Clap Your Hands…

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Guthlac

Another beautiful day already. Sitting in the garden and watching nature flyby…oh and bloom…

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Cloudbusting…

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Guthlac

It’s a nice day so I thought I would sit out in the garden and see what happens…

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Is this the last day of the Rishi government?…

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Guthlac

So today is the day…will any of the Conservative MP’s dare to vote against Boris Johnson in tonight’s debate on the Privileges Committee report ? Or to put it another way will they dare to vote against their membership? I have no idea what happens within each constituency membership but it is widely accepted that Boris Johnson is more popular amongst them than the population as a whole. This means that there may be pressure on Tory MPs not to vote but rather abstain. Here is just one example of doublespeak:

Michael Gove says he will not vote for a report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Partygate.

The housing secretary told the BBC there were areas where the ex-PM “falls short” of expectations. …speaking to BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Gove said a ban of such length – rare in recent years – was “not merited by the evidence the committee have put forward”.

BBC News Website

Not entirely sure what ‘falls short‘ means in this context – other than I’m in a very marginal seat at the moment and I don’t want to upset my core voters or am I being far too cynical?

Again the Prime Minister may not attend the debate nor vote. If he doesn’t vote then he has just kissed goodbye to his premiership as he will have bowed to the ridiculous pressure of Boris Johnson and his new column in the Daily Mail. Good luck with the news cycle when everyone is awaiting Johnson’s opinion. Let us not forget Johnson appears to seriously dislike Rishi Sunak so what advantage is the for Sunak in pandering to Johnson? Yet this is how it will appear if he too doesn’t vote. It will be an open goal for Labour and the Liberal Democrats – just what they want going into at least three winnable by elections to make the very simple claim that Rishi is scared of Boris. It will be very very difficult to argue otherwise if tonight’s vote is most notable by the large number of Tory MPs who are absent.

So will there be many abstentions? Don’t know but the stakes are really high for Sunak and if he blows it then what is left of his authority? Expect memes of ‘tiny’ Sunak next to the growling ‘big beast’ Boris. Margaret Thatcher will be spinning in her grave.

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This Summer’s Birds…

Posted on June 18, 2023 by Guthlac

Each summer I seem to capture a number of images of one breed of bird: In 2021 it was the Wren; 2022 it was the Robin and this year it would appear to be the Blackbird. This doesn’t mean I have deliberately sort these birds out but rather they have chosen to nest in the garden and so when I’m out catching some rays with my camera there they are. So why the Red Kite?

Well they are starting to be seen on a more regular basis over our house which is always welcome and I could pretend that was the case but it isn’t really. I have semi-seriously tried to capture this particular bird(s) as they keep appearing in skies over the part of the east of the county that I have been regularly visiting. As I get to know the creatures better I suspect (hope) I’ll be able to capture better photographs.

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Incredible Shrinking Boris…

Posted on June 17, 2023 by Guthlac

Oh how the mighty do fall. It wasn’t too long ago that there was 10 years of Boris as PM. Now? Well it is far from certain what his new role is other than destroy the current iteration of a Conservative government (not before time). Then what?

Make a lot of money and then spend even more money than you earnt and be back in the same financial mess – probably;

Start messing around with other women – he does have form;

More children, not with his wife – again…

Once more be PM? Now this is the most doubtful, especially if a future Labour government decides to bring England in line with all the other countries of the Union and introduce proportional representation. Even if this doesn’t happen the way back for Boris would require hard work, commitment, cunning and most of all bravery – he has demonstrated a total lack of any of these things in his political career so far -why should he change now?

Instead I suspect he’ll write his columns for the Daily Mail until they sack him – I believe that this is what has happened at most of the other papers he has written for in the past. He will still fly the world making speeches but the money here will also start to dry up and he will then be chased by creditors, ex wives etc. Finally, one day he may be seen in some pub somewhere in the cotswolds decrying his luck to anyone who listens.

Only time will tell.

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Always…

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Guthlac

I’ve finally got around to making my yearbooks for 2022 (as I wrote that there was a huge crack of thunder overhead – ominous?) and I have to say I am finding the whole process a lot more enjoyable than normal. Pride comes before a fall…lets hope not.

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Summer Fun…

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Guthlac

So the summer is here and boy have we had some glorious sunny days. Problem is the breeze has been blowing in straight from the arctic it has been really cold, by summer standards, at the same time. I’m still wearing a sleeveless fleece! Still this hasn’t stopped the garden from offering up some wonderful photo opportunities. Kodak moments me thinks!

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Vision Pro

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Guthlac

My initial thoughts…

I watched this evening’s presentation by Apple of Vision Pro their latest wearable technology and marvelled at what would appear to be an incredible feat of engineering. However, I cannot say I understand the purpose of such a machine. I know it is a first attempt at trying to create a whole new category of machine but from what I saw at the presentation I fear no matter how many fine words are spoken in well polished presentations it can’t get away from the following facts:

1, The Price. “….Starts from $3300…” I am sure in future this number will be reduced as volumes increase (hopefully for Apple) but I doubt by that much. If this is the case then it will be dead in the water as there will be so few people willing or able to fork out such money. If this is the case then it will be play thing of the rich which won’t help sell Disney + subscriptions – Bob Iger made an appearance plugging how the service will be really great on the headset;

2, Battery Life. It was said that the battery pack will last for around 2 hours. After that it will have to be plugged into the mains. If this is correct you will have to have a supply of batteries at hand to use for more than 2 hours, again adding to the cost, or you are going to have to be connected to an extension cable and if so how will this work out in an office situation for example?;

3, Glasses. Anyone who has spent time at an opticians know just how long it takes to get the prescription just right by a professionally trained person. The impression I got from the presentation was the Zeiss lenses, which you will no doubt have to buy extra hence the ‘from‘ qualifier, will be fitted by a salesperson at an Apple store. I am sure that the Zeiss lenses are of the highest quality and the staff’s endeavours will be the best they can be but how much more will you have to pay and just how good will the final result be?;

4, Societal. Watching the presentation of just what a wonderful new world was being heralded in my mind kept drifting to the recent film Ready Player One. In the film the people want to spend all their time online instead of living in the real world. I know this is a far off vision but in one aspect the new product has started to dehumanise the user – the horrific digitally projected eyes of the person using the Vision Pro to show that they are looking at you on the screen of the device. We already have enough problems in society at the moment of without human eye contact being replaced by a pair of ghost eyes.

Perhaps the only positive thing I took away from the presentation was that it would be fantastic way to watch a movie unless of course you want to watch with someone else then they would have to have a set of Vision Pro’s as well. Oh and I can’t see these being very useful on a flight either with only 2 hours battery life.

I am sure there will be any number of people on social media right now telling you that this is the future and they are just as excited as Tim Cook about what the future holds but I am not one of them. This has all the appearance of a product struggling to find a role in world and no amount of Apple’s reality distortion field is going to hide the fact this has more in common with the 3D TV than iPhone. Just ask Meta.

Only history will prove which way this goes but things will have to change significantly before I will see this as an answer to a question no one is asking.

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Catch Up # No. 03

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Guthlac

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Catch Up # No. 02

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Guthlac

So why do you need a lot of equipment to make photographs? Afterall a smartphone can deliver incredible images given the opportunity. I think the answer to this can be summed up in one word ‘quality‘. This is a really subjective word especially in a world dominated by image consumption on line rather than as a print but it still is the only real way answer the question.

Assuming that the image is good then if it has been produced by a large sensor and good quality lenses it will provide the photographer with so much more to work with in terms of bit depth, pixel quality and tolerance to help make a good image great. The equipment will also allow the photographer to pursue the image in ways that a smartphone simply cannot. This is not to say the smartphone doesn’t have a place, it certainly does and I have long been an advocate for the use of smartphones. But in an art form that relies more than anything else on quality of the image there is no way that a smartphone can out trump physics.

I captured all the images here using a variety of lenses ranging from a super wide 18mm to a long telephoto lens of 600 mm and this freedom cannot be found using a smartphone. Now it can be argued that you don’t need such a wide range of lenses to make excellent images and this is true. But the more you are restricted by the equipment you have available to you then greater the chance that you will not be able to fulfil your creative vision.

The one thing that any amount of equipment cannot do is provide a photographer with the eye for an image. This, to a degree, can be trained and developed over time. However, without it any images created will lack that certain something. Do I have it ‘the eye‘? I think so but you are more than welcome to disagree and that is fine. I only ever make photographs for myself and so if I am happy then that is all that matters.

Footnote:

All the images here were captured in the last two weeks in a variety of locations.

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