Creeping Crimson

A stone gatehouse window being over-run by the clawing, tendrils of a magnificently scarlet ivy.

Gothic Marble

I guess I should have held this one back until All Hallows Eve, but I just couldn't help posting it.

Maybe it is time to worry when I visit a beautiful country manor house, with stunning Victorian garden and my favourite photo is of a winged skull from the chapel!

Lit perfectly by cloudy window light, emphasised slightly with some subtle dodge and burning.

Midnight Express

Was out train spotting again last week and another two chances to catch the mighty Bittern passing by. In the end the weather and poor light scuppered both opportunities. However, with poor light comes high ISO and some nice old fashion noise, so I've decided to stray from the path of minimilist photoshopping and really go to town on this one. A sky import (taken afterwards), plenty of levels and curves layers, some dodgy burning, sharpening and of course de-saturating.. and we have a nice moody shot that kind of captures some of the spirit of the beast.

Corsham

With Autumn very much upon southern England it's time for another grapple with the task of photographing the migrating Canada Geese at the local lake in Corsham. I didn't get what I wanted last year, so we'll see what I can get this year. So far just a distant snapshot (with great reflections)..

.. and a young Great Crested Grebe against the reflected colours of the autumn trees behind. Again, not technically good, but nice colours.

Westbury Sunset

Panorama of Westbury White Horse, Wiltshire.

Taken on the 24th September, when the Harvest moon was rising in the East at the same time as the last summer Sunset faded in the West. However, with clouds obscuring the eastern skies I had to settle for this angle.

Was all a rush in the end, since a passing storm was throwing up amazing rainbows. I spent precious time trying in vain to find a nice spot with the rainbow and white horse in, before I gave up and headed up onto the ridge for the Sunset.

Is a composite of 14 images, 7 exposed for the sky, 7 for the land.

Salvation

Wilton Windmill at Dusk.

The only working windmill in Wessex, it was built in 1821 alongside the busy Kennet & Avon canal and produced flour for 100 years, until steam technology made it redundant. Renovated in 1976 it once again grinds wholemeal flour, while looking stunningly beautiful at the same time.

I see the light!

Sunset over St Marys Church, Great Bedwyn. Taken in a hurry as the skies glowed gloriously, thankfully with camera and tripod handy I took a bracketed trio of shots and composited two exposures. There is no colour saturation adjustment in this image, just; levels, curves to increase contrast on the church, sharpening and some dodge & burning on the gravestones.

The church itself was built between the 11th and 13th century on the site of an older church and has some of the heaviest bells in Wiltshire, with the Tenor bell weighing over a tonne.

In the garden

Taken in the back garden using my trusty macro lens and tripod.

Amazing colours and patterns, unfortunately I can't identify it as a specific species, despite the unique looking spike.

The Final Four

The last of the Cornwall photos, including 2 alternative images from previously posted shots.

Penbreth cove

Newlyn dock

Harbour at Dusk

Glorious England

Nothing special about this photo, just a simple tribute to the beauty of the English coast.

Penberth

Cornish fisherman returning home with his haul.

One of my favourites of the holiday: Early morning and a fisherman hauls his boat back up the cobbles of Penberth cove after gathering his lobster pots. I like several of the photos I took on this morning, but I think this is probably the best.

Harbourside

Three more shots from Cornwall. Harbourside Ropes, taken at Mullion. Doesn't quite have the feel I was expecting from the shot, but is interesting enough.

House Martin chicks scream to be fed by the incoming parent (which is unfortunately distorted, because my on-camera flash wasn't up to freezing their swift movement)

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Fishermen at Polperro (either that or actors paid by Cornwall tourism to look like fishermen!). A little cluttered, but I like all the layers, textures, colours and details all in one shot. A compact encapsulation of Polperro, rather than my previous sweeping panorama.

Moonrise, Sunset

Tonight sees the last Sunset of the summer in the northern hemisphere, which this year happens to be in conjunction with the rise of the Harvest (Full) Moon, with both events happening at the nearest time to each other in decades. As you can see from the image below (link to TPE is in my links list on the right), the Sun sets at 7:05pm almost exactly to the West and the Moon rises at 7:07pm almost exactly to the East, so at some point - cloud permitting - the horizon should be lit in a complete 360 degrees (regardless of location on the globe - unless you're reading this from one of the poles!).



Good luck to anyone off out to view or photograph it!

Kite-surfer Sunset

I couldn't resist this backlit kite, set alight by the setting Sun in front of dramatic dark clouds. I took quite a few shots here, obviously quite a tricky lighting situation and fast moving subject, but didn't quite get what I was looking for in the end. Many shots too dark or too light, despite bracketing, as the Sun slipped in and out from behind the clouds. Still, a nice photograph though.

Coast Path Rainbow

Not usually my thing to colour pop, but this photo was crying out for black and white conversion, with the grasses, textures, storm clouds and house on the horizon. However, it's surely a crime to remove the colour from a sacred rainbow, so I think this works. I also cropped square to keep the frame nicely balanced and composed.

Dartmoor Sunset

The heart of Dartmoor, taken hand-held as I didn't have a tripod to hand, bracketed exposures combined and noise reduction applied.

Cornwall Panoramic for starters..

Got back from Cornwall last weekend, plenty of photos taken and was pretty lucky with the weather except for the mornings where early morning fog or rain showers put pay to any plans for a Sunrise. I will try and get some photos processed this week, but to start things rolling I have this panorama of Polperro taken on the second day of the journey down...

Auto 9

The last of my automated posts and a macro shot today. A little-brown-jobby (unknown) perches on a nettle leaf, the Sunlight at just the right angle to catch the ridges in its wing. The fore antenna nicely held aloft so is still within the focal plane, which is nice.

With any luck a deluge of Cornwall photos will follow fairly shortly.. even if they are foggy landscapes, tourists eating pasties under umbrellas or waves smashing into stormy coastline. Fingers crossed for at least 1 or 2 nice scenic landscapes though..

Auto 8

A simple snap posted in honour of the glorious English apple. The juice of which I shall certainly have drank by this stage no doubt.

Not much to say about this photo.. fallen apples under an apple tree. Taken just before raiding it and turning it into apple sauce and jam!

Auto 7

By my prediction it will be belting down with cold, wind-blown rain by now, with possible flooding by today. So here is a reminder of the summer we had! A hoverfly on one of the wild flowers in the garden underneath the summer Sun.

If I'm by some miracle still Sun bathing in Cornwall at this point I shall be very happy!

Auto 6

A portrait landscape today. I find myself wanting to like this photo, but not being able to. Makes for a nice thumbnail, but looses something a full size. Can't really put my finger on it either.. composition is .. okay. Has colour, interest, focal point, bit of a lead in, reflections etc.. but for some reason, it just doesn't work for me.

Posted anyway, in case someone out there actually does like it..

Auto 5

Another damselfly photo today, this time a blue tailed damselfly. Taken along the Kennet & Avon canal.

An exception to the rule of having clean and perfect surroundings, I think the tattered reed adds interest and colour to the image.

Not posted originally because the lighting is not ideal. Holding the camera still at such high magnification can be fairly challenging, especially whilst precariously balancing over the edge of a canal!

Auto 4

Grey heron preening at twilight. Showing off its feathers in all their glory when not slicked back into their usual streamlined position.

Despite not ideal lighting, I do like this image, the tones are really nice and subtle. With the tree branches looking a little like bamboo I can't help thinking it has a slightly oriental feeling to it too.

Auto 3

Male Banded Demoiselle damselfly on a lily bud.

Lots of these around this year, commonly see swarms of males chasing the rarer, greener females around, while I've been sat waiting for Kingfishers.

A few clips from the BBC on them.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Banded_Demoiselle

Auto 2

An extremely colourful orchid (?), actually de-saturated a little to dull the colours down a bit!! Sometimes you just need to forget about technicalities and just rely on a big overdose of colour to carry a photo.

Auto 1

While I'm away, as compensation for soo long without a post, I've scheduled a load of posts to trigger while I am away. A chance to clear out my blog folder of all the pics that I nearly posted, but have been left behind, yes, it's time for some more rejects...

Man with dog feeding ducks at Corsham lake, the manor house on the skyline, backlit by the setting Sun.

Slacking..

Ouch, nearly a whole month since I posted my last post! I've had a couple of failed attempts at more Kingfisher shots, but not much time or co-operation from the weather. I am off to Cornwall for 10 days from tomorrow, so fingers crossed for a bit more nice weather for a few sunrises and sunsets there. Before I go, a few snapshots from south Wales..

Steaming

Another Cathedrals Express steams through.

 
Coming out of Twerton Tunnel, built in 1840 by I.K. Brunel.

Project KFC - Status: Fail !!

Had a good few hours to spend at the river over the last 10 days before a serious dose of flu hit me.  Unfortunately I had a serious dose of bad luck too - or maybe just harsh lessons in being ready for anything at all times.  Friday I had half an hour spare, so started a brief recon of a stretch of river, just to see if they were around.  Sods law, I got there, sat down and while fitting my zoom lens (it's too big to fit in my Crumpler bag attached) two Kingfishers flew upstream screeching, looped right in front of me and one perched about 5 meters away.   By the time I got the lens on, power on, up and focused (ie. about 2 seconds) it was off..

Saturday I got quite a few hours to spend there, so my first proper effort at getting a proper shot.  It was overcast early, so didn't get out until 10.  Spent a couple of hours in a quiet spot with no result, the Sun had moved around so decided to move, crossed a road bridge to another area and just as I was scrambling down the embankment, camera safely in bag, a Kingfisher caught a fish right in front of me and perched beautifully about 5 meters away, again.  Snap, that was a great shot .. or would have been!  No chance this time, we spent 2 seconds inspecting each other before he exited stage left.  

However, this spot seemed good, nice shallow pool full of fish in the shade of the road bridge, so with a nice new perch pushed into the river bed, I walked back up the bank to my waiting spot.. only to look back and the Kingfisher is on the perch already?!  So much for having to wait patiently for hours!  

By the time I got camera up I snapped 2 rapid shots.  Out of focus (I had my teleconverter on at this point, so was manually focussing with a big dose of adrenaline pumping) and with bright sunlight against dark shadow using default metering -0.6ev (just what I had the camera on at the time), they had horribly burnt out hightlights too.  Argh!

It's always amazing to see them, but is it too much to ask for a little co-operation!  :o)

Spent a few more hours at this perch and another slightly further up, but nothing else for the rest of the day and nothing at all the following day too..

Kingfishers 4, Mark 0.  Bring on the next time you tricky little blue buggers!

Note that at no point did I feel like I was disrupting the birds un-duly, this stretch is part of a town center nature reserve and reasonably busy with people.  Several times I've watched people obliviously disturb the Kingfishers and they just fly across the river to another fishing spot without any sign of distress.  From other accounts and forums I have read, they seem a fairly chilled out and tolerant pair.