The future ain’t what it used to be.

The future ain’t what it used to be.

A funny saying that we have possibly all heard before – although I can’t for the life of me remember who originally said it. The wonder that is the Internet, just looked it up and it was Yogi Berra.

But it is also a saying that has suddenly taken on new meaning for me. My future most certainly isn’t what it used to be (at least my perceived future). My future has recently become full of potential. That potential has always been there, but not consciously accessible to me. By this I mean I hadn’t actually thought about my future in any ‘real’ way.

I can now see my current life ahead much clearer than I did, in that I know what I want to try to do with it and what I want to try to achieve and be, rather than just float along the top of my life, not really being IN it, not being part of it, and ending up at the end of it not really having had much to say about it. Not really making choices, but just bumping along. A bit like a twig in white water.

To use the gift of choice to do something with your life, to have a long term vision for your life creates a real sense of purpose. Let me flip that last phrase and see what that says - Your purpose from Creation becomes the reason for making conscious choices, which in turn requires you to have a long term vision for your life.

And...why not extend that vision to beyond your physical time here on earth? What about the bit of you that lives on after your body, soul, spirit, mind, electrics and magnetic all return to the sources of their arising?

The life that you have built and expanded on during your time here on Planet Earth, using the tools that were given to you (body, soul, spirit, mind, electrics and magnetics) needs it’s vision too and that vision needs to be as long as life itself. And by that I mean Life. That eternal, never-started (because it always was) never-ending (because life isn’t death) mesh that runs through everything, powering up the UniVerse to allow it to also expand and build and continue to fulfil its purpose.
So no. The future most certainly ain’t what it used to be. And thank goodness!

There are a lot of ways to treat the blues, but it will still be the blues - Count Basie

There are a lot of ways to treat the blues, but it will still be the blues - Count Basie, originally uploaded by Jahina.

I wonder if you can guess what this is? It is something in my kitchen. Something I use every day, something you all might use everyday...IF you don't have a dish washer.

Yep, it is a part of a bottle of washing up liquid. Loved how the daylight was shining through it so took some photos. Added a frame and Bob's yer uncle.

So there you go. I take photos of mundane things and make them interesting...well, to me, at least!

Rusty, Crusty, decay and abandonment

As I have probably already stated a lot of times on this blog, and will probably state again a few more times, photography has opened my eyes to see so many things that I had never noticed before. Mundane things like forks, buttons on machinery, light bulbs, mud and stones. These things have become suddenly incredibly interesting and strangely very very beautiful.



One of the most gorgeous things that I would previously have thought of as ugly and not worth a second glance, is rust, crumbly flaky paint and abandoned items.



The many shadows and light play about them, the added colours that are created by long-term exposure to all sorts, the oddness of where they lie moldering....all make for fantastic photography opportunities!



Nature taking back what belongs to her - changing things slowly but surely back to organic parts of herself. Shows natures patient ways, doesn't it?



One of my favourite areas for finding rust, decay and abandonment is on the beach of the Thames Southbank in London. I will do a seperate post for Southbank beach, because it is a subject all of its own.



For this post, please do enjoy some shots I have taken over the last year of things that are rusty and crusty and crumbly and flaky.

Albany Park in Enfield

I have to walk about 15 minutes to my local train station (Enfield Lock) each morning. I have photographed that walk completely out, or so I thought.

I got to the park part of the walk (Albany Park) and usually I just cut across it and get back on the road and march the rest of the way to the station.

But last week, one morning, I got to the park and it was all covered in a lovely mist. I could just about see some school kids walking through it and a man walking his dog.

So I decided to go the long way round and walk up the park and see if I could capture some of the mist before it went.

I am really very pleased with these shots.

Town and Country

I am incredibly lucky. Well, I think so, anyway. I live in Enfield which is on the outskirts of London. Just within the M25, so definitely London, but drive a few minutes further North and you are already away from concrete, buildings and even better...people!

Fields, fields and more fields. Take a road or two off the main one leading from London and you can find yourself driving through bendy curvey pretty lanes.

So, I live in the best of both worlds. I can go out and live it up in Central London with its lights, dancing, pubs n clubs, museums, art galleries, the Thames, Big Ben, shopping and having fun. Or I can go out into the country side and lap up some silence, slow my pace down to chillax, sit in a field of rustling corn and pretend that work and noise and stress don't exist or walk about beautiful country lanes with my dogs.

Enfield itself is less bustley, obviously, thank Central London, it is quite quiet and I do live in a Cul de Sac so it is even quieter than other through roads. A large park sits just at the back of my house too, so again. I am lucky.

These pictures are some I took of some fields very near to me during this summer, just before they chopped the corn, or wheat or what ever the crops are, down. I will return in Winter time particular if we have snow this year. I reckon this area will look amazing covered in white!

Photos that others find interesting!

I have a Flickr account and I upload photos there all the time. I use it too for storage but also to get feedback. To be honest, the majority of the feedback is not of any great quality, I submit my photos to various groups and I receive awards from other Flickr users and I give out group awards too.

However, there are a few photographers there that do give their honest opinions and I do get some lovely personal messages from people who compliment my shots in more than just a 'Great Shot!' kind of way. I appreciate that immensely.

However, some of my shots really do get a lot of views and not simply because I have submitted them to groups. I submit most of them to groups and so theoretically they should all receive the same amount of awards/views. But they don't. Some get more than others and to be honest I think it is because they are my better shots overall.

So, these here in this blog entry are five of THE most viewed and commented on shots that I currently have on Flickr.

Red Bubble

Red Bubble is a website where I can upload my photos to and make them available to buy. My artwork can be bought in varying different formats, prints, canvass, calendars and t-shirts. I will be uploading a lot more to it than I so far have, but here is a taster of what I have there so far: