The Ephemeral Moment

Breckenbrough 7th March 2010

Steve — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:59:42 +0000

Swing

Another quiet day at work, so I decided to wander around the grounds with my Sigma 105mm Macro attached to the camera. I took a boy wandering around to show him you can take photographs anywhere and there is always something interesting to take photos of. I also took another photograph of the piece of land jutting into the pond as the pond was covered in ice and I wanted to see if there was much of a difference.

The chains are from the swings we have in the grounds and the hula in the tree I had never noticed before. The grounds are starting to look nice again after the bleakness of winter, snowdrops are out in force and the other flowers should be coming up soon.

Some of these photos will be going up on the school’s website later tomorrow night, with some of the photos I’ve not used on here.

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Breckenbrough 5th March 2010

Steve — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:53:36 +0000

Fence

I was trying to take some photographs of geese in a distant field at work, but as usual had sabotaged myself in that I forgot to bring my quick release plate for my tripod. So as it was getting late all the long shots of the geese were extremely shaky – though I am beginning to think that the lens is also a bit soft at its extremes.

So rather than waste a nice evening I explored for a few shots around the grounds – these are what I got – mainly converted to greyscale, but I do like the one of the suns reflection on the pond and that may be the entry for this months forum competition at Amateur Photographer, which is about Darkness and Light.

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South Gare 22nd Feb 2010

Steve — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:54:22 +0000

APOY Entry Feb 2010

Today I went to South Gare near Redcar, behind Corus Steelworks that’s being mothballed (i.e. shut down). This is a place called Paddy’s Hole, with a smal harbour leading out to the mouth of the Tees. I went there a year or so ago on Christmas Eve for a walk and it was a really cold, windy day and we decided to go home. I’ve been meaning to return for ages.

One of my personal (not New Year) resolutions was to get out and take more photographs, and this was the first day of this resolution. I was also looking to take a photograph for this months Amateur Photographer of the Year competition which is ‘Islands in the Stream’, where land and water meet, and I thought I would get a few photographs from here to illustrate this.

The gallery below holds some of my favourites from the couple of hours I had there – I’m pretty certain that the main photograph is going to be the entry but I do like the one with the telly, which is similar to one I took over a year ago at the same place.

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AP Forum Competition – February

Steve — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:31:11 +0000

Druridge Street

February – “On the street” – pictures on tarmac

Take to the street to see the movement, the bustle and life on the outside. Stand back and observe humans out of their burrows, and the places they go and the way they behave. It can be funny or sad, show a sense of community or an impersonal inward-looking existence.

This isn’t a photo that I had taken specifically for the competition, but it was taken in January of this year at Druridge Bay, I really liked the old guy on an electric push bike with his dog running alongside him.

I will be trying to produce work specifically to the brief each month, alongside producing work for the APOY 2010 competition. It will be the first year I’ve tried to do this but it should be worth it. I hope.

Steve

Aysgarth Falls 13th Feb 2010

Steve — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:10:43 +0000

Orange Falls

We went to Aysgarth Falls today, this initial plan was to go to just outside West Witton and walk to the old Knights Templar Preceptory that was in the woods but we missed all the parking spaces – I wanted to have a look at the old preceptory as part of the abandoned project. We have found a place to park that is relatively close for the next time we go.

So we stopped at Aysgarth Falls for a little stroll, I was carrying the Panasonic LX3 as I was only on checking the site out for a closer look later, but it was just right for the area. The tree root systems at the Upper Falls are extremely graphic, especially with the moss on them. I also found another floral tribute in the roots of a tree at the Upper Falls, again part of another project ‘Memento Mori‘.

Will go again soon to that area to have a look as there is a lot of old walls and buildings in the area.

Steve

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APOY 2009 entries

Steve — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:56:19 +0000

May entry

These are the photographs that I entered for the Amateur Photographer of the Year Competition 2009, I only entered four as other things intruded on my planned photography.

The shot of the leaves of the Japanese Maple was taken in our back yard during an early spring shower, the droplets on the red looked really nice and seemed to magnify the colour of the leaves.

The portrait of the Pizza Man is from the Durham covered market, he was watching us approach and I had my camera in hand and he exclaimed, “I’m going to be famous” whilst gesticulating and I caught him in the process.

The footbridge is a new footbridge (to me) in Edinburgh from the St James Centre to the base of Carlton Hill, just everything seemed curved which was emphasised by using a wide-angled lens.

The shot of the group of friends was a lucky chance shot waiting for someone, the configuration happened just before we went home, I liked the vertical boy and everyone else gradually leaning into him.

This year I’m hoping to produce new photographs for each of the rounds and I’m in the process of planning this months (February 2010) shot already.

Steve

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Whitby Goth Festival Oct 2009

Steve — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:45:11 +0000

Masque

I went to the Whitby Goth Festival again this year and was slightly more comfortable than I felt last year though the feeling of being part of a predatory species wasn’t lessened as there seemed to be more photographers than Goths. To get round this I used my new EOS500 with a single lens (Sigma 105mm macro) for the whole day and composed everything through that. It meant I wasn’t laden down with equipment and felt less intrusive than last year with the monopod and such.

The other good thing about using a prime lens is that I had to go to the shots rather than searching through the range on my bigger zoom, this did limit some ideas I had but was good fun and a great exercise for the day.

Will go again in the Spring for the Spring Goth Festival and try even harder then, building my confidence with each visit.

This first gallery is mainly based around the Goth festival though I still have more to put up, I do have some more traditional Whitby shots which I will get up as soon as possible.

Steve

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Fountains Abbey 14th April 2006

Steve — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:56:16 +0000

Statues

These shots were taken in one of our other favourite places for a wander, Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. This was the first time I had gone there with the Canon EOS 350D. Again most of the shots were shaky as I was using the longest lens I had at all times without good light or adequate support (this will become a very, very common theme).

The main shot is of the statuary above the door of the hall at the side entrance to the grounds, I think rooms can be rented out in it. It looks like an Elizabethan hall, but I’m not entirely sure about that, never really looked into it.

The rest are from around the grounds of the Abbey.

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Scarborough 2nd March 2006

Steve — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 11:45:05 +0000

Harbour Wall

Another freezing day in Scarborough out of season, it was really nithering and I was quite preoccupied taking photographs not noticing Shanna wasn’t enjoying the cold as much as I was – I won’t post those photos…

The light on in the East Coast bays in the winter is always lovely, especially late on.

I still have a problem with camera shake and didn’t have a tripod at the time, so a lot of the shots from today were very shaky and unusable (and indecipherable).

Whitby 18th Feb 2006

Steve — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 10:35:48 +0000

Early Sunset

This was from one of our regular trips to Whitby which has come way too crowded so late winter, early spring visits are usually the best – I heard somewhere that Whitby is one of the few places on the east coast where in winter the sun rises and sets over the harbour due to the slight northward pointing of the harbour mouth.

These two are a sample from the rest of the photographs – most of these initial galleries will be like this – eventually I will work through the archives again and again until all the photographs have been processed. Either up on the site or binned as they are too shaky or have some other fault I don’t like.

I love the colours in the second sunset, though the first sunset is warm as well.

Steve

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