All posts by ckponderings

Animals, Architecture, Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, Photography, Wildlife

9 in 45: 4th April 2020

6 April 2020 ckponderings 5 Comments

It was a sunny weekend in Somerset and, while the restrictions in force still allow a daily walk, I thought I would take my camera out for another 9-in-45!

The idea of the project is to set out on a walk with a phone/stopwatch and your camera. Set your stopwatch for five minutes and start walking. When the five minutes is up, stop walking. You have a minute to compose and take a photograph. Set your stopwatch for another five minutes and start walking. When the time is up, stop and, within a minute take and compose your second photo. Keep going until you have walked for 45 minutes and have nine photos.

I’ve undertaken several of these before and now, with the move to the South West, it’s giving me an opportunity to explore new places and seek out new routes!

I promise not every set of photos is going to include the Tor, but on this occasion made it too good an opportunity to miss!

A welcome to the Somerset town, but I was walking the other way. There is no “Thank you for visiting” billboard, however, so this will have to do!

…definitely no more photos of the Tor, I promise…

Walking along the River Brue, you come to a small weir. This hut, I would imagine, has something to do with water management, though don’t quote me on that.

Graffiti on out of the way huts: good or bad?

It really was a lovely day for a springtime walk! The sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm…

Love Actually is all around. Glastonbury is a place of peace, calm and openness and these painted rocks – on the road from Street – stand as testament to that sense of love.

Heading back homewards now, and a steep climb through a field of cows as I ascended Wearyall Hill. The timer on my phone went off and there was little obvious to photograph (apart from cowpats and hoof prints).

The chimney in the foreground belongs to the old Baily’s Tannery and Glove Factory, disused since the 1980s.

The top of Wearyall Hill now, and a place to stop and relax. I have sat here and relished the view on a number of occasions, but today I carried on, because I had a ninth photograph to take!

Never ever be afraid of being the odd one out, the black sheep. Life is made for standing out!

Another nine photographs taken in 45 minutes, then; my seventh attempt! Click on the links below to see the previous results:

And the original “Take Nine Photos In Forty Five Minutes” collection can be found by clicking the link.

Architecture, Glastonbury, Monochrome, Nature, Photography, Transport, Wildlife

Sketchy

5 April 2020 ckponderings 3 Comments

I haven’t yet started photographing indoors.

I’m currently not under personal quarantine, and am eager to have my daily constitutional for as long as I can.

In addition to this, having not long moved into my new home, the place is still a bit of a tip (although it’s getting there slowly) and with some building work going on (the builders working in isolation), I am paranoid that whatever photo I take will show up the dust!

So, with my once-a-day walks continuing, camera in hand, I am photographing the outdoors quite happily!

Glastonbury, Photography

Mass Observation: Isolation

4 April 2020 ckponderings 6 Comments

Set a few weeks ago, before a quarter of the world’s population were told to stay indoors, this seems more poignant a post than it was ever intended too. Many thanks for all of you who took part and enjoy the photographs!

Name: killing time with a camera … (https://steviegill.wordpress.com/)

Location: My backyard, Toronto

Note: Probably a little overwrought as a metaphor but the idea kinda got stuck in my head, plus I had a packet of peas in the fridge! I wanted to convey that humans are ultimately social creatures and, while most of us need to be alone from time-to-time, being away from other people for too long can feel alienating and lonely.

Name: Postcard Cafe https://postcardcafe.wordpress.com

Location: Botanical Gardens, Sheffield

Note: Isolating the daffodil from others close by and also from the ground (using shallow depth of field) has managed to produce an interesting shot of an obvious subject for spring. What I didn’t notice while composing the shot was that I had also isolated a rainbow in an out of focus water droplet. While it’s only a small detail, I really enjoyed that I had captured this chance moment. With any photograph our eye might naturally be drawn to the main subject in a photograph but it is always worth exploring the whole – to see what other surprises may be lurking! I think this is a positive image and I thought for this months submission we need a few things that give us a smile right now. Take care out there, PC

Name: Doctor Ken, Gin Sop

Location: Somerset

Note: I wasn’t thinking about the Mass Observation at all, just taking my daily constitutional with my camera in hand. There was a tent on the other side of the field, and it looked so lonely I felt the need to photograph of it!

Name: CKPonderingsToo (https://ckponderingstoo.photo.blog/)

Location: Glastonbury Tor

Note: I was having a wander on the one walk a day we’re currently allowed, and went a bit off the beaten track. There were a handful of other people escaping the lock-down by having a walk, and saw this woman. She was staring wistfully across the fields, and looked quite lonely ( even though her friend/boyfriend/husband was just along the lane). I loved how her poise was echoed by the steeple on the Tor and snapped a quick, candid pic!

Name: Cooking-Post Nerd

Location: Somerset

Note: High above us, in the sky, a buzzard circles, searching wide.

Name: Cap Does Craft

Location: Bolsover Street, South Yorkshire

Note: For many people right now isolation is not a choice but a necessity. This photograph looks at the other end of the spectrum when it comes to self isolating. I’ve often thought that tower crane operators might actually enjoy being isolated in the cabin. High above the town or city, away from the noise and dust of the building site. Views that many would pay money to see and no boss leaning over their shoulder. Photographically this image also has a nicely isolated silhouette of a street lamp nicely adding a little more value to the shot.

A nice number of submissions for this month’s Mass Observation Project. Keep an eye out on this site for May’s theme.

In the meantime, in this mad and crazy world, stay safe and stay sane.

Architecture, Monochrome, Nature, Photography, Wildlife

The Great Outdoors

3 April 2020 ckponderings 5 Comments

What will be the first thing you do when the isolation is lifted? Where will you go? Who will you see? What will you do?

For me, not being able to get into the great outdoors is the big frustration at the moment. Yes, my posts have included daily walks around Glastonbury, but I want to get properly out and about. Having moved to Somerset seven weeks ago, I am itching to see more of the local area, the countryside, the seaside resorts.

My National Trust and Glastonbury Abbey passes are sitting in my wallet, going unused because all are shut. The countryside is very apparent from here. Looking out of my office window, I can look across Butleigh Moor to the Hood Monument, knowing I cannot, in all good conscience, get out and visit, climb the hill and see the Tor from another angle.

Frustration and cabin fever are kicking in…

Architecture, Colour, Glastonbury, Photography

Limbo

2 April 2020 ckponderings 3 Comments

We are all of us in limbo at the moment. It seems like someone pressed the Pause button on 2020 back in February, and nobody seems to know how to get it kick started again.

Limbo is a dangerous place; we run the risk of becoming lethargic, or apathy setting in; things we would normally crack on with no longer seem important because, as I alluded to the other day, we can always do it tomorrow.

We run the risk of becoming a society of procrastinators, holding off, pacing ourselves, because if we end up doing something too quickly, we will have nothing to do tomorrow, or the next day or the next.

We are stuck ‘in-between’, a world waiting for something to happen, but not sure when it will, or what it will be.

Is there an easy answer?

Architecture, Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, Photography, Wildlife

9 in 45: 31st March 2020

1 April 2020 ckponderings 7 Comments

In this time of restrictions and “one walk per day”, what better use of that time outside than to undertake a “9-in-45”?

So, the nine photos…

It was a crisp, bright morning, and I had an idea of where I wanted to go. Living in Glastonbury now, I am fortunate enough to have the Tor virtually on my doorstep (as you will see, 15 minutes or so from the summit!).

Walking up to the main road, I pass the Rural Life Museum – currently closed, as with most other places at the moment. I have seen the bicycle sign on numerous occasions, and it just happened that, when my first five minutes were up, I was close enough to it to include it in my set of nine photos!

At the base of the Tor are these two stones. There are a lot of pieces of stone in and around Glastonbury – half of the town was built from pieces of the Abbey when it was dissolved in 1539. The thing that has always caught my eye, however, is the symbol on the one on the left. I think it’s military, but I’m not sure…

I will be honest, I am not as fit as I once was, or as I should be. I may well have not walked continuously between taking the 09:04 photo and the one above… In my defence, however, the Tor is blooming steep, and it’s only fair that I sat down on a handy bench on the way up the climb…

A fair proportion of the planet may be in lock down, but here in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is continuing unabated… This shot, of some cherry blossom, turned out better than I thought immediately after taking the photo. (I had intended a smaller aperture, but when I had taken the shot, I realised the camera was set to f/8. However, the depth of focus turned out to be pretty much what I was aiming for!)

Right, I’d better continue my climb, then…

Mr C’s strict rules state that selfies should not be included in the 9-in-45, but halfway up the Tor, my options were limited. I wanted to avoid the bulk standard countryside views, but the sun was still fairly low in the sky and my shadow was too good an opportunity to miss!

In recent weeks, the summit of the Tor has been distinctly devoid of visitors (a combination of isolation and the weather). However, at other times – at the height of the tourist season or on pagan celebratory days – it can be teeming with people.

I will be honest, I prefer it quiet. With its 360° view of the levels, it is an ideal space for reflection and meditation, as you can see!

I awarded myself a five minute sit down before moving on, but the 9-in-45 had to continue unabated. The image of perfect calm belies the fact that is was blowing an icy gale and, to be honest, I was more than happy to start moving again!

Unsurprisingly, while it took nearly 20 minutes to climb the Tor, it only took five to walk back down again!

At the base of the hill, in a sheltered, sunny location, is the Avalon Orchard. Another place for reflection and contemplation, these old fruit trees hold decades of history in their gnarled and twisted branches.

Rather than a wide shot of trees, I thought I would close in tighter, and this fungus caught my eye as soon as the timer on my phone alerted me to the end of the the next five-minute window.

Time for the money shot, then; I’ve talked a lot about the Tor, but not had a photo of it yet!

The wind may still be fresh, but the sun has been in full attendance over the last few days, so one final shot to show that spring has definitely sprung!

The photos and the route in more detail:

I have completed the 9-in-45 project a number of times now – click on the links below to see the results:

And the original “Take Nine Photos In Forty Five Minutes” collection can be found by clicking the link.

Glastonbury, Monochrome, Photography

Time

30 March 2020 ckponderings 4 Comments

A lot of what is going on in the world at the moment is weird. I mean plain WEIRD. In four short weeks, society has been turned on its head and it’s taking us a long time to get used to it.

There are lots of high impact, big things going on, but often it’s a combination of smaller changes, little side effects that build and build to screw with our minds.

While I know it’s not life shattering in the grand scheme of things, time of one of the elements I have noticed has changed.

I moved to Somerset from West Sussex in mid-February. It’s a move I’d been planning for a number of years, and everything had fallen into place for it to happen in the early months of 2020.

I was moving down here without employment and lucky enough to have a financial buffer to be able to not worry about working for a while. In effect, I have been in the fortunate position to be able to semi-retire.

The thing I have found since the move is that time loses its meaning. Days and weeks have quickly merged into one, and weekends have become almost meaningless. For the first time in about twenty years, I have had to keep a mini diary to enable me to track what I have been doing each day.

This has ramped up even more over the last week or so, since the lock-down really kicked in here in the UK. With shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants closing down and other places to visit – National Trust properties, museums, etc. – being extremely limited, the complete freedom we once enjoyed has been (understandably and rightly) restricted even more.

What I have found this has led to can be summed up very simply:

“I can do that tomorrow.”

For me, someone who very readily would look to ‘do today’, this has been really frustrating. I find myself running the risk of putting off simple things; well not even putting off, but delaying, ‘spreading the joy’ of confinement.

Trying to find structure in the time of coronavirus is increasingly becoming a challenge. Routine is disappearing, commitments have little meaning, time passes quickly, with little or nothing to show for it.

To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:

Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!

Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, Photography

Change

29 March 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

One of the things about the current situation we are all finding ourselves in at the moment are the changes that are happening to the way we do things, the way we work, the way we live.

Shops – the few that remain open – are opting for card payments, rather than cash. Businesses are finding ways to work with staff working from home. Television and radio channels are streamlining their workforce (BBC Radio sharing news reports, rather than having individual ones, for example) and using classic television (repeats) as a focus for their prime time programming.

While we are in an emergency situation, I do wonder if the new normal will be a permanent replacement for the old normal when this is all over. Will these emergency changes become commonplace post-Coronavirus?

To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:

Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!

Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, Photography

Calm

28 March 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

Here in the UK, we are in a partial lockdown, and our opportunities to leave our homes are limited. This includes one lot of exercise per day, and this constitutional is something we will be relishing and making the most of while we can.

The bonus for these walks is that the weather has currently taken a big turn towards spring. While I appreciate that this won’t always be the case, it does mean that we have taken a definite move away from the weeks of rain we encountered earlier in the year.

The walk provides us with an opportunity to connect with nature – to reconnect with it. Roads are quieter and the lack or traffic noise means that our ears are more alert to the sounds of nature around us.

Birdsong seems louder than it did before.

The trees rustling in the breeze hits us more than it did before.

The quiet is deafening, but not in a negative way. It is more of a comfort, heightening the connection we have with the world around us, a connection the ‘normal’ world had deprived us of.

To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:

Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!

Colour, Glastonbury, Nature

Blossom

27 March 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

We all need a bit of peace and harmony at the moment. In a world full of crisis, everybody’s lives have been turned on their heads.

The space we have been granted by the enforced isolation (whether working from home or in quarantine) has enabled us to appreciate the space we inhabit.

The lack of physical contact with others outside of our own households – particularly those we care deeply for – helps us realise how much we might have taken them for granted. When this is all over, I think we are all going to be much more appreciative of the relationships we have, the relationships we will have been isolated from for weeks or months.

To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:

Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!

A journey in photography.