Simon's Blog

I tell you what I want…

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Guthlac

The tale of two gardens…this morning I found that we are getting a wonderful crop of wild strawberries. Layter in the day I visited my friend’s garden and enjoyed the latest crop of frogs. It’s a hard life…

Posted in General | Tagged autumn, Common frog*, Flower, Fuchsia, Garden*, Pond, Wild Strawberry | Leave a comment

Sometimes I feel like Throwing my Hands in the Air….

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Guthlac

I was going to write something about how infrastructure is a vital part of any society and the last 13 years of Conservative rule has not really understood that. But what is the point as every day passes it is becoming more and more evident that the Tories cannot run anything other than into the ground. So I’ll leave it at that.

The reason I was down at the Catthorpe Interchange was part of my long running Gartree Explored project, something I started with my friend back before COVID was a thing. Well this Autumn I’m going to try and make a real big dent in the project, the problem is I’m really not sure when I’ll consider the project complete.

Such is life.

Posted in autumn, Gartree Explored, Photography | Tagged Bridge, Catthorpe, Gartree - Explored, Gartree Explored, Harborough, M1, M6, motorway, Pollution, Road | Leave a comment

All the Single Ladies…

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Guthlac

‘Life you know…’.

This afternoon whilst walking around the Cathorpe Interchange, Leicestershire’s version of Spaghetti Junction, I came across this little lady. (Well I think it is a lady as I don’t have the best track record when identifying Dragonflies or other insects for that matter). The reason why she was there is because there are several balancing ponds around the junction which are great habitat for all manner of invertebrates.

Posted in autumn, Gartree Explored, Photography | Tagged Cathorpe, Dragonfly, Gartree - Explored, Gartree Explored, M1, M6, motorway, Pollution, Road, Ruddy Darter | Leave a comment

Blue Moon?….

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Guthlac

So last night saw the last ‘Blue Moon‘ until 2037. This of course got me standing out in the dark pointing my camera and rather large lens at the moon. So here we are – the last Blue Moon for more than a decade. Exciting isn’t it. If you are wondering why it is not blue well that is because a blue moon isn’t blue but rather it is the 13th full moon of the year which is rather rare.

The moon really is a wonderful object but it is almost unmeasurably tiny, as is the earth, when viewed against the infinite (almost?) size of the cosmos.

The only time I was able to capture a ‘blue’ moon was when clouds and contrails drifted across the sky and the light reflect from the moon was refracted through them.

In other news…

Posted in Photography, Street Photography, Summer | Tagged Aircraft, Blue, Car Park, Contrails, Kegworth, Lunar, Moon, night, Pollution, Post | Leave a comment

Talk to me…

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Guthlac

Blast from the past….I’ve been working through some of my older iPhone images and I came across this one from 2015. When I se works like this I always wonder just how many pieces have of the exploded building, in this case a shed, they get in the correct place. I suspect with all the best will in the world something missing or in the wrong place. Either way it was a fascinating piece of work to encounter.

Posted in iphone, Photography | Tagged Cornelia Parker, iPhone 5C, iphoneography, University of Manchester, Whitworth Gallery | Leave a comment

I Once Knew…

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Guthlac

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.

Posted in autumn, iphone, Photography, Summer | Tagged autumn, Clouds, Cricket, iphone, iphoneography, Summer, trees, Vitamin D, Walk | Leave a comment

Uncle Tedward….

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Guthlac

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.

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, drawing, Procreate | Tagged Procreate, Roger Allam, sketch, Stephen Fry, Ted Wallace, The Hippopotamus, Tim McInnerny | 3 Comments

Chip Away the Stone…

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Guthlac

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.

Posted in Photography, Street Photography | Tagged Costa, iPhone 13, iphoneography, Teddy bear | 1 Comment

Free Fallin’….

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Guthlac

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.

Posted in Four Horsemen, Gartree Explored, Photography | Tagged climate change, Cloud, Electricity, Farming, Four Horsemen, Gartree - Explored, Generation, Gilmorton, Harborough, Leicestershire, sky, Wind Turbine | Leave a comment

Reach on High…

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Guthlac

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)