The Spiral Quirk

...a very inexact science

About this site

Why "The Spiral Quirk"? Good Question! Partly because I'm addicted to spirals (as my fractal images will testify!); partly because I am, in polite circles, frequently described as "a little quirky", and mostly because after 3 straight days of banging my head against the desk I couldn't come up with a name I liked that hadn't already been taken. So, for better or worse, The Spiral Quirk it is and shall remain.
You'll find here a selection of my fractal images, a goodly smattering of photographs and an assorted collection of ramblings, ruminations, opinions and stuff I like.

Gill

Photography

I've loved taking photographs for as long as I can remember (probably because I detest being in front of the camera!) but although I first started using SLRs about 20 years ago I have to shamefacedly admit that it's only in the last 3 years that I have really applied myself to studying, learning and practising.
About a year ago I developed an addiction to macro photography (as long as I don't have to get too close, too often, to anything with 8 legs) and am resoundingly grateful to the wonderful contributors to the macro forum on FredMiranda.com whose expertise and advice has been invaluable.

Aug 15 2010

Latest macro images

Friday was a day off work and my plans for visiting a couple of nature reserve sites to, hopefully, take some decent images of dragonflies were ruined by the rain and wind. It was Friday 13th after all – maybe I shouldn’t have even made any plans! I managed a few hours out yesterday afternoon, closer to home, but the only dragons I saw were zipping over my head. At this rate, it’ll be next year before I get another chance so I’ll just have to make do for now with the less-than-stellar ones I captured a few weeks ago.

I do seem to be getting better at taking pictures of flies’ bums though ….

The photographs below are my favourites of the macro shots I’ve taken over the last month or so. (Yes, even the ones of the flies bums’!) Hope you enjoy them too.

Posted in Fauna, Macro, Photography

by Gill

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Disappointment – and then a delightful discovery

About 2 weeks ago, ‘im indoors and I went to see “Inception”. Now, it takes something to get us off our fat backsides and into the cinema: despite being movie fans we have a track-record of managing to wait until the DVD comes out and then watching at home, in comfort! But this looked intriguing and with Nolan at the helm we thought it was going to be ace. We were both really disappointed with this film – and yes, thank you very much, we “got it”, we just didn’t enjoy it. Too long, too stolid, way less than the sum of its parts.

Then, on one of those serendipitous little side alleys that the ‘net throws up at you, I came across a trailer for a film neither of us had heard of. One quick visit to Amazon and two days later the bluray was in the player. Wow. Not a perfect film (whatever that is) I’ll grant you, but my goodness what a total delight. It’s original, fascinating, visually stunning – without the use of CGI – fantastical and quite enchanting. I suspect that it’s a love-it-or-hate-it film but if, like us, you’re fed up with remakes, rehashed plots, formulaic franchises then take a look at The Fall.