Friday, October 30, 2009

Dark Days

Some shots of Canada Geese on a stop-over in their migration.  

With the planet leaning away from the Sun, daylight hours shortening and the clocks changing, things are going to get a bit leaner on the photo front for a while..
Was taking this subway shopping trolley when a passer by appeared in the shot, with the red lighting I like the way it's added a sinister edge to the photo.  The hand rail instantly transformed into a handy leading line straight to the dark figure..

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Misty morning

Lacock Abbey in the morning mist

The old wagon collection at Dyrham Park

Monday, October 12, 2009

Deerfest

It's that time of year again, when male deers decide that they better put their big, spikey antlers to some use and have a good old fashioned scrap to impress the ladies.  So a visit to the Fallow deers at Dyrham Park was in order.  Here are 7 shots (selected from a trigger happy 200 taken throughout the day - note to self, work on shot selection!)  chosen to show a variety of moods and characters.

Stag dozing, sheltering from the breeze under a drystone wall.
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Adolesent males practicing their head bashing skills.
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Two large males going 110% at each other with debris flying.  A fantastic spectacle!  
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Nice mood in this grassy, setting sun shot.
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Young male in dappled sunlight
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Nice subtle lighting highlighting the textures of this stags horns and coat. 

Friday, October 09, 2009

Local Life

Having mentioned the lack of local wildlife I guess this post is a little hypocritical, but here they are anyway.. a cock crowing, a fly meeting it's maker, a coot reflecting and a deer in the setting sunlight.



Scouting the local turf

It may be devoid of (most) wildlife and smell of burning rubber, but with a little searching (and a covering of mist) is doesn't look half bad..

Country Oaks

Misty Fence


Shot Preparation

Sometimes you can never do enough planning!  So I find out that the steam locomotive Tangmere is passing nearby, I find out what time it leaves Bath, check Google Maps for the route, scout for a location with potential, check the weather is going to stay good.  
I leave work early, get to the location as early as I can, pick my shot with time ticking, set all my settings and take some practice shots to check exposure.
Little commuter trains potter past at 5mph, all is set..
Waiting.  The sound of the water crashing is noisy.. will I hear it coming?
Maybe I should have picked a more open spot, to see it coming?
The sun is creeping up the riverside as it starts to set, should I have picked a more west facing location?
Then I feel it... the ground starts to rumble...
120 tonnes of steel and thunder charges past and is gone, leaving just the smell of burning coal and a distant whistle.
So much for my silly assumption that it would be creeping through the town like the modern commuters!  I leave with 3 blurry shots of it racing past (even at ISO 400 because of the fading sunlight).  Still, lesson learnt, a nice shot that will remind me of the moment...

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Lake District 5

The final post from the Lakes, taken on the last day before 
a nighttime descent of the M6-M5-M4 motorways.  

Sunbeams over Newlands Valley


Sunset at Derwentwater

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Lake District 4

3 landscape, 3 miscellaneous and 3 wildlife photos this time.  A bit cloudier, so a few black and white conversions to enhance the subtle shadows and lighting.

Stepping stones to the horizon..


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Rose Castle Cottage (with some fairly heavy use of photoshop curves)


Monday, October 05, 2009

Lake District 3

More shots from the holiday archive.  With illness easing and lakes beckoning it was time for a low level photo day...

Langdale valley

Devoke Water


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Blea Tarn

Friday, October 02, 2009

Lake District 2

More pics from the north!  Taken over the next days, during a walk up Pike o'Stickle and a wander around Ambleside..

Sunset over Ambleside
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The most photographed row boats in the world (probably).

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Loft Crag and Langdale valley from the summit of Pike o' Stickle. The square crop on this photo really enhances composition (imho) with nice strong diagonal lead in and valley heading off to the horizon.

Pike o'Stickle is famous for it's neolithic stone axe "factory", where very hard volcanic greenstone was crafted into hand axes thousands of years ago. The same neolithic people would have built the stone circle at Castlerigg too.