Cactus Spiked

Yet another image from the Cannington Walled Gardens set - scraping the barrel a bit now, I think.

Match of the Dahlia

Two more dahlia images from the Cannington Walled Gardens set.

Mono-Mania

I decided to post the mono version of the colour image from previous post, on the basis that I really like it.

On The Ball Dahlia

I like photographing dahlias, especially the ball variety shown below. 

I made both of these images at Cannington Walled Gardens and I've gone for a very different treatment of each. This is unusual, as I generally try to match images in an individual post.

Anyway, first up a mono image.

Now, a colour image.

I do have a mono version of this second image, which I also like - tbh, I think that this is much the stronger image of the two.

Leaf, Inverted

I don't usual go in for heavy post-processing, but my son encouraged me to try inverting this image after desaturating it, and it kind of works.

As an aside, it was originally an image made during the Cannington visit.

Take a Leaf Yada Yada

A couple of images from a Halloween trip to the Walled Gardens of Cannington.

The Other Side of Paradise

A final image from our most recent trip to the Eden Project.

Leaf Cutter II

As promised, another couple of images from our most recent visit to the Eden Project.

Leaf Cutter

Another visit to the Eden Project over the summer and more images of leaves. Portrait format in this post, landscape in the next post.

Don't You Know There's A War On?

This was a long-form post that I wrote a couple of years ago and never used, for reasons that escape me now. Perhaps I couldn't think of a title. Anyway, enjoy:

Its the nineteenth of August 2017, which is two weeks after the right wing violence in Charlottesville, and there's a Confederate flag flying in a Wiltshire field.

Fortunately, this is not a white supremacist rally - not overtly, at least. There are an awful lot of people in uniform, most of them white, middle aged men. But no, this is a meeting of military vehicle enthusiasts and re-enactors.

We're in Laycock to visit the Abbey, but this event proves to be more interesting, at least initially.

I didn't notice this chap's rather quizzical look until I came to process the image. 

This bloke with the faraway look in his eyes was busy polishing his weapon. No, really.

Out on the high street, there is a slightly surreal addition to proceedings. The allies and the axis powers have each set up a check point, about ten yards apart, complete with machine gun nests, and were busy stopping traffic.

Checkpoint Charlie

World War II wasn't the only historical era represented, however...

Status update: The Vietnam war has been over for while now.

The new Axis of Evil...

It isn't entirely fair to say that it was an exclusively white, male event. There were a few women knocking about.

Air Raid Precautions. Because you can never be too careful.

There was a fashion show in the marque.

As the event broke up in the late afternoon, people in vintage uniform dispersed around the village, like this WRAF in the grounds of Laycock Abbey.

Look...over there!

In Search of Space

Last year I entered the National Trust photographic competition. I figured that I spent a fair amount of my time making images at NT properties, so I may as well give it a go.

The purpose of the contest is to find images for the cover of the handbook and for the membership card. The requirements for each of these are quite different, but they're both landscape format. 

The theme for the contest was "space to explore" so I came up with a set of images with lots of - well, blank space, really. They were all taken at Stourhead during two separate visits, one in May and the other in August of 2018. On both occasions, the lake was very still and I made full use - or overuse, depending on your politics - of the reflections

At the time, I didn't post the images as I thought that copyright might become a problem if I won. In the event, I didn't win - I might have mentioned it at the time if I had - and I just forgot about them until I found them in a folder on my computer a few days ago and decided to post them anyway.

This first one is probably my favourite of the set. It meets the brief for the handbook cover - focal point to the right, people in the image. And, in my head, it interpreted the theme by including all that "empty" space in the lower half of the frame.

I like to horizontal symmetry in this image. There are people, as well.

This is another view of the same part of the path round the lake as in the previous image. I had high hopes that this might be a winning image, but I remember being concerned that the people were recognisable and that the model releases would become a problem.

The previous images were from the visit in May, this one and the next are from the August trip. The weather wasn't so good, which reduced the intensity of the colours. I was still going with the "space" theme. I still think that this one would have worked as the handbook cover, but there are no people in the shot.

This final image was my pitch for the membership card, which is credit card sized, with an image on one side and your membership details on the other. I think that this image would have worked at that size, although I like the detail of the people sitting below the Pantheon, and that probably would've been lost.

Loose Leaf

Another leaf image, this time made in the grounds of Dunster Castle.

Totally Subtropical

I do like photographing leaves and they represent some of my more successful recent images. This one was captured during a recent holiday in Dorset, during a visit to the Subtropical Gardens in Abbotsbury.

Update 21-09-19:  This evening, I looked at the original image in this post and decided to do some more work on it. I don't often do this, but I concluded that the original edit was just lazy. So, I've made some changes - a slight crop and some work to blow out the background - which I think have improved it significantly.

Lift Off!

A bee lifting off from one of the lavender plants in the hedge the borders the lawn in our garden.

In this second image, the bee's wings are moving too fast to be captured.

He Bee II

There's still more where this came from...

He Bee

Another image of an insect in our garden - I'm not sure that it's a bee, to be honest, but it is on a Hebe.

Good Bee-haviour

Yet another image of a bee on our lavender. I was on a bit of a roll that day (aka having my eye in).

Bee Here Now

Yet another image of a bee on lavender in our garden.

Bee-lieve

Another image of a bee made in our garden.

Another Arbour

Another image from the National Arboretum set.

An Arbour

Over the half term holiday, and despite my lingering tendinitis, we went to Westonbirt Arboretum, where I made this image. 

Watch The Birdie

Another image from the tendinitis induced hour in the garden.

For The Birds

Recently, I had tendinitis in the right foot. This has been a recurring problem - I would like to think that the cause is over-exercising, but its more likely to be that I've been tying my shoe laces too tight.

Anyway, I had to spend a few days with my foot up, quite literally and this happened to coincide with half term. Anyway, there was at least one day of good weather and I managed to spend an hour sat in the garden, which is when I made this image of a blue tit, which has been frequenting the nest box in our garden.  

Bluebell Knoll

Some Spanish bluebells which were growing in our garden a few weeks ago, when this image was made.

Spanish Bee

A bee on one of the Spanish bluebells (that were) in our garden.

Beyond Be-Leaf

Recently, we found ourselves at the Eden Project again and I made these images in the Tropical biome.

Is This The Way To Amaryllis?

No, it isn't.

Black (and White) Iris

Another image from the Mottisfont set. I've gone for a rather different treatment this time.

Heatwave!

Another image from Mottisfont. You should bear in mind that this was February, during the "heat wave".

Iris Eyes Are Smiling

Another image from the Mottisfont visit.

Luck of the Iris

During the recent heat-wave, we went to Mottisfont which, according to our National Trust handbook, has a winter garden.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that it does and that there were irises in bloom. And, further, that this is an image of one of them.

Museum Piece

This image is from a half-term visit to Bristol Aerospace.

The Turn Around II

Another crocus image.