Herewith, a selection of snaps from a New Year’s Day stroll along the beach in Brighton and Hove.
Thought for the day: art is what you make of it, not the subject-matter to hand.
Further studies in the shapes of characterful trees, Glen Affric: this time, in black and white.
A continuation of, and the latest in, the “Crail Harbour Rocks” theme – I’ve already posted a comparison of the original study at this location from 2007 against a similar closeup from 2015; here we have a classic intimate-landscape view – optimum golden-hour light at sunset touching the rocks from foreground into the distance.
Three views of the beach at Crail, Fife – a study in the shapes of rocks and stones.
After all that driving to get this, I couldn’t let today pass without posting taster shot from the solar eclipse.
I find it interesting that, for all the posturing online about the need for Baader solar sheets and that ND filters wouldn’t provide enough protection, nature provided clouds as the best kind of filter anyway.
The colour photo was taken with a 20-year-old Centon 500mm f/8 mirror lens and probably an ND8 filter hand-held in front; the black and white image was the kit telephoto 55-210mm lens at the far end.
Both taken from the road beside Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven.
“Make Photo Here” – another total photographic cliché, but I figured it had to be done. The Milarrochy Oak on the shores of Loch Lomond.
What the photos don’t show you is that the tree is barely three yards from the edge of the carpark and, with a pleasant sunset behind it, there were four other photographers lined-up along the strip of beach.
It has the advantage of just being in the Highlands: the caravan-site at Milarrochy Bay is definitely north of the Highland Boundary Fault, on psammite and semi-pelite; while the oak tree itself is in a local igneous intrusion surrounded by sandstone conglomerate.
A small set of photos made in Kinnoull Graveyard, Perth.
A friend from the photo-society had posted a handful of photos of this graveyard on facebook a few days previously, so I had a few ideas for scenes to shoot when we went there last November.
In particular, the obvious manipulated moody photo is an example of bokeh-panorama aka Brenzer technique – using a comparatively long focal length lens at wide aperture to narrow the depth of field and stitching a panorama to restore the field of view angle. In this case, it was a Zeiss 50mm f/2.8 lens, but the resultant shot would require a lens of 13mm f/0.85 to achieve in a single exposure.
A small selection of photos from a weekend trip to Mull last September – a couple of views around Lochdon, Duart Castle from the ferry and Lismore Lighthouse basking in the sunlight on the way back.
Continuing the theme of things I saw on my travels around Perth one Saturday afternoon – this time, some rather more classical / stereotypical street-photography subjects in gritty black and white.
Back in November, Perth council thought to hold a winter street festival – never mind that it wasn’t Christmas, Advent (at the time) or even winter yet, at least it was a good excuse to get folks tramping past the shop windows.
Herewith, a handful of street scenes – a little different for me – this time, groups of humans.
I didn’t rate the bell-ringers very highly; the slow and disjoint performance (only identifiable by the title on the sheet music saying “Jingle Bells”) served only to distract at close range from the pop-noise coming from a couple of large speaker-stacks a little further down the pedestrian precinct.
A fairly obvious shot from a viewing location on the south side of the Tay, the road bridge disappearing in a stream of lights flowing to Dundee in the fog. At night. As a long exposure, because it’s what one does, right?
One of my favourite views – from above Monzie, looking along Strathearn to Glen Turret.
There’s a Highland Boundary Fault in there somewhere, too.
I haven’t been around this area for a few years, but happened to be passing through Kenmore as dusk gave way to outright dark.
Mist rising on Ben Lawers in the distance:
Update: this image has been well received, so I’ve made it available for sale via my landscape photography site.
This one isn’t so much about the water as the mountain, Schiehallion. Back in 1774, its regular shape and relatively isolated location led to it being used in the famous experiment by Mason and Maskelyne to determine the value of the gravitational constant, big-G, and the density of the Earth.
Certainly it sits fairly impressively in the landscape.
It wasn’t the spectacular sunset I was hoping for – but that’s OK, I’ll take a hazy glow any day. More from Loch Rannoch.