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bleyden.bsky.social
Gravitas Shmavitas
@bleyden.bsky.social
76 followers 75 following 130 posts
I make things, fix things, take photos, love life and enjoy getting off my pickle. Perfectionist and epic procrastinator - a truly frustrating combo. Tea lover and masala chai fiend. Tech wrangler for NHS Scotland.

Edinburgh & Dundee
He/him 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸🇺🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✊
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bleyden.bsky.social
White dahlia

#Photography #Flowers #FloralFriday #FlowersOnFriday #BloomScrolling
Close up photo of a dahlia flower not yet fully open. The inner petals are mostly intense green, and the outer ones are bright white with green fringes. Light is glowing through the flower from behind, which especially noticeable with the whiter outer petals.
May 30, 2025 at 8:37 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Mel on the roof, #Edinburgh, #Scotland July 2006

Dynax 7D, 50mm, 25s @ f5.6

#Photography #PeopleOfBlueSky #Urban
We are looking down the centre line of the long, twin-apexed roof of a set of Scottish tenements at dusk. The lower half of the picture is framed by slate tiles and roof vents. The top half is framed by deep blue sky and rows of chimney pots at various distances. A woman with red hair and wearing a black vest top sits cross-legged on a low wall in the middle right of the frame, between two lines of chimneys and with a wine glass on the wall beside her. The long exposure combined with her movement has blurred the woman. Beside her on the wall are a large loudspeaker lying on its side, and a lamp which is illuminating the scene. On top of the loudspeaker is the another glass of wine. At the woman's feet are blankets and cushions.
May 29, 2025 at 10:15 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
A busy junction in #Varanasi, #India. November 2002

#Photography #StreetPhotography #HumansOfBlueSky
Colour photograph taken from a low angle, depicting a busy street scene on a bright day with pedestrians, cyclists and rickshaws in the foreground, and buildings in the background.
May 29, 2025 at 7:15 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Good morning!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming...

artuk.org/discover/art...

#Photography #Dundee #Scotland #Lemmings #Gaming #DMADesign @rockstarnorth.bsky.social
A bronze statue of a "Lemming" from the 1991 computer game. The character is hanging on to a stone pyramid with its right arm and looking out over the camera into the distance, shading its eyes from the sun with its left hand.
May 28, 2025 at 6:22 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Outside The Scottish Parliament, looking south towards Salisbury Crags

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottis...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbu...

#Edinburgh #Scotland #Photography

Minolta Dynax 700D, Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 @ f8
Black and white landscape photograph. Four people in the middle distance are standing on flat, paved ground with man made linear geometric/polygonal ponds and hard landscaping. The background is almost entirely filled with rugged dolerite cliffs, surrounded at their feet by a large and steep talus slope, the whole looking down on the foreground scene like the walls of a huge fortress.
May 27, 2025 at 2:13 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Three boys on their way home from school during a downpour, November 2002. #Amritsar #India

Scan from a 35mm negative taken with my first SLR, a Minolta X300. Probably Minolta 50mm lens but have long since forgotten and am crap at keeping notes 😂

#Photography #StreetPhotography
Close up shot from chest height of three lads, around 10-12 years of age, dressed for school with collared shirts and backpacks. The middle boy has his arms round the other two and is smiling directly into the camera, as is the smaller boy on his right. The boy to our right is grinning and planting a kiss on the middle boy's cheek. All three are soaked to the skin and we can see blurred raindrops in the frame. There are other people out of focus in the background.
May 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
View east at the junction of Abbey Mount and Abbeyhill in #Edinburgh, #Scotland

#BlueSkyArtShow #LightAndShadow
Night time urban scene taken from under a railway bridge, with a brightly lit meandering street curving uphill to the left and another heading off to the right. It is dark under the bridge causing a strong contrast between the two halves of the image. A waist-height railing runs from bottom right to top left of the image into the distance, casting a strong striped shadow across the pavement (sidewalk) it is protecting.
May 24, 2025 at 8:54 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
"Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang"

#BlueSkyArtShow #LightAndShadow #Photography #Stormlight #Edinburgh #Leith
A large winter-bare tree standing alone in urban grassland fills the frame. It is lit by strong stormlight and is showing bright against the the very dark cloudy sky behind it.
May 24, 2025 at 8:35 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
#BlueSkyArtShow #LightAndShadow #Kannur #India #Photography
Black and white perspective view down a long, open-ended arched vault, with light from multiple evenly-spaced entranceways (out of view) playing on the opposite wall, interspersed with areas of shadow from the wall between the entranceways. Black and white perspective view down a long, open-ended arched vault, with multiple evenly-spaced brightly sunlit entranceways on the left, creating stripes of light and shadow. A pair of people stand together against the right wall in the middle distance.
May 24, 2025 at 8:23 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Sybil #Photography #Cats
Very wide angle shot of a room from floor level, with a deep turquoise carpet. A ginger tabby cat stands facing us in the foreground. Her body and legs are both clear and well defined, but movement of her head and neck has completely blurred so it looks almost like a headless cat.
May 22, 2025 at 6:32 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Cosmic, a #psytrance night at Studio 24 (aka Calton Studios/The Studios) in #Edinburgh, c. 2017. A dearly missed and amazing venue, sadly muscled out by housing developments and noise complaints. I'm not certain I actually took these, as I was rarely, shall we say, compos mentis at The Studios 😂
View across a dancefloor with around 40 people, towards the brightly decorated DJ booth. The ceiling is decorated with interlocking geometric UV art panels with several large circular "dreamcatcher" style panels suspended from it. A green laser is throwing out from above the DJ over the crowd. Reach for the lasers, safe as fuck! ❤️ View across a dancefloor with around 50 people, the crowd are mainly facing the DJ both which is out of shot to the left. The ceiling is decorated with interlocking geometric UV art panels with several large circular "dreamcatcher" style panels suspended from it. On the far wall is a large UV art wall hanging. Love is all around ❤️
May 22, 2025 at 6:27 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Burghead, 28 Dec 2007

#BlueSkyArtShow #Photography #Texture #Sunset #Scotland
Wide angle photo of a very small fishing boat making its way out to sea past a harbour wall at sunset. The water is almost flat calm, with only small undulations, reflecting the colours of the sky.
May 17, 2025 at 6:38 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Wood and iron gate in #Kannur, #India.

#BlueSkyArtShow #Texture
B&W close-up perspective photo of a sturdy wooden gate or door, featuring dozens of evenly-spaced square pyramidal iron spikes across its face. Each spike is about 25mm (1 inch) thick and 75mm (3 inches) long. Also pictured is the door's large cast iron bolt, hasp and staple.
May 17, 2025 at 6:22 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Desperate Dan, Dundee city centre.

(Definitely over-vignetted this one. Live and learn 😁)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despera...

#Photography #Dundee
Close up photo of the head of a bronze statue of Desperate Dan
May 11, 2025 at 7:38 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Sybil. The light that burned twice as bright ❤️

My little woosly soulmate, I'll always miss you.

#photography #cats
Close up shot of a ginger tabby cat with her head on a pillow, staring directly at you, one paw curled up round her face.
May 10, 2025 at 5:58 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Forth Road Bridge, Scotland

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_R...

#Photography #BlueSkyArtShow #Lines
May 10, 2025 at 11:12 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Cockenzie Power Station turbine hall (April 2012)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockenzie_power_station
Night time view from street level, showing large oblate buildings lit internally with a sodium orange glow, asking with retaining wall and gatehouse. The retaining wall features a mural celebrating the history of the site, depicting the social and working lives of Cockenzie and Prestonpans residents, including fisherfolk, saltworkers, and colliers, as well as the early construction of the power station.
May 10, 2025 at 5:57 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
Stephen's Green shopping centre, Dublin (c.2017)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen...
Very wide angle b&w photo, viewing diagonally upwards from a first floor corner across a large, naturally lit atrium space. The centre is constructed from ornate ironwork with many evenly-spaced columns and arches, and a double pitched glass roof glass roof comprising many rows and columns of rectangular panes.
May 9, 2025 at 4:38 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
The Howff, Dundee (c.2012)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Howff
Monochrome photograph of the interior of a graveyard, on a bright winter day. A central cobbled path meanders from the foreground to the middle distance past a bare weeping willow tree, flanked by gravestones, some centuries old. City centre office buildings are visible in the distance.
May 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Caipiriñha with some rhubarb and pineapple "tea" I made (trimmings steeped in hot water). Help I've gone Full Hipster. Tasty tho 😁
Drink as described in post, in a glass tumbler full of crushed ice, close up on a wooden table.
May 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
bleyden.bsky.social
Seems barkeep49 is quite prolific. Do they ever give any reason for this? Mad.
April 30, 2025 at 9:55 AM
bleyden.bsky.social
And this, children, is one of the reasons we eventually ended up with El Presidente Farage.
Three photos of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner. In the first, captioned "Trans women are women" they are pictured at a Pride event, carrying "trans pride" coloured banners. In the second, they are pictured at the House of Commons, and this one is captioned "Only kidding". In the third, captioned "To be continued..." they are pictured kneeling either side of a committee room table.
April 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM