SOMERSET LEVELS 370 – EARLY MORNING, LOOKING EAST

 

 

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The world above Queen’s Sedge Moor, early in the day.

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.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Velvia/Vivid profile; Queen’s Sedge Moor, on the Somerset Levels; 5 July 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 361 – QUEEN’S SEDGE MOOR, MORNING LIGHT 2

 

 

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Driving on the eastern reaches of Queen’s Sedge Moor, heading for the little hamlet of Barrow; and, suddenly, the road overshadowed by a giant – an oak I think – backlit from the east.

And so to standing back as far as the narrow lane permitted, looking up through a very wide angle lens; and to overexposing the scene – avoiding a pure silhouette – to retain some colour in the tree’s leaves and some detail in its trunk, while letting the rising sun’s glare burn out much of the backdrop.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Queen’s Sedge Moor, on the Somerset Levels south of Wells; 24 May 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 359 – LONG DROVE, QUEEN’S SEDGE MOOR (MONO)

 

 

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On Queen’s Sedge Moor, an area of the Levels to the south of the tiny city of Wells, Long Drove makes off towards the sunrise.  This is a single track road with a tarmac surface: there are narrow  raised verges on either side, and beyond them (and unseen here) narrow, water-filled ditches known as rhynes (rhymes with scenes).

The Somerset Levels are a landscape that I love: they are a tremendous source of peace in this time poor, increasingly frenetic age – you won’t see too much multitasking down here! – and they are a place to feel close to Nature, the Natural World – and hence my dalliance with a Sedge Warbler that I wrote about recently.

But, as this long, dead straight road shows, this is not actually a very old landscape, nor is it a natural one: it is land that has been reclaimed relatively recently – within the last 400 years at most I would guess – from the lakes and marshes that formerly covered the area.  And in new landscapes, and especially flat ones, the quickest route between two points is a straight line.

Click onto the image to open a larger 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); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Soft Orange preset and adding a split tone; Long Drove, Queen’s Sedge Moor, on the Somerset Levels south of Wells; 26 Apr 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 354 – AT ROSE FARM, LOOKING EAST 3 (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 – recommended.

The view out across a misty landscape, early in the day.

Silver Efex Pro 2, which I always wholeheartedly recommend for black and white processing, gives the resulting image its take on the look of a Tin Type photograph.

There are earlier shots in this series here: 1 2 .

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 116mm; 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid v2 picture control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Tin Type preset; at Rose Farm, on the Somerset Levels south of Tarnock; 3 May 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 113 – LOOKING UP, EARLY IN THE DAY

 

 

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Walking in Church Lane, on a still, quiet 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 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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 .  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 65mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 17 Apr 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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A POST FOR SOMEONE, FAR AWAY

 

Someone has encountered health problems, someone is unwell.  Someone who is a good and long-time blogging friend, originally from around here but now living on the other side of the world.

Amongst other strategies, she is turning to her camera and to blogging as means of helping her cope and, far away as I am, I want to try to do something – however little – that is supportive.  She is in any case a very perceptive photographer of the Natural World and I have urged her to further immerse herself – and her camera – in Nature.

So for you, today, my friend, two things come to mind.  First, there is this link to the first of these (very few) Thoughts posts: I hope it will be meaningful to you.

Then, second, here are some images from the low, damp gentlenesses of the Somerset Levels.  Something to remind you of here perhaps but, in any case, somethings that are quiet, uncomplicated and Natural.  (Clicking onto these images will open larger versions in separate windows)

In a world intent on detail and data, no names are needed here.  You will know who this post is for.  I hope you like these pictures.

All best wishes to you.

Adrian

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Water Lily leaves in a rhyne’s the dark, peaty waters

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Very much a favourite picture of mine: a farmer and his wife off to check on their stock at first light on a foggy morning.  A very friendly couple, my age I suppose, they always wave and smile

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Sunrise, looking over towards Glastonbury

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Rhyne; misty morning

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Mute Swans coming in to land on floods; Tadham Moor

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Freezing morning, ice on the rhyne – I was driven to putting my fingers in my mouth to try and unfreeze them – should have dunked them in my coffee!!!  Tadham Moor

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Glastonbury Tor – and finding out that pointing a 400mm lens at the sun does not do miracles for the eyeballs!

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Looking west at sunrise: Our Star rising, and its light just catching the tops of the clouds; Tealham Moor

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Misty morning

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People call me The FATman … they’re really very rude, you know …

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Tealham Moor, looking east along a rhyne

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Its just a question of avoiding the last, over curious lunge, when that big, drooling muzzle goes straight into the front of the lens ….

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OUTER SUBURBS 107 – SPRING

 

 

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A cold, dark, misty morning in spring, with the sun rising through banks of thick, dark overcast.

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 .  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 enlarge it further.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 17 Apr 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 330 – HIGH GROUND, EARLY MORNING

 

 

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High ground below the colours of sunrise.  Looking up, from Tadham Moor.

Click onto the image to open a larger 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; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid V2 picture control; high ground above Tadham Moor, on the Somerset Levels; 12 Apr 2019.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 328 – GLASTONBURY, FAR AWAY TO THE EAST

 

 

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Looking eastwards across Tealham Moor at sunrise.  A rough track is just visible up to the left of the water-filled ditch which, known locally as a rhyne (rhymes with seen), acts as a field’s fence.

The deep water and glutinous ooze in these ditches are notorious for trapping cattle that come down to the edge to drink and, as happened recently near here, for causing road traffic fatalities where these rhynes run beside poorly maintained, single track, tarmac roads that are often driven over at high speeds.

And in the distance, far off at upper right, the distinctive outline of Glastonbury Tor, with the tower of its ruined church on its summit.

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

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 70mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid V2 picture control; Tealham Moor; 12 Apr 2019.
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