Summer Flowers

Summer Bugs

Hope you all had a good summer solstice.  With summer well and truely underway it tends to be macro season for me.  With so many bugs, bees and damselflies about and nice bright Sunlight to light them it all comes down to skill, patience and a steady aim..

A banded demoiselle about to land on a lily pad.  Actually taken with my 100-400mm with x1.6 teleconverter.  Another lens combination that really needs a bright subject..

Bees, always busy and always looking good in purple..

Tiny flies always make for great shots it seems, with only about 3cm of background to keep clean they tend to make nice simple compositions.

The Elusive Princess

Another flying visit by a steam locomotive through my local area, originally supposed to be the stunning Sir Nigel Gresley, but replaced with the Princess Elizabeth in the end.  It passed through at lunchtime and then returned in the evening.  Thankfully I decided to take a quick trip out at lunch to catch it arriving, charging past within 2 minutes of me arriving at the bridge over the line.  It was running early and caught me by surprise (I didn't get a chance to get in position, the photo below was pretty much a snapshot - hence the photoshop meddling).   

After work I then travelled out to my carefully chosen location (courtesy of google streetview + Earth plugin) to catch it on its way back out.. only for it to never arrive?!   The disappearing train apparently.  I can only guess that it went back a different line than it arrived on, much to the disappointment of me and the others gathered to watch it steam through...   next time...

Another purge of the left behind..

Engineers working at the East Somerset Railway workshop.

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Baby Swans in stained glass.  Very seasonal!

The colour of Summer.

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... and a practice shot from my car boot challenge.

Seasonal Macrosnaps

Light Scuplture

2 shots today, showing off a little sunlight manipulation.  The first is the product of a car boot challenge to buy something cheap and photograph it, for which I bought an old magnifying glass.  Plenty of scope for all sorts of photos, but I chose in the end to go for the old heart-shaped-shadow-in-a-book-spine trick.  Not overly a fan of copying others ideas, but I liked the way it worked as an element of this composition of real flowers laid on a flower book. 

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This one a plant that collects rain and dew within its leaves, growing in a pot I was able to move it into some dappled light and shadow. With such extremely bright sunlight I bracketed 3 exposures (using evaluative metering) and ended up using -1 2/3 ev.

RAW processed with a sprinkling of contrast and saturation to bring the image back to life.

Wandershots

Photographs always have two sides to them, the image the photographer sees and the image the viewer sees.  Each with a completely different view from the other.  When the camera mirror flips, the shutter snaps and the photograph is captured, an instance of the photographers life is captured and their memory of the moment affects the way they see the image.

For the viewer it is always different, they are  presented with an instant scene, a window to a time and place they never were before.  Untainted by knowledge of the event, their only sensory input is visual, from which the other senses can be imagined, a balmy summer day, warm on the skin, with bird song in the air and the scent of flowers blooming.

 
The photographer has to be in the right place at the right time, the camera has to capture the scene, but it is the viewer that has to do most of the work.  Absorb the colour, form, texture, detail and atmosphere of the image and let themselves be absorbed by more than just the image before their eyes.  As the camera has taught the photographer how to see the world in different ways, it is the job of the photographer to pass this joy onto those who view their images.

.. either that or I just like taking photos of Ladybirds in the Sun.

Enjoy!

Remnants

A few of the photos left behind from the last few weeks..

.. plus two new ones from the weekend.

Wales History Tour

The Cwmystwyth Mines, where lead, zinc and silver were mined since the bronze age, through roman and medieval times and into the 20th century.  When the mines processed lead it was recorded that the average age of a miner was just 32 years old, due to acute lead poisoning.  It is also the site where archeologists found the Banc Ty'nddol Sun disc, an ornamental gold disc 4000 years old, possibly from a mesolithic burial site found at the head of the valley.

A Celtic spring site recreation at Castell Henllys Iron age village.

Strumble Head lighthouse in the Sun! (was quite a bit stormier last time I was here!).  

The coast here is the site of the last invasion of Britain, when the French attempted to invade in 1797.  The plan was to land at Bristol, but bad weather forced them around into Wales, where despite flying the union flag they were spotted by a retired sailor off the Pembrokeshire coast, who sounded the alarm.  A pre-warned Fishguard port then repelled an attempt to land there and forced the four French ships to land their troops, from Napoleons Black Legion, on the coast.  

Unfortunately for the French their troops stumbled upon large stores of wine in the surrounding farms, scavenged from a Portugese ship that had wrecked off the coastline recently before.  The troops began to loot the stores and the invasion became disorganised and rebellious (ie. drunk!).  The British raised a force of sailors and local reservists and fooled the French into thinking they had a much superior force, to which they eventually surrendered to.  One heroine of the fighting was Jemima Nicholas, who captured 12 drunk French soldiers using her pitchfork and locked them in St Marys church, where she now has a memorial.  Two ships, La Resistance and La Constance were later engaged in the Irish sea and captured by Royal Navy ships after a half hour battle that saw many French sailors die.

Unfortunately this relatively blood free event was followed by an extremely bloody invasion of Ireland the following year at Castlebar.

St Brynachs church at Nevern.  Built on the site of a 6th Century religious settlement it has many old artifacts in its grounds.  The Vitalianus Stone dates from around 500AD and has carved Latin and Ogham inscriptions.  The window ledge inside the church also has Ogham inscriptions.  Ogham is a written language from Ireland consisting of a series of lines, possibly developed to pass secret messages without the Latin speaking Romans understanding them.

Also in the yard is the Nevern Cross, which is Wales largest Celtic cross, dating from the 10th Century and rows of 700 year old English Yew trees, one of which is known as the Bleeding Yew.  The tree bleeds an un-identifiable red liquid from a wound in it's trunk that has baffled scientists for years.  Legends say it that it has bled ever since an innocent man was hung from the tree or that it will continue to bleed until a Welshman sits upon the throne in Nevern castle again.

Puffin posers

Skomer Island!  After a couple of failed attempts over the last few years I finally made it over on the boat to spend a couple of hours with the puffins!  It is amazing there and can't wait to go back again.  Lots of other great wildlife abound too, but as you might be able to discern, I concentrated on the Puffins for my first trip...

Like inverted Lemmings they pop up over the cliff edges and plop down with the gracelessness of a bird that spends it life on the sea.  Very endearing and photogenic!

Spring cleaning (I think)
A Puffin burrow.

Dinbych-y-Pysgod

Shots from a Sunset in Tenby harbour..

Kite Flying

A couple of shots from a visit to Gigrin Farm where they feed the (relatively) local population of Red Kites.  A stunning spectacle to see so many huge birds of prey spiralling, swooping and diving through the sky in one place.  I have to admit to being quite blown away by it and combined with the dark and dismal weather, I didn't really get any shots I'm overly proud of, but there will be a next time!

Red Kites are agile and stealthy killers, with nearly two meter wing spans, but low body weight, making them extremely manouverable.  They will of course take advantage of free beef steak handed out every day and come from miles around to Gigrin before dispersing back out into the countryside.  They were re-introduced into the UK through the 1990's and it's estimated there are over 750 nesting pairs in Wales now.

Holy Decay

Back from holiday in Wales with a camera full of photos, a few decent photos to come, but thought I'd get my usual batch of church photos out first!

Llanthony priory on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Around 900 years old, it's very impressive archetecture now hosts a campsite and (highly recommended) 13th century pub!


Cwmvoy Church dates from around the 12th century and is Britains most crooked church. Legend says it was built on the site a landslide caused by an earthquake at the time of Jesus's crucifiction. Unfortunately the landslide hadn't finished settling when the church was built and the church carried on sliding, causing it to become very wonky!


The Church of St Mary the Virgin at Tintern.

Photoshoot with a local bird down the road..

Some photos from two sets of shots I took of a heron hunting in the local area. The latter 3 with some nice dappled, late evening sunlight, hightlighting the magnificent bird from the background and really enhancing the subtle colours and textures of its plumage.