Line Transmission

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Just some power lines suspended above ground.
This is an okay photo. Nothing in particular about it stands out, but I do like the minimalism, as well as a sense of context related to what’s outside of the frame because I don’t feel this is entirely devoid of context.

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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Yasunori Mitsuda: Gem Which Cannot Be Stolen

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

I tried to switch off here but it didn’t quite work.
There was a bit too much thinking and I was trying not to describe the song as it progressed but I think too much of that came through.

Yasunori Mitsuda’s (光田 康典) “Gem Which Cannot Be Stolen” (“盗めない宝石”) is from the soundtrack for Xenogears, Xenogears Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A tenderness in an empty space stirs and slowly a form reveals itself. Strings move underneath among sound oscillating. Woodwind heralds a new day and soon it comes to a halt.

Light bass, keys and perhaps something akin to guitar envision something almost welcoming and comforting and small, though homely. Almost. Soon the strings return as does the woodwind and all move in a harmonious manner and all carry a quiet life upon a breeze.

Soon a return to that heralding woodwind and a loop back into the bass, keys and something akin to guitar. A small cosiness is reinforced and a coolness floats through as welcoming sounds carry unabated. The gentleness flows on through and continues on toward wherever it must, but gradually it all fades out as the song ends.

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Structure near the end of Sunset

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This photo was taken roughly around the same time as these two.

I really like how the sky turned out in those ones and I think it turned out well here too.
I like how the silhouette here feels quite urban with very little, and maybe that’s due to the building’s shape being both clear and implied. What is visible sits under a shifting sky, small, quiet and perhaps important.

I hope you enjoy.

 

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Prunus Branches

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

A bit of a dramatic and moody photo of Prunus x blireana doing its flowering thing. I’d meant to capture this one when the sky was clearer and I did, but not with my camera. Alas, the best photos of this flowering this year are all during the sky covered by clouds. Still, I like the result. The flowers are still visible and there’s an amount of space that I like in some photos.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-fourteenth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
The theme for this one is “Favourite Finds“.

This one is mine but I wouldn’t have bought it were it not for my seeing some and photographing this one. In a roundabout way I feel it counts for the challenge.

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 hosted by Leya. John hosts the next one. The theme for John’s has been pre-announced and it is “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…and the places they take us to visit”.

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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Ukiyo-e: Souwester

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This one was not the easiest to go on about and I’m not sure why. It seems like a fairly straightforward song but I think either I was overthinking what I was writing or I was going against the song, so to speak. Not really sure. Regardless, I think some of this is alright and some of it is lacking.

From what I’ve read, Ukiyo-e were a Sydney band that existed around the turn of the millennium. They’re stuff is interesting and worth hearing at least once.

Ukiyo-e’s “Souwester” is from Inland.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A low hum and guitar fill a space with a sound that lowers. From the low hum a dulled harshness comes forward and disappears. Slowly sounds rise on up, gaining more clarity as the guitar starts and stops and carries a sadness. If not a sadness, then certainly a melancholy.

There seems to be rumination and soon bass and percussion come in to fill out space and keep the feeling going. It is a rumination and it is a driving one, or at least it seems driving. Space is delicate and precious and sounds dedicate themselves to melding with each other.

Perhaps it is a loneliness borne from a desire to live a certain way, or a loneliness caused by ostracisation.

There is a brief pause in the sounds and the remaining instrumentation holds a sense of fragile calm before all comes back and with more texture and depth. More rumination. More thinking upon things and perhaps some looking inward. Perhaps there is a joviality and joy among it all, but it is merely a layering that could easily peel away.

The pause returns and it almost seems like the sounds are wrapping up. Mood seems thicker and once more the sounds return to full. The bass heaves with the guitar; the hum stretches out and the percussion keeps steady. Occasional additional touches come in, feeling like small flourishes upon an atmosphere that is thick and obvious, yet retains a sense of subtlety and tastefulness.

Once more much of the instrumentation pulls away and this time the song finds its finality. There is no big climax and all that is left are some lightly rippling steps in a tender space as the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1147: Another Ramble Brought to you by Tiredness

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

A bright and sunny day today and the weather remains not too warm. Soon spring will be here and then the expectation will be that the weather is springlike, whatever that is meant to be.

It’s not too cold inside and so I’m enjoying this brief moment, but I am also trying to keep in mind that this indeed a brief moment and so I’m also trying to get a bit of stuff done.

I think that, just for a few minutes I’ll lose myself in the music that is playing. I’m going to think of drifting away and being outside but I’ll soon also be outside and in being outside I’ll absorb some sun and try to go for a walk and take it easy for a while. There is a need to take it easy in that I need to get away from the computer for a bit. That walking won’t happen until a bit later, however.

For now I sit here and I enjoy the music and I listen to the breeze and its breeziness. It blows and flows and moves things, but those things do not break; at least, they do not break here. I can hear the sound of dogs barking and I don’t know why they are barking, but perhaps they are barking just because they want to bark. Who am I to question the thoughts of a dog?

Who am I at the end of the day?

So anyway, I think that in saying all of that I will now say “In saying all of that” and then say something else. I cannot explain why and perhaps that means it is something that I should not say. However, I say it regardless of how warranted it is as it is something that I say and I say it often enough to recognise that I should say it less. Perhaps I should examine what I say more often and work to say things in a way that is better and more productive. Maybe. It is possible that I should not worry about this in the slightest and instead look for how I can further the dialogue regarding the repetition, or reuse of things I’ve used far too many times at this point.

There probably is a good bit of writing to be had from that thinking but that’s not going to happen here. Then again, it might, but if it does it isn’t going to be today. It’ll have to happen another day as there are other things to crap on about. There are other things that I care about and so those other things are what I’ll crap on about, but only once enough crap has been written. It takes time and I need to spew out senseless drivel for a while before I can write anything that could be seen as remotely meaningful.

Anyway, with all of that being said I’m just going to keep on absorbing this weather, unless I don’t.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:52:96

There was something else I was considering writing about but I held back and I’m not sure if that was the best decision. Oh well. Probably next time.

Written at home.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 192: Straightforward Shoot, Interactions, An Easy Drive Home

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

It probably goes without saying, but I quite enjoy photography. If that goes without saying then I’m not sure as to why I’ve started this bit of writing off  with the statement, but I couldn’t think of anything better as a start and so I chose an obvious statement.

So I enjoy photography and I enjoy the process of learning and doing and learning through doing. I’ve still quite a lot to learn and I hope that that always remains the case. I don’t want to get to a point where I’ve nothing left to learn in photography as then there’s nowhere left to go. There’s no growing from that point; well maybe there is, but I feel that it is unlikely that if I found myself in a position where I knew all there was to know about photography and, by extension, taking a photo and how I can do better at taking photos I’d be able to learn more.

Well there probably would be more room as what is knowable changes but I’m going way off topic here.

I went to Avalon on Saturday night to do some promotional photography and that was fine. There were some issues but at the end of the day I’ll work with what I can and I’m pretty sure more of the photos are fine. It was a nice drive to the slight detour to Barrenjoey Lighthouse and it was a nice drive home. It was a late drive home too but it was really smooth. Few times I had to stop in traffic and so I got home shortly after midnight.

Anyway the shoot itself was mostly uneventful. As said, some issues but I’ll work with what I can, but ultimately uneventful. I think that was beneficial as it was pretty straightforward and I got to move around the space pretty easily. Had to stay a while so I could capture the room with a good amount of people in it and so I did, which also was fine. Just spent a bit of time reading in the band room as still not feeling confident in being around large amounts of people when not taking photos and… yeah.

Anyway, at one point when I was among the crowd trying to get more photos some guy asked me to take a photo of him and his mate. It was sort of a demanding ask and I said no. I was asked again and once more I said no. I was asked a third time and a third time I said no, but this time added that I was working. The guy and his mate walked off and as they walked off he called me a “Fucking loser”.

Now I won’t deny that I may have misheard, but I’m quite certain of what I heard. That said, I was more surprised than anything else. The kind of surprise when you think something along the lines of “Did that person really just say that because they couldn’t handle someone saying no?”, because that’s roughly what I was thinking.

I was there to work. Just because I have a camera doesn’t mean I’m interested in taking a photo of someone and it doesn’t matter how much they ask. It really annoys me that people think that that I would be. I don’t care about you; accept the no and leave it at that. Don’t get shitty just because you can’t handle a basic form of rejection.

I’m often blunt and sometimes abrasive, though seldom intentionally. I like to be left alone and be invisible when I’m working in a gig setting and I usually prefer to be left alone unless I’m familiar with someone. Admittedly this isn’t always the best thing for photography, especially in a social setting. That said, I think that if someone is working and you see that, and then you decide to interrupt them working so you can get a photo of yourself, unless you know it’s related to what the photographer is doing, the photographer has every right to reject your request and possibly tell you to piss off., which I kind of wish I did but it was probably better that I didn’t because saying no three times is a bit more diplomatic.

That’s the main thing I wanted to talk about here. There isn’t much else to say as ultimately it’s a minor thing. I thought it was silly and pointless and it made me glad that I don’t hang around certain groups of people.

Eventually I headed on home and the drive was around an hour. I think slightly longer, but overall it was an easy drive. I got home slightly after midnight and dealt with little traffic. I was concerned about the drive home; mainly regarding how tired I was but I did alright. I was prepared to pull over to stretch and try and wake up a bit if I started feeling too tired, but it was just easy the whole way. I was alert enough and… yeah.

I enjoy photography a lot and I enjoy learning and developing and (hopefully) getting better. I think there’s a lot of undue praise for my stuff but if people like what I put out there, then I’m glad as it means they’re getting something from what I’m doing.

Beyond all of that, I don’t know what else there is to say, really. I think that some people have difficulty taking “no” for an answer, but that’s not something new. I also enjoy driving to places to shoot and I enjoy working in photography. It’s something I’ve wanted to earn money from for a long time so I hope this really starts to take off.

I still think photography is a valuable art form, but then again, I think art in general is a valuable thing. There are so many places it goes and so much we take form it, and I hope that it continues to inspire.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 31:49:94

This was slow and I feel it could’ve been much faster.
A lot of the slowness came from me thinking about what I was writing.
I was trying to make sure that I was articulate whilst also fighting a need to lie down and rest and it didn’t make for a good combination.

I do think that this reads okay, however.

Written at home.

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Mukaizake: Come Join The Milky Squadron

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This song I heard for the first time recently. When I did I decided to write about it and so I did, as evidenced by the below.

I’m not sure what I was going for here but I do know that I was a little too switched on. I think the writing suffered a bit for that, but I also think I got across an idea of the song, or maybe a few ideas of the song.

Mukaizake’s “Come Join The Milky Squadron” is from Mapping The Static.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Twinkling guitar shimmers through a dry dark before soon bass and percussion come in. There’s a steady rhythm and perhaps a sense of floating whilst bass starts and stops. Soon the guitars come on down and keep their gentle playing but it’s only for a moment. However, all remains gentle.

In the dryness and the space vocals, high and lowering, relaxed and gentle come on in and let the words flow forward. Mood seems low and subtle but permeating and perhaps the sense is more to get across a suggestion rather than announce.

Soon all seems to clear. A moment of strike and the all lets in a little more space before raging away for a moment. More calm. More rage and it all spreads out before a return to more space and more calm. Soon a return to the twinkling guitar and the vocals.

Gradually the sparseness reveals itself, though it was always there. Clearer mood seems to settle in and once more a moment of strike tears through and clears space before a cycling of a push and pull between the clear and the distorted, though this time before cycling back another time all moves to a climactic moment that seems to rage with calmness.

Once more another change soon occurs and more peace and a sense of prettiness comes through in a way that was different from earlier. There’s perhaps more warmth and the sounds play on seemingly relaxed until the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1146: Power Walk to the Lighthouse

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Yesterday was a long day full of things and those things involved doing things. Some of those things involved driving off to do photo work and some of those things involve making silly decisions before doing said photo work.

I worked in The Northern Beaches last night which meant driving up to The Northern Beaches. Thought I’d squeeze in some time beforehand to go to Barrenjoey Lighthouse. Not the worst decision I made.

I arrived at the park that Barrenjoey Lighthouse is connected to a little alter than I’d hoped, but not so late that I had to turn back around. Parked, got out of the car and with my camera I went up to the lighthouse.

The last time I was there was either in the late nineties or early aughts. I’m also not sure that I went to the lighthouse that time, but I do know that I was in the Palm Beach area. It was a long time ago and my memory is a little hazy on the whole thing, but I remember being there. When I went yesterday I figured that the lighthouse wouldn’t be too difficult to get to as it was just up a hill. Nothing too bad.

So I ended up power walking my way up to the lighthouse and that was not a good idea. The path I took was a bit steep in places and more for a slower walking speed, but I had to be quick. I still had to get back down after taking photos and seeing the view.

So I power walked up and I got to the top after a few brief stops and… yeah. It was not the best idea I’ve had. The views were really nice, however. I saw a landscape I don’t often get to see and it was just nice to be up there around sunset.

When I looked over the area of The Northern Beaches that was visible I thought to myself about how, if I had the money I would buy all the houses in the area (and some beyond the view) and turn it all into national parkland. To me a lot of it seemed trashy. I mean, sure, they were definitely some nice houses, but this was an area that should be for everyone and for wildlife and not just a select few.

Anyway, I appreciated the beauty and some of what appeared to be natural landscape, and I appreciated the lighthouse and then I made my way back down which thankfully was quick. Soon I was back in the car, driving to where I had to be whilst sweating.

It was an easy drive to do which was also nice, but I imagine it would’ve been easier had I not power walked up to a lighthouse. Oh well.

I don’t regret it. It just wasn’t something I’d recommend, but overall it was a learning experience and I got to see what I wanted to see. Overall, rather nice.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:39:08

Going to do a little bit more writing soon.
This was something I had to force myself through a little as I’m operating off not enough sleep. I’m not sure it reads well, but I think parts do.

Written at home.

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Path Weaves Around

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Another photo from the La Perouse area.

Maybe too much sky.

I think the colour here came out alright. There’s certainly a bit of a contrasting feel between some parts of vegetation here as some appears more vibrant than the majority.

Beyond that I like the layout. It feels kind of small and the terrain isn’t too steep. Just something appealing about it.

Maybe it’s the distance.

I hope you enjoy.

urbam

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