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More mist this morning - none on the forecast and it was with us most of the day. Our local woods before breakfast.
A London bound train passes the 13th Century Hadleigh Castle.
Shot from the Leigh Creek, Essex UK
(SOOC exposure, 16:9 crop)
I'd never really seen the charm of Beach hut photography until I judged and chose the winner at a recent club competition. So I thought I'd have a go - nothing like as good as the comp winner but the "Simpson" sky adds something I think.
Oil/Chemical tanker STI Comandante inbound to Purfleet, Essex UK from Antwerp, Belgium. Shot from East Tilbury riverside 09:10 December 21, 2022.
Exposure SOOC, 16:9 crop
My boy Freddie after an exciting day. Shot last thing at night as an experiment in portraiture with wireless off-camera flash. Lighting advice welcome.
From the Richard Harvey Studio One
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Technical:
Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Single shot. EXIF as shown.
2 EL-100 Speedlites. One on camera as sender/ modelling flash only, second to right of camera on mini tripod at about 1/32 power. Minimal ambient light in room, just enough to wake up the AF.
Affinity Photo for Raw file development and monochrome. Minimal exposure edits except shadow adjustment, 10x8 crop.
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Although this isn't strictly Number 1. I go right back to my beginning on Flickr when I posted this with natural sunlight. ⬇️
Looking good for a great sunset the other night,lovely cloud formation.But alas a massive bank of cloud out of shot to the left didn't play ball.
Part of my 'Duffus Castle through the seasons' project.
The castle is situated on the Laich of Moray, a fertile plain that was once the swampy foreshore of Spynie Loch. This was originally a more defensive position than it appears today, long after the loch was drained.
The motte is a huge man-made mound, with steep sides and a wide ditch separating it from the bailey. The whole site is enclosed by a water-filled ditch, which is more a mark of its boundary than it is a serious defensive measure.
Duffus Castle was built by a Flemish man named Freskin, who came to Scotland in the first half of the 1100s. After an uprising by the ‘men of Moray’ against David I in 1130, the king sent Freskin north as a representative of royal authority.
He was given the estate of Duffus, and here he built an earthwork-and-timber castle. Freskin’s son William adopted the title of ‘de Moravia’ – of Moray. By 1200, the family had become the most influential noble family in northern Scotland, giving rise to the earls of Sutherland and Clan Murray.
In about 1270, the castle passed to Sir Reginald Cheyne the Elder, Lord of Inverugie. He probably built the square stone keep on top of the motte, and the curtain wall encircling the bailey. In 1305, the invading King Edward I of England gave him a grant of 200 oaks from the royal forests of Darnaway and Longmorn, which were probably used for the castle’s floors and roofs.
By 1350, the castle had passed to a younger son of the Earl of Sutherland through marriage. It may have been then that the keep was abandoned, possibly because it was beginning to slip down the mound, and a new residence established at the north of the bailey.
Viscount Dundee, leader of the first Jacobite Rising, dined in the castle as a guest of James, Lord Duffus in 1689, prior to his victory against King William II’s government forces at Killiecrankie. Soon after, Lord Duffus moved to the nearby Duffus House. The castle quickly fell into decay.
An incredible show around Epping Forest this year. Newly emerged these clumps look just like oranges. Elsewhere thay have fanned out to show off thier caps.
Between sea and shore there are pools left behind by the receding tide. That’s where we find ourselves early this morning. Who knows what we’ll find? I say “we”, he’s doing all the looking…
Despite being in something of a creative doldrums at the moment with regards to my photography, I'm glad I took my little Sony RX100 pocket rocket out on an amble along the Thames at Battersea earlier, along with my trusty GorillaPod.
The conditions were kind and I managed to grab a couple of longish exposures of the power station in quite a nice blue hour light ....
Another favourite of mine - shaggy scalycap. Evidently edible but also at the right height for fox marking. I'll stick to the supermarket.
My 10th 52/52 project and it's back to Hardwick Park. I wasn't sure which area to pick so I went for a wander round yesterday taking a variety of shots and on returning home asked my wife to pick her favorite; she went for this shot of Great Pond; so it's Great Pond for the next 12 months.
Now here's a story - our local forest has many fallow deer and just one red deer - this is he. Each year he tries to join the rut with the fallow bucks but since he is 4 times their size, they wisely have nothing to do with him. When I got to the woods this morning fallow bucks and does were running all over the place until they managed to find safety. However, I'm afraid Red is getting a bit old now to do the chasing and after catching his breath, he let out a few bellows of frustration and wandered off. Poor chap.
Still wrestling with reflection management on crystal glasses. Lacking a CP Filter for this lens I darkened the room and applied low power flash directed up and to the right hand wall, then applied a blue lens filter effect in Affinity Photo. And even then there was some blemish removal to be done! But I rather like the overall effect.
From the Richard Harvey Studio One
I dare say they don't say wuthering in Suffolk - more Yorkshire - but the trees on the Suffolk coast are certainly windswept. Made for mono I think.
I love finding fungi like this so that I can emphasize the risks of eating fungi from the forest. This is a wood blewit much favoured by mushroom gatherers. This is a very young specimen but it already has a slug clinging to it. This is just one risk one faces when taking fungi from the wild - extra protein I know but sticky.
I could have stood here all day, taking photographs... I love the long shadows this time of year. That's when the sun is out of course. It's wet and windy now, with a different feel altogether :)
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Shot from the hip, as I’m not partial to knuckle sandwich.
Let’s be kind and say she looks a bit ‘tired’
Went looking for adders and found instead this lovely grass snake and lots of juvenile common lizards - fine by me.
We spent nearly 15 minutes together and I left it basking in the September sunshine.
Enys Gardens Enys is situated a few miles to the East of Penryn in Cornwall. The beautiful gardens are a genuine joy and the bluebells during spring are an eye to behold. The building have been left to rack and ruin but are slowy awakening from their slumber. The Bluebell festival in May is a joy and I was lucky enough to look around last Tuesday in the pouring rain.