I Am Still Me – Bratislava Edition

Hello world, I’m still here in Slovakia, and as I have gathered a few cool smartphone pics, I’ve decided to make a blog post. So here it is.

The photos are very much me, in a different city.

The pure randomness: the coat of arms of Bratislava on the street waste bin.

The autumn leaves, of course – this is outside the block of flats where my mum lives; you can see the red bus shelter.

The view from the window – it’s, well, the view from the window of my mum’s 7th floor flat. She lives sort of at the edge of the city, hence the fields.

The coffee drinker – there is no version of me that doesn’t drink coffee. Although that eternal beverage has not really made a proper appearance on Some Photoblog. Yet.

The signs – this one is in the gardens of Bratislava Castle.

The shots from moving public transport – Bratislava Castle from the bus. (There’ll be loads of that, worry not!)

And the beauty too – sunset over the Danube river. With trees.

All pics taken with my smartphone, downloaded onto my tablet and shrank using PicResize. Thanks, Weekly Prompts for the tip. (Normally I save my photos to my laptop’s hard drive and use plain, basic MS Paint to resize the images I choose for the blog.)

My camera is getting a good workout – results to be seen soon!

Dry January?

I think it means giving up drinking for the month, but as I don’t get the whole concept of alcohol, to me, and Some Photoblog, it’s just plainly… well, the absence of posts. I’ve gone back to working from home, and the opportunities to photograph this time of year are generally minimal; apart from the birds in the tree next to my house and skies from the window, which have already featured here numerous times. (Then again, Anne of Green Gables says no two sunsets are ever the same, and I trust her on this.)

My backyard–or our backyard, I should say, I live in a house converted to flats, so it’s not just mine. I took this pic while I was topping up credit for gas. How exciting!

Seeing as I have in the past posted pictures I took on my way to the supermarket, it’s quite in keeping with the theme of the blog. After all, I’ve managed to run it quite successfully while not setting a foot out of Manchester. Blogs dedicated to far way, beautiful, amazing places have gone quiet at the start of the pandemic, as travelling was halted.

Yet, here I am.

Puh-lease, anyone can photograph the Taj Mahal, but not everyone can turn their dismal backyard into art!

(Unless Taj Mahal is in your backyard, of course–I know WordPress has a lot of bloggers in India.)

Silently Judging You

Not me. My cat Pepper. She is the one judging you. Like this:

Not wearing a mask during the pandemic?

Supporting politicians with fascist tendencies?

Reading gross tabloids such as The Sun?

Being a dick to people over things they enjoy (that don’t concern you in any way)?

Gossiping about other people instead of focusing on your own life?

Pepper is silently judging you–and she is a judge most harsh.

Random and Weird Phone Shots – Abandoned Shoes

I was passing through Albert Square one day when I spotted these on the steps of the statue of Prince Albert.

Of course, a pair of shoes lying about is probably not such a phenomenon. Like, people may get drunk and lose their shoes (or at least I think they do, I wouldn’t know, I don’t drink but Ed Sheeran mentions it in one of his songs and that’s as good an authority as any) but notice how neatly they have been laid there on the step. You may have heard of the famous six-word story that goes: For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn. Attributed to Hemingway, but this is disputed. So, what if you did a similar thing based on this photo?

Found. Pair of shoes. Very worn.

It was shoes in strange places that started this very series so I’m glad we’ve come the full circle.

Picture of a Picture?

Have you ever… printed your photographs and displayed them in your home… and then took a photograph of those displayed photographs?

Because I have.

I’ve had some of my favourite shots printed in the Polaroid-style format that is trendy now and I hung them on a string with clips… which is also trendy now.

Majority of these have featured here. Interestingly, the last one, which is my best sunset, never has.

The third one from right on the first picture, the purple one that’s out of in focus on every photo it appears in, is a smartphone shot from Imagine Dragons concert I went to last year. The lights were purple at that moment, it wasn’t something I added in–I wouldn’t know how to, anyway. I added the name of the band to it to make it look more artistic. (As it happens, Imagine Dragons have a song called Polaroid, what a coincidence!)

Which brings me to: photographers of WordPress, those of you that use digital cameras, do you print your photos? And do you frame them or display them in any fashion? Do tell me in the comments!