OUTER SUBURBS 145 – AUTUMN

 

 

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In the middle of October, a Horse Chestnut starts to prepare for the winter.

Click onto each image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Portrait (above) and Camera Natural profiles; south Bristol; 17 Oct 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 417 – WILLOW 4 (MONO)

 

 

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These images are certainly best viewed enlarged – click onto each of them to open a larger version in a separate window and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.

Pollarded willow, old and leaning precariously, beside the River Sheppey in Swanshard Lane.  These are mono versions of a previously posted colour image – see 3 below.

Technique:  these images, both captured by the Nikon Z 6, have been created in two different ways.  The one above was produced by in-camera processing of a raw file, using the camera’s Graphite picture control, and no further processing in Lightroom.  The one below was via the “traditional route”, i.e. via Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro 2,  using the latter’s Landscape preset.   They’re similar, but I have to say – purely subjectively of course – that I prefer the in-camera processing.  My reasons?  Well I think that the lower one is a bit too grey, with too many of the leaves visible; whereas the upper one has more of the leaves and branches burnt out, so focusing more attention on the gnarled trunk.  Which, if any, do you prefer???
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There are other Willow portraits here: 1 2 3 .

There is more about the ancient practice of pollarding here .

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SOMERSET LEVELS 413 – WILLOW 3

 

 

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This image is best viewed enlarged – click onto it to open a larger version in a separate window and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.

Pollarded willow, old and leaning precariously, beside the River Sheppey in Swanshard Lane.

And to me there is something human here, someone leaning with arms outstretched, though whether perhaps performing gracefully in some dance or ballet – or distraughtly in pain, anguish or panic, I cannot say.

There are other Willow portraits here: 1 2 .

There is more about the ancient practice of pollarding here .

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 82mm; 6400 ISO; spotmetering for high key effect; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait v2 profile; Swanshard Lane, on the Somerset Levels southwest of Wells; 13 Sept 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 132 – EARLY MORNING 12

 

 

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The rising sun lights a roadside tree, which has been pollarded (scalped might be a better description) perhaps a little late in the season >>> and so it brightens my mornings to see it sprouting lots of new leaves before autumn really gets itself into gear.

This is the thing really.  While our species is creating havoc with the natural world – while during the Anthropocene we are causing another of the great species extinctions that have occurred in the geological past (think dinosaurs and comet impacts for example)  – given just half a chance Nature never stops >>> LOL! >>> as gardeners who try to impose their will on it will readily testify!

Other images in this Early Morning series – from both rural and urban areas – are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 .

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.

Technique: TG-5 at 35mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Natural profile; south Bristol; 27 Aug 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 402 – THORNS, WEBS, MORNING DEW

 

 

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Bramble, festooned with wet cobwebs in the early morning dew.  It was 0635, and I’d just arrived in Swanshard Lane after a fast drive down largely empty main roads from Bristol.  There is a little, rough layby in this winding, single track lane, where I often pull over, to walk about and take in the place >>> and to try to keep on keeping on by swigging hot sweet coffee!!!

The hedge on the other side of the lane had various plants standing up against a distant backdrop and, used close in, the long end of the telezoom defocused that backdrop completely.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 3200 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait v2 profile; Swanshard Lane, on the Somerset Levels southwest of Wells; 23 Aug 2019.
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ARCHIVE 408 – OAK

 

 

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Backlit Oak leaves in our garden; 27 June 2009.

I’m a complete sucker for backlit leaves, and lucky to have a rather wild garden in which live several trees >>>  >>> >>> and do you know, for some reason, it means much more to me to say that these trees LIVE in our garden, rather than that they are merely growing there – to me, it makes them seem more alive, more like friends perhaps – certainly beings that are held in at least the same esteem as a particularly treasured cat or dog would be.  So do I touch and talk to these trees >>> of course I do!!!  It is an extremely gentle and above all peaceful thing to do – you should try it!

All of these trees except the two Apples are naturally seeded: in the case of our favourites – two Oaks and a Hazel – quite possibly by Jays and squirrels burying nuts and acorns as winter food stores.  All three of these favourites are now about 15 years old, and we have watched them grow from the tiniest of saplings.  We are dwarfed by them now.

This is a sprig on the Upper Oak (i.e. the one at the top of the garden).  I’ve exposed for the backlit leaves, and made sure (pre- and post-capture) that the background is dark and unobtrusive.  And if we’re coming at it from design, the sprig goes left to right across the image, as it does in real life.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique:  D700 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 120mm; 400 ISO.

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OUTER SUBURBS 109 – FOGGY MORNING 4 (MONO)

 

 

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Trees, fog, stillness, depth.

There are earlier foggy morning pictures here: 1 2 3 .

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Monotone film simulation; south Bristol; 17 Apr 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 335 – LOOKING UP, BESIDE PILLMOOR DROVE

 

 

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Walking along Pillmoor Drove, in total peace and solitude.  Taking my time in this lovely quiet spot, looking at anything and everything through the eyes of two cameras.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); Lightroom, using the Astia/Soft film simulation; Pillmoor Drove, on the Somerset Levels south of Wells; 26 Apr 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 45 – AUTUMN 10

 

 

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Autumn with chocolate wrapper!  Maybe the last of this autumn mini series … well, it was taken just after the end of meteorological autumn but, apart from the wrapper, we are looking at autumn’s debris – in fact this was again taken beneath the huge Horse Chestnut tree in Church Lane, like this earlier shot .

The chocolate wrapper drew my eye because its curved shape is taken up by the bright green leaf below it, to almost form a semi-circle.  And the carpet of dead leaves is richly coloured and glistening: everything had been drenched by overnight rain.  The small bright green leaves at lower left help balance the composition: cover them with your finger to see what I mean.  And there’s also the inverted ‘V’ shape made by the long, thick, brown twigs that intersect (one above, one below) with the right hand end of the wrapper.

There are earlier autumn posts here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 .  Each will open in a separate window.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Natural film simulation; south Bristol; 3 Dec 2018.
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OUTER SUBURBS 44 – FROSTY MORNING (MONO)

 

 

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Along the roadside, on a cold morning.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 57mm (equiv); 1,000 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Strong Infrared Low Contrast preset and adding a light selenium tone; south Bristol; 22 Nov 2018.
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