John Peart • Photos

Stranger Things

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 22:02:28 +0000

On Friday, I popped along to the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End to watch Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

I enjoyed Stranger Things on Netflix, and thought Season 4 in particular was brilliant. First Shadow expands on one of the plot points from that season.

I wouldn’t say this was the best thing I’ve seen on stage¹ but it was a great night. I wasn’t expecting high theatre and I didn’t get high theatre. What I was hoping for was some spectacular staging and special effects, and oh, wow did I get that! You wouldn’t think a CGI-heavy TV show like Stranger Things would translate well to stage, but you’d be wrong.

Footnotes

The best thing I’ve seen on stage was the revival of Chess that played for just five weeks at the English National Opera in 2018. It was so good, I went twice! ↩︎

Stoutie

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 16:46:59 +0000

I visited some friends in Dublin this week with Matt. Feeling touristy, I popped into the Guinness Storehouse.

Two fun things I discovered on my trip:

You can get your face printed onto the top of a pint of a Guinness — something they call a “Stoutie”
Guinness 0.0 — the alcohol-free Guinness — tastes exactly the same as an alcohol-full pint of Ireland’s iconic stout

Lemur ask you a question

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 11:10:54 +0000

Monkeying around

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 10:52:08 +0000

Mordor?

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 17:08:24 +0000

I have been in Spain, via Gibraltar, for the last week with my family.

Whilst Gibraltar is famous for The Rock, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was actually something out of the Lord of the Rings as it was engulfed by sandy and orange skies.

Tea cups

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:49:47 +0000

I recently spent the weekend away with a bunch of friends in a house none of us would ever be able to afford to buy.

The owner was a bit of a hoarder. Silver and stoneware were everywhere in this house. These little tea cups were hanging from a unit.

Burning brightly

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:48:37 +0000

A swan in Finsbury Park

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:13:49 +0000

It’s odd that it’s taken a pandemic for me to appreciate my local park. I’ve always enjoyed running round Finsbury Park, but I’ve never really stopped to take it in.

It turns out that it’s a treasure trove of wildlife; I’d just never noticed.

This is one of two swans that have appeared in the park in recent days, alongside some freshly hatched cygnets. This one was cleaning itself next to the pond, so I thought I’d take an impromptu snap.

Nature is healing.

Birthday cake

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:25:16 +0000

I turned 30 this year during the second national lockdown. What better way to celebrate than with a totally over-indulgent, six-layer, rainbow-coloured cake?

NES frame

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 15:33:40 +0000

I made this “NES Frame” as a gift for my dad for Christmas.

The piece is made of a replica Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridge and embedded display, powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero W. The display shows a looped video – roughly 10 minutes long – of video games my dad enjoys, like Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, DOOM, and Tetris.

Whilst, strictly speaking, not all of those games were released for the NES, I wanted to make it something uniquely his.

Cocoa

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 13:37:43 +0000

This is Coco (or as I like to call her, Cocoa). She’s an adorable little sausage dog, owned by my friend Charlie.

She has brought me much joy this year when I’ve been allowed to see her. With that cute little face, how could she not?

I want that one

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 13:22:32 +0000

No egrets

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 11:27:26 +0000

I almost didn’t spot this heron, perched atop the wall of a bridge in Hyde Park that crossed the serpentine.

I’m lucky I did! I certainly don’t egret it. 😉

Cooper

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 11:32:26 +0000

You know sometimes when animals just know you’re trying to take their photo? That’s what happened here.

This is Cooper. Cooper is my mum and dad’s chocolate Labrador and, in this photo, he’s ready for his close up.

He’s a good boy

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:21:09 +0000

This is Rolly and he is a very good boy. Most of the time anyway.

Olafur Eliasson

Sat, 07 Sep 2019 16:12:43 +0000

This was an installation at the TATE Modern by the artist Olafur Eliasson. It was my favourite part of the exhibition.

It was a giant, spiky metal object, laden with coloured glass. A large, bright light in the centre of it shone through the glass and cast dozens of interlocking, vibrant shapes all over the wall.

As I was looking at it, I felt like lots of people were really staring at this giant, spiky orb hanging from the ceiling, but I was much more interested in the technicolour light show on the walls.

Pretty in pink

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 13:55:32 +0000

This photo was taken on my first ever trip to Kew Gardens. It’s a close-up shot of a a beautiful pink flower that I took in the Temperate House.

It’s colours were really striking, so I wanted to get as close to it as I could before my iPhone was unable to keep focus. This was the resulting photo.

A city of contrasts

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 12:15:47 +0000

When you think about it, London is a very bizarre city; full of contradictions.

As I stood taking in the botanical gardens at Kew in South London, overhead, without fail, every 30 seconds would be a large plane coming into land.

This photo captured the contradictions of the city in a moment; at once incredibly serene but continually juxtaposed against the hustle and bustle of modern life.

Life in rainbow colours

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 13:15:33 +0000

For a number of years, I ran and led the Civil Service’s LGBT+ Network. When you’re involved in something like that for as long as I was, you get really good at organising things like attending pride events – and this photo shows something that was in reality about five years in the making.

Working with my colleague Kate, we had managed to negotiate a proper budget for pride activities for the first time in years. That meant we were able to make a huge splash at Pride in London.

Our Civil Service group — roughly 100 people strong — rode a 10 metre long float. The float was flanked by two, large LED screens playing animations I had designed to match the theme of “the pride jubilee”. There were crowns and pastiche royal insignia everywhere.

It was absolutely epic. I think I peaked, and I know I was bursting with pride as I pranced about to a pop playlist on top of that lorry. (I have permanently knackered my left-ear though. Oops!)

Pride at Number 10

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 19:13:55 +0000

Every civil servant has a wish list of things they get to do whilst they are in the Civil Service. Things like briefing ministers face-to-face, going into the Official’s box in the House of Commons or Lords.

Getting your photo taken outside Number 10 Downing Street is always top of the list. This isn’t the first photo I’d had the chance to have taken outside the famous doors, but it was probably the most special; this was the day of the Prime Minister’s annual pride reception¹. I was very fortunate to have been invited to attend the reception – in my capacity as co-chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

The history books will record that day as something to do with the EU exit negotiations. The Prime Minister unfortunately couldn’t be there herself. For me, history books should say it was the anniversary of our team publishing the Government’s LGBT Action Plan, and the week we published our annual progress report (both of which I’d penned).

Footnotes

The Prime Minister at the time being Theresa May, of course. ↩︎

...

Yawn

Thu, 09 May 2019 07:06:35 +0000

It’s not every day you’re staying in a 5 star hotel with an onsite wildlife sanctuary… 🐢

What are you looking at?

Tue, 07 May 2019 16:44:53 +0000

Leaping lizards!

Sat, 04 May 2019 07:59:15 +0000

Golden Falls

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:26:53 +0000

The Golden Falls are one of many sights to see on the Icelandic Golden Circle. Despite the name, they are not golden, but they are certainly awe inspiring.

Mind you, you won’t want to stay for long in the winter months. It was -10 degrees Celsius when we arrived, and we lasted all of 5 minutes before dashing back inside for a hot chocolate to warm back up.

The Great Geysir

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 14:33:12 +0000

This is the Great Geysir in Iceland. It spontaneously erupts in huge clouds of steam several times an hour. Especially in the sub-zero temperatures of that day, the steam creates these huge plumes, dozens of metres high.

Apparently the eruptions are getting smaller over time. You wouldn’t know it from this picture, with the distant and tiny people in the background.

The Blue Lagoon

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:50:58 +0000

When they said the waters of the Blue Lagoon were blue, they weren’t kidding.

I can highly recommend a visit to the adjoining spa and hot springs.

Above the clouds

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 14:49:25 +0000

This photo was taken aboard a British Airways flight on the way home from Reykjavik.

The time of the flight meant I got a front row view of a sunset, just as we pierced through the clouds on the short flight home.

Fireworks at Ally Pally

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 21:17:39 +0000

One of my favourite things to photograph are fireworks. They are fleetingly difficult to capture, and I’ve spent years trying to get better at taking photographs of them.

Shutter speeds set to maximum, I take hundreds – sometimes thousands – of photos during a display, in the hopes that some of them come out just right.

Peacock

Fri, 11 May 2018 12:19:40 +0000

Ahoy

Thu, 10 May 2018 19:55:26 +0000

If you know me, you know I’m a huge Eurovision fan. I’m one of those peculiar people who legitimately claim it as a hobby.

The 2018 Contest was hosted by Portugal, and I had the thrill of attending the show in person for the second time. I’ve got to be honest, the organisation surrounding the event was not good. I’d go as far as to say it was actually very bad, but nonetheless the show itself was great.

The inside of a stadium isn’t the greatest place to take photographs when you’re not allowed to take in a full-size camera, but this panorama – taken just before the start of the first televised semi-final – shows off the stadium in it’s entirety.

Zurich

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 12:42:13 +0000

Sometimes you visit a place and you think “Wow. Wouldn’t it be nice to live here? Imagine waking up to that view!” Then you realise how much it costs just to buy a cup of coffee and you check your priorities.

That’s Zurich.

Amazingly, jaw-droppingly beautiful. Amazingly, jaw-droppingly expensive.

But just look at that view!

I can see a rainbow

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 16:56:56 +0000

Love shine a light

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 10:05:11 +0000

This edited photo shows a set of traffic lights that I snapped in Vienna, Austria. I waited for the lights to change so I could merge both the ‘stop’ and ‘go’ lights into a single image.

I’m a sucker for these kinds of things. They might appear entirely performative to most people, but they really resonate with me as an LGBT+ person. Even if it’s only a little thing, it shows someone cared enough to do something to make life a bit easier for people like me.

Through the gates

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 11:54:37 +0000

May the best drag queen win

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:59:46 +0000

Designed by God

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:44:44 +0000

I always think the best part of a church isn’t the religious symbolism, but the architecture.

Diorama

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 14:21:01 +0000

A diorama of the Berlin Wall, photographed at one of the remaining sections of the Wall.

Fireworks in Battersea

Sat, 04 Nov 2017 21:19:00 +0000

The best place to take photos of the Battersea fireworks isn’t in Battersea Park itself; that’s too close. Instead, head over the river and watch from a distance.

You get a much better chance to take it all in, and sometimes you catch photos like this.

Plus, it’s free of charge!

Caffeine

Sun, 04 Dec 2016 12:37:09 +0000

I love coffee. This was a particularly good one that I bought in Holborn, and the colour palette seemed appealing enough to take a photo.

Fireworks at Battersea

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 21:29:18 +0000

In flight

Sun, 01 May 2016 16:37:07 +0000

Sometimes you click the shutter button at exactly the right second to capture something cool. This was one of those times.