopefully promotion. Leicester are the favourite to win the division and over the past few years 2 of the 3 promotion places have been taken by teams recently relegated from the Premiership. So 66% chance of promotion – not bad odds – perhaps the £44 million Leicester will receive as a parachute payment from the Premiership well help them keep as many players as they can. Let’s hope so
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