A World In White Gets Underway

Cheddar Reservoir, New Year's Day 2020, around 14:00.

I haven't desaturated this image, just tweaked it a bit with GIMP's curves editor, having overexposed it in-camera.

Reservoir Slogs

An image made during a recent, rather impromptu walk above Cheddar Gorge near sunset. For various reasons, I wasn't dressed or equipped for the expedition and we only just made it down before the sun set, but I do like this image, especially the figures in the foreground, so it was probably worth it. 

Going Postal

Finally, I have an image to post. This was made at Cheddar Reservoir, just before Christmas. The original plan was to park up at the Axbridge entrance and set up at the top of the slope as time was short until sundown. However, my son was with me and he insisted that we walk round to the yacht club - why, I have no idea - so I set up there instead. 

I made a few images of this line of posts, so I may post one or two others. It took some fiddling around with the cropping to make this one presentable, so don't hold your breath.

Cormorant Strike

A final image  - probably - from the Cheddar Reservoir set. I'll never win any prizes for my wildlife photography, but I do like this image.

Vanishing Point

A slightly different treatment of the same scene as last time, a foggy day at Cheddar Reservoir.

Reservoir Fogs

During the recent spell of foggy weather - which was significant enough to make the TV news - I found my way to Cheddar reservoir for a walk, along with my son. I've never been there in fog before and I found the atmosphere quite strange - hopefully the images that I made will convey this somewhat.

New Camera Alert

So I finally took the plunge and bought an RX100 - the MIII rather than the MIV. This is one of the first images that I made with it, of Cheddar Reservoir and Brent Knoll, viewed from the top of Cheddar Gorge.

Initial impressions are pretty good, although it turns out to be fairly useless for macro work, so the Alpha 77 still has a use, which is nice to know...

More images from the RX100 shortly.

Desperate Measures

So, we've had Christmas, the weather has been pretty ho-hum, and various family stuff has been going on. The upshot is that I haven't made a lot of images recently. 

Anyway, as a bit of a stop gap, here's an image from the Cheddar Reservoir set that I made back in November. I've attempted a different treatment here, high key rather than low key. 

Anyway, some new stuff next time, hopefully.

Cheddar Cheese

I know that I wrote that I wouldn't post any more images from Cheddar reservoir. But this is a rather different image from those I've posted recently and I rather like it, even if sunsets are a trifle cheesy.

The End of the Lake

I made a fair few of these images during the visit to Cheddar Reservoir, but this really is the last one that I'm going to post. This one is probably nearest to the image that had in my head.

Hurry on Sundown

Another image from the trip to Cheddar Reservoir. 

I like the contrail in this one. They always remind me of my childhood, watching the aircraft flying out of Liverpool airport and wondering where they were going. They represented the possibilities of life, tinged with a melancholy that I couldn't quite place.

Smoke on the Water...

...but no fire in the sky.

Its an almost vanishingly rare occurrence that I go somewhere to make images - I generally fit photography around the demands of family life. Recently however, I took the opportunity to catch the sunset at Cheddar Reservoir.

I also took the opportunity to make some long exposure images. This is a bit of a departure for me, but one that I've been following up on recently - the results will appear here shortly.

Thistle Slay Ya

A few weeks ago we went out on a rather unlikely expedition - to find somewhere in Cheddar Gorge to fly my son's model aeroplane and helicopter.

Surprisingly enough, we succeeded and at the end of the afternoon, once the batteries on the model aircraft had expired, I made this image of a thistle.

Early One Morning Part II

Cheddar Moor and the Mendips, July 2012

Some of the images that I've posted previously had been hanging around for several years, but this one was made last week.

There have been a series of gorgeous, misty, summer mornings here lately and I promised myself that I'd take my camera with me on my journey to work. However, I made the mistake of waiting until I had enough time on the clock to allow for the required delay. So inevitably, on the appointed morning, instead of the picturesque mist we had a dull, gray fog. Crossing Mark Moor, visibility was low, with the sky invisible. As I passed Wedmore Low Grounds, Nyland Hill was totally obscured and I'd pretty much lost all hope of getting anything worthwhile and had decided that I wasn't going to bother stopping.

However, just after Cocklake the fog started to clear and as I came down onto Cheddar Moor, the Mendips could be seen as a faint horizon line to the north. So I stopped at the end of Canal Drove and made a number of images, of which this is one.

This demonstrates why I'm not cut out to be a landscape photographer. I'm just not dedicated enough to get up early on my days off, so I'm always going somewhere else in a hurry when these images present themselves.

As an aside; In processing the image, I discovered that the sensor on this camera - my old Alpha 100 - really needs cleaning. I had to spend an inordinate amount of time with the clone tool to make the sky and hillside presentable. I must admit that I've had this camera five years or so and I've not cleaned the sensor once in all that time. But then I don't have a large number of lenses so I very rarely change them, I just pick up the camera with appropriate lens already attached.