With this shot I wanted to contrast the fluidity of movement in the Bamboo with the rigid, hard lined man made structures. It seems odd that the buildings designed to house and nurture plants often don’t really reflect that purpose in the structural design.
Bamboo dancing around in the breeze.
This is a shot I saw while wandering around an arboretum. I was standing at the end of this avenue of trees when a couple walked into view. It reminded me of a couple walking down the isle with the trees taking the place of the stone pillars of the Church.
Converted to mono in LR4 using a Creamtone effect.
Walking down the isle.
Looking at you looking at art. I took this on a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I just liked how I could picture the inside and the outside in one shot.
Looking at you looking at art.
I am a fan of the Granada TV series of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett. In particular, as a photographer, I really enjoyed some of the scenes where reflections momentarily deceive the eye. The camera man did some fantastic work in this regard throughout the series. This shot was inspired by his work. A mantle piece features in the shot and in the TV picture within the picture. The whole scene is a reflection in a picture hanging on the wall and of course there is a reflected image in another picture hanging over the fireplace.
Reflecting on Sherlock
I was struck by the odd juxtaposition of these two objects and thought it would make an interesting image. The Empress of India Queen Victoria enveloped in Gothic stone masonry alongside a 2oth century, bland, uninspiring block of a building. I shot this on an iPhone and processed the picture in Snapseed.
Victoria and the monster
I have visited York a good number of times over the years and always during the daytime, never at night. A few days ago I had the idea to go into York in the evening hoping to get shots of some of the ancient streets under the street lights. Well we arrived in York at 7 p.m and within two minutes I knew it was a mistake. I had forgotten it was a bank holiday weekend (easily done when you’re retired!) and the place was heaving with people, many of whom were well on the way to wearing their wobbly boots. To be honest I didn’t feel at all comfortable and eventually headed for the relative tranquility of the city walls as the light was fading. I took these two pictures as we walked along the wall heading for where it crosses Micklegate near to where we left the car and headed back into the countryside.
A view from the city walls of York
Looking back into the City with the Minster dominating the skyline
Swaledale is a beautiful valley full of fields and meadows enclosed by dry stone walls, there are lots of field barns too. Early in August we visited Richmond, Reeth, Crackpot and Muker. The dale also features in the coast to coast walk from St Bees on the west coast to Robin Hoods Bay on the east coast, Reeth is roughly half way across.
Reeth was very busy and while very picturesque it was not easy, nay impossible, to get a ‘clean’ shot that wasn’t full of people and cars. Muker was quite different, we arrived late afternoon and it was fairly quiet. It’s a really beautiful little village. Earlier we had stopped off at Crackpot, what a great name! There is a waterfall there that is sat in the woods and while it is quite small I think it is a really special little place.
Ice cream and B&B in Reeth
A Swaledale shopping centre in Reeth
Heavy traffic in Muker
Waterfall at Crackpot!
Hello again, I’ve been out in the countryside for the better part of a month and haven’t been able to do much with my blog. Connectivity has not always been available and it has been a time for chilling out.
At the end of July we found ourselves in Saltburn on the east coast and found that someone or some group had knitted little Olympians depicting lots of Olympic sports and attached them to the railings on the pier and also a tribute to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on the railing at the top of the cliff railway. I thought it was fun and it was giving a lot of pleasure to a lot of kids too.
Happy Diamond Jubilee!
Little Olympians
The Cliff Railway
Helmsley is a North Yorkshire market town located within the North York Moors National Park. The Castle Keep on the left is pretty much all that is left of the castle, and the buildings on the right are 16th century additions which were constructed as residential apartments. The castle is almost 900 years old but it was originally made of wood.
This view is from the walled garden and contrasts the softness and organic forms of the trees and flowers with the stark, harsh and rugged lines and textures of the castle and manor house.
I toned the image and added a vignette to take the viewer into the image. The almost triangular shape of the flowers in the foreground points straight at the only two people in the scene who provide scale to show how imposing the walls and buildings are.
Helmsley Castle from the walled garden.
This is a view of a part of Rievaulx looking south (ish), it’s a place I like to re-visit often. I had been enjoying a reasonably sunny day to this point, and then the weather rolled into the valley from the south and this was the last shot of the afternoon. It is a candidate for mono conversion at some point but I like this colour version too.
The last of the day’s sunlight
athyfotographic 