Walks » Rebecca Gove-Humphries

Observations of a nice walk

I had a moment this morning where everything I wanted to do flooded in and I couldn’t decide where to start. In the end I decided to go to the supermarket to get some food for tea, and went the long way round for a walk in the park. There are so many dandelions and buttercups at the moment, the grass is taken over with yellow.

It was very windy and I noticed that above the flats the clouds were moving really quickly, so I made a video of it. I find it quite relaxing without the sound. I also noticed how beautiful the dappled light through the trees that lined the path was and did a video of it. I am thinking about doing a walking collage of the park tomorrow morning, weather pending.

Rendering, a sense of achievement

I have been editing some video footage I took whilst in Wales, on the beach. A few years ago now, I started to make video collages. When I looked at my previous videos, I couldn’t believe it had been so long! One of the ideas I had was to break down a walk to the sea edge. I have been visualising what this would look like, and thinking about the various ways I could document it for a while now.

Today, I finally sat down at my tidy (ish) desk and began to remember how to use Adobe Premiere. It has been a real treat to play with it and see what comes out. The video I have made is the very start of thinking about how I will document the next beach I visit and other walks/adventures. There are a number of things I would change, like using a tripod for the video of the sea, to get the horizon straight.

Below is a screen print of the video in progress. There is the sky at the top, which is a video taken with the camera pointing upwards whilst walking on the beach. The middle section is a static shot of the sea moving in and out, and the sound used is what is captured whilst filming this. The finally, you have a slideshow of photos taken on the beach floor, whilst walking towards the sea.

I am really interested in documenting these experiences and exploring different ways I see what’s around me. My next mission is to get an app on my photo that has a pause button, so I can make videos, like I used to, with short clips of parts of a walk/journey.

Taking a break

I am almost two weeks into a two month break from work. I decided I needed to stop and do some thinking. So here I am, in the fortunate position of having time. The plan is to not be distracted by my job and attempt to focus on remembering what it is I like to do outside of it.

One of the things high up on the list is putting into practice some of my ideas. I have lists of them but I rarely sit down and do anything to make them happen. I want it to be part of my everyday, so that it doesn’t feel so daunting/out of reach. I found a list of questions that I had prepared when I was organising the Art Works page in LeftLion and I hope, by the end of the two months to be able to answer the questions on it. At the moment, my mind is like scrambled eggs.

Last week, I went to Bishopston in Wales, with my parents. It was a last minute decision to tag along and they were super lovely to let me. It was just want I needed to clear away the cobwebs and start to think about what I want to do with the luxury that is time. One of the biggest things is to give myself a break and try not to give myself a hard time. When in wales, we went on a daily walk and it made me think how good it is for you, not only for the exercise but also for the change of scenery.

Here are a few photos taken:

My Mum, Ali and I sat in the garden and painted the garden. I have no technique at all, but it was so relaxing. These were my Nan’s watercolour paints and below is my painting.

Yellow and grey walk

Yesterday I decided to take a break from my desk and go for a walk around Nottingham City centre looking for grey and yellow sights to photograph. It is really great to change your focus and look for specific colours around you. I found it really relaxing, even when I was crouching on the floor to take the photo.

At the end of my walk I bought myself these beautiful yellow roses for the bargain price of £2.

By the side of the road

Whilst walking on the road to Bunny this weekend, I took some photographs of these plants at the side of the road. I also did really short videos as I really like them moving slightly and the sound from the road.

Sun lounger

A bare sun lounger bathed in winter sunshine spotted on a lovely walk from Gunthorpe to Hoveringham.

Much needed walk

I really felt like a break today, so I went to visit one of my favourite buildings in Nottingham City Centre. The light was lovely and it was so quiet.

: Beautiful light

: Pigeon front door

My friend Ben

It has been 5 years since I lost my wonderful friend Ben to Cystic Fibrosis. He was an incredible friend; always thinking of others, he made me laugh A LOT and believed in making the world a better place. If you’re reading this as someone who knows me, you’ll already know that I have some ‘interesting’ taste in music. Ben would always persevere with me, sending me different music to listen to and would be so happy when I announced that I quite liked ‘System of a Down’ or ‘Nine Inch Nails’ (and didn’t mention Hanson in the same sentence!). Ben loved music and going to festivals and always wore his Glastonbury wrist band with pride.

In the last two years I have been involved in helping organise The Waterfront Festival in Nottingham (Ben would have been relived to hear, I don’t book the bands!). The festival raises money for the Nottingham Hospitals Charity Cystic Fibrosis unit and this year, Framework too. It is always all of the fun, with three stages packed to the rafters with music, a raffle full to the brim of ace prizes and a super atmosphere to top it off.

I think about Ben a lot and I don’t think this will ever change. I am extremely lucky to have had Ben in my life and he has, and always will be an inspiration to me.

You win some, you lose some

Yesterday I had one of those daft moments in life. I got on the bus home and instead of the £1.70 bus fare being well spent, I instinctively jumped off the bus two minutes in as I spotted a leather sofa. When I got to it and realised I had left my camera at home and my phone was so low in battery the camera wouldn’t work; I wanted to weep. Not feeling great anyway, and feeling disheartened I stomped my journey home.

My grumpy face was greeted with a lovely smile when my friend Ali bumped into me. I blurted out my tragic tale and like the true friend she is, offered to take the photo on her way past. I was so pleased!

Then something happened, as I was walking down a side street I witnessed, what could have been an advert for true friendship. A girl saw her friend in the distance, waved and then in a Phoebe from friends style run, galloped towards her and her friend did the same. When they got to each other, at speed the girl jumped up, legs around her friends waist and they spun round. Then still hugging (in the middle of the road) swayed from side to side. I don’t know the back story but they both really meant that hug and I felt happy (and slightly voyeuristic) to have witnessed something so genuine.

Must focus

With my new camera I have been having some amusing focus moments. The first time I took it out and about, I managed to take a photo where the reeds in the foreground were perfectly crisp, when the subject, the swan became a background blur. I have mastered the manual focus which my camera has, however that didn’t stop me creating this shot when using the self-timer: