VirtuallyGreyPhotoBlog

A small selection of images taken last weekend at various locations in East Anglia.

A small selection of images taken on the Canary Island of La Gomera ...

I occasionally look back through my old image folders, either to seek something specific or perhaps just for a meander down memory lane. A couple of days ago I came across these two photos of puddles on a tennis court and, after a little adjustment to convert them to monochrome, I found that I liked the result ...

The 2018 Ashton under Hill Open Gardens (linked here) took place last weekend in weather that was perfect for the event. At last year’s I exhibited my “On Bredon Hill - 2016” photography project in St Barbara’s church in the village. I had a little more time this year to wander around some of the gardens with my camera. Here are three flower photographs taken in the village and a Sky...

I took a stroll by the River Avon a few days ago and found a couple of images.

After 14 separate Cotswold Way hikes since last summer I’ve now decided to abandon this photo-hiking project. Two related reasons: my walking capacity has been reduced by half or more by the state of my knees meaning that I would still need to do about 36 more hikes to complete the two-way hike to Bath, and, this in turns means far more driving than I'm keen to do. So, I’m not abandoning photo-hiking but I am reducing my horizons to more local, shorter photo-hiking projects for which I will make entries herein ...

A short walk marked the early ending my Cotswold Way photo-hiking project. See next post ...

I've just added a gallery with a selection of images from my recent New Zealand photography road trip. Linked here. I've yet to add titles to each image - I'll get around to it eventually!

I'm just back from a very successful and enjoyable four week photography road trip around New Zealand’s South Island with a friend from San Francisco. Here are three photographs from the trip. Once I’ve completed working through the 3,500 I took - and whittled them down to no more than 100 - I’ll add an NZ gallery to my website with those that ‘make it’ for me.

Unlike much of the rest of the country, here in the Vale of Evesham we’ve had very little snow though it’s been bitterly cold in the strong wind. Overnight the wind constructed this beautiful 18 inch high sculpture in one corner of our garden from the little snow we have had. I took the photograph just before it was trampled by the birds.

The Cotswold Way passes for barely half a mile along the western edge of Dowdeswell Wood. So for this stretch I diverted off The Way for a few hours into the wood to see what I could find. It’s an interesting mix of conifer/pine plantation as well as beech and several other deciduous trees all on the hillside of the Chelt River valley above Dowdeswell reservoir. In just a few weeks it will be carpeted with flowering bluebells and wild garlic. Some of the trees are very large. It was a challenge in the bright sun and deep shadows to find any worthwhile images. HDR came to the rescue with some bracketed exposures.

This stretch of the Cotswold Way provided me with the kind of challenge that I like for my photography. Good images don’t always jump out begging to be captured, indeed, this stretch is a good example of this. It is my contention that there are almost always pictures to be found but it requires an open mind as to what might work, and sufficient time looking to unearth them. The path was very muddy and spirit sapping and the generally dull light (until late in the afternoon) didn’t inspire me. But in the end I found a small number of images which just about made it for me.

Cleeve Common was a challenge to find something from which to make any satisfying images. The cold wind took the edge off the afternoon for me, in particular during one short episode of ice laden horizontal sleet. Otherwise there were periods of sun which helped me find the two photographs of benches looking out from the edge of the Common over Cheltenham. Just out of frame in the photograph of the two trees which sit prominently on the edge overlooking the town there are two benches but I excluded them in my composition as I didn’t see them adding to the final result.

The weather forecast was for 50% sun for the afternoon. In the event I saw the sun for about 3 minutes over the course of 5 hours and the 7 miles covered. Nevertheless, an enjoyable hike with the first outing for my new Sony A7RIII and 24-105mm lens.

“On Landscape” - the very best photography publication for landscape photography - has just published, in Issue 151, a set of 4 of my ‘Levadas of Madeira’ images, along with a brief write-up about Levadas. They are included as one of the ‘4x4’ contributions - ‘4x4’ being 4 photographers each showing 4 photographs, each of which is in some way related.

On Landscape is an on line subscription magazine: linked here.
Issue 151’s 4x4s are linked here.
My Levadas of Madeira is linked here - and the photographs are below.

I made a short detour off The Cotswold Way path into St Peter’s church in Winchcombe to attempt another photograph of the chandelier(?) that I last photographed in 2009 - linked here. Whilst in town I passed on the road an interestingly lit, and well worn, road sign. And towards the end of the day the four sunlit post tops took me aback as I rounded a corner on the way back to Winchcombe from Belas Knap Long Barrow. The whole landscape in front of me was in shadow as the sun sank below the hillside, except that it hadn’t quite cleared the post tops which glowed orange in the late afternoon sun.

Almost the whole of the Cotswold Way offers, to varying degrees, interesting and attractive territory for photography. This stretch however ranks low down on that scale, particularly after the rain has created thick, glutinous, slippery mud. The Way crossed the middle of one particularly muddy ploughed field (yes, the path is ploughed) followed immediately by a stretch along a sideways sloping, and equally muddy, field boundary. A real test for one’s balance and determination not to end up falling flat in the mud … thankfully I didn’t. My walking poles justified their keep. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few images, albeit with mud being a key ingredient.

My 3 months away from hiking the Cotswold Way has, disappointingly, meant missing the autumn and its potential for colour and light in the landscape. Today’s return was just for a short walk as part of recovering from my knackered knee. Starting at Hailes Abbey I walked up to Beckbury Monument at Cromwell’s Clump where I finished last time, then back. The forecast led me to believe that there’d be a good chance of a fine sky at the end of the afternoon with, hopefully, a worthwhile sunset. But no ... so much for believing weather forecasts, even for just a few hours ahead.

After a gap of at least 2 years snow fell on Bredon Hill today. The big disappointment for me on my "On Bredon Hill - 2016" project was that not once did a single flake of snow fall. It's what most landscape photographers hanker after - or at least I do. As luck would have it I was available this morning when snow was forecast so, I planned to make the most of it. There wasn't much snow, but it amounted to infinitely more than in the zero in 2016. Whilst a few flakes fell at my home I could see from there that Bredon Hill had at least a light covering. It was my first hike in more than 2 months and since receiving treatment for a knackered knee. So far so good. This is what I found during a short two hour hike ...

Just back from a week in the Lakes and a week on Skye. Only managed a little photography each week but did find one or two satisfying images. The northern lights showed up on our last night on Skye, only the second time I've seen them. Photos from The Lakes are linked here. Photos from Skye are linked here.