Instagram – John Beardsworth

Instagram

John Sep 6, 2018

I often post new pictures to Instagram and odd videos on YouTube. Don’t take this as evidence of any burgeoning or semi-coherent social media strategy, let alone of any ambition to become an “influencer” or whatever. It’s partly a demonstration that I am still alive, if anyone out there is kind enough to wonder.

johnbeardy

Ashness Jetty, Frank Gehry makeover #cumbria #la

Ashness Jetty, Frank Gehry makeover

#cumbria #lakedistrict #lakedistrictnationalpark #derwentwater
#fujifilm #lightroom #madewithlightroom

First image upside down, second the right way up

First image upside down, second the right way up

When very unusually you’d relied on satnav and the location wasn’t as close as you’d thought, but you wanted the exercise.

When it turns out to be a 7 mile walk in the wind and the rain, your hands are frozen (your gloves are left in the car), and you find that if you'd driven the other way you could have parked right by it….

The dam, Wet Sleddale.

And the Shap Chippy was closed by the time you got back.

#cumbria #lakedistrict #lakedistrictnationalpark
#fujifilm #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Thorneythwaite farm and the Stonethwaite valley, u

Thorneythwaite farm and the Stonethwaite valley, upper Borrowdale, waiting for just one shaft of light to shine forth upon the clouded fells (or might they be dark and satanic?) and briefly reveal England’s green and pleasant land. And did those size 13 feet….

#cumbria #lakedistrict #lakedistrictnationalpark #borrowdale #rosthwaite
#fujifilm #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Cheriton memorial In 1644 during the English Civi

Cheriton memorial

In 1644 during the English Civil War, the Royalists suffered two major defeats. In the well-known battle of Marston Moor the King lost control of Northern England, while the other was at Cheriton in Hampshire and secured control of south east England for Parliament.

The battlefield itself still exists as open country and 380 years to the day after the battle, Tilliers Regiment of @thesealedknot held a memorial march and left a wreath, followed by musket practice in the spring sunshine - gunsmoke blowing in the wind.

And the village pub @theshipinnbs served an excellent pint of Hopback Summer Lightning!

#TheSealedKnot #englishhistory #englishcivilwar #history #17thcentury #historical #historicalreenactment
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Farmers protest, Westminster At ten to five yeste

Farmers protest, Westminster

At ten to five yesterday photographing tractors was the last way I expected I was going to spend the evening!

100+ tractors on a go slow procession were always going to make a lot of noise of course, but I’d hoped for a bit of chaos - gridlock, at least, and muckspreading outside Downing Street. But they were kept moving, rush hour was over, and their group of supporters in Parliament Square didn’t smell so much of Ambridge or the English countryside. In fact they were singing about Mayor Khan. I hesitate to say this, but the protest just didn’t seem to be all it claimed to be.

Much as anyone can sympathise with farmers feeling betrayed by this government, what did Brexit-supporting farmers imagine would happen by leaving the EU? The promised lower food prices from new bilateral trade deals were bound to weaken former EU food standards and protections, and who was so naive to believe that new UK agricultural subsidy policies would match the CPA’s? In other words, wasn’t the time for protest before the vote, not now? And among the supporters in Parliament Square I noticed faces I’ve seen before at anti-ULEZ and UKIP events, and afterwards I saw Farage was there doing an interview.

#protest #demonstration #whitehall #london #brexit #farming
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

The “Rally for British Culture" opposite Downing

The “Rally for British Culture" opposite Downing Street - you should have heard their renditions of Dambusters, Rule Britannia, Jerusalem, and God Save the King. And so (they went) to the pub….

#English #rightwing #patriots #patriotism #protest #demonstration #downingstreet #whitehall #london #dogs
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Man carrying broom handle, Herne Hill Last week I

Man carrying broom handle, Herne Hill

Last week I found some amusing graffiti (second picture) in the nondescript triangle between Farringdon, Old Street and Angel stations. I did wonder if there might be more to it, but there was no hashtag or other clue, Google produced tenuous and probably coincidental suggestions, and of course Valentine’s day was only last month. So I gave in to romance and imagined it must have surprised a special someone on their way into work or college - and hopefully the sentiments were fucking reciprocated.

What I didn’t really expect was that only a few days later fellow SE24 resident @richardbakersphotos would find exactly the same words on a station wall in our corner of south London. And what’s more startling is that once you look at how the letters are painted, it’s clearly been done by the same person. Might it be elsewhere too? After all, the only solid connection that I can identify between deepest Clerkenwell/Shoreditch and Herne Hill would be even more puzzling - "John wuz ere".

#hernehill #se24 #southlondon #streetphotography #candidstreetphotography #love #graffiti
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Russians lined up in surprising numbers to vote at

Russians lined up in surprising numbers to vote at their embassy in Notting Hill Gate, many arriving at midday as a protest, and the queue soon stretched along Hyde Park as far as Lancaster Gate. A few carried the blue and white opposition flag, others posters referring to Navalny, none seemed to support dictator Putin. Wouldn’t you just love to know the London vote count? I wonder if they’ll release it.

#stoprussia #russiaisaterroriststate #putinisawarcriminal
#ukraine #standwithukraine #ukraineunderattack #ukrainianlondon
#russiaukrainewar #slavaukraini #славаукраїні
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Clerkenwell - Shoreditch area No time to get out

Clerkenwell - Shoreditch area

No time to get out the real camera, and no-one else walked on that side of the street in 10 minutes. But I reckon this’ll do for year’s Valentine’s card?

#Clerkenwell #Shoreditch #london #streetphotography #candidstreetphotography #love
#lightroom #madewithlightroom #iphone

Denmark Hill estate #camberwell #eastdulwich #wea

Denmark Hill estate

#camberwell #eastdulwich #weather #rain #lightroom #madewithlightroom #iphone

Shaw House, Newbury Each spring Rivers Regiment of

Shaw House, Newbury
Each spring Rivers Regiment of the Sealed Knot @thesealedknot start their English Civil War re-enacting year with a small event at the Elizabethan mansion Shaw House in Newbury @shawhouse1581 which, at least in my opinion, offers the best South-facing windows for photography in Berkshire. Back in October 1644, the view from one window of the second battle of Newbury was once supposed to have almost cost King Charles I his life when he was narrowly missed by a Parliamentarian musket ball. His visit to the house now seems to have been an 18th century invention, and for me it’s the sunlight streaming into the house through those windows that is so wonderful.

This year they were joined by The Vale Islanders, a group of dancers and musicians who perform Playford English country dances of the 17th Century in period costume.

#TheSealedKnot #CharlesI #englishhistory #englishcivilwar #history #17thcentury #historical #historicalreenactment #dance
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Budget day, all sorts of protests around Whitehall

Budget day, all sorts of protests around Whitehall

#generalelectionnow #politicsuk
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

Dressed for cold and wind rather than rain, I’d

Dressed for cold and wind rather than rain, I’d just cut short my walk through the City when I encountered an Extinction Rebellion “mob” wisely sheltering under an insurer’s office near Lloyd’s. The protest was against insurance for fossil fuels, and justice for Palestine with a wall erected outside AXA. It really didn’t help to tell myself there’s no such thing as bad weather for photography, just the wrong clothing.

#Climatechange #Demonstration #Demonstrators #Environment #Environmentalism #extinctionrebellion #xr #Protest #Protesters #Streetscenes #LloydsOfLondon
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

On the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale

On the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians and supporters marched from Speakers Corner to Trafalgar Square.

With @supportukraine.uk

#ukraine #standwithukraine #ukraineunderattack #ukrainianlondon
#russiaukrainewar #slavaukraini #славаукраїні
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

"I just saw her standing there". Barbican tube sta

"I just saw her standing there". Barbican tube station. I guess she was on her way to #londonfashionweek .

#londonfashion #streetphotography #candidphotography #fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

One can wish for both a ceasefire and the return o

One can wish for both a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages, and yesterday as thousands of Palestinian supporters lined up in the rain outside Parliament to lobby their MPs this Israeli supporter could have chosen to walk by and put her case to many of them, even join the line to speak to her MP. Instead she decided to go up to them and wave her Israeli flag in their faces (from across the road I couldn’t hear what she was saying), receiving what I’d describe as ridicule rather than hostility. The police weren't so amused, and at least it gave them something to do!

PS half an hour later I saw her again at a small pro-Israeli protest, so the police must have released her once she’d calmed down

#releasethehostages #bringthemhome #israelgazawar
#freepalestine #palestine #savepalestine #gaza #israel #muslim #boycottisrael #westbank #palestinewillbefree #bds #savegaza #palestinian #gazaunderattack #apartheid #palestinianlivesmatter #alquds #palestinians #prayforpalestine #alaqsa #nakba
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

As the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale

As the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches, Ukrainians and supporters continue their weekly protests opposite Downing Street.

On Sunday they remembered the #Olenivka atrocity in July 2022 when a Russian-controlled prison was destroyed by an explosion, killing over 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war, mainly soldiers from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

#ukraine #standwithukraine #ukraineunderattack #ukrainianlondon
#russiaukrainewar #slavaukraini #славаукраїні @supportukraine.uk
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

A dramatic recreation of the trial of Charles I in

A dramatic recreation of the trial of Charles I in the former courtroom of Huntingdon Town Hall, organised by @thecromwellmuseum and @pick_thesealedknot.

375 years ago, after losing two civil wars against Parliament, King Charles I was put on trial in Westminster Hall as a “tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy”. Unusually this had been a conflict between ruler and elected parliament, not rival dynasties or hostile states, and the defeated king had not conveniently fallen in battle, been assassinated or murdered or been declared mad, quietly deposed and locked away in some remote monastery or castle. This was the first time a king had been put on trial by his subjects, and while Charles refused to acknowledge the court had any authority over him, he was found guilty and was then beheaded outside the Banqueting House. More than 100 years before the American and French revolutions, this was unprecedented - and shocking.

If you’re interested to learn more about the trial, I strongly recommend The Tyrannicide Brief by Geoffrey Robertson. He not only describes the proceedings in a very readable way, but as a leading international war crimes lawyer Robertson is uniquely able to explain the then-novel legal principles and trace their direct impact on contemporary trials from Nuremberg to ex-Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein where rulers were no longer able to offer sovereign immunity as a defence for their actions.

The weekend’s six performances were sold out, raising funds for the nearby museum, and I did get some pictures with the audience. Dimmed down though, the courtroom lighting was both too dark for decent photography and produces horrid banding, so I was lucky enough to take these pictures during the rehearsals. While some use a single off-camera flash (Nikon fired by Cactus devices from my Fuji), the first here were the result of just wondering what the light might be like if I opened one of the blinds.

#englishcivilwar #history #17thcentury #historical #historicalreenactment #huntingdon
#fujifilm #fujifilmuk #lightroom #madewithlightroom

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