Around Cairnryan Point Lighthouse

Posted on 2014-04-12 by spodzone

I walked maybe half a mile along the pebbled shores of Loch Ryan, attempting to make interesting photos in classical landscape style. Of this kind of scene, one particular favourite survived the editing purge:

However, the photo I favour most from this afternoon was a serendipitous find, a result of some gentle urban exploration. Just standing in the doorway of this ruined building, all the light through the windows and lines and curves somehow fell together into a classic composition, a celebration of abandonment in grunge:

It also looks radically different in colour:

Wee Waterfall

Posted on 2014-04-07 by spodzone

I’ve made a few photos of this waterfall since the start of the year: it might only be small, located a long walk away from home in the corner of Port Mora bay beside a cave, but being my own discovery makes it more favourite than some of the other waterfalls in Galloway.

SRB ND1000 filter, two frames at 30s each; experimenting with a fairly thick-black tonality and the 6×7 portrait aspect-ratio.

Wee Waterfall

A Walk in the Mist

Posted on 2014-04-04 by spodzone

This is what it looked like, walking Dog through the local woods this morning.

Misty Woods

Proto-Spuds

Posted on 2014-03-30 by spodzone

Having installed raspberries in January, today saw the second significant planting of the year: an old flower bed given a sense of purpose, dug over and mounds filled with planted potatoes (Harlequin variety, since we preferred it to the purple things last year, and it claims to be good for everything from salads to boiling to mashing).

Warmth

Posted on 2014-02-20 by spodzone

Approach Routes

Posted on 2014-02-06 by spodzone

Time for something a little different.

With the previous camera, I was particularly fond of an old Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens; an awful lot of my photos were made using that, especially for closeups and even some landscapes. On the Lumix GH2, with its 2x crop-factor, this was the equivalent of shooting at 100mm-e all the time, and I was very familiar with the field of view that entailed.

Now I’ve switched to the Sony NEX-7, I’m experimenting more with wide-angle field of view. It feels completely different, as though the eye is latching-on to features of a scene I would not previously have considered using, especially the idea of perspective and lines leading into the distance.

Yesterday’s photo of the day was taken in the Fairy Glen in Portpatrick:

Between Realities – in the Fairy Glen, Portpatrick

and today I dug out an old Peleng 8mm fisheye lens, spent a while tweaking the screws in the M42->E-mount adapter to make it focus at all, and made this image of the approach to the harbour – a 170-degree field of view:

Approach Routes

Coincidentally, both images have also been processed using LuminanceHDR for tonemapping.

Old and New

Posted on 2014-02-03 by spodzone

The very last of last year’s crab-apples, lying in a patch of this year’s new snowdrop growth.

Already

Posted on 2014-01-19 by spodzone

A clump of green shoots poking through, ready for spring

Storm Damage

Posted on 2014-01-06 by spodzone

A couple of photos of damage following last Friday’s storm-surge at high tide: several paving flags in the pavement dislodged and tarmac fragments in the carpark.