Rail Frame Invades the Space

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

For my recent challenge hosting, I had a particular idea for a photo which didn’t work, which is what you can see below. I didn’t take the photo quite the way I wanted to, or at least had considered and so the space in this doesn’t feel that appealing, I think.

I took another photo in this space and used that one instead and figured I wouldn’t use this at all, but I think this is worth sharing in terms of what not to do. I’m sure some people will like this, but it’s something to learn from and I appreciate it existing strictly for learning.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lens-Artists Challenge #356 – Quiet Hours

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

What are quiet hours? Among many things, this can mean an empty space. It can be a sense of stillness; a lack of action; an absence of presence within a frame. Quiet hours are often associated with the time before people are waking up and getting about, but it doesn’t have to be an area framed by darkness. They can be shown in many ways.

Waiting for Interaction

Here there’s a sense of quiet hours through a lack of presence. An area we’d normally associate with action through movement or human presence lacks it. It feels empty and there is no sound.

Quieting Fog

Weather phenomena can create a sense of quiet through isolation. Whilst the effect isn’t strong in this photo, the fog separates the area from some of its surrounds. It creates context for why this area might be quiet; along with the lack of people in the frame, the area is seemingly separated from surrounding space, and so it gains a stillness that suggests silence.

The Morning Drive

Quiet can be implied by what is leaving an area, such as a vehicle driving away from a camera. It’s not quiet now, but it soon will be. This can be a good way to create narrative. There is action, but it’s the action of moving through and away. The area is disturbed, but through suggestion we can accept an implication of quiet following not far behind.

Transmission Under a Darkening Sky

And of course, minimalism works quite well to represent quiet hours. Especially minimalism with open spaces with just the right kind of weather. Without the surrounding area providing context, there’s little to suggest how full of action this space will be. It could see very little human activity at any given time.

There are plenty of ways of showing quiet hours. It doesn’t have to be the absence of action, but it depends on the action. A scene does not need to be devoid of objects or subjects. As such, for the three hundred-and-fifty-sixth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, I invite you to think about what makes for “Quiet Hours” to you. How do you see it in an image? How do you navigate the idea?

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

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Egídio

Ritva

Beth

This one is curated by me. Next week will be hosted by Egídio.

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.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 103 Comments

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1516: First Gig in a While

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Tomorrow I’ll be playing my first gig in almost six-and-a-half years. It has been far too long for my liking. Tomorrow it happens and I’ll go in, do my thing and then head off. Well, not head off, but leave the stage. We’ll see how it all goes. We’ll see what happens. How it happens. And all that.

Have I practised enough? No. Has Fe practised enough? No. There has been a lot of stuff going on, and so it goes, and so on and so forth. How it all happens. But we went in and we’re rusty and we’ll be rusty tomorrow, but we’ll get through it. We’ve been through worse.

I’m listening to one of the songs we’ll be playing tomorrow right now. I’m listening to it, trying to work out if I’ve got it all correct. Not sure if I do, but I might. Might do. Do might. I know we can play it and we’re both pretty familiar with it. It’s something we’ve played for years, though I do wish we were more rehearsed.

I don’t know if this is going to be one time or if it’ll lead to more. I hope it leads to more, but I don’t know. I never know. You never know with these things. I’m getting up in years and I’m not a young person anymore. But I’m sure that with enough rehearsing and practise, I could smoke anyone under the table. I could show them all how it’s done, and I know I could do that with Fe, and we’d be unstoppable. We wouldn’t go far, but we’d be legendary.

Probably not.

I just want to put on a good show, and I’m gonna try my best. No idea if I can, no idea if I will, but definitely going to try. Going to do my best. I want to feel music flowing, and I want to be in that moment. That moment where nothing matters and everything matters, and I am truly free. I am released and moving everywhere, and all is still and unmoving, and I am so firmly in the moment, but I am everywhere and nowhere all at once. I want to feel that sense of being alive again, and I want to flow freely. I want to feel music as it passes from my hands into the instrument, and from there though to the head, the cab and out as sound. Out as something tangible with a physical presence that is not seen, but felt.

I want to touch people again, and I don’t necessarily seek their adulation, but I seek to bring something to them, and I seek to have them feel something, to experience even a little bit of what I feel when I play.

But I also just want to put on a good show, and I hope that tomorrow I do. I hope that tomorrow I give the audience that good show, and I hope it’s one of many more.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:56:26

I wanted to get my thoughts about tomorrow down, and I did, and I wandered a little but it all feels relevant.

Written at home.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Open Field at Night

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

This sharing is partly a test, and the test worked if you see this opening sentence.

This photo I took on the way home a few weeks ago. Was delayed, did some night cycling. That’s fine. Had the opportunity to get this. Wasn’t fast enough to get more of the fog, but it happens.

This is a big space that feels empty, and I guess it kind of feels wasted because of that. Spaces like these are considered necessary for urban living, but sometimes I wonder if they can’t be restored to something more ecologically natural whilst also being able to serve an interactive purpose that doesn’t threaten the ecology.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Empty Booths and Silent Seats

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Here’s something I was going to use for something but it didn’t work. Instead, it’s here now. It could be better, but I like it and its simplicity.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1515: A Long Way to Go About Thinking About Things

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Thinking about my life once more. Thinking about how things are and were, and will be, and all those things. Thinking about what was, what might be, and where I am now. Always somewhere between the past and the future, feeling like I’m trying to stay within the present.

I’m actually feeling good, but I’m tired. I’m pushing on and I’m pushing through. I’m getting through it all. I’m getting through everything the best that I can, and sometimes it is a struggle. Sometimes things take time. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you just get through things and that’s it. That’s it and you’re free, and you keep on going. You feel the breeze in your hair as you drive onward and away from it all. As you drive toward wherever tomorrow lies, following a disappearing sun as it goes into night, and then away from it as it rises behind you.

A road is a long way to go about thinking about things, and sometimes it’s the best way to go about things. But sometimes it is too long. A good hard think doesn’t always need to be met with a bitter emotionlessness, or a bitter intensity. It doesn’t always need to be gripping either, but it’s the road and the drive, and that scar tissue that pushes one to go inward and associate (among other reasons, of course as there are plenty of reasons as to why this stuff happens).

The road follows curves and topography, but it’s always straight and it’s an arid area, even when flush with life. It doesn’t matter because you’re present and there in the moment, but you’re elsewhere.

I think I feel like I’m currently elsewhere. I don’t know. I’m tired and happy. Happiest I’ve been in years, but things keep going. Nothing changes and everything changes. A constant state of still flux. It keeps on going and whatever lies around the corner is not here, but I keep on going. I want to see what is around the corner.

I was wondering to myself the other day about my ex, and how just maybe, even though I’m happy and I’m enjoying what’s going on in my life, things still would be better with her around. But I don’t know. I’ve got my problems and she has hers, and I don’t know if things would actually be better because I remember all the stuff that was hurtful and the things I tolerated, and I remember how she seemed resentful about my own discomforts and desire to try and beat my sugar addiction, and what those required from her. I don’t know for sure, of course, but it’s how it felt.

So, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m living it and I’m feeling it, but I don’t know. I keep on going and I’m happy, but maybe I’m not enjoying life. Maybe I feel like too much is missing. But I won’t know until I get further ahead from where I am now.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:22:08

Didn’t get heavy, but it got pretty serious. I don’t know if that is a good thing and I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. It’s just a thing.

Written at work.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Masked Musician

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

I’ve been looking for a good reason to share this photo. A good reason to share it is the desire to share it, but I wanted something more than that, for some reason.

This is the same musician as in this photo. Bit more detail here, which is nice. Doesn’t feel like a repeat. The reason why I’ve been wanting to share this photo isn’t due to comparison, however; it’s  due to how a lot of this encapsulates what I try to capture at a gig when I’m not necessarily trying to be “experimental”.

I think that I could’ve done better in terms of getting the musician to appear completely still, but that stillness is still there. I could’ve done a better job in tweaking light and contrast, too. It’s not the best I could’ve done. However, there’s a sense of space and isolation that I like. I don’t always try for those, but here I think they work as they lead to the removal of context which helps draw more attention to this person’s form. From there, the expressiveness comes through their form and shape, I think.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one is hosted by Sarah of Travel with Me, and she has chosen “The Letter H” as the theme. I’ve gone with human as my H representation. The musician is behind a mask, and the mask channels imagery that might be seen as representing something not human, or beyond human. Maybe it represents worship of something or someone that is just human. Maybe it represents a tacky display that might be seen as sophistication. It seems detached from being human, but neither the figure nor the concept is.

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.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Principles of Geometry: Enoma

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen. Went right into this and wrote something I feel is a bit messy and linear. The linearity works as the song is small. It’s minimal in a way.

Principles of Geometry’s “Enoma” is from Burn the Land & Boil the Oceans.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Gentle hums seem to look inward as they descend further. They seem like they’ll keep going but they find their floor and once they do, percussion and other sounds come in. These other sounds play sad, and one in particular reaches out, wavers above the others.

It’s slow and dreary, and downbeat, and soon more synth comes in and emphasises more melody, and there’s seemingly something happy in here, but it’s faint. It’s fragmented dramatic.

The percussion shifts to something else. Something more driving and strident, and beating, or maybe pulsating is a better way to put it. That wavering synth returns, seemingly mournful, and it continues to call out until much of everything disappears. Bass and a little bit of synth play along still. They are fragile it seems and this is their moment.

Percussion returns with no build, and soon the sounds shift again. A different shape to the beat, sounds calling out, sounds mourning maybe. Sounds possibly dreaming of something else, looking out a window and upon a rain-soaked sky, gradually fading out as they are called away and the song ends.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Zuntata: B.T. Dutch

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Maybe last week or the week before, I can’t remember. Whilst I was listening to the soundtrack I wasn’t feeling much like writing about this one. Changed my mind for some reason. Not sure if I captured it well, but there was a strong feel and strong sense of imagery I was getting from it, so that’s something.

Zuntata’s “B.T. Dutch” is from G-Darius‘ soundtrack, G-Darius Original Arcade Score.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A crowd. People going about their business. Walking, not hearing the mechanical thud. The crowd disappears, and something vaguely percussive loops. Sounds build. Mechanical, harsh, cold, sharp. Aggressive. There’s a voice here and there, and it’s all sorts of heavy.

It seems like machinery preparing for catastrophe, or perhaps it is the act of catastrophe commencing and having to retaliate on the back foot.

Something akin to strings scales up, stressed, panicked. Soon something akin to the idea of a groove settles and the sounds keep moving forward, pushing things out of the way, consuming, crushing. It’s heavy and it’s despairing, in this force. A push into a few strikes, and a little quiet. A moment of pause, perhaps, before things start picking back up.

Facing a menace here; a seemingly unstoppable force, and the sounds push back where they can, but it seems like it is not enough. That idea of a groove returns, and everything rains on down violence, and those strikes are pushed into once more.

Everything stops, leaving the sound of panting as the song ends.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1514: Quick Blast

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Trying to get a quick blast of words done before I get back to work. There’s a tiny bit of quiet right now and there’s a lot of work coming in, so I figured I’d take advantage of the situation and try to crap out as much crap as I can now rather than have it build up later when I have to be a producti0ve and functional adult in order to do that old adulting thing that people refer to as being necessary for my survival.

So I’m sitting here and I’m listening to music and I’m waiting. I’m twiddling my thumbs (not really). I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what I can say. I don’t know if there’s anything worth saying. Is anything worth saying? I don’t know. I can see, however, that my spelling is all over the place. Of course you won’t see that, but I can see that now. But I’ll fix that once I’m done.

Well… I’m out of things to say. It happens. I’ll get used to it. I will always get used to it. You have to get used to it, otherwise you lose it and if you lose it because you weren’t used to it, then that’s it, really.

But now I’ve really said everything and creativity is gone. Creativity is overrated, of course, but it is also underrated. We’re now going to go to flat planes of nothingness and we’ll embrace that because of course we will. And I mean “I”, and not “we”, so therefore I am saying things that are making little sense, or maybe they make complete sense,. but sometimes the mind throws things together in ways that are disconnected, finding links where there are none, and maybe they will make sense some day down the track.

Maybe I’m just full of it.

It’s a nice day and it’s a good day, and a tiny bit of slow is pretty good. Things come in waves and you need to take them as they come. Don’t go under and don’t go over; ride with the flow and catch the wave as it comes to shore. Maybe it will carry you a long way, and if it carries you into a jumbled slew of words with no real cohesiveness, then that’s what you need to deal with. That’s what I need to deal with.

I think I should get more sleep more often because it is quite apparent that I didn’t get enough last night. Such is the way of things, I guess. I suppose. But I’m still doing okay, and maybe things will be okay. Maybe life is okay right now. Maybe I have things going on and I can be thankful of my lot in life, for my ability to write may have left me, or at least the desire (it’s still there but it needs pressure), but I know it will come back at some point and I just need to keep going.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:53:07

Not my finest writing, but it’s fine enough for now.

Written at work.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment