So this is not a good photo, but I like it anyway. Or rather, I like what it could be. This was taken solely to see if I could do it. I had to bend backward to get the photo, got it, it worked. At the very least, this is a springboard for something better.
I’m not sure if this says anything about anything, but I still find the result interesting in terms of form and perception.
I hope you enjoy.
I took this photo a few weeks ago as I thought the view from this skylight was interesting. Nothing more to it. When it came to submitting a photo to this challenge I tried retaking the shot from a better vantage point, but it didn’t work out.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one is hosted by Dawn of The Day After, and she has chosen the theme “Symmetry”. This isn’t the best example, but it works well enough, I think.
This challenge is open to all, and I recommend joining in. If want to, check out more information about it here, and include the tag “monochrome-madness” when you share your photo. If you’d prefer not to join in, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography, and what other people submit.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen.
Went in, did it, got out. Bit loose, bit uncertain, but I think I did well here.
The Goslings’ “Windowpane” is from Grandeur of Hair. Heads up: if you decide to listen to it, it’s an intense listen.
I hope you enjoy.
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A sheet of noise blankets like rain. It rises and falls, or maybe thickens and thins. Other sounds come in; one hums low, another strums away. A new hum comes in. Everything continues on, and there’s a peace to it, but there’s also a foreboding intensity.
Everything feels off. Peaceful, but violent. Overwhelming, destructive. It feels like the power of inevitability, but it also feels so mundane. And the sounds continue on, and the noise picks up, and things fade away but the noise remains.
The noise continues on forever, and maybe there’s traffic somewhere in the distance, and maybe a chair rocking, but it could be anything. It could be everything compressed and crushed into a moment, and it could be completely empty.
Eventually, however, what lingers suddenly stops and the song ends.
One listen.
This is a song I’d describe as being highly emotive, and it is. I tried to get some of that out but I feel I was unwilling to go far enough.
Quruli’s (くるり) “Army” is from The World is Mine.
I hope you enjoy.
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Guitar stepping forward to a steady, spaced, beat. Looped, it seems. Another joins as a counter-step of sorts and adds more drama. The percussion picks up, more guitar joins, and a soft beep in the background. The beep gives way to vocals that drift, float along with everything.
A sound rises in a vocal pause, then the voice comes back for a moment, but becomes so much more of a sound. There’s a journey here, and a weight. A sadness of sorts.
As the sounds proceed they move to more downbeat melodies, and seem to be looking to pull something full and expansive from where they’re going. They go on with their steady slowness, interweave, create tapestry. They tell a tale that continues ever onward.
A point where the percussion picks up and many of the other sounds pull away. They then start building again into a brief pause that brings everything back to where it was. Form and shape grows within it all as everything keeps moving forward. A coldness is here, but so is a warmth. The sadness remains, as does the attention to what sound is doing, and atmosphere spreads thick. It keeps spreading as the sounds settle into insects, a car passing by and a voice before the song ends.
I was taking some reference photos for a thing I might end up doing with a friend. They turned out better than I thought; there are issues with noise and sharpness, but there’s an expressiveness to them that I wasn’t quite expecting.
I don’t know what I was expecting, really.
Anyway, here’s one of them.
I hope you enjoy.
I took this photo a number of weeks ago whilst at work. There was a dramatic sunset out my window, so I felt I just had to capture it. So I did.
This is my submission into the three hundred-and-sixty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Longing“.
I feel this photo counts due to containing something people often like the look of, but in a space that, whilst advantageous, might not necessarily be as desirable as seeing the same thing from a more open location.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
This one is curated by Egídio. The next one is curated by Tina.
I recommend joining the community and participating in the challenges. They’re pretty straightforward, allow room for interpretation, and provide a good way to think about photography in general. If not, however, then at the very least you should check out what others submit to the challenges.
I hope you enjoy.
Some signs. Directing. Providing times. And so on.
I hope you enjoy.
Another photo of one of Imperial Triumphant’s members. This one I like due to how deliberate the moment feels. Not necessarily posed, but very intentional. I also like how this person appears to be trying to take attention away. Provide direction. I don’t think either was the case; it’s just how their form comes off.
I hope you enjoy.
This is not everything I wanted to capture with these clouds, but this was the best photo I could get. I remember grabbing the camera specifically to capture these ones and I think the photo turned out alright. Soft and peaceful.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen.
Let it carry me as much as I could. Found I had to force myself at points, but otherwise this came through without actively thinking, and I’m happy with the result.
downy are an interesting band. As far as I’m aware, they’re named after a softener brand, and their music is very experimental and not at the same time. That comes through quite well on “Night Crawlin'”; there’s a strong sense of traditional structure (not all their songs are like this) and it’s doing things with how the instruments express themselves that aren’t necessarily traditional. Not sure if that’s the best way to put it.
downy’s “Night Crawlin'” is from 8th album “Untitled” (all their albums are untitled; this is the eighth one).
I hope you enjoy.
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Drums striking and thumping, playing what feels like a little shuffle, but might not be. Don’t know. Soon guitar comes in, feeling like it should be ringing out more, and holding onto restraint. Bass fills in the spaces, plays carefully.
Soon more guitar joins, finding other parts it can sit in in seeming gentle strikes. Voice fragile, seemingly weak, carrying words that seemed pained. A moment holds on the percussion and everything then moves into a build of ragged melody and roughened emotion.
There’s a hurt here as sounds scream out in brightness, howling and crying before settling back to a verse. Settling, tempered, but some things are changed. Not all, but some.
Those vocals wander lonely among a blurred landscape, sketches, impressions. Suggestions of surroundings and soon there’s that unleash once more, and emotions cascade upon interactions with nothing, and inner turmoil becomes external.
Calling out once more, forming shape and framing context, and context leads to a dance between loneliness and and the self, or maybe it’s more pensive joy. That sensation of happiness, of ebullience, of bliss, of jubilation of in the moment whilst pensiveness and melancholy lurks around everything. And these times fall into memory, and things are changed as they’re thought of over long walks in the dark; among the backdrop of the night framing space as empty, and it goes on until everything stops and the song ends.
Stupidity Hole 