2026-06-22 17:52:15
Thanks to James over on the Coffee Blog for this pure noughties nostalgia quiz — Blogger Archetype Quiz.
I answered the ten simple-ish questions and was duly informed of my archetype; shared below.
What I love about these quizzes, as I have said before, is discovering the similarities between people of such differing demographics.
Thanks, James!
You love writing and have a growing backlog of posts on your website! Words are your best friend and you're always thinking about what to write next.
The web is not just its pages, but the connections between pages. You have internalised this and love spending your time exploring the web and sharing what you find with the world.
Now it's your turn! Take the quiz and share your results
Get in touch by email, hit me up on the Socials™, or elsewhere online.
Or, better yet, write an article on your own blog and send me the link 🥰
2026-06-22 16:21:37
Ansel Adams is one of the world's most famous landscape photographers with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and photographs blasted into space as a record of human artistic greatness.
He famously documented the stunning vistas of Yellowstone National Park; timeless renders of unsullied prehistoric landscapes.
My attempt is like ordering an Ansel Adams off Wish but I'm starting to work out how to capture his dramatic skies.
2026-06-22 15:56:05
Inspired, as so many are, by Robert, I'm going to attempt #Junited2026 — sharing one link to another blogger every day to celebrate some of the excellent writing out there.
I may not make it but we can but try.
Please don’t “use AI to polish” your blog posts. It makes them sound like every other blog post on the internet and therefore makes them very boring to read. I like your idiosyncratic little voice ok? Your silly little grammars. You’re the only you there is.
Week 407: Soho-mayo from The website of Alice Bartlett
London traffic is so much less aggressive than Berlin. The worst I’ve seen is an electric motorcycle on a towpath (if you do this, you’re a dick), but unlike Berlin, car drivers and cyclists don’t seem to want to deliberately run you over.
Weeknotes 2026 W25: Abandoned by Denis Defreyne
In town I walk past a shop that self-describes as a “Tattoo, piercing and welding studio”. I wonder what I’d get welded on. A spare arm probably, or a pair of heat resistant tongs, which may be more useful?
15 – 20 June 2026 by DW at Walknotes
Musea have always felt like churches to me. Not only because of the often imposing architecture, but also because of the reverence I felt for the art or knowledge on display.
The next best thing to actually visiting a museum by Ruben Verweij
the fundamental difference was that those arguing for “responsible ‘AI’ adoption” had accepted “AI” as inevitable and I had not. […] Except in cases where your boss forces you to use “AI” or be fired, it is entirely possible to eschew the use of these tools today.
Everywhere Foist Upon Us by darthmall.net
It's probably for the best though that I don't have a time machine, because in every time period other than the modern age, meaning the last two or three hundred years, I would very likely be dead within days, if not hours after arriving, because I have absolutely zero survival skills.
Re: If I could be transported back by Andreas from 82MHz
As photographers, we’ve all been there. A severe lack of inspiration and/or enthusiasm. This, of course, can put you off wanting to head out with your camera. When you begin to smash up the routine and rule book, it’s a) a whole lot more fun and b) going to open up a lot more opportunities.
Photography as a Distraction by Mike Hindle
What most teams call collaboration is actually coordination. You divide the work up, each person goes off and does their piece, and then you review each other’s output. That’s not collaboration. Collaboration is working on the same problem together, at the same time, building on each other’s thinking in real time.
The case for real collaboration by Mike Bowler
Mac’s a children’s writer and in Make Believe he argues that these books aren’t a silly genre, they’re a form we should treat seriously and respect. Meaning, books for children aren’t a lesser kind of literature simply because they’re for children.
Make Believe by Robin Rendle
I've spent a lot of time lately digging through my own digital photographs - I was on the lookout for photos with interesting glitches or degredations - and I ended up getting sucked in to the sheer amount of photos I have of things that aren't actually worth keeping[…]They're not good and they're not useful, and they're not pictures of things I care about. And yet, I didn't want to delete them, which I thought was a curious feeling to have about pictures of nothing.
Album of Nothing by Frances Berriman
Things that would have been tweets back in the olden times.
• Spotify have reverted back to their original app icon. I know the reason for the disco ball one, but it was just awful.
Shorts by Kevin Spencer
The council and the press release suggest that Blackpool’s crime statistics are “slightly skewed” due to the high volume of visitors compared to the residential population Blackpool has approximately 145,000 residents but is visited by an estimated 23 million people annually. However, no analysis or formal breakdown has been provided, and none could be given on request either, showing how many recorded offences involve visitors versus residents. The claim that crime rates are distorted by tourism therefore remains an assertion without verifiable evidence in the publicly available documents.
Blackpool crime “falling”, but key figures are unverified by Adam Green at North West Bylines
We are, after all, authors on a quest, world building our own habitat in the ether between the ones and zeros, looking to connect with other like minded people.
Be Authentic by Alexandra Woolfe at Wry Writer
After mentioning this idea of somehow being able to authenticate the source of a photo, I’ve implemented and tested the idea. Here is an update on the project.
Photography Chain of Custody Experiment #2 by Cedric at Photoni.st
The characters were three dimensional – all with hopes met or dashed, and their flaws brutally exposed.
Funny, sad, tense, depressing, exciting, and satisfying. Also v long.
Middlemarch by George Eliot by felix.gripe
I started to notice how there’s an awful lot of near-future brand names and corporations and such like. Snacks like AnooYoo bars. Walk-in cosmetic surgery SnipNFix and NooSkins. Ersatz beverages like Happicuppa. Big pharma corporations like HelthWyzer. Takeaway treats like SoyOBoy Burgers. GMO fast foods like ChickiNobs Bucket O’Nubbins.
A Wombat’s Anus by futuromaniac
I watched a video review of Dirty Dancing yesterday that talked about how well it’s held up. They pointed out how the film values abortion as healthcare, that it doesn’t vilify Penny’s decision and also doesn’t vilify sex (it’s a pretty sex-positive movie), and that the class commentary is insightful and sensitive.
Dirty Dancing is still a great movie by Hollie
The physical act of framing and taking images with a phone just does not feel right. I know I am in a dwindling minority here. Humanity loves taking photos like this. But I don’t.
On Using a Proper Camera by Florian Ziegler
Sighted people have a casual, almost dismissive, relationship with the weather; they glance out the window or check an app. The weather is a visual fact; a piece of data. For me the weather isn't data — it's a symphony…
The Acoustic Signature of Weather by Robert Kingett
There was a couple of buskers, one guy with a guitar doing pop covers and my favourite busker, the Pan Pipe player from Ecuador. It's always a pleasure to hear music from the Andes Mountains of South America in Wigan. Wigan might be an old mining town, but the place is quite cosmopolitan at times.
Frugal Film Project 2026 - Compact - May by Jim Graves
Then there's AI. Sigh. I'm currently on a job hunt and I considered this time to be perfect to get a better grip on vibe-coding, vibe-designing, vibe-everything—the things that my future job will expect me to be good at. But at the mere thought of the "new way of doing things", I recoil. I've been having my objections with big tech for years—that's just who I am: looking for software alternatives, swimming against the stream, thinking maybe a little too much about how we use software in general. I haven't found a way to fit AI into my way of being a user.
Drowning in the City by niqwithq
The idea that a great photograph is created in a single, perfectly-timed instant is both deeply appealing and fundamentally wrong. Stepping into the world and courting serendipity may yield a beautiful accident, but pressing the shutter is only the beginning. The real work begins later, when those frames return from the field to the sorting table, where photography becomes art.
The Myth of Intent in Photography by David M. M. Taffet
2026-06-22 04:07:26
They're spreading manure this week — the whole village stinks. Why is it always the week we need to leave the windows open‽
Freshly mown fields are like catnip for buzzards. Big, hovering predators –like US drones over Afghan villages– waiting for a rabbit, exposed and unaware, to come hop hop hopping along. And bam.
I lost my very precious notebook. Dropped it in the park. A lovely bloke phoned me and I got it back within half an hour. Always put your phone number in your notebook.
There's a tiny little chip in my phone screen; first injury in three years. I keep thinking it's a bit of shite and trying to blow it off. I wonder if there's Autoglass for touch screens…
Struggling with a moral dilemma. I really want to photograph Pride this year. However, even though it's perfectly legal in the UK, I don't want to accidentally dox some unsuspecting attendees. I'm not doing street portraits so I can't get a waiver signed. I'm under no illusions — I am only a mediocre hobby photographer with a tiny following though.
Just read that Keir Starmer may step aside for Andy Burnham which is interesting. I've never said "hi" to a future prime minister on an Arriva train through Macclesfield before.
Fire and fear: good servants, bad lords
Ursula K LeGuin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"
2026-06-21 00:23:16
No search engine or AI model will be able to answer the questions that are most important on a personal level: the existential ones.
Robert Birming
Robert touching here on the contradiction of contemporary "always on" society; a culture moulded on consumerism.
If everything you could ever need is less than three clicks away, what's the point in thinking?
Don't think, just swipe
Don't dream, just buy
2026-06-16 16:44:16
Thanks to David Meissner for proposing this! His contribution has some lovely entries and you should go read it!
My old harddrive had years of collected samples and photography on it. It died was killed by an incompetent computer repair worker. I remember being stood at the bus stop holding my computer with my eyes welling up with tears.
I used to have a battered white Fender Squire bass that I'd painted nonsense on. I gave it away during a house move to reduce the stuff being transported. I really regret that.
Now what about you? Do you have any items you wish you still had? Get in touch by email, hit me up on the Socials™, or elsewhere online. Better yet, write an article on your own blog and send me the link — I would love to read it!