Moving on

 

Hi Hi folks, here we go with another entry after last week's offering and its comments so thank you very much for that because we are working towards a wider range when comes to topics that I post about on here.

That's around the many changes that have occurred in my life over the years, changes in the extent to which some things that interested me the have changed and the belief that working through my emotions journalling  makes more sense.

Ducks and Swans have been a favourite thing of mine to just sit out and watch, be they in a parkside lake or like in this picture I took recently, swimming on our local canal.

  Generally I tend to favour using a telezoom because you can move from something like a duck or swan  capturing it and its reflection to more of a portrait at the twist of the zoom range rather than having to change from a 90mm to 210mm fixed length lens.

Reflections fromSummer 2019 camp

Well, we're back after last weeks adventures that have been documented on the other blog on Monday so I won't repeat myself too much here.
As you'll know I've had a good number of things on my mind for most of the year so far in which have made my conditions somewhat worse than usual so going away as the processes around those things resolve themselves was really more about resetting myself.
One good thing about where we were was that I could just go off into a massive garden to think and immerse myself in watching and listen to the birds, enjoying the plants with many fascinating insects, just getting into that frame of mind.
Sometimes I find the preoccupation with news, reports from various groups on topics just overwhelms me to the point I sense my heart sinking every time I hear the letterbox open so just being totally away from it helped.
The other was just playing and colouring in where I made up the colour scheme rather than slavishly following the original ones that help lift my mind toward both a sense of imagination and also the possible rather than being stuck in a cycle of negativity.
I also did go for walks which lead to me interacting with strangers, exploring the area and just feeling more at ease with myself and the wider world.
Upon my return I felt fresher and a beige envelope showed my ESA money  for not being able to work was going to continue which draws a line under much of what had taken its toll on me. 

Floral relaxation

It has been a somewhat turbulent week not least today with current affairs so I'd sooner move on to something more soothing

 Although we're alternating between seasons having had when I typed this snowfall followed by brilliant sunshine followed by drizzle it is proving fine for blossoms out of doors and indeed even indoor ones as these flowers I had for my birthday are surviving well.
I find looking at flowers very relaxing just having to change the water every so often and typically they last a few weeks by which point I usually replace them.
I'm slowly but surely working through the PIP form with just a couple of bits to do before photocopying and mailing it back

A winter wonderland

It's been a bit of  busy week here with a few projects on the go, some work around my few days away in the middle of the month and some stuff involving the way the Government pays my living expenses.
We also did have some old school wintery weather when I went out so I took a few pictures one day and indeed it tried to snow hard on Friday but ceased by noon.

 Looking around after the baa's who'd been taken indoors, the smallholding had a fair coating of snow and almost certainly would of felt frosty under foot as I had to stand on a grass verge sinking into hole to take this picture.
The background is part of a wood that is wider toward the right that survived both road building and increasing encroachment of the built up area in a sensitive part of the North Staffordshire conurbation.

 The "Gatehouse" that leads to a privately owned park, well covered in snow.
I decided against trying to cross the road at that busy and usually dangerous  point in view of the slush and ice on the road.

The entrance to the park that leads to a big estate and a very famous hall, lake and surroundings although much is obscured by road looking very picturesque at this time of year.
At weekends people travel though it to get to the Cricket Ground set in the park for the local club which plays in the North Staffs league to watch them play, enjoying drinks and other light refreshment
In many ways we're most fortunate to have literally on our doorstep such lovely places to walk by and through.

Fall sightings 2018

This week in the crazy world of me we actually go outside at the start of the Fall where within a built up area you actually get to see things you'd normally have to go a bit beyond down the country lanes for.

 I wouldn't go mentioning requiring a new jumper in the presence of these two as they may well Baa you out within seconds. They're within a hundred yards of a community centre but it doesn't feel like it.

 If anyone ever accused these two of horsing about they'd have quite answer to that as I careful supported the camera with the lens set at 105mm in uneven light and later on adjusted the exposure a little.
It was around here I once almost lost a camera bag to curious horses!

 There's nothing like crisp leaves and sunlight although I used to cheat in the old days armed with the Olympus OM4 and use the TTL flash with a warm up filter sometimes to get the kind of golden colour cast I like.

Nature Summer 2016

As we enter the August bank holiday, I thought I'd  like to take look back to the Summer  when I was I was away and I saw this group of trees.

 It just appealed to me greatly so grabbed my camera  and took this picture in the early morning of it while other folks were doing other things like getting up.
Nature has always held a fascination for me, not least in my childhood being surrounded by countryside.

 

It isn't just flowers that interest me, even leaf structures do too.

Meadowland IIII

I knows, I knows, its a bit late but in groan up land things sometimes take longer than they really should and this was one of them.

 One thing I like about me Olympus camera is I can easily control how much either side of the what I make my main subject is in sharp focus and here is a good example of what people call differential focusing.
I like the local Meadowland areas heaps, finding it a great place to relax and find 'inner space' which can help when you're needing to switch off a bit from the stresses and strains and I took this a few days before the Picnic.
I used my 135mm fixed length lens as I find it really separates out the subject at a wide aperature on the OM20 using Fuji's Superior 200 colour print film which was then scanned from the negatives to digital.

Wild flowers have always intrigued me so this cluster just caught my eye, taking ful advantage of the close focusing properties of this lens to fill the frame

 I thought this corner to corner picture of wild meadowland came out rather well, bring out the peacefulness as insects go about their business.
Taken using Tamron 28-70 close focusing zoom in early June and again on Fuji Superia 200 film

If only...

Minimalism it has to be said was not really something I was brought up with with everything we ever owned, shoe-horned in, a skill that no doubt aided my ability to really pack a suitcase right to the brim with stuff. Indeed it was something of a standing joke between Dad and Guesthouse owners upon arrival  whenever we went on vacations that we had  more stuff for four days away than many had for ten or more overseas.

Although I never had a word for it even in those days of film cameras, I used to attempt to take pictures of myself, trying on various outfits in the room sometimes involving putting the camera on a tripod looking toward a wall or chair or just hnad holding it in front of the wardrobe mirror.

Sometimes I wish back then we'd of had a smartphone so could of taken pictures like this easily or gotten Mom to taken them for me.

That's cos I like to document my life in time.