Looking at – and seeing – the world
September 26, 2020 Leave a comment
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A double exposure of the Hazel tree in our Bristol garden, with the beautiful yellow leaves that it has in the autumn. The camera was moved slightly between the two exposures.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
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September 25, 2020 8 Comments
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Fulmar flying along the cliff top at West Bay, Dorset; 23 Apr 2015.
How I love Dorset! And we’ve just been down there for a few days’ break, renting a cheapo caravan not far behind the beach at the tiny “resort” of West Bay, which is on the coast south of Bridport. I put resort in quotes because, although it is on Dorset’s absolutely totally beautiful coast and it does have a harbour with a few working fishing boats – mainly for shellfish, crabs and lobster I think – West Bay also has some really ugly holiday apartments (which sell for just under half a million pounds each) and other ugly modern buildings, and it really is a cheap and cheerful place.
BUT, that said, this is coastal Dorset, and so all this money! money! money! ugliness is set amongst just totally wonderful natural beauty. And the little kiosks round the harbour serve up good fish and chips, and there’s Dorset Apple Cake, and a brewery nearby that’s been churning out the good stuff since 1794, and some really nice bakeries in nearby Bridport, etc etc. I suppose the bottom line is that its very hard to dent coastal Dorset’s vast appeal – and thank goodness for that!
Anyway, anyway – it was the afternoon of the final day of our stay, the blast of the bright sunshine had softened a little, and I took it in my head to climb a steep hill east of the harbour, to explore a bit. Well, OMG, it was steep, but when The Great Explorer eventually puffed and coughed his way to the top, what did he find? Beautiful natural wilderness? Well, no, a golf course actually, but you can’t have everything. And as I set off regardless along the cliff top path, I caught a glimpse of a seagull coasting along the cliffs – but it didn’t look quite right.
And sure enough it wasn’t quite right, because rather than a gull it was a (Northern) Fulmar – Fulmarus glacialis – a seabird, a real denizen of the open oceans that only comes ashore to breed, on steep inaccessible cliffs like those at West Bay. So, I watched where these birds were habitually gliding past, wound the D800 up on DX format so that my 70-300 zoom became a 105-450 zoom – and started blasting away.
It was difficult going, even with autofocus, and lots of my attempts are, shall we say, “impressionistic”. But here is one caught above the glare of the lowering sun on the sea – and it does look like a seagull at first glance, doesn’t it – but there’s a little kink and ridge on the top of its bill that houses nasal passages, something that gulls don’t have.
And two points of interest. Living out on the open seas as they do, and eating things like squid, fish and shrimps, these birds are up to their ears in salt – some of which they manage to get rid of by excreting it as a strong saline solution through their noses. And, should one of these beauties feel that you’re approaching it too closely on a cliff, they will vomit their foul smelling stomach oils over you – as a means of giving you a gentle hint.
And, finally, their plumage is white below. The warm orange tinge to the underparts that you see in the photo was in fact the reflection of the lowering sunlight on West Bay’s beautiful, honey-coloured cliffs.
Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX format to give 450mm; 400 ISO.
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September 20, 2020 4 Comments
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Something Minimal, there’s really not much here, both in terms of content and colour, but straight black and white would lose a little I think. And the bird – and getting focus on the bird – were fortuitous!
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Classic Chrome film simulation; near West Littleton, South Gloucestershire; 12 Apr 2017.
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September 18, 2020 10 Comments
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A bicycle. Blue and yellow. And in my mind its lying down, relaxing, but raising one pedal to look at me.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; The Grove, central Bristol; 12 May 2017.
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September 16, 2020 12 Comments
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Long-eared Owl, at the International Centre for Birds of Prey, Newent, Gloucestershire; 2 July 2014.
As often happens with living things, I’m close in to the individual both by means of a telephoto and via cropping of the resulting image.
The eye – to me the really vital, vibrant and living focus of the shot – is in focus, while all of the surrounding patterns and textures are blurring into an “impression of the beast”.
Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window – certainly recommended.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 250mm; 3200 ISO; Dfine 2; Color Efex Pro 4.
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September 15, 2020 13 Comments
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Amongst the prehistoric ritual stones at Stanton Drew, in the Chew Valley south of Bristol.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T1 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Tin Type preset; Stanton Drew, in the Chew Valley south of Bristol; 6 Nov 2017.
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September 13, 2020 6 Comments
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Offices with the lights on, empty in the early morning; beside Bristol Bridge, central Bristol; 16 Sept 2016.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 3,200 ISO.
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September 11, 2020 6 Comments
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Browns restaurant, Queens Road, Bristol; 3 Feb 2017.
My day started early as they often do, and I got downtown at dawn and took a few photos. But my heart wasn’t really in it because I know that yet another deep depression was steamrollering its way in from the Atlantic, and that it would be saturating Bristol with rain well before the morning was through.
And so to a stop in Browns up market (and certainly not down budget!) palace for Eggs Royale and a pot of very nice english tea. I lounged there, looking around and feeling a bit out of things after the early start, and a table with four chairs that was catching the light from a window kept drawing my eye.
And so to opening my bag and getting out the camera, and looking through the viewfinder – but by then a couple had occupied the table next to the one I was looking at, and I had the uncomfortable feeling that they thought the camera was being pointed at them. But at least this Fuji is not so large and intimidating, or so loud, as the Nikons, and I pressed quickly on and took two frames.
Technique: the table’s top was brightly lit and cluttered with many things, but I liked the look of the seats of the four chairs that were faintly glowing in the table’s shadow – and so to a composition in which the table’s bright and cluttered top is squeezed into the top fifth or so of the frame, while the seats of the chairs glow in the less brightly lit ‘underworld’ below. There was a lot of contrast in the scene but the camera’s multi-zone metering (aided by the live histogram I’ve opted to have visible in the viewfinder) dealt with it well, and although the colour image is attractive – one of those instances where the near absence of colour really works – it really seemed to be a scene that would suit black and white, and so to SEP2.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 125mm (equiv); 12,800 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Dynamic Smooth preset and adding a tone.
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September 8, 2020 2 Comments
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The morning stop for cash – Park Street, central Bristol; 2 Dec 2016.
Three dark elements, two for automatically dispensing and one for gratefully (or maybe even indifferently …) receiving.
I was struck by this tall, dark figure and the shadows (accentuated a little here) cast by her wide-brimmed hat: she is restocking her purse with the spending ammunition required for the day ahead.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 12,800 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset.
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September 7, 2020 4 Comments
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Leaf on our Hazel tree; 24 June 2013.
The black elements in this photo have a vague upper left to lower right (or vice versa!) orientation, which produces something of a dynamic maybe. And I like the leaf’s serrated periphery.
But most of all I enjoyed the cool, peaceful stillness of the garden early on this overcast morning – the grove of Cowslips gone to seed, some new Badger holes, and everything generally running riot, certainly heading to something like jungle unless I intervene.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: D700 with 105mm Nikkor lens; 12,800 ISO.
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