Another image from my recent visit to Embsay Railway Station near Skipton. These old fire buckets must have been the emergency response in the event of a steam train sparking off a fire on the station. I can’t imagine them being a whole lot of use in all except the most trivial of events.
Fill with sand or water and hope you never need them!
A couple of weeks ago I stopped off at Embsay Railway Station. It is run by volunteers and steam trains travel between it and Bolton Abbey. It was 4 p.m. and I thought the trains may have stopped for the day. I got a platform ticket and spent half an hour or so there making a few pictures. A train did arrive and I got some shots of it too. I may post one or two more from the visit when I get round to working on them.
Anyway I like the way the station is decorated with artefacts from back in the days of steam and this stack of old luggage was amongst them. Processed in SEP to get an old feel to the image.
Three old suit cases.
I have visited this place on a number of occasions for a couple of reasons.
First it is on the A6255 which is a very scenic road that runs from Hawes to Ingleton that we love to drive along and the viaduct hoves into view providing a WOW moment.
Second it is at the end of the A6479 which is another favourite road that runs north from Settle following the River Ribble and meets up with the A6255 at Ribblehead Viaduct.
The entire area is just full of breath-taking scenery. This particular visit was made in mid July this summer and It was a really hot day (for the UK), 29 degrees. I was suffering a bit after a couple of hours in the sun when I found this viewpoint. No shade, no respite so I got what I wanted from there and then started walking towards the viaduct back to the track that I could walk back to the car along. As I approached the track a train came across the viaduct, typical! so I grabbed a hand-full of shots of it anyway. In post I took the train from the grabbed shots and included it in this image. The viewpoints were different and I needed to scale things a little bit and alter the perspective but I felt justified in compositing the image in this way since the parts used were from the same session, minutes apart. The RAW conversion and initial adjustments were made in LR5, I made the composite in CS6 and the mono conversion was made in Silver Efex Pro.
Ribblehead Viaduct
I was recently in Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast to look around the Castle there. It was a really warm day and eventually we ended up down on the harbour near the lighthouse sat on a bench soaking up the rays watching the boats come and go.
Last April I posted a picture of a statue in front of the lighthouse (see it here). We were sitting only a few feet from where I shot that picture and I turned to look at the statue and there was a Herring Gull sitting on top of it. What amused me about what I saw and made me grab a couple of shots was the look of complete indifference of both the Gull and the statue.
So here it is . . . .
The Gal and the Gull
I recently picked up the Nik Software suite of plug-ins following a heads up from Andy Beel in one of his posts.
I have been playing around with it to familiarise myself with the individual programs and following along with Nik video tutorials.
So after some intense learning I decided it was time to cut loose and let slip the leash and go nuts with the software. I ended up beating the living pixels out of an image I made of an oak tree, and here it is!!
Under the Oak Tree
As it was.
This is a picture I made on one of my numerous visits to Fountains Abbey. I didn’t actually go there with photography in mind but I usually carry a camera ‘just in case’. It is a place where we go for a ‘leg stretch’ on what may otherwise be a completely lazy day.
I have made so many pictures there I don’t think I can come up with any different views. What I sometimes do in these cases is to try to find something I haven’t seen before, or at least not photographed before. This inevitably means looking for the small details rather than the bigger views and vistas.
I found this Button Ivy creeping and reaching out across the ancient stones in a dark shady corner. I like it as a black and white as it reduces the image to the wavy forms and repetitive leaf shapes by removing vibrant green colour of the ferns.
Creepy Buttons
I shot this image a couple of weeks ago while out and about in Nidderdale, Wharfedale, Littondale, Wensleydale and Swaledale. This image is of the meadows in Swaledale that were in full bloom and looking great. They change the colour of the landscape quite dramatically especially when looking from a high viewpoint. Field barns are a feature of the Yorkshire Dales generally but I think the ones in Swaledale are probably the most striking and in good condition too.
I have deliberately placed a watermark in the image to pose the question, “Are watermarks really necessary?” I wonder what your opinion or thoughts are regarding the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act which received Royal Assent on 25th April this year.
I haven’t read through it, I have just seen lots of comment in the media. These range from a more sober view such as you will find at Francis Davey’s blog to the slightly more sensational view such as you may find at stop43.org Are you concerned that your images could be taken and used commercially? Maybe the link on Francis Davey’s blog to a PDF produced by the UK intellectual property office would help. What do you think about watermarking, does it help?
To watermark or not to watermark, that is the question.
Here are a couple of shots where I tried to isolate the geometric shapes in urban structures. I composed and processed these images to reinforce that and have given each of them a very different look. The viewpoints for each shot were only a few paces from each other but that small movement was enough to provide a completely different scene.
In comparison to the type of shot that simply records what’s in front of me these shots seem extreme in terms of processing, but it was purely the shapes and angles that I was attracted to here and these images are my response to the scene before me.
View 1
View 2
Walking around Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal is a very pleasurable pastime with much to see. It is a World Heritage site and has ancient buildings, manicured lawns, a river walk, reflecting pools, follies, a deer park, a Church, two cafes, two shops, a lake, a valley with lots of little stone arched bridges crossing over the river Skell, the valley is imaginatively named ‘Valley of the Seven Bridges’. The one thing you may not expect to encounter as you wander around this wonderful place is two men, butt naked, fighting and wrestling on the lawn! Very cheeky! I photographed the sculpture from an angle that best preserves the modesty of the two chaps.
Say Uncle!
The walks are very gentle and mostly flat with one exception being the path up to High Ride where three follies can be seen, Anne Boleyn’s seat provides a superb view up the Skell to the Abbey, this is a favourite with wedding photographers. Temple of fame is a circular structure with a domed roof being held up by stone pillars. Octagon Tower is also a good viewpoint and from there you descend via the Serpentine Tunnel back to the main paths.
Fountains Abbey
All in all Fountains Abbey is a very pleasant and interesting place to visit. It is a favourite with young families for picnics and somewhere the kids can run themselves into the ground. I find it best to visit midweek during school term time 🙂
Brimham Rocks in the Yorkshire Dales is well-known for it’s weird and wonderful rock formations. I like to go there to see it’s weird and wonderful tree formations. There are lots of trees that seem to be able to grow out of rocks. Here is a stand of Birches growing out of the top of one of the rocky outcrops. Birches just happen to be trees that always catch my eye, I don’t know what the attraction is specifically but I have called them my favourite trees for as long as I can remember.
Growing out of rock.
athyfotographic 