l'art pour l'art

Give me a pencil, pastel, paintbrush, pallete knife, and I'll give you something worthy of a three-year old scribbling. But I can piss about with the filters on Photoshop. I'm planning on getting a few photos printed to hang up in my 'study', but may go for something like this rather than straight-up images.

A Morning Walk

Once again, up early enough to get out early to slog around my local environ in wellies. Before I set out though I quickly checked through the 80W/20W Actinic/CFL combo trap that I'd out in the garden overnight. Nothing actually in the trap, but I did find my first identifiable adult moth of the year on the adjacent fence (having noted a few moths fluttering in the car headlights last night as well). Probably the drabbest looking geometrid you could imagine, but very pleased to see this one nonetheless ...

Early Moth

When I did get going, it was just starting to get light. It was mild but pretty cloudy and dull - highly unlikely to make for any good photos. I had a really good morning seeing some excellent local birds (all good for the square challenge and also a few for Foot It). As I ambled down Springwell Lane, a Green Woodpecker was yaffling away and one of the regular Little Owls was obligingly sitting out in the open. I carried on down the lane and headed over to 'Countesthorpe Meadow' - or at least that's what I'm calling it. A small series of damp meadows with Whetstone brook running through it. The northern half of this is within my square, and so were Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher and best of all a couple of Treecreepers. I then got a message that there was a decent flock of Waxwings over in Cosby so I started walking west. Cosby is still within my Foot It area but well outside of my 1k square unfortunately.

When I got there, 35+ Waxwings were still knocking about - making tentative feeding forays down to a single berry-laden tree. Not entirely sure what the tree was, but looks very similar to what the Enderby birds were feeding on late in the 2010 influx. I think it may be Himalayan Tree-cotoneaster, but with so many berries on it still it's obviously not favoured by anything until there is no choice.

The Waxwings were not quite as obliging as they can sometimes be, mainly due to an ageing Staff Terrier barking its head off from one of the houses around the green. The same mental dog had earlier barked agressively at me when it arrived home with its owner - thought it was going to come for me so I was fully prepared to shut it up with my right welly. So with wary Waxwings, crappy light, a demented twat of a dog and to be honest little time and patience, I got no good photos. So here's a rubbish one and some arty efforts which hide my lack of photographic prowess.

By now I'd walked a good way and needed to head home to get stuck into some decorating .....

By the time I arrived home, I'd walked another 9km and been out for 2.75hrs. Aside from the above mentioned birds that were all Foot It ticks, I also picked up Wren, Black-headed Gull, Redwing and Mistle Thrush for my 1k square. Just as I got to the door I also noted a large harvestman on the wall - Opilio canestrinii.

Fowl down the lane

Nipped down the lane this evening. Lots of singing going on, but aside from a couple of Skylarks there was nothing particularly noteworthy. I noticed this very striking feather ..

I have to say I am no expert on individual feathers, but I was pretty sure that this was certainly not from something I'd expect to see down the lane. I had an idea, but obviously with just a feather no way to prove one way or another. Then I found another, and then a load .....

Seemed lke the erstwhile owner of these feathers had either been eaten or, at best, had a scrape with a car. Whilst I was pondering these feathers, I picked up a distant odd call coming from the field behind. A quick look with my bins, and feather ID confirmed in an instant ....

Can I tick it?

Bizarrely, not the first time I've bumped into Helmeted Guineafowl in the general area. These have most likely jumped the fence from the nearest farm though. Otherwise, not much hit the camera sensor, though I did get crappy shots of three small common white-flowered weeds which I have finally identified: Shepherd's Purse, Hairy Bitter-cress and ....

Common Whitlowgrass

I also took a shot of a random stick dangling down from a tree - looked very arty-farty against the sky behind.

I call this one "Stick - Why?" Prints available for £50.00 each plus postage.

Click for a very big panorama view from Whetstone Gorse Lane.

Repeat

Back to work today. The company opposite my office (Thales) has a large lawned area where they erect arials and test radar type stuff. Most of the time though it's just a big open bit of grass where on a daily basis a handful of gulls gather to charm up worms by jogging feet on the spot. Today, along with a pair of Lesser Black-backeds, a Common Gull and a few Black-headeds were two Herring Gulls. As my workplace is within the City Boundary, this was a City yeartick.

The chances of getting many yearticks at work are few and far between to say the least, though in 1995 when I worked in the same area for a different company we had Nightingale and Sedge Warbler in the srub at the back of the factory bordering the railway line and carpark. No such chance these days as sadly our big warehouse is built over my old place and the scrubby bit ....

I had to nip into the City center at lunch time for some very old fashioned banking where people are involved - this was a bit alien to me as I have been internet banking for years. The route from work into town is directly past where I've been seeing the Waxwings, and sure enough there was a gathering there again today. The light was slightly better, but the birds remained mainly high up. Whenever they came down it was brief and agitated with the Mistle Thrushes in attendance.

I counted 154 on one photo (not this one - but click for big and have a count yourself) but I am sure there were one or two more out of shot. Spot the Redwing in this shot whilst you're at it.

Get orf my berries

Here's some arty bollox.

Icebird

I was browsing through some recent photos this evening, looking to see if any were worth bothering with for editing and posting here. I decided they were mainly a bit crap, and turned instead to pissing around with filter effects on Photoshop.

Came across a filter (Chrome) which produces what would normally be an entirely rubbish effect - however I was struck in this instance by the very apt icy looking feel to the overall image. You will however have to squint to see the bird.


Can you see what it is yet?

I have no doubt that someone will manage to resolve the bird ID before tomorrow evening, when I'll update this post with another arty-farty version of the same image but with a more identifiable subject.

Update ....



Always makes me laugh how Robins are portrayed as the cutesy fluffy nice birds on Christmas cards, when in reality they are aggressive little feckers. This one has a real menacing look about it, like it's about to come over and give your nose a good pecking just cause you looked at it a bit funny.

You great big pansy!

This is one of my favourite arty-farty techniques on Photoshop - using 'select colour' as a mask and desaturating the rest of the image.

Mute

Art ..

.. or bollocks. Depends on your view. There are endless debates as to what constitutes art, what art is good etc. Personally I think that a sheep cut in half and suspended in formaldehyde is actually a waste of dinner and chemicals, and toilets are for plumbing in and using rather than displaying as an intellectual discussion piece. But what do I know.
What I do know, is that when I was at school 'art' generally referred to painting, drawing, modelling with clay and making collages, rather than some of the contemporary nonsense that wins the Turner Prize every so often. And frankly I was completely rubbish at it, and still am. I cannot draw or sketch anything, and my kids could all outdoodle me by the age of three.
Luckily for me, with a camera and Photoshop it is possible to produce images that could be considered artistic. Or bollocks - depends on your view.


Artistically manipulated Canada Goose images. Or Bollocks. Click for full size art gallery versions. Recommend me to Brian Sewell. Limited prints available for £35000.99 each.