iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2026

Nice surprise - logged on to dA to see I had another "Daily Deviation"! It's a great community, but there is a kick out of seeing 1.6M views on your work! #Photography #deviantArt #SouthAfrica www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A sunset. Bottom third showing the tops of bushes, leading on to layers of hills. The sun on the right. Sky and a wave of thin cloud above.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

I bought a "new" 10" f4 Meade Schmidt Newtonian Telescope - hopefully for asteroid occultation observations. Big light bucket. First light last night. The half-moon was at prime focus, with a very jury-rigged mount, but hit clear skies. The second (earlier) […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A black & white photograph of a half-moon

A grainy close-up photograph of the cratered shadow terminator of the half moon.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

I was all wound up for my first lunar occultation observation attempt - and it's raining! Sigh.

A schematic of the moon, with a thin bright sliver, and the a dotted line near the bottom edge - the predicted path of the occulted star.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

I'm curious: does anyone use a Sony A7s for asteroid occultation observations? I managed to get 9th magnitude stars on a hazy half-moonlit night with a 240mm f6.3 lens at 25 fps, (ISO 51200) which I think should be usable? The image below is beta and kappa […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A screengrab of a video of stars. Mostly black.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

#KoebergRoad #CapeTown #SouthAfrica this morning. The first day of #Spring - so the sun was just rising. This road has so many different feelings through the day and year. #Photography The original, and a link to the rest of the collection […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A city street in warm sunrise light, warm coloured buildings down the right of an otherwise empty road. Vehicles with lights on can be seen in the distance. Off to the right is a mountain

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

A few evenings' work: a map of the concepts of 47 pages of almost pure text, in context, and their interactions. The original Cognitive Load Theory paper, with (hopefully) no spurious additions! It doesn't replace reading the paper carefully, but gives a map to navigate it. #Higraph

A series of nested rectangles with text, and various arrows showing relationships between the rectangles

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

#SilentSunday False Bay, from Clarence Drive. #CapeTown, #SouthAfrica #Photography The different moods of the sea and bay never disappoint - even on a foggy day. www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A foggy grey seascape, with some green bushes in the foreground. The sun has broken through a layer of cloud, and is reflecting on the sea. A gull flaps its way into the image.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

I sketched out the last stretch of #PostProduction for my Year9's movies today. I asked if the handwritten process was clear enough - and was very politely told "its a bit confusing". So I turned it into a #Higraph process model. This met with approval from the class. #Teacher #FilmMaking

Scribbly red writing with various joining arrows, boxes and a circle

A neatly laid out diagram with labelled, nested blocks, joined by curved arrows.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026

My evening. Recording a student devised drama piece. As cinematograper, I get a say in the lighting design. #theatre #lightingdesign

An empty theatre stage, with a white floor and 4 white doorframes, lit with green, blue, orange and purple light.
The silhouette of a camera in the foreground

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

It had been overcast all day, but in the late afternoon, the lowering sun poked under the layer of cloud. It was pretty. #Photography #SouthAfrica #BettysBay #Mountain #Road www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

Late afternoon, warm low sunlight from the left striking a white walled house, which almost glows against the dark looming mounting above. Other houses are visible. A gravel road arcs toward the road, and turn off to the left.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

Not so #SilentSunday - doing some #woodwork on an upstairs platform. Rather pleased with the lap joint, even though the power saw and angle grinder disturbed the peace a bit! #southAfrica

Two wooden beams at right angles, showing the worked joint between them. One beam clamped to a workbench, which has some hand tools and a power tool on it.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2026

Cappuccino. He's 10. He has an enlarged heart. 5 weeks ago, we didn't think he 5 days left. Medication has helped hugely. But we don't know how long he has. I shot this with a "vintage" Zeiss kit zoom. A piece of glass that slows me down, and makes me think […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A black and white photograph of a medium sized border collie chasing a ball. The photo is blurred by the motion, but there are sharp elements as the photo panned along with the running dog.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

The tide was low, and the water draining through the sand left these patterns. Inspired by some of Minor White's rocks and beach pictures from the 1950's. It is so much easier now. To make a print like this in a darkroom would be 2 to 3 hours of work, and […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A black and white image of a network rivulets bifurcating. It is a little difficult to judge scale - this could be a satellite shot of a river delta with mountains in the background, rather than a beach at low tide with some rocks.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

Dog walkers. I love haze, and the compression of a long lens. The silhouette caught my eye initially. The echo on the the further beach was a bonus. #Photography #SouthAfrica #BettysBay #Seascape #Beach www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A hazy view into the sun along a bay with a spit of beach, more bay, and then a long beach. A silhouetted figure walks a dog on the spit. A hazier dog walker can be made out on the far beach. Hazy mountains form the backdrop.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2026

Washy McWashface. Next UK parliamentary candidate?

A small blue plastic washing machine, with 2 dials at the top, and a wide handle at the bottom, looking like a somewhat grumpy face

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2026

I kept this one for #SilentSunday . The peace and quiet out in the #Namaqualand is tangible. There is a road that winds through those hills and mountains to the Atlantic, some 80km distant. At this time of year, the area is really very quiet. #SouthAfrica […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A sepia-toned landscape, looking across layers of rolling ridges, each fading into the haze a little more.
The foreground ridge has a distinctive blocky rock structure.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

An old #windmill in the #Namaqualand National Park. The mechanism still all worked, but was disconnected at the base, and replaced by a solar-powered immersion pump. Much less maintenance, I'm sure, but not as romantic! #southAfrica #retro www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

The blades of an old farm windmill, taken from nearly immediately below. All the fittings and struts can be seen. A wooden platform with eroded planks is below the blades. Monochrome, tinted a gentle sepia.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

#Higraph progress! The text names of items now opens in an in-picture editor as you create the item, and for nodes and blobs, can be moved! This is the last major thing before MVP! #Python #Pyside6 #GraphTheory

A diagram of rectangles, round nodes, and a squiggly edge - a mathematical #Higraph. The text above one node is highlighted and editable.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/07/2026

I managed to finish sanding and recoating this chair this weekend. It is easily 60 years old. Everyone in our family loves it. #SilentSunday #Photography #SouthAfrica #Furniture www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A teak-coloured wooden rocking chair, on a green lawn in a garden, in the later afternoon light.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Crafting a bow. I suspect that that #spokeshave is at least 70 years old, possibly more. My son has restored the edge on the blade - it slices wood like butter. The second image is the #workbench #Photography #BlackAndWhite #SouthAfrica #Handcraft The […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A black and white closeup of a pair of hands pulling a spokeshave along a slender piece of clamped wood.

A robust homemade workbench with a spokeshave and other tools and wood shavings. Black and white.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Birthdays have birthday cakes. At first, parents made them, but now (nearly 30 years later!) siblings make them. With homemade raspberry compote. #Photography #SouthAfrica The original: www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A dark chocolate cake, cut in half. It has a light icing, with hints of red visible in the filling. A knife rests on the plate.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

Springbok Sand Fig. These look like daisies, but are tiny - less than 2cm in diameter. (That's an inch for those still using the system of the empire). #Namaqualand is an arid, semi-desert place. But a couple of weeks after the rain, a myriad flowers appear […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A closeup picture of a purple daisy-like flower and some buds on very sandy soil.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

#Namaqualand is an arid, semi-desert place. But a couple of weeks after the rain, a myriad flowers appear out of the sand, and on the bushes. Our visit was serendipitously coincident to the blooming of a number of species. These are about 2cm long. The […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Spays of small yellow flowers with very elongated sepals(?) and tiny, star-like petals

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

More #Namaqualand #Flowers These are locally called "Bok horing" (buck horn). Also a #macro shot - the centres are about 2mm wide, and about 7mm long. #Macro #Photography #SouthAfrica (For the technically minded, this was shot on a #Tamron 90mm 52B macro […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A spray of tiny pink flowers, with tall columnar centres. The centres look as if they're extruded from a cake icing pipe.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

#Namaqualand is an arid, semi-desert place. But a couple of weeks after the rain, a myriad flowers appear out of the sand, and on the bushes. Our visit was serendipitously coincident to the blooming of a number of species. These look like snapdragons - […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A spray of lilac-hued snapdragon like flowers, on a stalk running right to left. Buds and other blooms are visible.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

About 300km north of #CapeTown, there is a ridge of mountains, separating out #Namaqualand from the southern biome. The pass through the mountains is Piekeneerskloof. #SouthAfrica #Photography #BlackAndWhite www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A black&white landscape of a valley, with a series of receding hills interlocked along a meandering river, which is catching the mildly overcast sky above. A road runs to the left.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/06/2026

Sometimes, #CapeTown is just pretty. The table-cloth on Table Mountain. #Photography #SouthAfrica

An open, green suburban field, with buildings and a car in the middle distance. Table Mountain in the background, with a cloud draped over it. Wispy clouds in the sky.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/06/2026

#Higraph #Python #GraphTheory One more small feature, and some housekeeping, and I will have a "minimum viable product" of a higraph editor! (This picture was directly copied and pasted from the tool - not a screenshot 🤓

An extended mathematical graph, with rectangular sets containing other sets, and nodes. Curved and straight edges join them. There is no mathematical sense in the graph - it demonstrates the tools capabilities.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026

Misty morning commute. The fog had rolled in from the Atlantic, about 500m to the right of this. Pedestrians here don't generally wear hiviz anything, so alertness is strongly encouraged. #Photography #street #Fog #BlackAndWhite #CapeTown #SouthAfrica […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Misty dark city road, with a street light illuminating a small section. The lights of an on-coming car add to the pool of light. Pedestrians can be seen in the foggy shadows, crossing the road.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2026

Vlei Mouth. A vlei is a shallow lake. Here, the water from the mountains drains through the aromatic fynbos to give it that brackish brown colour (and taste!) #BettysBay #SouthAfrica #Photography #Rocks www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A beach in the afternoon sun, looking inland up a brown, fast flowing stream. Big rocks protrude from the sand. Mountains in the distance.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

#Higraph update: #Hyperedges can now be straight lines or hermite splines. Heading towards "minimum viable product" quite quickly now! #Python #Qt #PySide6

A graph of nodes and edges. Some edges are straight lines, spidering around, others are curvy spline edges.

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Grant_H @grant-h.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/05/2026

A key cutting machine in a shop along Koeberg Road. The sparkle of the old keys and filings caught my eye. I'm not sure the photo captures what I thought I saw. #photography #capeTown #SouthAfrica #handcraft #workshop www.deviantart.com/africanobserver/…

A moderately close up photograph of a piece of table-top iron machinery to cut keys. Various control wheels and iron mounting bars. Underneath the machine are broken keys and iron filings.

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