lying low

 

resting,

 

Susie had an excuse, she had just been on a bumblebee surveillance walk in Belfast. Shay hadnt any excuse.

 

Lou Doillon - Lay Low

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2YSQArcn0

 

Young ones, too scared to venture out from the nest yet though. Would never have spotted them if a couple hadnt pointed them out.

This, REALLY pissed me off.

Years ago I found this wishbone necklace and wore it every day for aaaaaaaaaaaages, then it broke like how a wishbone should, so I made a wish.

I don't actually believe in that kind of thing, and i'm pretty sure the wish would of come true, even if the wishbone hadnt broken and if i hadnt of made the wish, but it sort of became a symbol of something to me and was all special and stuff, now it's broken properly and I feel all lost and weird, and any necklace I wear doesnt feel right there =(

I cried my eyes out when I realised it was like that, ugh.

I know this is extremely trivial and not really a big thing, but, meh, y'know?

='(

ive always been one to follow my dreams, but sometimes there are just those pieces of yourself that seem so unattainable. my soul is itching to travel the world, to just leave this place - this small town ive always called home... but much more important to me, is my family and i could never leave them. maybe in the future the time will be right, but until then ill stay here with the people who make my heart the most happy. this concept was born from this contradiction inside myself, but i wanted it to represent something a little desperate (yet still wistful and soft... and this right here is why i usually dont start talking about things, hahaha i start to make no sense), which hopefully comes across.

 

while we were packing up to leave, a cop pulled into the lot to ask what we were doing. the convo went like this (this is an abandoned gas station near my house):

 

"what are you kids up to?" cop.

"we were just taking some pictures!" me.

"...oh." *looks confused* "i was just making sure you guys werent breaking anything." cop.

"oh we arent, i promise, and we are just heading out." me.

"..... do you have annnny... *trails off* "oh, youve got a camera around your neck." *gets in car and leaves*

 

it was funny.

 

on a side note, i have been really unsatisfied with my photography lately - because i hadnt been creating things ive really liked (with a few exceptions) for quite some time. i know we all experience this, and quite frankly, it sucks. i decided to gather together a bunch of things that always make me love a photo, and use those elements. for me that resulted in this list:

 

a) a very personal concept.

b) teal + red color palette.

c) many of the same object.

d) balancing props.

 

as a result, im happy with this piece (even though its not perfect) and have a bit of confidence back - which is so so important. i think evaluating what you enjoy about your own work can be really helpful in staying satisfied.

 

model here again is cassie sue, who i have absolutely fallen in love with.

  

facebook | formspring | blog | client website

 

The first of my BR "B" series images shows that I hadnt quite got the hang of it yet, the loco minus its tender! However, the good condition of most of the locos seen at Paddington that day (5th.Sepember 1962) was good to see.

Another Juniper I hadnt photgraphed before. I shot this tree from several angles. I liked each one. I think there may still be a few I haven't

in the distance is the Green River. which Came all the way here from Wyoming.

IMGP2152 copy_pe

The weather hadn't quite cleared in time for the FL cans earlier seen passing Red Bank with 86612 leading 86622 - 4M83 Coatbridge - Crewe Basford Hall 13/07/19.

blergh. Dont like this. Slightly better here though

I wish all the hay bails around here hadnt been wrapped in black plastic. :/

I wish it wasnt so samey to my previous picture and I wish i wasnt so tired. :)

 

On the UP side i had a really great day with friends in manchester just wandering round the shops and sitting about and generally having a laugh. :)

 

im off to bed..and erm..its 8 o'clock haha.

Sorry that i didnt get a chance to reply to a couple of flickr mails, i dont hate you!! im just so shattered. <3 :):)

Just as the sun slipped behind Mt. Baden-Powell I snapped this picture. I had to hurry up and find a suitable foreground though that hadnt been destroyed by my exuberant puppy Quark. Its great to be able to have company while shooting, but he sure does love romping through freshly fallen snow! So anyways, I hope the composition is ok.

 

Two RAW files, one for definition in the sun and one for everything else blended together in CS5. Shot from the Pacific Crest Trail on Blue Ridge.

1/80 F14 20mm ISO:100

 

My buttercup meadow was ready today.

So was I.

  

Blooming Hell

the sparkle is just PURE luck!!! must admit that i just finished a 2nd lot of pix - but, i hadnt focused it to the max - so, all binned.... waiting for my battery to get back in shape, then i will try a new take on some more :)

Taken in September 2015 on a brisk autumn evening :) Wish the guy hadnt been moving on the left, but kind of adds to it to.

I think this catches her kind calmness.

 

She is turning out to be a great dog - fitting in really well. She is more polite and respectful to her humans than other dogs I have known but she does have a mischievous and playful side too. She is so intelligent and you can almost see her think as she works out what is going on and she loves learning tricks.

 

We adopted her in November. She is a 2 year old collie or collie cross found as a stray. She was thought to be not house trained so there wasnt interest in her. I think we (daughter Ellen) was the only person who expressed an interest and then fell instantly love with her gentleness when she met her.

 

I think it is actually plausible that she might have been put down if we hadnt taken her.

 

I Wanna Be Your Dog · The Stooges

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gsWt7ey6bo

   

the ground was still wet from the night before as i walked down the street at 6:30 in the morning. there werent many people up yet at that time, and i suspected that new yorkers get off bed later than we do in manila.

 

the cafe was a stop or two down the line using the subway, and a few minutes walk from the station. i didnt mind, what some people might see, as a seemingly unecessary commute, just to get some coffee. but this wasnt just any coffee, this was really good coffee.

 

1 double espresso and 2 cappuccinos later, the itch has been scratched, it was good coffee and i will have all the gall to say tha every cup was as good as the coffee i had in italy.

 

but i sat there, with empty postcards strewn across the little coffee table that i took trying my best to write something great.

 

but it was so hard.

 

my trip was coming to its end and i was afraid i hadnt done enough, it was almost sad. i didnt know what to tell those who i love at home, how great and ruthless the city was.

 

so sat back and took another sip from my coffee, take out my trusty camera, and shoot because that just felt like the right thing to do. i wanted to capture my trip in that one shot, because i didnt want to leave that one moment as i sat there thinking of how great an experience i just had in a city i may no longer revisit.

 

so, on that note, goodbye.

holiday sparkle {blogged}

I have played with christmas lights before in some of my photos, but i hadnt got a camera to get the bokeh style, i shall be doing another of a heart shape soon i think!

Hadnt sketched for a week and was suddenly free and in the mood for doing something different. Found a feather in the garden ( a mite floppy!) and set to. On mid grey Seawhite of Brighton grey A4 card using watersoluble coloured pencls and watersoluble crayons ( all used without water, as they're super creamy) Had intened only drawing the tulips but just carried on and added and added. Enjoyed it

A classic location but somewhere I hadnt been for two or three years, Birkett Common. 66106, complete with 'Highland Explorer' headboard heads north with driver Andrew Griffiths in charge forming the 6S00 Clitheroe to Mossend cement. Spanking clean wagons as well sets this picture off nicely. 7/8/17

i bought a 200 acre farmstead in southern virgina several years back.the property had been basically abandoned for 20 years and the

locals had grown very accustomed to regarding it as their own hunting

ground. we bought the property in oct/nov'ish, which is the begining

of deer hunting season in those parts (the creep of southernism

in my speech will become readily apparent, bear with). so the first

several weekends, i would take my father up there to make a clearing

to put up a storage shed and build up my smithy forge. we put up no

trespassing signs and chains across the road, but they would be torn

down and cut when we arrived. it was clear we werent going to be

entirely welcome. .

  

One weekend my dad stopped at a pawn shop on the drive up, saying he

wanted to look at something. 10 minutes later he came out with 2

Chinese semi-auto assault rifles and 1000 rounds of high velocity

ammo.

 

'Ummm....' i said, 'not a good idea'

 

"We have to be prepared. Things might get hairy."

 

"Sure, but you know how to fire one of those?"

 

"pretty sure"

 

"nice....just put em in the trunk and forget about them dad.'

 

so when we arrive the signs are down and the chains cut and dad is

freaking out that the locals arent showing us respect. i sigh, roll

eyes, and start a fire to make some coffee. now in virginia they use

dogs to hunt. the deer are flushed out into open fields by baying

hounds and beagles where the lazy hunters sits on his truck or ATV and

pops off shots at them. as we start drinking coffee, a pack of dogs

tears thru our campsite and we see a deer pull out of a grove about

100 feet to our left and tear across 40 feet ahead of us into a broom

straw pasture. shotguns erupted from an opposing treeline about 100

feet to our right. 8,9, maybe 10 shots fired, tangentially in front of us. dad runs back to the car, pulls an assault rifle from the

trunk, loads up a 50 round clip, and marches past me towards the

treeline of hunters.

 

'whoa! what the fuck do you think you are doing?!'

 

'im gonna teach those bastards some respect!!'

 

'put the gun down, dad. you arent going anywhere with that.

just settle down.'

 

'just relax son, i'll take care of this, i'm not afraid.'

 

'hahaha, im certainly not afraid of them either. but...they know we

are here. they are just trying to rattle us - and apparently it worked

on you. now look, this is the big picture here. there are probably 4

or 5 locals in that treeline, they can probably see you right now,

they have probably been hunting here since they were children, they

know this land, they know the local sheriff, they dont know you. you

go charging in there and they might even drop you and not a word would

be said about it. you were in the army like 30 years ago, you read

soldier of fortune magazine on the toilet - this doth not a commando

maketh. just settle down, gimme the rifle and go load up the

other one.'

 

reluctantly he gave me the gun. i took it over behind a huge 4 foot

diameter fallen oak out of the sight line of the hunters, left it

there, and returned to my coffee. ten minutes later, another deer

flushed out and another volley erupted from the treeline. dad gave me

a withering look of contempt as if he was digusted for siring such a

spineless son. i smirked back and said 'breathe....its ok. trust me.'

i went over to the oak and the rifle, put down my coffee, and squeezed

off all 50 rounds in rapid fire. CRACK CRACK CRACK... an assault rifle

is a loud impressive beast, i must admit. a minute later we heard a

jeep and an atv drive off from the treeline. i went back to the fire,

finished my coffee and asked dad to get the other rifle and go get

down by the oak.

 

'what?'

 

'trust me...serious. you have about 2 minutes.'

 

as he got the gun and walked over to the tree, we saw a convoy of 6

trucks and jeeps and atvs barrelling down our drive road (about a mile

long).

 

'dad, please just stay put behind that tree, dont let them see where

you are, unless, obviously things get 'hairy', then call the cops on

your cell and handle things. but remember even if you shoot in

self-defense, you are going to jail, and its their jail."

 

"what the hell? what are you going to do??'

 

'no big, we are going to have a little chat. no worries'

 

a minute later, the six vehicles pull up around in a semi circle and

like 15 hunters get out, some with their shotguns, others without, but

certainly packing a pistol or something. this huge older thick headed

lout with a stereotypical chunck of chewing 'bacca in his lip and a

grimy blaze orange padded jacket was standing in front, looked around

at our campsite and snorted with complete contempt.

 

'boy, who the fuck is shooting machine guns around here?!' he says

walking over at me.

 

i just sat there on a log drinking my coffee looking at him.

 

'you deef boy? we was up yonder (swear to god they use 'yonder', go

figure!) and some dumbfucker starting shooting automatic machine guns

at us. waddat you?'

 

i lit a cigarette and just stared at him for another 10 seconds or so.

(honestly i couldnt tell if i was in way over my head, but i

knew if we showed weakness the whole adventure of living up there

would become some fuct hatfield-mccoy OK corral deliverance hillbilly

nightmare)

 

'this is my land now - and that is my gun. and dont call me boy.'

 

'now look here, we are out here hunting and you are gonna hit somebody

shooting like that. so you need to settle down...boooooyyyy. we'been

hunting here for over 20 years and the season just started. we'll tell

y'all when you its safe for you to come back here and play or whatever

the hell you california boys do back here (the realtor must have

filled the locals in on our situation).

 

cigarette drag. stare.

 

'you got me, boy?'

 

'no, boyyyy. here is the deal. this is my land now - and you are

fucking trespassing. i fired those shots, not at your boys, but into

the ground, because i know there is nothing a hunter hates more than

to think there is an asshole out there in the trees with an assault

rifle. i knew it would get your attention. now i am going to live

here. i am clearing off this land to build a home and eventually build

a business. i am gonna raise a family here. i believe in good

neighbors. i am gonna be a good neighbors. but y'all have started this

out ugly by vandalizing my signs, cutting my chains, trespassing to

hunt, which can land your ass in state prison for a couple months. so

short of you making some jack ass move and trying to shoot me right

here which i can tell you would be a very bad ideat, we can sit down

and work out some sort arrangement that will make us good neighbors.

so what do you want? you want to fight or figure it out?'

 

(snort) 'youre fucking crazy!'

 

'no. just very determined to makes sure everybody walks outta here and

that this little bullshit harrasment stops today. so what do you

want?'

 

'check this california boy out. who does he think he is'

 

'look, i already called the game warden this morning before i came up

here. real nice guy (one mongoloid in the back guffawed and said 'he's

a fucker.) he was very obliging and told me all about your state

hunting laws and the serious penalties for trespassing and he even

mentioned that he might be stopping by today to say hello. and last

week i spoke with the county magistrate (DA to them), also a real nice

guy, looks like we are going to be going to the same church (i had

stopped in at the beautiful 200 year old episcopal church on a

previous trip to meet the rector and meet some of the folks - never

especially religious, but i knew enough of small towns to know that

the church is where you socialize and get your social ranking), happy

to see some new faces coming to the county. he told me all about the

history of this part of the county and this property. in fact, he said

if i had any problems to give him a call and he'd give me a hand. so

you and your boys aint got much to stand on right now. you keep up

this hunting and the game warden is gonna revoke your licenses at best

and toss you in jail at the worst, especially if your poachin' was

done in a coercive threating manner, and im sure the magistrate

wouldnt mind a bit drawing up the cases."

 

'ha, the sheriff is my brother in law,' the lout says.

 

'cool, roll the dice, see what your brother in law will do for you. or

you put your guns back in your trucks and lets work this out.'

 

'what'chu got in mind?'

 

'ok, i accept that y'all have been hunting here since sheriff shappard

died because there was no one to say no, and we all know there isnt

another plot of property with an open 100 acres of clear shooting this

far back off the road for 20 or so miles. so i dont feel right just

telling you boys that you cant hunt here anymore. so you can hunt

here.'

 

'well thats good, glad youre talking some sense.'

 

'so you can hunt here for the rest of the season...but next season you

can only hunt the front half of the property and the following year

only the front quarter of the land. you get three more years you can

hunt here, after those three years i should have a home built here and

we can discuss if any of you wants to buy permission to hunt that

front quarter. three years free is a good deal.'

 

'not really...'

 

'its better than the alternative. but here's your catch. only you and

your hunt club are allowed to hunt here. no one else. understand?'

 

'thats not much of a catch, why would we want to share it?'

 

'the catch is that you are responsible for making sure no one hunts

here, no one vandalizes my gear that i store here, no one messes with

my signs. if anybody hunts and vandalizes this property, then all bets

are off and you can go ask the hunt club down 'yonder!' if you can

hunt with them - i'm sure they wouldnt mind .

 

long story short, they agreed, we agreed. no more problems with

vandals and such. in fact, they actually called the sheriff on some

boys from another county who had come over during the week to hunt.

and they made sure we knew they had done so. after two years a 300

acre property a mile or so down the road was bought by a timberer and

clear cut. after the trees and shrub growth starting coming back after

a year it was perfect for deer hunting and the timberer had no

objections to the locals hunting there, so it wasnt a problem not

hunting at our place. it was never warm and fuzzy with the locals up

there, but they did respect our property. we never had anymore problems with

them.

 

damn, i hadnt thought about that story for years now.

 

Green Winged Teal

Well friends, its the last day of the year and I had an absolutely unbelievable experience today with one of my bucket list ducks - the Green Winged Teal. This particular bird has been reported locally for a couple weeks now but I hadnt had the time to go chase him. I figured after the cold front came thru, it would have blew him out of the area, but I had some time this morning and I went after it. When I got to the park he's been reported, there was a SINGLE waterfowl of any kind on the lake. Theres ALWAYS mallards and cobra chickens but nothing. I walked all the way around the lake, looking for anything nope. I stood on a bridge that crosses part of it and said to myself, well this stinks. Almost immediately, this drake just dropped in from the sky and landed right in the lake! I couldn't believe it! He was kinda far out but as I was ripping the backpack open to get my camera out, he swam straight over to me. It was bizarre. Usually they see my look at them and they take off, but not this guy. As I moved around trying to get as low as possible, i ended up on the ground next to the bridge at the edge of the lake, and he swam right up to me. So close I could have caught him close. My cameras wouldn't even focus on him with the long lens he was so close!! As I laid there and watched, he seemed to be begging, sine this area does have feeders around. A family came by a little bit later and started to feed the Geese that eventually showed up, and he swam around them eating the pellets they missed. As much as I dont want him to get used to being fed, it would be pretty cool if he hung around long enough to finish his molt into full plumage. I will be following him to see if he keeps changing, and will 100% have to come back. But we'll end the year of birds photographs on a high note with this...my absolute best shot of a green winged teal.

its my sister. i really like this photo because of the colours. they are a bit cold and between very colourfull and black&white.

but anyway, my friend sophia tagged me. first i had no clue what tagging was, but she had it on her page too and it looks really awesome, so here are coming 16 random things about me.

 

1. i think im going to start with the fact that i am a diabetic. it means that i have diabetes, which contains that my body has stoped making insuline. everytime i eat something, i have to inject myself. i have diabetes since i was 6 years old, tomorrow exactly 8 years ago. it effects my life very much, but i can live with it.

2. since i was about 12, i feel like i dont belong here. i want to move to new york when i have finished my school, to study at the new york university. after im finished with that, i think im going to stay there, or move to my favourite city of europe, london.

3. i have a huge shopping addiction. untill last year, we hadnt had that much money to spend, but then my dad started to earn a lot of money, so now i shop A LOT. i started to create my own style. now, i get a lot of compliments of how i look. people say my way of dressing is different, but cool. at one side,i don't really see why its different. i buy my clothes at places all people go to, like H&M, Zara and Bershka. but at the other side, i combinate things in a really weird way. i guess that makes it different :)

4. besides a shoppingaddiction, i have a lot of other addictions. my other addiction is the city london. the mood there is so much different than you find here. people there are so cool and nice, youve got the best shopping places ever in that city. the places i visit everytime when im there are camden, oxford circus and the streets near covent garden. camden is a market that is only open on sunday, and you find so much different things there. for exemple, there are a lot of ghots, and punkerpeople you see nowhere else. you have all those stalls with vintage jewelry, paintings people made by themselves, and ofcourse the gothicstuff. I like oxford circus so much because you have a big big nikeshop there, and my favourite shop in london, the topshop. its compearable to H&M. its so incredibly huge, its overwelming.

5. i really like biographic movies. i dont care if theyre about people i know or people i dont know. especially the ones about popstars from the 20th century, like the rolling stones, the beatles and that kind of stuff. im really interested about they who had a really short, incredible but miserable life, like john lennon, or brain jones. when i'm bored and im at the computer, i also go a lot at wikipedia and search at that kind of stories. the most impressive i saw till now, was the 3disc-documantairy about the beatles; a long and winding road.

6. im very insecure about school. everytime i have the intention to work hard at my homework and stuff, but i dont do it. still i get very good grades, and that doesnt support me to work harder. next year i think im going to 4vwo, but im really afraid that im going to fail. not much people know that.

7. i like playing guitar hero and im really good at it :)

8. i suck at sport. i really do.

9. my sister is autistic. you won't notice if you don't know it, shes not retarted or something. in fact, she's really normal. and i do really love her.

10. i look older than i am.

11. we have 7 guinia pigs. one is my favourite, the chubs one. she's called vlekje, which mean something like spot in english. i have a special band with her.

12. my curly hair is not from myself. well, it is a bit. i've got a bit curls, but i hate spending much time to put them in model, so i got a permanent.

13. i hate winter. i dont like sweaters, or winterjackets, or being dressed warm. i like the summer, because its the time of year that its my birthday, that i usually go to london, and ofcourse, its warm! i like walking around in a shirt without a jacket :). and i like buying a lot of sunglasses hihi.

14. when i'm grown up, i want everyone to know my name. i dont wanna be a popstar or moviestar or something like that, but i want to mean something to the world.

15. i'm a nightperson. at day i can be really tired but when it gets evening im really alive. that's not very handy at schoolnights :(

16. i really love to cook. bake a cake, make a pie or cook dinner, i love it all.

 

sorry if my english isn't really good, i'm following english class for only 3 years now.

A image i hadnt planned to go out and shoot today,in fact i liked it soo much it become my favourite of the day in the end, id love to heat all your comments and thoughts and always appreciated

 

Taken with Lee Big Stopper and 0.9 Hard Grad

Watched the snow coming down most of the day. About two it started to clear a little. So we headed to my old school for a white picture. They dont plow the road for about the last quartet mile. Although today even the county road hadnt been plowed. I may not get many photos from there this winter.

sooc as the sun is shining and I cant be arsed to process. This is because Adrian said he hadnt seen a pic of me smiling so far in year 3. So this one's for you Adrian!

 

..and this is possibly the reason i don't grin it up for sps!

Aith near Aith Voe, Shetland. Was becoming a bogey for me, I'd seen one before but hadnt managed a picture, and the previous day had tried twice for one without success. This one was also looking a lost cause, hiding away in long grass, till another birder inadvertantly flushed it and it went up on the wires. A siberian vagrant equivalent to our Tree Pipit.

Larger

 

Im not too sure about this one. Wasnt going to upload it but I decided to in the end. The clouds were great. I suppose you had to be there.

 

Taken early morning when the sun hadnt come over the mountains to the left yet.

...and wants out to play. mwahahahaaaa!

 

Kind of inspired by the poster for the film 'Orphan' but gave it my own lighting twist. Anyway, I had fun doing it..and i hadnt used 'wall' for ages and ages and it was beginning to feel like it had done something wrong. Have a fab weekend all!

 

View On Black

Old Pics That hadnt been posted due to lack of time. Ill try to post some of the stuff I have.

Cat scones.

At christmas, Zooplus sent customers dog and cat cookie cutters. Thought I'd try cat cheese scones - pumpkin seed eyes, mushroom nose, celery mouth and cheese and paprika stripes.

Needs a bit of work, but would probably work better as flat cookies in future, I hadnt bargained on what would happen to the faces as the scones rose....🙀 😹

After seeing Neet, Jennie & Markos shots from the weekend at this wizmycal location i was talking to Neet about my trip there a while back with Claire and had mentioned i took a few IR Shots with my cheapo Sony P93 Cybershot compact that was converted full time to 630nM. She said she hadnt seen the shot i mentioned on Flickr which made me realise i had only ever put it on Facebook. So, i thought i'd upload it :D I had originally meant to take shots with my D5000 and Hoya R72 but the weather was rubbish by the time we got there so i just snapped away with the P93 which is so much less hassle :)

 

Claire had never been before and had one of those looks when i told her we'de be climbing up the 'rock face' like steps nearest to the Once Brewed YMCA Hostel :D We stopped under the tree and had a lovely little picnic while all manner of Nationalities passed us on their rambles. There were even walkers with babies on their backs scaling the steps! :)

Anyway as we left to walk around the side route this time :) i took this shot of the Sycamore tree made famous in the Robin Hood movie. Ive only been here twice, the first time was in pitch black with Dru & Mick for some failed astro shooting thanks to clouds and -4 temps fogging our lenses! I would love to carry on the walk to Vindelanda and the other spots along the wall in the future :)

i dreamt of this scene last night.

 

im really glad that my little brother likes photography too, cause he makes a lovely model. a couple of nights ago, he saw my moms point and shoot, picked it up and said "lets take pictures. it has to be beautiful, and it has to have you in it. go stand over there *points to my moms bed* and hold this leaf." i should post the pictures lol.

 

that desk (i dont even know why, but we have had it since i was a little kid) was surprisingly heavy to drag around... and usually my road is not busy at all but of course the one day i decide to set up a scene in the street, everyone feels the need to be driving all around. however, i hadnt thought of putting the headlights in the back and i kind of like that touch so im a little thankful for todays traffic.

 

for some reason ive had a big urge lately to use children as models. although i feel like no one likes my pictures when they are not of young pretty girls... but ya know what, i dont care. ;) i want to go past that. some concepts can be changed so much just by reaching out and using a different type of model. ive had a shoot planned with an older woman for some time now too, and i cant wait to create that piece.

 

blog | website | formspring | facebook

 

p.s. im getting really sick of snow. spring please? i want flowers and green and yellow and warmth and a whole array of other things that winter is lacking.

Realised I hadnt shared progress on this, so, here y'all go -

Needed a little Barred owl fix..hadnt been to see him since fall. He didnt co-operate much for shots, but treat to watch him!

So happy ! More than 2 years that I hadnt seen this kind of Warbler, and last week I saw a small bird on the top of a tree just over my head, I could only take one photo, and ... it was a swift warbler !

 

(DSC04155_DxO-TIFF_2-4-1800Nf)

Styling details at fashioncollecker.com/2018/02/09/in-case-you-hadnt-noticed/

This hasnt been a good year for me but luckily its ending.. I just hope next year will be better and not worse

 

I was looking at my old P&S SOOC pics and found this one.. I thought it was a pretty one to edit so i did :)

"...I never would have seen the trouble that I'm in

If it hadn't been for love

I would have been gone like a wayward wind

If it hadn't been for love

Nobody knows it better than me

I wouldn't be wishing I was free

If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love...."

 

IF IT HADNT BEEN, IF IT HADNT BEEN FOR LOVE...

  

Photo : Amy

Vlog : youtu.be/T-3b82YkdJ0

  

A final few hours to kill before getting the last flight back to Aberdeen and I headed to a damp St Ninian Isle. TBH I hadnt been expecting much from Shetland , mainly due to my misconception that its landscapes were bleak, treeless,windswept moors - how wrong was I! As I made my way to the Isle a report came on the radio to ay Shetland had been voted the 6th best location to visit by lonely planet! After last night trip to The Lang Ayre and today's trip to St Ninians, I can see why - what a stunning landscape and definitely somewhere I I'll visit again (with more time!)

Going through some old photos and found this that hadnt been touched!

After a long week, I finally got out and was able to see one of my old favorites, Elowah Falls. I hadnt been there since november of 2009! Never again! View large size or "orig" size.

Flickr compression is lame.

Taken early last week, before it got to cold for me to go for morning walks to far afield from the office, I hadnt been to this spot, was walking along and noticed footprints leadign off the main track up a little embankment so decided to check it out and this is the view I got

much of 2023 was spent in my head. it's not a vacation destination I would recommend.

 

what felt like a self indulgent retreat gradually turned into a sabbatical.

 

forward, you see, was hazy and frantic and if you've ever seen those NASA experiments where they gave spiders drugs,.... i felt like the poor spider that got the caffeine. all the others seemed to have a pretty great time.

 

I wound up going through terabytes of old photos. 12 years worth.

 

the separation of time is a wonderful thing. while you do get the nostalgic cuddles that you came for,.... you also start seeing patterns.

 

there were certain themes that I kept shooting, borders that I would get close to but shy away from at the last minute. once in a while i would cross and explore tentatively, but when it came time to share, they stayed locked away in drive c or d or some other generically labelled folder.

 

my mistake was trying to write the artist's statement before actually doing the work. perhaps I thought that direction would provide direction, how silly of me.

 

it's like planning a trip using google maps. sure you can plot things out, down to the minute, but once your boots hit the ground, you see that google maps forgot to mention that despite it being a straight line to get from A to B, there's also a fucking bog in the way.

 

Pouring over old work has been cathartic and more importantly eye opening. Those borders I would peek into once in a while, the ones I was uncomfortable crossing for too long ... that's where the magic is. I think. Maybe.

 

Got my passport and a good pair of shoes and went over about 6 months ago. The tourist honeymoon phase is over and I still dont want to go home.

 

Going into the past and living there for a while gave my brain the much needed pause. Byung-chul Han and his boredom being the ultimate relaxation for the brain. It reset things and the patterns became clear.

 

Going back also resulted in me picking up my film cameras and falling love again with the ground glass after years of LCD screens. And realizing that yeah film is pricey, but if you know what you're shooting, it's not that bad. I can skip a couple of lunches. That would make my doctor happy.

 

Going back and what I'm working on now also means Flickr is probably the best place for it.

 

Writing this, here, again, once more, it's so nice. I wish I hadnt wasted years chasing price.

 

As usual I could be wrong and change my mind after I hit the upload button but fuckit, atleast it'll be fun so let's go fuck around and find out. :)

Mulleys new additions. Obviously from ruffles coaches! If those that hadnt heard they went bust this year and buses and coaches were auctioned off. This pair are dennis berkofs. They will eventually be sprayed into fleet livery.

7 I couldnt bond with Bonnie!! But I couldnt just sell her because I had overspent on her blank face, no one wanted her for that price. I am not one to undersell myself quickly. I also thought I wouldnt bring another boy in for Teddy, but I accidently put the hoodie on the Bonnie and saw a very young boy. I remmeber seeing a boy in the sculpt when I first got the plate but hadnt given much thought after that.

A few weekends ago I went down to the Quayside and the lower end of town to do some architectural long exposures and finally got around to visiting 55 Degrees North, somewhere ive had my mind on for a while now. Upon arriving I couldnt believe that theyve just painted the curved wall which had been bright pink to dark blue which was a bit disappointing as I had wanted some colour shots also.

I took many shots but as usual as soon as we got there the cloud stopped flowing :/ Eventually a few small clouds started passing by which was ideal so I dived into position and captured this shot. The clouds werent quite right in the end shots so I used a different sky as in my last shot.

If theres one thing we cant control its the weather and Claire always laughs at me when I say 'its too sunny/too cloudy/too dull' etc etc.

 

Tech Info...

 

Sony a7ii

Canon 17-40 f4L

Commlite EF - E mount adapter

144 seconds

f9

17mm

ISO 100

 

Filters...

 

Formatt Firecrest ND4.8 (16 Stop)

 

Processing Info...

 

I started off by importing the RAW file into Adobe Camera Raw where I made basic lens corrections to remove green and purple fringing which the 17-40 seems to suffer badly from.

Next I imported the file into PS CS6 where I began to make some selections of the various sections in the shot.

I tidied them up in Quick Mask mode and once I was happy with them I then began to open each section of the shot in Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert them into mono.

At this point I began to make targeted adjustments to each area separately using Luminosity masks and curves layers. It became clear that the sky just didnt compliment the image so I cut the sky from my Sage shot taken back in January and pasted it in and as it happens it was perfect after some resizing.

I wanted to create a look where the light fell down on to the RH wall so I made a new lighter curves layer then used Joel Tjintjelaars iSGM method to gradually mask the effect so that the outer areas on the wall were darker with light falling in line with the cloud.

At this point I hadnt been accurate in some of my work so had to do some cloning between the wall and the edge of the white window areas.

Once I had these areas fixed I concentrated on sorting out the inevitable halos between each area using the clone tool and hard brush at 400%. I felt that the overall image had too much dead space on the right so cropped the image to what it is now.

I did some light sharpening on the white area then once I was happy I used the Transform Warp tool to straighten the lower edge of the building. Its important to do this near the end as it messes up the selections I created or maybe I should start doing this first, yes in future I will do it at the beginning!

 

Thanks for looking :)

 

this lil monkey clearly wanted attention since she popped her foot off after i hadnt touched her in like a month. now shes sitting next to me and i have an etsy cart full of clothes for her *-*

With a sunny day on the horizon and a last minute work decision that put me close to the border, the choice was made to make a short trip to Ohio to see what was running since it was a actual sunny day in 2017 (and there hadnt been many yet). After shooting a S388-15 with a CSX GP40-2 leading outside of town, we heard K445-15 coming into town to head into the west siding in Deshler on the Toledo Sub. CN C40-8M 2446 and CN ES44DC 2228 came around the corner with their loaded ethanol train for Lawrenceville, GA. This train originated on the CN in Iowa and was handed off in Chicago to the CSX via the BRC at Clearing Yard. The 81 car train (1 buffer-80 loads) ended up pulling into the siding at 1300 and not leaving until 1645 after waiting on congestion and spacing at Lima. K446-10, S342-15, and Q272-14 would all come north as well as Q241-14 around them before proceeding south in some good cloud action. The signals and leader were enough to at least enjoy the hobby for what it is these days.

The Majorelle gardens reflecting on a fish. last time we visited le jardin majorelle was 4 years ago and the instagram brigade hadnt fully found it. When we visited this time that was not the case. all you heard in various langyages was get a photo of me here, now get a photo of me there. So many people in one of the most beautiful gardens totally oblivious to the beauty of their surroundings and 100% wrapped in proving theyd been there.

After a while i got bored of the vain brigade and sat in the shade watching the fish that merrily swam around just living in the moment. How beautiful it must be, to be, a fish not worrying about how many likes youll get on social media. At that moment i sided with the fish but i thought id give it a taste of what its like to to be one of the instagram brigade. By the look on its face i dont think it was too impressed.

i took this a good while back and hadnt posted it because i had already posted similar shots.the only difference is the stance of the deer.i like the fact he is looking out at his environment.