Arbor Low

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A few photos from a trip around Derbyshire.

Arbor Low is a Neolithic henge monument in the White Peak area of the Peak District, Derbyshire, consisting of about 50 local limestone boulders now mostly recumbent in a circle surrounded by a ditch and embankment.

Cauldron Falls, West Burton

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One of my favoured parts of North Yorkshire’s scenery is the well-known waterfall at West Burton. Always good for a bit of classical landscape photography, exploring both context and closeup (“intimate landscape”); it’s also quite fun to compare with other people’s views of the same location, although I envy anyone who manages to get good light in such a location.

Then and Now, Night and Day

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Some time around March 2007 I acquired an ancient camera, an Ensign Carbine No.3, and took a photo of Perth railway station by night, returning home to develop the film myself. It’s the only photo I remember taking with that camera, but I like it for the Ilford Pan-F tonality and glow from the lens-haze.

Today, on my lunchtime stroll around town, I took a quick photo on the mobile, looking back along the same railway tracks to the station from the other side.

Perth railway station taken from Glasgow Road using a mobile phone camera (2014)

Perth railway station taken from Glasgow Road using a mobile phone camera (2014)

Perth railway station at night, taken on the Ensign Carbine No.3 with Ilford PanF+-50 film (2007)

Perth railway station at night, taken on the Ensign Carbine No.3 with Ilford PanF+-50 film (2007)

Change to Fair

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Fisherman's Barometer, St Andrews

Fisherman’s Barometer, St Andrews

The fisherman’s barometer, corner of North Castle and North Streets, St Andrews.

A little experimentation in The Gimp, to create a synthetic “scratches” texture layer – using plasma clouds, old-photo simulation, distortions and other trickery.

Around Cairnryan Point Lighthouse

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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:

Cairnryan Point Light
Cairnryan Point Light

    

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:

Ruin

It also looks radically different in colour:

Ruin

Ways of Looking at a Bollard

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Well, they say photography is partly about seeing interest in mundane things. So here are five views of a simple bit of street-furniture:

  1. fisheye, defished – for an ultrawide distorted effect, the bollard in its context
  2. minimalist – all distracting elements removed for a pure study of lines
  3. abstract – reduced to a pattern of lines, curves and textures (two of these)
  4. telephoto – from afar, with moderate context

All are black and white, HDR made from 3 frames bracketed +/-1EV.

Beyond these Shores

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A simple comparison today, the same scene seen two ways.

First, colour. The camera chose a fairly cool whitebalance, which lends itself to a purply-blue tint reminiscent of certain slide films of old:

Sunlight on water

And this is what can be made of it – a much shinier, silvery monochrome rendition, the punchy contrast emphasizing the foreground rock shapes:

Sunlight on water

Both have their merits – you can favour whichever you wish!

Technical details:
Sony NEX-7;
an HDR of 3 frames: ISO 100, f/10, for 1/125, 1/250, 1/60s exposure times;
processed in RawTherapee, blended in enfuse, manipulated in darktable.

Pyromania

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image

Bamboo makes for almost ideal bonfire material – dries out easily, burns efficiently, and being hollow, keeps a ready supply of oxygen in the fire core.
There can’t be many more bonfires left in the year…