Gold Star Ghost

 You may remember this photograph I took in Wales at Easter 2022:

It's a classic example of what photography does best: simply to record the strange "imaginings" of reality, so often superior to anything our own minds could come up with, albeit as seen through our capacity for wonder and a desire to share the wonderful.

Well, we passed the same stretch of fence this year, and saw this:

Is it the same balloon in a sad state of decay after four years of exposure to Welsh weather, or is it a different one? I suppose there may be much to celebrate in the valley below, and balloons may constantly be blowing up into the hills, but it's quite a coincidence. I can say with a high degree of certainty that those are not the same clouds, though, despite any superficial similarity.

I'm pretty sure that this is the same section of the fence; it even looks as if it is the same sheep's wool, even more firmly attached to the wire than it was four years ago, too. It seems it doesn't just blow away, or dissolve in the rain like candy floss, but becomes ever more tightly wrapped and compacted, until it looks more like electrical insulation than wool. I doubt very much that any hardy peasants come up here wool-gathering these days, although it's true my partner does stuff the cleaner, fluffier bits we come across inside her boots.

The one at the top, incidentally, is an iPhone 12 mini photo. The one below was taken with an Olympus E-M5iii. Obviously, the Olympus files stand up to close scrutiny rather better: 20 megapixels vs. 12, and a much larger sensor; no contest, technically-speaking. But, apart from the weather and lighting conditions (and of course, the subject matter), I don't think there's actually that much to choose between them, quality-wise, in "real-world" terms; either would print nicely up to about A3 size, and for online purposes as small JPEGs there's really no difference at all.

I was going to make a comparison between a cheap digital watch and a Rolex – you know: both tell the time, and wearing either will make you look like a prat in someone's eyes – but then I remembered that the phone cost me rather more than that camera... But, "same difference", as we say. And, besides, I don't own a watch: my phone has that job covered, too.