For the past few weeks I have just exploded with creative output. I have no idea where it came from but there it is just sitting on my hard drive. A lot of it has been made whilst watching the innane rubbish that seems to passes for new content on Netflix. I know this is hardly an original observation but Netflix now produces some awful programmes. Perhaps it appeals to some people but it doesn’t to me. It was so bad that I was reviewing whether to dump the whole package the other day. I’m not at the moment as there are two or three series I want to see conclusion of but after that? I can’t see the point of Netflix anymore.
So instead of watching crap I just sit there in the evening and draw away on my iPad. Strangely enough I find this really relaxing…the latest programme I have on in the background is Landscape artist of the Year on Sky (I know this isn’t Netflix but whatever…). It is good fun being aware of some other artists creating art whilst I am. The the best bit is right at the end when all the pieces have been produced so this is the only part I concentrate on.
So night after night I draw and this seems to have driven during the day as well. Crazy how one things leads to another.
So, this morning whilst I was waking up and waiting the start of the Australian Grand Prix I made myself a coffee. Whilst the kettle was boiling I scanned through my Apple Music and found my personalised Music Station. Now I had heard of this many years ago (well I think it was that long ago but memories who knows now?) and so I started to play the music and I’m not sure it was really me or perhaps it really was and I just hadn’t been paying attention. Anyway, according to the computer my music is mostly guitar vocals by such artists as James Taylor, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Tracy Chapman.
Not at all sure what that means but I’m still listening to the station as I write this…
Perhaps this really is me – not sure but great music.
Some people go for a walk I draw and paint after breakfast most mornings. It doesn’t matter what who the subject is I just find I start the morning much better having created a little something.
One of the problems that any photographer faces when trying to capture images in the Harry Potter Studio Tour is light or the lack of it. Fortunately, we live in a world where digital cameras provide opportunities that were not there when the films were made as they were recorded on, well, film. To reinforce this there is a huge still from the production in the Backlot Cafe where Michael Gambon is being filmed in the great hall delivering a speech from the podium. The image however shows the production crew who were watching as he delivered his lines including an Arri movie camera with a 1000 foot reel of film. The image was probably captured c2004/5 when digital was only really starting to enter major movie production so film, which is unlikely to have had an ISO or no more than 200, was the medium they recorded the images on. Hence massive lighting rigs etc. a lot of light was required to ensure the image was captured just the way that the DP wanted.
The reason I bring this up is that I used my iPhone 13 to capture a number of images in very very poor lighting conditions and came away with very different results. The first image of Hogwarts was taken using the Apple Pano function and relying on the computational power of the phone to correct any problems and it really delivered the goods. Now of course if you pixel peep you will soon notice that there are many problems with the image but, given it was captured in VERY poor lighting it is remarkable. (I also find pixel peeping to be a pointless exercise when the image is the real goal but the fidelity of each pixel – but that is just me you may disagree and I accept that.)
Just how remarkable the image processing was can be seen from the next image. This was captured with the ultrawide lens on the phone but instead of using the Apple App I used the Adobe Lightroom camera which, I believe, by passes the computational software of the Apple Camera app and gives you the raw data for you to use as you see fit. I used this for esthetic reasons and I am really happy with the results but it does underline just how powerful computational photography has become in the modern smartphone.
Now I have nothing against computational image making. The above image from the Ministry of Magic set was created by Adobe’s AI in Lightroom from two image I captured with my R3 and I think it is an important thing to think about when discussing computational photography in general and the broader issues surrounding how AI should be used. I made the decision to use it for my own artistic reasons. It was no more than an extra tool I now have available to me in the same way that the image stabilizing system on the camera helps me capture sharpe hand held images in very low light conditions. The problem comes when we don’t know these tools are beings used or we just accept what they have given us. They are tools nothing more and we should be the ones that make the decisions as and when they are deployed.
If you’re a fan then you really must visit Warner Brother Studios at Leavesden. It is described as a ‘Studio Tour‘ but it really isn’t. No it is a museum, a very well supported museum, but a museum all the same. Here you can experience and explore just how they made the movies with some of the original props, sets and costumes as well a big chunk of show biz magic thrown in. Warning if you are not a fan then this is not a place for you. It might come as no surprise I am so it was a great day out.
On the way home the next day we drove across the Buckinghamshire countryside which, I have to say, was just wonderful as well. All in all a good couple of days.
Not quite sure where these faces or at least the impulse to make them came from but here they are for whatever it is worth. To me they’re interesting…your mileage might vary.
So much for the theory that Spring started in February! The last few days of March have been a blast – that is if you like cold and frosts and 4-6 cm of snow. Otherwise it has been horrible. Of course this being here we didn’t get the worst of the weather but it was unpleasant nonetheless. The one big difference between February and March is that the sun is higher in the sky and so snow doesn’t stay around for long. This morning everything has a ‘crisp and even‘ feeling to it with a fresh blanket of 2 – 3 cm of snow. Now it has all but gone and streams of water are rushing to the drain. Which can only mean one thing…
…Flooding.
This morning I walked down to the park expecting a snowy wonderland instead I found a land of water and the worst flooding we’ve suffered this winter (and this before the runoff from last nights snow hits the rivers.) It could go up another few centimetres. Fortunately, we live a good 10 metres above the flood waters so we’re fine. There are many house further downstream that might not be so lucky, although this is why we flood every year as a protection for those houses. Other places around the country won’t be so lucky.
Is it me or is there really there the smell of rot and decay hanging over our current ruling elite? They really are well past their sell by date and should be thrown out. Yet there they sit slowly poisoning everything and everybody they touch. I actually think that Rishi Sunak is a decent person (I just don’t agree with his policies) but his standing is being corrupted by the people around him. Now you could feel sorry for him but don’t – he appointed them. The sooner they are gone the better.
Is spring coming earlier? I don’t know but this is the second year where it has felt very spring like at this time of year. Two years worth of anecdotal data is hardly conclusive, especially as the February of 2021 was colder and had snow on the ground 1, but as I walked across the fields around Willoughby Watersley in shirt sleeves and sleeveless fleece it certainly felt VERY spring like. Well if it is spring then that is not good in the long term but this afternoon it felt good to get some rays on my body.
1 The data I’m using are the previous three years of blogs I have written in February – a very scientific data set!
Life is brutal – politics doubly so. Just over three years ago the political party leaders of Britain’s main parties, in their own different ways, controlling all they surveyed. Now they are all gone. Some more quickly than others – does anyone really remember Jo Swinson? A few people perhaps but beyond the nerdy sections of the population she caused almost no ripples at all – this included the good people of Dumbartonshire who dumped her as their MP in 2019. The first to fall.
The next to go was Jeremy Corbyn who hung on until 2020 after leading the Labour Party to one of their greatest defeats in the 2019 election. Of course biggest beast was Boris Johnson who squandered the almost impossible victory he managed create from 2019 and was gone by August 2022. All gone.
Now the final party leader to go has just started to move towards the door. Nicola Sturgeon will soon have more time to spend with her nieces and nephews (this is a reference to her resignation speech). Of them all she was by far the most impressive political force. Yes Johnson was box office but as political operator he really hadn’t a clue and in many ways this lead to his own downfall. Sturgeon on the other hand was able to keep together the warring factions of the SNP together for almost 8 years after their greatest disappoint a feat few could’ve managed but she did. As First Minister of Scotland she ruled supreme but in the end these all things crumble and collapse. So it is with Sturgeon’s career. To rub salt in her wounds Rishis Sunak, a politician who would be much improved if he but 1% of Sturgeon’s political skills, should offer her a seat in the House of Lords.
So goodbye to them all. They were all there through some of the most insane moments of modern British political history. They are a hard act to follow … well perhaps not Jo Swinson!
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