John Leach's Blog » armley

Boron Fights Grass

john — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:56:59 +0000

Smash Smashing Smashed

john — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:52:39 +0000

Louisa and I randomly came across this demolition in Armley back in July, 2007. I happened to have my big camera with me.

Armley Park Silicon

john — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 22:30:53 +0000

Curious Ivy

john — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 20:37:44 +0000

Englandland

john — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 11:31:38 +0000

Combing Carla

john — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:21:25 +0000

Stolen scooter in Canal

john — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:55:55 +0000

Squirrel versus Cat

john — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 15:16:52 +0000

This squirrel jumped up on the window sill the other day. Carla (one of our cats) was utterly enthralled. The squirrel didn’t seem to mind her staring and me photographing. Perhaps it was thinking “This is *double glazed* innit? You ain’t getting through that in a hurry my friends”. Or perhaps it couldn’t smell us so assumed we weren’t real. Or all it could see was a reflection of itself.

It flicked around long enough for me to get a few snaps, but not long enough for me to properly adjust aperture, white balance, shutter speed, ISO etc. More photos here.

Armley Park in Autumn

john — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 22:30:55 +0000

Strange noises last night in Armley

john — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:15:41 +0000

At around 0350 this (Sunday) morning I half awoke to a very strange sound. It was loud and sounded to be coming from out on the street. I looked at the clock and misread it as 3150, so assumed I was having a lucid dream. Louisa woke too and I mentioned the dream noise, and she told me she heard it too, so I decided that I was definitely awake. At this point, the sound repeated itself. It was an metallicy almost alien noise. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it. It was ungodly. It sounded perhaps like 5 road sweepers with metal brushes driving close to a row of parked cars. Or the Terminator having rough sex with a robotic pig. It repeated a few times, sounding very much like the source of it was moving around the estate, away from us.

It was so freakishly bizzarre, I decided to get up and try find out what was causing it. I went downstairs in my dressing gown and sat out on the door step and listened. There was a longer delay this time but then it sounded again, quite clearly, from around the corner at the end of the street. Again, the noise unlike anything I could relate to. It repeated a few times, getting quieter. I just couldn’t let this go, so I got dressed and walked to the end of the road. The noise had stopped. I got in my car and drove around the estate, stopping and cutting the engine to listen. Eventually it reoccurred and I decided it was coming from somewhere in, or beyond the woods that surround our estate. I had no desire to wander around in the pitch black park on my own, so I drove around behind the park where there is an industrial estate, which, to be honest, is almost as scary.

It was at this point that Lousia called me on my mobile phone and told me she was worried and scared, so I had to go back. We shut the bedroom window and the curtains and went back to sleep.

What the source of this weird noise was has been bothering me all day. We’ve decided it was something to do with the train tracks that run through the bottom of the park. Perhaps a damaged and very heavy slow moving freight train. Though it would have to have taken almost 30 minutes to travel out of range, and there surely must have been more than one train to explain the reocurring sound. I still can’t forget about it though. Did anybody else hear it?

New photos, Armley and new lens test

john — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:34:44 +0000

I’ve uploaded some new shots around Armley (plus one errant one in Bradford of my Sister).

I also bought a cheap-ass telephoto/macro lens to try sate my close-up needs. I’ve bunged up a few shots I’ve taken with it. It’s a Sigma 70-300mm APO (f/4 – 5.6). f/5.6 is useless at 300mm in dim light, so this is a strictly bright daytime or flash lens (though the flash is obviously of no use with anything other than close-up at 300mm). The auto-focus drive is slow and noisy too. Compared to the fast and expensive Nikon lenses of equivalent focal length, this doesn’t seem bad for the hilariously low price (though to be honest, I’ve not used the expensive lenses). I’m not experienced enough yet to comment on sharpness or colour saturation or anything. I’ve not noticed any obvious problems yet, and no obvious lense distortion, but I really dont’ know what to look for yet.

Also, me rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.