Bills Posts

It was raining for this mornings walk. I got water on the lens. This was the effect.

You’ll be saying the pictures has no relation to the title of this post – that’s correct, I needed something to cheer me up. Why’s that?

I always look forward to the arrival of my magazines. This week it was the turn of Country Walking. I love the pictures and the articles about the different areas. I don’t expect to find an article which based on the title on the cover alone gives me distress. A Ring of Bright Water.

The book is a story about a relationship between people and animals. A Londoner and a tame otter. It was made into a film in 1969. I didn’t know the story, and it was one of the first films I went to see on my own. To say I was traumatised by the scene where Mij the otter gets killed is a massive understatement. I think it has probably affected my attitude towards films involving animals ever since.

The Country Walking had to be read, and of course it was heavily focussed on the book/film, and the part of the country where the story took place. Undoubtedly a lovely part of the world, but I don’t think I could ever visit there for pleasure.

I’m back now to reading the Story of Art

OK, bear with me, I know the picture is unrelated to the title.

Firstly, the bird table. I came downstairs mid morning to make a cup of tea (I’m WFH). I had loaded the bird table early in the morning, and it appears that the starlings fly around different feeding points. There were easily a couple of dozen both on the table and on the ground, they stayed for quite a while. In addition there were at least four pigeons around. Also running around were two squirrels. They were dashing about the garden. I saw them burying things in the flower pots, obviously preparing for winter. I have never seen them do that before, even though I knew it happened. It was lovely and a real pleasure to watch. I just wish I’d had the nouse to go and get my camera, but I didn’t want to frighten them by moving.

The picture was taken yesterday morning, A grab shot, but when I saw it in colour I liked it, if I like it in couloir quite often I’ll try it in black and white. This one I liked even better. From a professionals point of view their will be issues with exposure, the low black building on the right hand side (but I wanted the moon) . I like the sharpness and the view of the receding blocks.. I just like the look of the picture. Even the clouds add to the picture.

From Monday morning, I see this scene every morning that I go for a walk. The boats are always there, I can’t recall them ever moving.

This one morning, last Monday (30 Nov) was the first Misty morning for quite a while. I’ve been looking forward to seeing one, so I was determined to get out. I’m really glad I did.

I particularly like this image, it’s the sharpness of the boats against the mustiness of the lights of Gunwharf behind along with the red lights of the buoys. I know it’s not minimalist, but it’s close.

Or, should it be a ghostly image? This morning’s mist has provided a bunch of pictures that i quite like and which I can spin out over the next few days.

Take this one for example, a simple street scene but notice the ghostly apparition walking along the double yellow line?

How did I get it?

Easy really. The P20 Pro has a night mode. Long exposures. In this case, the exposure was about 15 seconds. Of course I timed that somebody would walk past me into the frame as the exposure was being made. Of course they weren’t standing still, and the exposure ended. It was a test, and I didn’t know how it would come out. I like it as a picture.

I broke my “not leaving the house after 0610” rule this morning. So I was a little bit later along all parts of the walk, and didn’t get home until about 0720. That was fine, it worked OK, except I didn’t allow myself time to do a facebook entry. I’ll have to one tomorrow.

Firstly, let me say, I have only just noticed my error, and I’ve been doing this for almost a third of a year (indeed, only 14 days short of 122 days), because it’s a leap year. It’s not out of 365, but 366. I will have to remember to keep that going.

I was going to go out for a walk today, but even without doing so, I have managed to clock up over 11,000 steps.

I have one of the Neos cameras set up looking at the table, but I had to turn off the movement notification because the camera was getting the leaves blowing in any breeze, so it was a waste of time. I bought a really cheap tablet (£74) to view it on a regular basis, whilst every thing was fine for the first few weeks, it refuses to connect now, so it’s my phone that I am dependent upon.

When I catch them (on the screen) I love watching them, they eat with a frenzy and are gone as quickly as they come. Quite often as I go out to load the table, I see starlings sitting on the roofs of adjacent buildings. Not long after I go back, and provided that cats are not out, they descend. The pleasure is though, tinged with sadness that I can’t feed all birds, all wild animals. It is through nature that they live and suffer and that is it. I hate the thought of them suffering.

I went out for a walk this afternoon, not far only a couple of miles, but I had a reason for going out. I’ve bought a GoPro Hero9 video camera. One of the main reasons I bought this particular model were the. Claims about stabilisation (bear with me).

I knew GoPro’s had a good reputation for picture quality, but after shooting about 10 minutes of video it is hard for me to quantify how absolutely blown away I am by both of these in the Hero9. I had the camera mounted on my monopod which extends to over 5 feet, I wanted to pretend being a low level drone by hoisting the camera in to thee air, but I left the monopod extended when I brought it back down. There are two times where you can hear the reverting “Boing” where I kick the monopod as. I am walking, these don’t even show up as slight judders. Incredible!!

I have plans for the GoPro. More on those later.

I walked down to the water front and along the promenade and was rewarded with the sight of the small cargo ship, the Split Two leaving the harbour. A very noisy boat she was as well. I carried on towards the Trinity church, where I said hello to the couple of squirrels that live there. One of them was up on his back legs, watching me to see if i was going to pinch is food. I’m not in to soggy, oak leaf covered acorns, so his supply was safe. This is where I give you another photograph;

The phone box has a definite list to it. I’m surprised that i haven’t noticed this before. I can’t help wondering the people from the pub opposite feel if they use after having drunk a bit too much. The weather was perfect for a walk.

The monthly magazine, Black & White Photography turned up on Tuesday. As usual, I put aside The Story of Art to read it, and I’ll do the same when my other favourite magazine, Country Walking arrives sometime in the next few days.

Usually when I read the magazine at least one of the articles sparks an interest, or a desire to write about it. Issue No. 247 is no different. Page 34 features an article entitled On Sydney Street. Sydney Street is one of the Brighton Laines. If you’ve never been, they are well worth a visit (when it’s safe to do so, of course). There’s a barbers on Sydney street run by Michael Hutson. Michael was (is?) a professional photographer.

https://www.mahutson.com/portfolio

Michael’s photographs are taken through the barbershop window, frequently with his iphone.

What is it that makes Michael an artist? Is it the fact that he’s taking his pictures through the window of the shop where he works? Is it that someone says “You’re an artist”? Undeniable, some of his pictures ask questions; who are they? why are they there? In some cases, why are they dressed like that (storm troopers)?

They are good pictures, what makes them good? What makes a snapshot art?

A fascinating article, a good magazine, lovely pictures.

Are you an Android or an iPhone user? I’ve been addicted to apple since I bought my first Mac Mini in 2005. I know some people complain about being locked in, but that really doesn’t bother me. Then Apple released the iphone, and I knew I wanted one, so we have been devotees since the first release in 2007. But then, about 2 years ago, I thought I better try android, so I bought a P20 Pro. I stuck with it as my main phone for a year. I really couldn’t get to grips with android (don’t think I’m a technophobe – I am most definitely not), but I just didn’t like it. So probably just over a year ago, I went back to Apple with an iPhone XR. Brilliant phone, and I love IOS. But, and here is the big but, that has meant that I haven’t got rid of the P20, is the camera. I just think that the P20’s camera is so much better than the XR. It just renders colours so much better. The picture above is taken on the XR. In fairness, I have just tried to find a picture taken with the P20 under similar circumstances i.e. grey sky. but I’m getting mixed up, soI’ll have another go later.

I think I mentioned yesterday that B&W magazine arrived Tuesday. I’m over two thirds of the way through, and I do have an article lined up, but not quite ready yet. That means that the Country Walking mag won’t be very far behind. Those few days a month when book reading takes a bit of a back burner.

Should any of our American friends read this, I hope you had a wonderful Thanks Giving.

The triangle of lights going off to the right hand side is the ramp that leads to the Gosport Ferry Terminal. Looking at the picture, the ramp is pretty much level. This tells you that the tide is in. It wasn’t quite at it’s height at the time I took picture (0633), high tide would have been about 0800 ish. I know this because I have an app that tells me.

Now, that sparks a thought in me. My iPad and iPhone are loaded with apps, many of them I have downloaded and probably used only once and am not likely to use again. So, I might just keep a track of which apps I use and delete the ones that I don’t. The trouble is I look at an app and think to myself “Oooh, that looks useful” and I can’t quite bring myself to remove them. I’ll just have to be more rigorous.

Back then to the Promenade. It’s not too long, probably a third to a half of a mile in total. Regardless of the weather, it’s always really nice to walk along. When the weather is nice it’s lovely to just stroll along, watch the boats, and the people, most of the time people will exchange pleasantries and have a brief chat.

When the weather is rough, the wind is blowing, the rain is lashing, there won’t be many people around, just those who are really dedicated. Now, it’s not something I do very often. But when I do, I enjoy it. Just not at 6 in the morning!

I thought I would do a series on the Gosport Plaques. I thought that I would do a piece on each plaque, but I realised with Henry Cort, I would just be regurgitating what I’d read on the Wikipedia page. Not quite plagiarism, but not far from it.

I will be able to talk a bit more about some of the blue plaques because there are quite a few in the town. Some are a couple of miles away from Henry Court’s. But I am aware of at least four, possibly 5 within only a few hundred yards of this one.

I don’t intend to write about a plaque a day – you (my real and imagined readers) would get bored with that. But I don’t think one a week for the next few weeks is unreasonable.

Anyhow, here’s a link to the Wikipedia page for Henry Cort;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cort

There you can read about the “puddling” process that he developed for increasing the refinement of wrought iron.

The plaque is on a wall in a car park near the ferry end of town. I’m not sure exactly where his foundry was, I assume that it wasn’t far away. If you wanted to visit the plaque, use What 3 words reference study.trim.bound to get you very close to it.

If you haven’t heard of what 3 words, it’s a seriously brilliant mapping system. If you haven’t heard of it before, here’s another link;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words