Bills Posts

When I was into photography during the “wet” era there were two main constraints, being limited to 36 pictures per roll, and the cost of processing and printing. Naturally, with digital, both if these are no longer issues. That doesn’t mean though, that your photographs aren’t boring. But is it reasonable to say; my boring is your art? OK, OK, that’s probably a bit extreme, I don’t expect you to think that my boring pictures are in any way artistic. But, you never know…

One thing that I do know is that I am bored with many of the pictures that I take on my morning walks. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t matter how many times I photograph anywhere on the Gosport waterfront, it still has the potential to turn into a nice picture, but for the most part that will be through an external influence; a lovely sky, a new ship coming in, a a good bit of street photography. These don’t come around that often. So I haven’t been taking as many pictures I would normally take. I want to take more pictures.

I’ve been watching a few videos on YouTube about boring photography, and they tend to encourage you to just take pictures that may please you and not to worry. There are lots of things that I could photograph, I’ll just have to try. I’ll give it a go tomorrow, and see how I get on.

Gosport isn’t like Swanage. Yes, they are both by the sea, but unlike Swanage (and yes, I am about to stereotype, so if I’m wrong I am more than happy to be corrected) Gosport’s reason to exist isn’t Tourism. Yes, it does have its touristy bits, and they are very good, and actually worth visiting all year round (mostly the museums).

I went out for a fairly short walk today. I was on the promenade, and I was suddenly struck by the bleakness of it. There was a biting wind blowing, there were very few people around, and apart from the occasional ship or pilot cutter movement there is little or no movement. In Gosport’s case, the lack of activity was illusory. You only had to move away from the promenade to find a reasonably busy high street.

Many years ago, I used to go to Swanage quite regularly, all year round. There is something to be experienced of a town where the primary function is to entertain people in nice weather. Of course there are the locals. And if you do go out of season, be prepared for a very boisterous night life (at least, it was before Covid, and I would be surprised of that stopped “Swanagenarians” from enjoying themselves.

One of the deepest frustrations were the shops that were closed out of season, in particular, there was a nice little bookshop which I enjoyed browsing. As it happened there was a stationers/newsagents not much further down the street, it was there that I found the Tom Swift books, I became quite hooked on them. I tried reading one recently, but my oh my, I found the main character nauseatingly arrogant. Quite disappointing really.

Of course the one thing that Swanage will always have going for it, regardless of the time of year are its assets, the walking the sites, the sights and the rather glorious surrounds. Well worth a visit, and even spending a few days there.

Out for a fairly short walk today, that took in the waterfront. There was a small group of starlings putting on a a bit of a show. I wanted to try and get a mini murmuration, but they were too fast. Still I managed to get this one mid-flap. They are always a delight to watch.

Back at home, the grey wagtail is once again a regular;

This little bird is an absolute delight to watch. Permanently bobbing, it dashes in for a peck, and dashes back. We love watching it. It normally doesn’t take long after I top up the food for the birds to arrive, This morning, I counted thirteen pigeons. Only one had managed to get on to the bird table, and one has worked out how to get at one of the hanging feeders. The starling had dived on the table in very respectable numbers, and seemed to be too busy eating to squabble. There was another group on the ground, along with the small birds, and apart from the hanging feeder being attacked by the pigeon, the sparrows were at all of the remaining feeders. I can’t tell you how pleased I am at all of this.

It’s not that I’m a real bird watcher (ornithologist in the sense that I need to know every type of bird, every so often I see a bird and wonder what it is. That’s how I learned about two of the different sparrows we get in the garden.

Really nice to see.

Between 1980 and 1992 I spent a lot of my time driving at night. It’s something that I don’t do very much of these days. In fact, I am happy to go out of my way to avoid doing it if I can. Sometimes though you just have to, in which case, I just get on and do it.

This time of year especially, it’s difficult to avoid driving in the dark, so that is why I was out tonight. I had to go to my amateur radio club. The drive out was ok, but the fog was quite dense in places, patchy. I couldn’t stop, I had to get where I was going.

The return journey was a bit more relaxed. There are only a couple of lay-byes on the road back. I could see the layer of fog over Porstmouth, and I very much wanted to get a picture of it.

I used to drive along the edge of the Vale of Wendover a few times of year, I very much wanted to do it at a time when there was a low-laying mist, I think it would have been beautiful. Now I would really like to get a picture of a low laying mist over Portsmouth.

This picture was taken very close to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier wall. The disappointing thing is that I quite like it as a picture, but it’s a symbol of people who really don’t care.

In fairness to Gosport Borough Council, they have a street cleaning service that is really quite dedicated. I often see men out with their trolley cleaning the street and the street sweepers quite often pass me when I’m on Stokes road getting near the end of my walk. They do a good job. When I get the chance, I will stop and have a chat with them and make a point of saying thank you for their efforts.

There are also a lot of litter bins around so their is absolutely no excuse for dropping litter. I make an effort to ensure that I don’t drop litter, it really doesn’t take much effort, and I really don’t understand why people feel entitled to be able to drop litter. It is really annoying.

Sadly, sometimes, you end up with a picture that I really quite like.

I did manage to get out for a walk this morning. The temperature was slightly up on what it has been over the last few days, but because I had a work related thing I had to cut the walk slightly short, but that was OK, the main thing was – I did get out.

The most notable thing was that the lights were out on the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. This had a significant impact on the quality of light. The Header picture gives an example of the richness of the colours that came out because of that. Here’s another;

The sky, the water, the lights, there’s something about this picture that gives a distinctly silky feel to it. I like it. You don’t have to.

I am remain delighted with the camera on the iPhone 12, and I think that I have only just begun to explore its capabilities, especially when used in conjunction with a photo editing app, such as Snapseed. The Colour separation is an example that I’ve previously included is an example of that, and here is another very simple example;

It’s the blurring that I did in the app. Again, I like this one.

I opened my eyes. I’m laying on my left side, I am looking at the clock. It says 0319. I sigh, partly in frustration that I’m awake, partly in pleasure in the thought that I have two hours before I get up for my walk. All I need to do is get back to sleep.

I open my eyes again. It’s 0615. This wasn’t really in the plan. By now, the #Breakfastclub will be underway, and they are wondering where I am. I almost drift off again, it’s at that point where by the time I’m up, dressed and ready to go out, I’d only have time for a quick dash to the waterfront, and I am sorry to say, I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to get up. Until that is, I received a gentle poke in the back, along with a gently croaked “Cup of Tea”.

The cats were in a mood; Misty wants the door open, no she wants a drink, but first give me breakfast, no open the door after I’ve had a drink, but no, I’ll eat breakfast first. Where is it? Why haven’t you got it ready yet? Rascal is just stood there patiently waiting, I do their breakfast. It is, even if I say so myself, a nice cup of tea. But now it’s time to get up.

I’ll go for a walk at lunchtime.

I had reached 9PM tonight, and knew I still had to do my blog entry. I was a little bit stuck about what to write, so I searched in YouTube for video clips about writing creative non-fiction and up pops this chap; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUgKwa_Em1E Before I had finished watching the first five minutes I had subscribed to his channel so that I could easily find other videos by him. I shall dip in every so often.

What did I like about the video? Most of the American YouTube videos I watch can make you breathless at the rate at which they throw out their words. It’s almost as if they are determined to pack as much information in to the limited time of their video. Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with that, but it can be exhausting.

This chap still crams a lot in to his video, but doesn’t in a calm unhurried way, much more suited to my way of thinking. I think I am probably getting tired now. I had a late-ish night last night, and woke up well before it was time to get up this morning probably not much more than 4 hours sleep. I am well into writing this, and twice now I have had to stop and delete a load of text, because my brain had gone somewhere else. I could feel my self drifting off. When I have looked down at what I’ve written something it’s nonsensical.

I enjoyed the video on how to write creatively about mundane things. It was very interesting, and I may have a practice at that principle of focussing on one moment of time and writing about that. I may give that a go.

What’s the link then, between this article (so far) and the title Dorset Life? None at all. Dorset Life is a magazine that I subscribe to. It has some amazing pictures, and some lovely stories. I enjoy reading each issue. That’s about it.

What the picture doesn’t show is how cold it is. Not freezing, and the sun is very bright, and you can feel its warmth, but the air is cold. As usual for my Sunday walk, I was keen to try and follow a route where I don’t normally go. I took the time from home to up towards Waitrose to make up my mind. I wasn’t going to do the route I normally follow on my weekday outings. The only problem with that was I wouldn’t be going near the waterfront, which I do like to do, but with yesterdays trip over to Portsmouth, I felt I had done that enough this weekend.

Once I reached the western end of Stokes Road, I was happy that I was going to head up towards the Memorial Hospital, and would then take The Avenue down towards Alverstoke Village. On the way, I want to get a look at the old Air Raid Procedures (ARP) bunker built for WW@, but continued in use until almost the end of the Cold War. From there, I headed over to St Mary’s going along Church Road, I wanted to make sure that if I was going to take a picture of the church I would be doing so with the sun;

From there I took a pleasant stroll along the side of Alverstoke Creek, just watching the few gulls that were there, and trying not to disturb them. There were a few people out, so exchanged a few “Good Afternoons”, but didn’t talk to anybody beyond that. Unlike the last time I walked along the old railway path when I had a very pleasant chat with a chap who was out talking about his dog.

I wanted to make sure that I was back as close to the hour as I could. As it happens, I took an hour and 10 minutes to do just over the 3.6 miles, so that was just right. Even with the cold it really was a very pleasant walk.

The Vue Cinema in Portsmouth. We went to see Dune, I’m Pleased to say that it is much better than the 1984 version (although, I enjoyed and still like that version). We’d booked the VIP seats that only means that the seats are more comfortable and with a bit more space.

I don’t know if it’s becoming more cantankerous are I grow up but I find that I am becoming more and more intolerant of behaviour in the lead up to the starting of the film, I really shouldn’t get annoyed, because at least when the film starts, apart from the rustling of sweet wrappers and slurping of drinks, they do quieten down.

It’s moving, phones, talking, even more rustling and talking – and I want to watch the trailers.

We thought we would book to see the film on a Saturday afternoon matinee several weeks after the film had been released thinking that the cinema wouldn’t be very busy. I reckon we were in our seats almost 15 minutes before the screen lit up. There were a couple of people in before us. By the time the film itself started only the front three or four rows remained empty, the cinema was surprisingly full. I must admit, I found that a bit disturbing. I think we have decided that we will try and go midweek the next time there is a film we want to see.