Snow Joke

I was out on the Malvern Hills earlier today and made a few images - the image above is probably my favourite. Its of North Hill to the right of the image and the Sugarloaf, lower and to the left, taken on the climb up to The Beacon.

I've written previously about my approach to images formats, which is fairly inflexible. Its pretty much 3:2 all the way with me. However, this image is faux-panoramic in that I've cropped it to a 2:1 aspect ratio, removing a great expanse of dull, grey sky.

There are a few more which are in the same format and with a similar treatment, below. This next one is different framing of the same view.

The same scene again, made at the top of The Beacon:

The one has some people in it:

And this final one was made on the way down:

Upton Top Ranking

Some images from a recent visit to Upton-upon-Severn, where the river had burst its banks. I have made similar images in the past, which were probably better than these, but here they are anyway.

The Missing Link

North Hill from Link Common, looking quite Nordic, or Alpine, even. 

The Moat In My Eye

 

So, here's the problem: to make this image using my DSLR, I would require the camera itself, a tripod and preferably a remote release, although guess I could make do without the latter and use the self-timer.

Anyway, this image was made during an evening out in Wells. Looking out of the restaurant window, I noticed that the moat was still and reflecting the palace gatehouse. Given that the day had been quite wild weather-wise, this would never have occurred to me as a possibility and even if it had, I wouldn't have considered taking all that gear with me to dinner.

So, given the above, the image should never have been made. As it was, I seized the opportunity and used my Pixel 2 smartphone, post-processed in Snapseed on my Chromebook, and here it is, along with the image below.

The only benefit of using all the kit would be that I would have a high resolution image in a lossless format - I use tiff in my workflow - which would be useful if someone contacted me, wanting to use the image in a print magazine.

But that's never happened. Sometimes, it does make you wonder why you bother with all that expensive, bulky equipment. Sometimes.

I Wish I Was a Little Boulder

 

Another image from the Watchet set.

Harbouring a Grudge

This is an image of the seawall at Watchet harbour, made on a recent(ish) visit.

 

Pulteney Weird

This post represents a first for this blog.

The original image was captured on my Pixel 2 phone, but this isn't the new bit. However, It was processed in Snapseed running on my Asus Chromebook, which I'm also using to write this post. And this is the first time that I've posted an image using that workflow.

Speaking of the original image, it was made around a year ago whilst on a day out in Bath. We went on a boat trip on the Avon and I made a few images of Pulteney Weir on our return. I processed it in Snapseed using the B&W conversion tool and the contrast filter. I also cropped it to a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Which is all a far cry from my usual, heavyweight process using RawTherapee and Gimp on a Windows PC. But, I have to say that I'm pleased with the results.

Beachy Head

 

Another, and final, image from the Brean Down set.

How To Disappear Completely

Another image of Brean Beach from Brean Down, made on a different visit from the previous images.

There was a point, during post-processing, that I was thinking of removing all the people in this image, except for the group of four on the right, perhaps. The fact is that I have cloned out some figures, but I stopped short of removing the lot.

On reflection, this is probably my favourite image in this series, which will conclude with the next post.

Beaching

Another image from the Brean Down set. For some reason, this puts me in mind of the final lines from that ultimate distillation of Western philosophy, the Rocky Horror Picture Show:

“And crawling on the planet's face,

some insects called the human race.

Lost in time, and lost in space.

And meaning.”

On The Beach

A few weeks ago, we went for a Sunday afternoon walk on Brean Down. This image of the tide line on Brean Beach was one result.

I really like this image - for reasons that escape me, I find contemplating the various textures of sand and water particularly satisfying. There was an earlier version that cropped out the skyline, but I reinstated it. Although again, I don't know why.

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.

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.

Needs Must

I'm a bit of a fallow patch at the moment, to be honest. We went for a walk at Kilve on New Years Day and this is a rather lacklustre image that I made.

Gold!

This image was made at Gold Corner, looking west down South Drain.

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. 

Bin Issues

During the summer, we went to Menorca and whilst there we visited Binissues (its pronounced Binithththth I think), which is like a cross between National Trust and a villa holiday, with the Menorcan natural history museum thrown in for good measure.

One of main differences from an English stately home is that the family who farmed the estate lived in one wing of the main house. I can't imagine our landed gentry allowing their peasants anywhere with sight.

I didn't take either of my cameras with me to Menorca because I wasn't planning to do any serious photography - it was supposed to be a family holiday, after all - so I used my Google Pixel 2 to make the images below.

The main house from the garden.

The main passage inside the main wing of the house.

The garden. Nice view.

A detail from the garden.

Another detail from the garden.

Strangers on the Shore

This image is the result of a recent evening stroll on the promenade at Burnam-on-Sea. I noticed these two figure silhouetted against a band of light sand and made a couple of images. I might post one of the others shortly.

That's Grand, Pier.

The Grand Pier at Weston , a couple of weeks ago.

To The Lighthouse

We were in Wallasey recently, and I made this image of Fort Perch Rock. Nice sky.