Shut Up Mark

21/02/2023

Hello lovely people. I had a few hours spare in Oxford this week - I was born there and brought up nearby so I have a soft spot for it though I haven't been back in years.
I was delighted that the old Covered Market is much the same - Brown's cafe now has chai latte and a menu painted on a weathered board but otherwise it's the same as it was in the early 80s - and I had a 200mm lens with me. It was super dark in there for a telephoto but I found this florists' which was reasonably well lit and took some candid street shots. This assistant is so photogenic. She had no idea I was there - even in the one that she appears a bit angry, she's not actually looking at me! - but she has an astonishing aesthetic (note the Slipknot tee) and these shots could have been posed in a studio. I'm rather proud of them.
I made it into a triptych because I thought it suited it best with the deep shadowy edges of the images. And yes, there's quite a bit of post-production editing but I've kept as light a touch as possible.

I'm thinking of making this available, perhaps even on a canvas - I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts?

06/02/2023

Had a bit of time spare in .

21/01/2023

I’ve collected some new followers (hello lovely people!) thanks to my brilliant wife so I thought I’d take the opportunity to show some images that aren’t flowers! Prints available at ShutUpMark.Etsy.com please and thank you.

15/11/2022

A moment of respite in a tough working day.

09/11/2022

Hey hey heeeey, I'm back. Whether you want me to be or not. You're welcome or I'm sorry.

I did a thing on YouTube. It's about my holidays and trying to make some images in a genre outside my comfort zone. It's here: https://youtu.be/Vl6LMz3NQ1s for your perusal should you so desire. Please.

I'm going to try to stick to a regular upload schedule, now that I've got my life in a bit more order. It'll go wrong sometimes, I know it will, you know it will, but I've put my intentions out there so you never know.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to go and find some mushrooms.

I find big old landscape photography a bit daunting, so a week in Madeira was the perfect chance for some practice. I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 5...

26/09/2022

Chaddesley vs Bedworth 24 September.
These are all low res because facebook - if anyone wants a high res image professionally printed and posted lmk in the messages. A4 is £10 (unframed - I can organise that too if you want), other sizes available.
Sorry Ollie, I tried to make you look good, that's on you. Phil, however - the camera just loves you, apparently. Adge - no words necessary.

20/06/2022

Gotta stop going out enjoying myself with my camera and get the damn photos edited and up for sale.
Been trying. Not the worst thing. Quite relaxing honestly. Just sitting here on Photoshop putting them in frames and on walls. Not gonna lie: went a bit mad with a few - graffiti walls and picture frame glass glare? When it's only ever gonna be a thumbnail?
Thanks ADHD. I know it was you. We all know it was you. Thanks a whole lot.
(It's good practice I guess).

18/06/2022

Hey heeey. Welcome back to the low-budget s**tshow.

So, I completely realise that it's all very well having some pretty photos to sell, but if no-one know they are there, you're wasting your time. Obvious. Basic. 101, if you will.
So have I been marketing my photos consistently on all the socials? No. No I have not. Of course I haven't. This is me we're talking about. Pshhht.
I *could* blame this on neurodivergence, that would be reasonable. So I'm going to. Executive dysfunction is a total ar****le and I'm fed up with it. Trouble is, knowing you need to do som**hing and actually doing it are very, very different things for someone like me. I get more and more anxious the longer I don't do it, and I know that I would feel much better if I just did it, but ... I just can't. It's awful. It's a lot better now I take m**h, but it can still punch me right in the dick sometimes.

Until one day I randomly surprise myself and suddenly just get on with it and know what? It's kinda fun actually. Yes, super frustrating. Anyway, that happened this week.

Apparently one of the best ways to advertise yourself is via Instagram reels. So I did one, and here it is.

Now to actually go and put these pictures up for sale on the shop (here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ShutUpMark), and go and promote the reel. Yeesh. This s**t is HARD.

31/05/2022

I'm trying to be a bit more active on here (please buy my photos) and bring a bit of joy into everyone's lives. This is a YouTube project where a digital animator gave out a simple file of a stick-man walking with effort against a big circle in the background, and invited others to make of it what they will.
These are the top 100.
The imagination and skill that is out there completely blows my mind. Just astonishing. Best 10 minutes of inspiration for a creative I've seen in forever.
Enjoy. (Please buy my photos).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKBs9l8jS6Q

29/05/2022

And now, some more pictures and no actual advocacy because we've all had enough of that for one day. Most if not all of these will be for sale in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ShutUpMark at some point in the near future when I get my arse in gear to actually stick them on there. Yay ADHD executive dysfunction! (Oh s**t! Steady there tiger. Nearly started again there. Sorry. Sorry about that).

29/05/2022

Hi.

Here's a couple of pictures of some dandelions for interest. Because this is a photography page.
Also, it is a me page, and I will use it to advocate for things important to me.
I am autistic and have ADHD. Which is a terrible acronym and very inaccurate but here we are. These are both aspects of neurodivergence, overlapping but discrete, which is one of the most common yet misunderstood conditions in modern life.
I have known this for a bit over a year now. It has been the strangest year I could possibly imagine. Here are a few points for your interest which are personal to me but may resonate with others.
I am a different person to who I thought I was. Not completely, but significantly. This also means I am a different person to who you thought I was.
I bear decades of the effects of trauma caused by the consequences of trying to be someone I wasn't. Someone I persuaded myself that other people wanted me to be. This will not go away easily.
I will be learning about new real me for a very long time yet.
I have spent my entire life in a state of heightened stress without realising it. It is proving extremely difficult to allow the constant threat-awareness to recede, even though I am now very aware of it.
My struggle to re-orientate my personality and to discover who I have really been all along is impacting those closest to me, and the guilt and frustration that I feel about this is making the process a lot more challenging.
I will need accommodations from everyone around me for the rest of my life. There is nothing I can do about this. Please feel free to tell me straight away if I am doing som**hing that makes you uncomfortable, it will be inadvertent not deliberate. I am trying to refine and identify what works best. I will probably never have a perfect set of solutions.
The kindness and understanding that I have received is genuinely overwhelming and I cannot possibly express how grateful I am.
I am fighting constantly to minimise the effects of my diagnosis and treatment to everyone around me, but it can never be zero-consequence and I will always regret that.
If you think that my behaviour is strange sometimes, then make allowances for the fact that it seems normal to me. I may find your behaviour equally strange, and neither of us is wrong.
I will not ever apologise for being a non-typical neurotype. If you have a problem with this then that's on you.

I am fu***ng trying.

I hope you like the dandelions.

06/05/2022

Time to post what I’ve been doing! Semi-abstract architecture first. These are available to buy, shop link in bio.

20/03/2022

Ok, so this finally happened. Couldn't swerve it for ever I guess.
Also: BT Openreach came a few days ago and decided to cut down the telephone pole outside. Rotten and dangerous apparently. Fine. Can't have a hazard in the street. You would have thought, though, that they'd come up with some kind of schedule to replace it, no? Me too. Well, we're both wrong. Apparently leaving my elderly neighbours completely out of contact with the outside world is not as big a priority as a pole that might fall over. So no broadband until probably Monday the 28th.
Have got enough 4G to post this. And I've not been idling away while I'm stuck internetless in the house: did a portrait of the daughter in Photoshop. Good learning experience. It's a bit scruffy but I quite like it.
Finally, promo picture of me looking moody and professional. That's what I tell myself anyway.
More photos to buy on Etsy soon (see link in pinned post).

24/01/2022

Ok, last one for today, promise. Had a little trip down to the Severn Crossing, hoping to get some misty panoramas of the estuary. Unfortunately, more of your fog than mist, but we made of it what we could. Including one that's quite scary, frankly. I like them like that.
And then the other morning I had to run about in my pajamas changing lenses and having a bit of a panic, because the mist over the village was lifting fast. Got two shots worth having. It was gone in less than five minutes.
Enjoy. I may put some of these on Etsy if there's interest.

24/01/2022

24/01/2022

Was up in Manchester visiting our lovely group of university friends from about two hundred and ten years ago, and had the chance to pop into town and have a look at the buildings. I totally didn't have a hangover. Nope.