Martyn
Staffordshire knot
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•1•7 Member Since: February 2, 10 |
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...Dewy old Web...
No frost here this morning, just low cloud cover or Fog if you like. Everywhere is wringing wet with dew even the old spiders web that I photographed yesterday!
I think the dew droplets looked quite good, so here are a couple of shots I took...
web dew. (1).jpg I'm fascinated by the beadlets of dew anchoring to the web strands!
web dew. (2).jpg It was quite breezy and the web was moving too much I think!
web dew. (3).jpg I think this is the best!
This is my neighbours Gate!
This is my neighbours gate and with dramatic effect this morning at 08:30hrs. It was absolutely freezing in the night but this morning is bright and clear. The frost is evaporating rapidly and it's not often we get to see it!
Then I noticed This abandoned web made clearly visible by the frost and was lit up directly by the sun, it wasn't easy to shoot as the lens refracted all the sunlight see what I mean and again but I thought I'd give it a go!
Fun with a match!
Simply set your camera to a rapid burst of frames! Ten frames per second should do the trick!
fun with a match.jpg It's just ignited.
fun with a match (4).jpg You can see the match head clearly alight now!
fun with a match (6).jpg I like this one..
fun with a match (7).jpg It's well alight now!
Here are all the frames together.. Igniting match photo burst.jpg
I'm adding these next two photographs just to give the game away a little..
Giving the game away.jpg This shot is the first in the sequence! The camera is ready and primed, I guessed when the match was about to light and pressed the shutter release on my camera.. If you look closely you can see a bead of sweat forming on the match head!
Giving the game away (1).jpg This is the setup.. The match was vertical, held onto a little lightbox with blue tack! The background was stiff white card! I simply cropped and rotated the final images!
Challenge: Bi-Weekly Challenge. Amenity Art.
Firstly I was honoured when I was asked to host the next Bi-Weekly Challenge on November 15th.. Secondly I am delighted to accept the challenge and hope my efforts are worthy of Photographica !
All of our County's, City's, Towns and some villages (Parishes)have an elected local governing body and they spend the public purse in our best interests, as they always tell us! Naturally, some times I agree and sometimes I disagree with how our tax money is used!
My City of Stoke on Trent is an old City in serious industrial and social decline, long gone are the days of Shelton Bar (steel makers) and all of our coal mining pits have been capped off. The Pottery industry has been shipped abroad where the cost of labour is far cheaper!
A couple of decades ago there were many acres of industrial dereliction and wasteland poisoned by industry, this poor state of affairs was deemed no longer acceptable by the City's people. Henceforth, re-development of the City began in earnest!
So came about areas of empty land put to use with a sculpture or other art that helps to enhance our living environment. I agree that it looks good but can't help but think could that money have been better spent elsewhere!
All of these photo's were taken while in the back seat of our car, all the art can be seen from the road. I had my wife drive me around Stoke while we were on our way to do our weekly grocery shop!
The challenge is to photograph outdoor art or sculpture that has been funded by your government taxes, local or central!... However, the method of funding is not a strict criteria and any form of art out in the community will do!... It should be easily accessible by road or footpath for the public to see and enjoy!... I want to see a little part of the path or road in the photograph, think safety first!... The shots don't have to be perfect, especially if you're taking them while sitting in the back seat of a car on the move.
Builders boarding.jpg our town council pays professional graffiti artists
Builders boarding.1.jpg to paint builders boards to beat the
Welcome to Chesterton.jpg graffiti vandals. It looks ok and the vandals leave them alone, it works!
Highway adornment with The Staffordshire Knot..jpg this underpass is decorated with the
Highway adornment with The Staffordshire Knot close up.jpg Staffordshire Knot , can only be seen from the road!
City sculpture.jpg I have no idea what this sculpture is supposed to represent, it looks better than
City sculpture close up.jpg the derelict shell of a house that was here before it!
City sculpture.1.jpg This sculpture at Etruria is on part of the site
City sculpture.1 closeup once dominated by British Steel's Shelton Bar works!
This challenge has raised my curiosity as I don't even know how to interpret what these sculptures represent. I 'll have to research them as I'm pretty sure you Photographica folk will want to know what they mean..
Be sure to read the comments to this challenge!
A compromise is fine by me... Anything you deem artistic outdoors in the community! Road or path needn't be included in the shot! I think that should simplify matters for everyone! Every town is different, I realise that point..
Highway adornment with The Staffordshire Knot..jpg |
Builders boarding.jpg |
City sculpture.jpg |
Hello Sugar!
What you can do with a spoonfull of sugar and a small lightbox!
+++++ Malcontent-Discontent +++++
My Coffee
Take your favourite mug.jpg Washed and dried of course!
add sugar as you like it.jpg a spoonful and half for me
add a level spoonful of coffee.jpg we use the freeze dried soluble type!
pour in a drop of milk.jpg just enough to whiten!
add hot water.jpg Not quite to the top!
stir a couple of times.jpg mix all the ingredients together!
drink.jpg Lovely!
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I have played.jpg in PS with these.jpg three shots.jpg I just gave them a closer crop!
Bodnant Gardens. Ten years ago..
As I quite often do, I was sifting through my slide collection intending to have a sort out and I came across these! They were taken with a Bronica medium format camera that I had some years ago! We were at Bodnant Gardens in Snowdonia, North Wales. The Bronica was expensive to use and took ages to set for taking the shot, I think I've mentioned this before! I still have an affection for slide film because I think it's detail cannot be matched by digital, not yet anyway! I had my family posing for minutes on end while I set the shot. Nothing I have had since the Bronica has matched it's performance regarding detail, but it was a dinosaur to handle. I still have my Leica slide projector and screen but only 35mm, I couldnt afford a projector for medium format even though I mounted them in glass slides.. Every now and then I put on a slide show of my 35mm slides.. I think my next investment is going to be a digital projector and again have all the family on the sofa and we reminice over good times past. Plus the usual "did I really look like that then?"
Bodnant Garden.jpg This is my two sons and my ex wife looking at Bodnant house. This was my favourite for a while.
Bodnant Garden (1).jpg The tree in front of Bodnant House.
Bodnant Garden (2).jpg My youngest son Adam aged 4 at the time of taking this shot, he's now 14 going 21.
Bodnant Garden (3).jpg The gardens are magnificent, or at least they were when I took these.
Bodnant Garden (4).jpg Lovely Red Roses. The reds in slide film always stand out, too much maybe!
Conway Castle from the Estuary..jpg The castle taken from half a mile away across the estuary!
The shots have been cropped down, there is burn/white out in some of the sky areas. I never used N/D filters ( neutral density ) or Polarising filters as they took even longer for me to set up.
Bodnant Garden (1).jpg |
Bodnant Garden.jpg |
Bodnant Garden (3).jpg |
Bi-Weekly Challenge.. Signs and Logos.
Uk brand logo's.jpg It's Wallmart across the pond in the US!
Uk brand logo's (5).jpg All over my jelly!
Uk brand logo's (4).jpg MMmmm! ....Pickle!
Uk brand logo's (3).jpg Can't think of a hint for this one!
Uk brand logo's (1).jpg Brrr! It's cold...
I use this every day.. I use this everyday..
signs and logo's challenge. 3. This is the same as "I use this every day" but played around with in P/S.
Uk brand logo's (1).jpg |
Uk brand logo's (2).jpg |
Uk brand logo's (3).jpg |
Synchronicity.
By rights I should still be in bed at 15:00 hrs yesterday as I had been working the night shift, but I thought "Oh what the heck!". I took these photo's in my back garden as I hadn't the inclination to do anything more like being out and about.. The plant lives in our little rockery at the edge of our garden and I haven't a clue as to it's name. I just recall buying it from a garden centre as I liked the look of the flowers.
soft focus.jpg Close and soft..
sepia.jpg With grain effect.
...and just to add a little more interest to this story I have added a couple of shots that have been modified with P/S CS4's Photomerge and HDR merge features.
Original.jpg Untouched in any way! Apart from close cropping..
HDR merge.jpg Photoshop's HDR feature is not quite the way I would like it to turn out.
Photomerge.jpg I think this is a much better result! .. However I do believe I could have achieved the same results in Bridge with much less fussing!.. I used 7 copies of the same image, all slightly differing in hue, saturation, , contrast, exposure, etc. Then P/S merged the images together. The identical same images were used for HDR merge and Photomerge.
...To make it a little easier to compare them I added this:- All three images together...jpg
Mr Pumpkin Head..
Mr Pumpkin Head. Roughly cut with a pocket knife of course!
Mr Pumpkin Head (1) This little fella came with the "Halloween" bunch of flowers I bought for my wife.. Yes folks you can buy anything these days!
All the crazy folk of my neighbourhood will be out in their droves this evening! Can't wait!....
For the onslaught to begin!........ ( Devilish laugh).. How do you write a devilish laugh?... "Mwah Haa Haaaa!"... perhaps?
A little UK Flora..
All of these Photographs have been processed in Bridge or P/S, quite radically!..
Heart of Lilly Taken at Shanklin Chine. IOW. ..I liked the yellow heart and white leaf contrast of this little water Lilly!
Poppys.. Taken on a days hike in Bridlington.. I was taken aback by this poppy field.. It was lovely..
Pretty flower Taken on a days hike Dovedale, Derbyshire.. I loved the almost perfect leaf symmetry of this little flower.. I have no idea what it is named.
Challenge Red..
I haven't been out to take all of these shots but already had them in my archives! I took the leaves and sky this morning..
Lighthouse and flag.JPG The Needles lighthouse..
Hovercraft.JPG The business end of a hovercraft..
World cup winners.1966. England..JPG The two Bobbies.. Tussauds waxworks.. Blackpool..
Contrast. Red Challenge..jpg Leaves and sky..
My very frosty front lawn
I went out into my front garden this morning and took these few shots. It was 09:30hrs BST and still -2 degrees centigrade which equates to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. I need to invest in a macro lens as some of these shots are close cropped and the sharpness is just not there to be seen. P/S has helped but not greatly...
My very frosty front lawn (1).jpg
My fireworks went disastrously or did they not!
This evening I went to Lyme Valley park as their annual winter fair and firework event was being held! It was very, very cold while we were waiting for the main event.. The firework display... I must have inadvertently pre-set my camera to a slower shutter setting having frozen fingers and only realised this when I returned home. Some of the shots were ruined but some of them were salvageable I think!
Did my fireworks go disastrously wrong or not? What do you think? I just love the abstract appeal of them, a couple even look like distant galaxys..
My fireworks went wrong or did they.jpg This is definately my favourite out of the set....
My fireworks went wrong or did they (1).jpg ...this is my second... A distant Galaxy.
My fireworks went wrong or did they (2).jpg ...and my third.. Another distant Galaxy.
My fireworks went wrong or did they (3).jpg
My fireworks went wrong or did they (4).jpg
My fireworks went wrong or did they (5).jpg
My fireworks went wrong or did they (6).jpg There's a spaceship here somewhere!
My fireworks went wrong or did they (1).jpg |
My fireworks went wrong or did they (2).jpg |
My fireworks went wrong or did they (3).jpg |
