. . . the faster we go!
Hey, do you think we should have put little Johnny on this thing?
1/3rd @ f22 iso 100
The louder you scream the faster we go!
The louder you scream . . .
Author Archives: athyfoto
Mist Rising off Windermere
This shot was taken in the early morning from our hotel balcony as the mist was beginning to lift off Windermere in the English Lake District National Park. I was using an 18-300mm telephoto zoom lens racked out to 240mm. I was at the eastern side of the lake and the wooded area half a mile away is on the western side and the lens has compressed the scene. The mist lifted to reveal a derelict building that seems to be under renovation. Some lucky so-and-so has got himself a superb location to throw his money at.
Mist lifting from Windermere.
Symmetry and a busker
This is a picture I made at Salford Quays. This footbridge takes you from the Lowry Centre on one side of the water and the Imperial War Museum on the other. The building in the picture is one that I made a set of ‘reflections’ images with that I posted here on April 10th last Spring, see that post here I used Silver FX Pro 2 for the mono conversion.
Symmetry and busking on the bridge
Boat Hire
A typical sort of day in the Lake District National Park in England’s North West could include any of the four seasons. This day had gloomy light and thick grey clouds which caused me to look around for texture and detail rather than wide landscape vistas. This is on the shore of Windermere at Bowness, not many boats out for hire on this particular day but I was interested by the flaking paint on the railing and the weathered woodwork of the boat hire office.
Boats for hire
Azure Seas
This is a shot, not of the Italian Adriatic coast, not of the Mediterranean Sea from some cliff top in the south of France, but of the North Sea taken from Scarborough Castle! This was taken last August on a hot sunny day on the Yorkshire coast which just goes to show that you don’t have to travel abroad for clear blue seas and sunshine, just visit Yorkshire!
A sea view off the Yorkshire coast.
Geometry versus Organic
I always like to see man-made shapes contrasted with nature’s and here I saw harsh, overdone geometric shapes being outdone by the shadows cast by this plant. I was in the hot-house at Tatton Park in Cheshire on what was the first dry and sunny day that I can remember. It was evident that everyone in the north-west must have seen the weather forecast too because we actually set out to go to Dunham Massey but when we got there we found queues on both sides of the road trying to get into the car park. We drove past and arrived at Tatton, drove straight in but the place was packed with people. It must have been the sheer relief of seeing the sun, and no rain or hurricane winds, that brought the world and his brother out to play!!
Angular lines versus sinuous curves.
A bit cloudy
What with all the miserable weather conditions of late here in the UK I have been looking back to last summer in my Lightroom Catalogs. August 2nd more precisely. I was standing above the treeline on a hill at 8:45 p.m watching the light change. (as we do!) At about 6:15 p.m there were very white, bright fluffy clouds floating by. Two and a half hours later and the sun much lower the clouds took on a more dramatic feel.
While out and about I have often looked at an active sky and thought, is someone painted a sky that looked exactly like that you’d think they had gone mad. While watching the clouds on that evening and making these pictures I thought the same thing. Sometimes cloud formations can be remarkable and that’s why I like to shoot them. Anyway, here are three shots that were all taken within two or three minutes just looking around me.
Sky 1
Sky 2
Sky 3
“. . . as poor as church mice . . .”
. . . the supposed comment by one of Robert Thompson’s workers that inspired the now famous trademark. These two pictures are of our little mouse that lives in the bottom of our Mouseman fruit bowl. We picked it up on a visit to their museum/shop/restaurant in Kilburn North Yorkshire.
A Dales Sky
We were driving the route between Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale and Grassington in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales on Sunday afternoon. It had been a dry day and fairly bright too. The sky had been bubbling up the clouds all day and we were about a mile or so from Hebden when this view with the sun firing beams of light through the clouds presented itself. This is looking south toward Skipton which is roughly 12 miles away beyond the hills in the distance.
I really like being in places where you don’t have to look up to see the sky, places like this where you just have to look straight out and watch the clouds passing in front of you.
This is the last high point on the road to Grassington that would reveal such an open vista. The winding road from here has few safe places to pull over and is much lower down. This was my only shot of the day as we were not out with the specific intention of shooting pictures but the camera bag was in the car (as it should be 🙂 ) and I couldn’t drive past it without grabbing a shot.
Late afternoon in the Dales
Break the “Rules”
My previous three posts were about so called “rules” in photography and why we needn’t follow them when making our pictures. I have been looking around for quotes that would suggest similar and that perhaps we should just feel free to create and I have a handful of them here . . . .
Edward Weston
“When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial clichés.”
Ansel Adams
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
Arnold Newman
“There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that’s impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.”
Elliot Erwitt
“Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
David Alan Harvey
“Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.”
André Kertész
“I do not document anything, I give an interpretation.”
athyfotographic 