SOMERSET LEVELS 439 – WALKING WESTON’S STREETS 6

 

 

Autumn on drain cover

Weston-super-Mare, my home town, on the coast where the Somerset Levels run down into the Bristol Channel – the local, somewhat muddy, version of the sea.  Following a recent reunion with age-old friends there (here), I’ve been visiting Weston again, and walking streets echoing with things remembered – sometimes only half-remembered –  from over half a century ago.

Weston is a seaside town and, like seaside towns the UK over, it is experiencing something of an economic downturn – the era of the family seaside holiday in uncertain British weather is long past, due to cheap holidays in warmer and far more reliable, foreign climes.  So, there is to Weston something of the cheap and cheerful, a – to me, anyway – rather attractive tattiness at the edges, that makes walking here with a camera a pleasure – a definite feeling of not knowing what will appear next.  The Ghost of FATman Past perhaps?  Well, if he gives me half a chance, I’ll photograph him …

And so in Nov 2019 to pictures taken with an open mind – pictures which are, for better or for worse, in the main quite different from the preceding 400+ that I’ve posted of the Somerset Levels.  Some of them may be a little obscure / far out / radical / unexplained /  I don’t know… but I did mention photographing with an open mind, which means looking, on the spur of the moment, at anything and everything …    But, whatever, warts and all, I hope you’ll like (at least some of) these images.  (Click onto them twice to enlarge them)

Earlier posts in this series are here: 1 2 3 4 5 .

A short history of Weston is here.
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Looking up on the High Street: demise of the seaside holiday, and the economic plight of so many seaside towns

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 Looking into a trendy bar

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Rainy morning: umbrella in car

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SOMERSET LEVELS 435 – WALKING WESTON’S STREETS 4

 

 

Wet morning

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Weston-super-Mare, my home town, on the coast where the Somerset Levels run down into the Bristol Channel – the local, somewhat muddy, version of the sea.  Following a recent reunion with age-old friends there (here), I’ve been visiting Weston again, and walking streets echoing with things remembered – sometimes only half-remembered –  from over half a century ago.

Weston is a seaside town and, like seaside towns the UK over, it is experiencing something of an economic downturn – the era of the family seaside holiday in uncertain British weather is long past, due to cheap holidays in warmer and far more reliable, foreign climes.  So, there is to Weston something of the cheap and cheerful, a – to me, anyway – rather attractive tattiness at the edges, that makes walking here with a camera a pleasure – a definite feeling of not knowing what will appear next.  The Ghost of FATman Past perhaps?  Well, if he gives me half a chance, I’ll photograph him …

And so in Nov 2019 to pictures taken with an open mind – pictures which are, for better or for worse, in the main quite different from the preceding 400+ that I’ve posted of the Somerset Levels.  Some of them may be a little obscure / far out / radical / unexplained /  I don’t know… but I did mention photographing with an open mind, which means looking, on the spur of the moment, at anything and everything …    But, whatever, warts and all, I hope you’ll like (at least some of) these images.  (Click onto them to enlarge them)

Earlier posts in this series are here: 1 2 3 .

A short history of Weston is here.

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Lion, drainpipe and CCTV

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Wet morning: drenched leaf on drenched pavement

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OUTER SUBURBS 154 – AUTUMN’S PAVEMENT

 

 

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Walking in autumn, and looking down.

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 100mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 3 Oct 2018.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 427 – THE END OF THINGS (MONO)

 

 

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Death and decay on an urban pavement: the year closes down, and trees prepare for the dark, cold months ahead.  But, as always, with the knowledge that Spring’s brightenings and warmths are drawing ever closer too.

I lived on the equator, in Kenya, for some years.  In those parts, day lengths are always about 12 hours, the sun is always more or less overhead, sunrises and sets are always quite high speed affairs, and rather than summer, autumn etc, each year has two wet and two dry seasons.  When I eventually returned to England, just about 30 years ago, I was at first appalled by the winter sun sitting so low in the sky, and the cold and wet of the grey winter days – but there was no option but to make the best of things and get through them.  In the long years since then, however, I have come to appreciate all of the seasons (I suppose autumn is my favourite, just) and, in particular, to be out and about – with a camera – when light levels are subdued.

There is an earlier post on this theme of death and decay here .

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

Technique: Z 6 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 120mm; 3200 ISO; in-camera processing of the raw file, including use of the Graphite profile; further processing in Lightroom; Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; 8 Nov 2019.
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PEOPLE 376 – YOUNG PEOPLE AND FALLEN LEAF (MONO)

 

 

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Young people walking – briskly, spritely, full of life – on their way to college, I think.  And a large, dead, autumn leaf, lying on a low flight of steps – its that time of year, after all.

And even as I took this picture I felt the contrast here, between the energies of youth, of people who may think they’ll always be young (if they think about such things at all), people who have scant awareness of ageing (which is a very pleasant and worthwhile mindset to be in, by the way, let’s be very clear about that!!!) >>> and I felt the contrast between these youngsters and the incontrovertible evidence of Life’s eternal cycle, lying mute and unnoticed on the steps beside them.

Can’t remember what I was on in Weston – maybe I was just running on hot coffee and enthusiasm! –  or maybe it was just an effect of being back where I grew up, prior to setting off into the outside world in 1968 – maybe all of that Life, all of the times and experiences since then, were getting to me.

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

Technique: Z 6 with 24-120 Nikkor lens used in APS-C format to give 180mm; 1600 ISO; in-camera processing of the raw file, including use of the Graphite profile; no further processing;  High Street, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; 8 Nov 2019.
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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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