OUTER SUBURBS 112 – SCHOOL BUS

 

 

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Grey, damp morning, with empty bus, wet road, wet pavement and puddle.

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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 .  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 further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 8 May 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 348 – LOOKING ALONG THE LANE BELOW THE WHITELAKE BRIDGE

 

 

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Looking south from the Whitelake Bridge, on Hearty Moor.  A single track lane, its surface muddy and gently (i.e. characterfully!!!) undulating, disappears off amongst the shadowy trunks of trees.  Spring flowers line the sides of the lane, and trees bright with fresh, pale foliage overhang it.  A simple little scene, a lovely little place, a place in which to feel uncomplicated, quiet and at peace – except when the farmer comes through with his tractor or cows.

I’m not too sure where the point of focus is here, it may be down near where the road disappears, as the roadside flowers seem a little soft – but, well, you know, go with the flow.  If I’m trying to get myself off the hook, I suppose I could call this an impression of the scene and, in any case, I’m glad to have the picture.

A further point is that, much as I like mono, I had trouble here deciding on mono or colour >>> and so to both.  I think the mono has it >>> but what do you think???????

Particularly as, in the mono version, in my mind’s eye, I see that great bank of pale foliage on the right as the crest of a huge wave that is about to engulf this tranquil scene.  And although this may seem a rather fanciful vision (I never restrain my imagination), the latest forecasts for sea level rise due to global warming by the end of this century are two metres (about 6 feet), and if that happens then the Somerset Levels will be squarely in the firing line.  The Romans used to be able to get into the vicinity of this picture in sea-going ships, after all, so this is not science fiction.

Both of these pictures can be enlarged by clicking onto them to open a larger version in a separate window, and then clicking onto that picture to further enlarge it – recommended, especially for the mono version >>> those shadowy tree trunks just where the road disappears, to me there’s something from Lord of the Rings down down there!

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Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 210mm; 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Landscape V2 picture control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Film Noir 1 preset and adding a moderate Coffee tone; Hearty Moor, northeast of Glastonbury, on the Somerset Levels; 26 Apr 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 339 – MOTORCYCLIST (MONO)

 

 

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Standing on Long Moor Drove, looking at anything and everything, when a motorbike shot past me.  Like many of the little roads (droves) around here, this one has minimal foundations and, because of the wet, unstable clays underlying it, its often prone to adopting convolutions and textures quite of its own choosing – that’s what I like, individuality!!!

The camera’s autofocus caught and stayed with the bike, and I filled the foreground with the characterful road.  The surrounding vegetation was lush with the hues of spring, which are a distraction here; black and white concentrates more on the textures and the bike.

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

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX (= APS-C) format to give 450mm; 1000 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid V2 picture control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Contrast Green Filter preset and adding a moderate coffee tone; looking east along Long Moor Drove, on Liberty Moor, south of Mark, on the Somerset Levels; 3 May 2019.
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BRISTOL 132 – CITY LIFE (MONO)

 

 

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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 – certainly recommended.

Life in the city, for four people.

At upper left, a blond woman walks beneath the trees that border the river.  At this time of the morning, perhaps going to work.

While a man – perhaps a barman – takes a break with a hot drink and a cigarette (only just visible!) outside the door of a pub.

Another man hurries into the frame from the right, engrossed, on his phone – and hence walking through a world that, for the moment at least, he is barely aware of.

And lastly, encased in his classy, mobile, metal and glass machine, another man sits in a traffic queue, waiting for the lights to change.

A moment (1/640th of a second, to be exact) in the lives of four people, a moment in the life of a city, early on a Friday morning in May.

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 122mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid V2 picture control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Contrast And Structure preset; Baldwin Street, in Bristol city centre; 10 May 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 110 – CINDERFORD GLOS (MONO)

 

 

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The shadows of a fence and streetlight, falling across a pavement and onto a road.  And a drain cover from long ago – probably before WWII –  when such things were still made around here (Cinderford being a town in Glos. (= Gloucestershire)).

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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 .  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.

Technique: TG-5 at 28mm (equiv); 500 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Monotone film simulation; south Bristol; 11 Mar 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 334 – PILLMOOR DROVE, LOOKING SOUTH (MONO)

 

 

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This landscape 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.

Looking south along the single track road known as Pillmoor Drove, early on a spring morning.  This area is right on the local edge of the Levels.  Higher ground rises up towards Coxley and Wells to the right of the road, and a spur from this higher ground crosses the road, to form Harter’s Hill, which can be seen –  to the left of the tree – rising above the dead flat ground of Pill Moor, which is a part of the Levels.

Harter’s Hill, and the ground rising up to the right, stood up as islands when, not very long ago, the flats of the Levels were covered in lakes and marshes.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Strong Infrared Low Contrast preset and adding a medium coffee tone; Pill Moor, on the Somerset Levels south of Wells; 26 Apr 2019.
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ARCHIVE 407 – SUBURBIA WITH YELLOW (MONO + COLOUR)

 

 

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Thatcham, Berkshire; 1 June 2016.

Kneeling down in suburbia, beset (but far from besotted) by immaculately manicured lawns, carefully polished cars on tidy drives, hanging floral baskets, TV aerials, overhead wires and, in one disgraceful instance (presumably on the property of a Conservative hardliner), little grottoes populated by garden gnomes – oh spare me the little grottoes!

And I was kneeling down at the road’s edge, perhaps as a penance for allowing myself to become embroiled with suburbia in the first place.

But certainly getting funny looks from a smirking postman – rude boy that he was, Preciousss! (and what was Gollum doing there, snacking from ornamental fish ponds, gorging on koi carp al fresco???) .

Yes, funny looks, perhaps because the sole and fervently uttered prayer on my ageing lips was that I might, in due course, be allowed to regain the standing position without having to call the Emergency Services.

Anyway, there was yellow paint on the road, a little glimmer of untidy gaiety in a landscape otherwise dedicated to ordered comfort and respectability, and I knelt down and photographed it.

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

Technique: D700 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 24mm; 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Dynamic Harsh preset and selectively restoring colour.
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OUTER SUBURBS 103 – FOGGY MORNING 3

 

 

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Main road; early morning; fog.

Technique: selective desaturation of colour: the green lights are the main thing here and the morning was in any case very grey, but I’ve desaturated the yellows and blues of the crossing control boxes mounted on the traffic lights’ poles, and also the traffic cones standing on the traffic islands, to remove distractions and give the green lights greater prominence.  Another method would have been to convert the image to mono in Silver Efex Pro 2 and then restore the lights’ colours.

There are earlier foggy morning pictures here: 1 2 .

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 .  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.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 640 ISO; Lightroom, selectively desaturating colour; south Bristol; 30 Mar 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 324 – FLOODED ROAD (MONO)

 

 

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Exploring out on Queen’s Sedge Moor, not far south of the tiny city of Wells, in filthy conditions – rain falling from grey overcast, lots of surface water and simply heroic amounts of mud.  And then onto this little single track road heading for the tiny village of Barrow – when a van, obviously driven by a local, someone who knows the place – rounded a corner and came straight at me at speed.  There was no danger, this image was taken with a 450mm telephoto, which gives x9 magnification, and so it was still quite far off – but it put on speed through the surface water and spray flew everywhere.

Lots of familiarisation with this new camera paid off: I just had time to engage Continuous Autofocus, focus onto the number plate, hold down AF-ON and start firing – three frames and then the vehicle was on me and I was off into the (very soggy) roadside grass.  But, as is often the case down there, a cheery wave from the driver – after all, if I choose to stand in the road, its my lookout!

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 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX (APS-C) format to give 450mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Neutral V2 Picture Control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Dramatic preset; Queen’s Sedge Moor, south of Wells, on the Somerset Levels; 5 Apr 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 102 – FOGGY MORNING 2 (MONO)

 

 

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Main road; early morning; fog.

There is another foggy morning picture here: 1 .

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 .  Each will open in a separate window.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 70mm (equiv); 640 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Antique Portrait preset; south Bristol; 30 Mar 2019.
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