Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1188: More Rambling on Photography

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

What time is it? It’s time to write.

Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I overextend my reach, but this is in reference to my work as a photographer, but then again perhaps that is a silly thing to wonder as I barely get any work. As such, I should be wondering if I am under-extending, but that is neither here nor there. I just want to write about photography, or something.

I want to write about the art of photography. That’s the best way I can put it, I guess.

There’s a lot that we can see through a lens. There’s a lot that we can capture and there’s a way of… seeing things when we look through a lens. There’s a lot that we can do to tell a story and there’s a lot we can do to capture history.

Anyway, today I am not overreaching with the photography. I’m off to an event, offered to shoot it, no response. That’s fine. It means I get to relax a bit more and, to be honest, I want to relax. I’m at a point where I’m strongly considering seeing the camera gear. I enjoy it up to a point but the need for money is more important than the desire to take photos. Of course I will likely not sell the gear, but it’s possible that I will.

I’m wondering if getting the camera gear was the right thing to do in the first place, but of course it was as I’ve had a mostly fulfilling time of trying to get better at photography and seldom being satisfied with my work. I wonder if selling the gear would help me out more than holding onto it and trying to get more money coming in. I don’t know; it’s a tough time and there’s a lot I’m probably going to start getting rid of. As much as photography is something worth pursuing, is there a point when it could mean you fall further into debt you cannot handle?

I believe the answer is that it depends. For me it is a no, but for others they might be able to justify sticking it out. Had I more money coming in, I’d be fine. I don’t, so… yeah. But then again, maybe more money will come in and I’ll be alright. Maybe it won’t and I’ll stick it out regardless and come out on top, but sometimes it’s good to know when to stop and so that is what I’m considering.

Photography is an art worth pursuing. It is something where a lot of personal growth can come from. It opens up dialogue and conversation and networking and all that stuff, and sometimes you find yourself in the right place at the right time, and you get a good photo. You continue to grow and develop and stay on the path of learning and maybe it leads to something greater than you. Sometimes, however, you find that you end your journey early.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:40:76

A bit of a mess but it gets stuff across and that’s the main thing.

Written at home.

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Corner of a Decaying Structure

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Well, a bit more than a corner, but anyway.

Sometimes structures are better left to fall apart, so long as it’s safe for the environment, of course. Maybe this one will be restored; maybe it won’t, but regardless it continues to be a site regularly visited, and maybe some memories involving the site will remain

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.
I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit.

A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.

I hope you enjoy.

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A Clearing by the Sea

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

The first time I saw this field it caught me by surprise. I think it was mostly due to not expecting see a space this cleared along where I was walking.

It doesn’t come through as well with the lens I was using, but it feels like a sudden shift in the landscape and, even though the explanations as to why it is the way are mundane, it feels mysterious.

Maybe there’s a sense of ominousness to this scene too, though that likely has to do with the clouds’ heaviness and the storm in the distance.

I hope you enjoy.

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The Monsoon Bassoon: In the Iceman’s Back Garden

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This was one listen, though there was a slight pause due to stuff, but… eh.

There’s a lot to get from The Monsoon Basson’s music and I find myself struggling to keep up. I find that their music is stuff that is best spent time with due to a few differing factors, one of which being how they used sound. This was mostly just describing the song and I think I got an idea of how it progresses, and I think that (at least right now) that’s the best I could do.

The Monsoon Bassoon’s “In the Iceman’s Back Garden” is from I Dig Your Voodoo.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A strum is followed by a series of notes played in a sort of circle. Soon additional sound joins and marks off certain points before percussion and bass come in full. Seemingly menace comes forward, but it could just be curiosity. It could be anything.

Notes continue to move and pulse and mark and pinpoint, and gradually wood wind finds itself coming through, though only in a brief period before all grows louder and seems to start spiking, at least for a moment.

A return to the main passage and vocals now stretch and compress their words. Seemingly something grim comes forward, but it’s not entirely clear. It almost seems vague, but it’s not quite, but it is.

Soon the sounds lift into another space with a bit of heaviness and now a mix of playing forms a bed for the woodwind to flow over and upon. More release and the woodwind is buried among concise noise, but it’s still there, rising, falling and gliding and being stretched whilst much rages around it.

The percussion and woodwind pulls away, as does the bass and guitar continues raging before finding a sudden stop. Another return and vocals draw out over the sounds whilst the woodwind continues its dance. Then suddenly the sounds draw out a great mass of heaving heaviness almost as though a raging storm, and they pound away until they fade out, leaving something that seems scoured. It’s almost bare, and woodwind draws out and various other sounds seem to bubble and cycle underneath, and much of it pulls away, and it all fades out, or at least seems to before it rapidly returns and grows louder.

It all cuts off rather rapidly, however, and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1187: A Relief

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

So I decided to bow out of NaNoWriMo this year and, let me tell you, the sense of relief is immense, though not overwhelming. Going in this year was a bad idea and sometimes you’ve got to realise those things and step away, blah blah blah.

But with that said, it’s great to feel as though I can now get a bit more done as there is a bit more that I need to do before the day ends and all that, but it’s just nice. It’s a relief. I will be doing it again next year, but I should’ve gone with what I felt earlier this year and not participated as it was just too much. At least now I can dig away at things and take my time and work on the things that I need to prioritise now, and… yeah.

So now I have all this spare time and with all of this spare time I know not what to do. Sure, I’m saying that I can now do all this stuff, but I don’t know if I will do all of this stuff. I think I might not and instead focus on things that I need not do and go from there. That would be better, somehow.

Instead of any of that, however, I’m just going to crap on about how I feel better now and then go lie down for a while as I need a bit of sleep and in needing sleep I’m gonna get the sleep I need and in getting the sleep I need I’m going to not actually get any sleep at all and instead just write a lengthy sentence that goes nowhere, other than from its beginning to its end, of course.

When all is said and done, I can just embrace a bit of time for a few minutes, though of course this will be follows by consuming the time at a rapid pace. Then again, maybe none of that will happen. Maybe nothing will happen.

Maybe my stopping of participating in NaNoWriMo this year was a bad idea.

How do I turn back time? How do I go on about reversing everything so I can go back to reliving my life in a state of additional unnecessary stress? How do I reverse everything and then get on with the getting on which mostly was me just sitting there, scratching my head and stressing out because I wasn’t able to drag myself through a thing that was not good for me to do, before forcing myself to go through the thing that I was not able to get through?

There are so many questions and there are no answers, but what I’m doing right now is just prolonging the inevitable and so… I don’t know what I’m crapping on about.

Anyway, to summarise, I feel relieved and it’s nice and I can get more things done now, and that’s good. Other than that, got nothing else I can say.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:52:98

I probably should’ve called this bit of writing “The Power of the Prattle”, but I didn’t and I won’t.

Clearly I couldn’t stretch things out in a pleasing manner here, but I tried. Didn’t quite get there, but I almost did, so yeah.

Written at home.

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Under Layers

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Here’s another photo of The Wind Eroded Cave.
I was there recently as I wanted to visit it again and take a few more photos.

I like this one as you get a bit of an idea of the stratification. I think that comes through decently, though had I taken this from a different angle, it may have come through better.

I also quite like the form created by the erosion. Can’t explain why.

I hope you enjoy.

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Ibes on a Street Light

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Similar to this photo, and yet different, on account of the birds and the street light being different.

At what are they staring? I think it may have been me, but that accounts for one. The other looks like it’s looking elsewhere. I am not sure at what, but it surely is something.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-twenty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Wildlife Close to Home“.

I like photos like these as they make me think about the impact of urban spread on wildlife.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Week 1 – Tina

Week 2 – Patti

Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 4 – Amy

Week 5 – John Steiner

Week 6 – Sofia Alves

Week 7 – Anne Sandler

Week 8 – Guest host

This one is curated by Anne. Jude of Cornwall in Colors guest curates the next one.

I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re open enough to allow for a fair bit of thinking about approach and closed enough to keep focus on meeting the theme of each one. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Smooth Gumtree

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

I’m not sure as to which gum this tree is, but I know it is a gumtree.

I was trying to frame this in a particular way but it didn’t quite work as I couldn’t get the trees in the background out of frame. Still, I think the photo turned out alright.

I like how some of the angle so the branches comes through clearly and how they look a little “odd”. Smoothly rigid is probably the best way I can put it, though I’m certain there are better words to use for description.

I hope you enjoy.

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Vangelis: Blade Runner Blues

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one. Rather annoyingly it was a bit broken up due to needing to deal with stuff that needed attention, but such is life.

I think initially I was trying to go for some sort of description into capturing a sense of mood, but I didn’t realise the song was as long as it was and that threw me off a bit. I shouldn’t have been thinking the song was shorter than it was as it was a silly thing to think about. Anyway, I think it makes part of this read a little awkwardly.

Vangelis’ “Blade Runner Blues” is from Blade Runner‘s soundtrack, Blade Runner: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Something vast and small and concentrated spreads out through a confined moment. Something sighs above it and a slight roll of some keys come in. That sigh comes forward, coming in and out whilst the keys continue to follow on underneath.

Bass makes itself known with a softness and it seems all choose their moments to come in and out. This is almost a dance, but it feels like a meeting. There is a weight that comes forward and through and it hangs thick in the space it is afforded, but it never reveals itself. It takes an amorphous form among sounds retaining a clear shape.

All seem to move as though a current flowing and the current spreads out to flow into one. The sounds continue to follow each other and maybe a sense of despair, or turmoil carries on the surface, though soon it seems to twist into something else, and maybe that something is a little more like a growing sense of relief. A sense of realisation. A sense of something approaching as things click into place.

The weight remains, but it is now being moved through and what is at the end is something easier to carry, though only for a brief period. A slight pause before resumption and the sounds move as though a slow dance of images and words rising through steam, drifting off to somewhere else, and all fades as the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1186: Distracted by Disappearing Energy

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

I’ve got about two hours before the day of work begins so I’m going to try and use this time as productively as I can. However, there’s a bird making the sounds a bird makes nearby and I can’t see it at it is outside of the frame of my window and all I can do is listen to it. I could go looking for it but I don’t want to do that.

The reason that this bird is an issue is that it is distracting and as it is distracting I am distracted from getting things done, though today I will get things done.

Already the morning has been one of the productive variety and for that I am happy, but for now I must get on with the getting on and get the things done in whatever order they come to me in… or something. That said, I need to think about what I’m doing.

I also need to not jam one of my thumbs between a leave and a handle, but that is a story for another day at another place in another space in time. For now this is just a morning rambling where I say nothing of note and in saying nothing of note I secretly say everything that can be said, and so on and so forth, but now I wonder if maybe I’ve spent too much energy this morning as I’m now starting to feel the effects and I’d much rather go lie down and do nothing than do something.

This is not good as now I need to engage in some sort of combat with this feeling of weight that has befallen me. I need to deal with whatever this is and fight it off so I can get my energy back as it is sapping my energy and with my energy goes my strength and so therefore I might not be able to battle against the day. I may be forced to back down before I get much of anything done and if I am forced to do that, I know not what to do.

Slowly and gradually I find myself winding down before I’ve even started and soon I will be unable to do anything. I need to fight, but I cannot and in not being able to fight I am forced to give up and all those other things. However, there remains a spark of hope and in that small spark I might be able to push onward to some sort of victory. Maybe there will be no victory, but at the very least I’d be able to fight to a draw.

Of course I could just not worry about all of that and instead use this spark of hope to escape from this evil torment and then go from there. I can rest and recuperate and then get on with things and then I can fight on back.

It is yet to be determined and the fight… continues.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:39:36

This I feel is a bit loose and doesn’t do enough moving.
A bit happy that I was able to push through fatigue rapidly hitting me though, so I guess that’s sort of a success.

Written at home.

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