Lunar Eclipse on the Winter Solstice ~21st December 2010

I was up before the sun yesterday morning - watching the first lunar eclipse on the winter solstice since 1638 (372 years!).

I used my Sigma 175-500mm lens, but hadn't bargained on the effect the minus temperature would have on its capacity to focus. The first shot I took, before the full eclipse had happened, was the best of the bunch as the others were too soft.

Bit of a shame, but at least I saw it. There are some fantastic photographs of the moon looking red and spectacular taken by other people here.

Here is my attempt - click on it for a large version - it looks better that way!

My flickr

Roche Rock and the Legend of Jan Tregeagle

The weather has been quite dramatic in Cornwall in the last week or so. Flash floods in St Austell caused chaos for some who had to be rescued from their homes and there was talk that the beautiful 14th Century bridge in Lostwithiel would collapse.

I noticed that the sunsets had been quite dramatic so went out to Roche Rock last night to see whether I could get any nice silhouette shots of St Michael's chapel. Sadly the position of the sunset scuppered the shot I had in mind, so I settled for shooting the kids sitting on a nearby rock with the sunset instead.

Click on photographs for larger size:

Then I shot the Chapel in "blue hour".

Click on the photograph to read the legend about the ghost of Jan Tregeagle.

My flickr

Sparrows

I went to a fantastic talk at St Austell Camera Club the other day. Sue Earnshaw showed us some amazing wildlife photographs taken all over the world, but also shots of the birds in her garden which she practises her skills on.

I felt inspired and since I enjoy sitting on my window sill and watching the world go by, having a camera in my hand seemed the natural progression.

These sparrows live in my roof, so they are always about.

Click on the photographs to view large versions.

My flickr

Eden

Went on a camera club outing to The Eden Project a few weeks ago (I've been a bit slack with the blog of late). I loved the dahlias, which were in full bloom:

(click on the image for large version)

as were the Verbena:

This little fella came to say hello:

I also snapped fellow club member Dan, who prefers polaroid to digital photography, while he wasn't looking. I enjoyed the old vs new technology in this shot:

You can see his photography here.

My flickr

Candid Kids

Went to a BBQ the other day and chased the kids round the garden with my camera. Was reasonably pleased with the results. Click on the photo for the large versions - they look better that way.

My flickr

Strobist Experiments

Inspired by a rainy day and an excess of garlic, I thought I would experiment with off camera flash.

I used two strobes, one fired into a white umbrella to the right on 1/4 power, another bounced on the ceiling above set to 1/2 power. I tried to balance the flash with the natural light coming in from the window to the left.

I then did a spot of dodge/burn in photoshop. Here are the results - which look much better in a larger size - click on the image for a larger version.

My Flickr

The Legend of the Cheesewring, Bodmin Moor

I went back to Minions a few days ago, to show some friends how beautiful the landscape is around Bodmin Moor.

I climbed up to the Cheesewring and tried to make the most of the dramatic lighting conditions... because the light was bright with a lot of cloud the light was very patchy - and didn't always light up the bits I wanted it to!

View larger versions on flickr

The Cheesewring is a granite tor in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the eastern flank of Bodmin Moor.

The Cheeswring is a natural geological formation, a rock outcrop of granite slabs formed by weathering. It gets its name because the piled slabs look like a "cheesewring", a press-like device that was used to make cheese.

A local legend about this rock formation is the result of a contest between a man and a giant. When Christianity had just been introduced to the British Islands, the giants who lived at the top of the mountains were not happy about it. The Saints had invaded their land and were declaring their wells as sacred.

One of the larger giants, Uther, was given the task of ridding their land of the Saints. He confronted the frail St Tue, who proposed a rock throwing contest. If Uther won, the Saints would leave Cornwall. If St. Tue won, then the giants would convert to Christianity.

Uther took his turn first and easily threw a small rock to the top of nearby Stowe's Hill. St Tue prayed for assistance, and picking up a huge slab found it was very light. One after the other, they threw their rocks, stacking them up in perfect piles. When the score was 12 stones each, Uther threw a thirteenth stone, but it rolled down the hill. St Tue picked up this fallen stone, and as he lifted it, an angel appeared to carry it to the top of the pile of rocks. Seeing this, Uther conceded and most of the giants decided to follow Christianity after that.

Thanks Wikipedia

My flickr page

Monochrome

I have been playing around with monochrome images lately and thought it was about time I posted some of them here.

Click on image for a larger version

To Touch the Clouds

Taken at Hells Mouth, Cornwall, a notorious suicide spot.

Just Like Old Times...

Seine Net Fishing at Hemmick Beach, Cornwall

My Flickr

The Pirates of St Piran - Photo Shoot

I was asked to take some publicity shots for The Pirates of St Piran, an 18th Century Cornish pirate re-enactment group that do lots of fantastic charity work in and around Cornwall.

The shots were taken on the deck of the Kaskelot, a square rigger that lives in Charlestown harbour and has been used in films such as Return to Treasure Island and the Three Musketeers.

The rain was lashing down, sadly, so the decks were covered and conditions very dark, so I tried to overcome this by bouncing my flash off the canvas roof.

Click on the photographs for larger versions

My flickr

More Steam Trains...

I'm accidentally becoming a bit of a spotter. I haven't invested in an anorak yet, but have been weighing up the benefits of a pac-a-mac.

There is something a little bit special about a steam train though, if they were pulling into your local station I'm sure you'd think about popping down for a look.

I jostled for position with the old men on the bridge to catch the King Edward I pulling into Par Station :

(click photographs for larger versions)

Then walked down the platform to the business end of the train. I bet this fella loves his job:

Check out the little Cornish Piskie hitching a ride :)

Finally the train headed off to St Blazey, where a couple of men operating the turntable by winding it round - looked like hard work!

Train Spotters Info:

GWR 6000 Class 6024 King Edward I, once driven by Prince Charles.
King Edward I is a GWR 6000 Class steam locomotive built in June 1930, originally housed at Plymouth Laira dept, before being transferred to Old Oak Common, London, in March 1959 and finally to Cardiff Canton depot in 1962.

Thanks Wikipedia

My Flickr

Textures & Despondency

I have been feeling a little despondent about my photography lately.

I feel like I am getting my head around the camera finally but I have been focusing so much effort into this (spot the unintentional pun) that I have lost sight of what I want to do creatively.

I think part of this is down to suddenly being part of a photographic community with so many conflicting views on what is good and what isn't I can't hear the sound of my own photographic voice.

It will come I suppose. More research required. I've always been impatient.

Still, my latest experiments with textures seemed to go down well on flickr, so in the absence of trusting my own judgement, I'll be happy with theirs for now.

Click for larger size.

Little Red Boat

Sea Grass

The Cornish Fishermen Project

Well, I have been looking for something to get my teeth into.

I was feeling quite uninspired by the camera clubs competition 'People at Work'... I had thought for weeks about what I might do, but by the day the entries were due in, I still had nothing.

I didn't really want to walk into a shop and shove a camera in someones face and I wasn't even sure that would make a good shot in any case.

Then I heard that the Three Jays, a local fishing boat, was being launched (by hand, not wheels) down at Gorran Haven, a local Cornish fishing village. I didn't take much time to weigh up the options, as well, there were no options, so instead I grabbed my camera and headed off.

It was late morning, and the light was quite harsh, so I decided to use Photomatix to try and pull some detail out of the shadows and calm down the highlights. I was fairly pleased with the results over all.

There are more to come, but here is a taster:

Here is the one I entered for the competition - it came 2nd :)

(It's pretty much impossible to see them properly at this size - so for better, larger versions, click on the photograph and it will magically grow)

More to follow - watch this space :)

My flickr

Trains, Mills and Horses...

So I discovered photomatix...

Having had a long standing hatred of the over saturated HDR images where clouds seem to look like trees, I never thought it would be my bag.

However...

I found out that you don't have to process the images to that extent and I quite liked experiementing with the different effects, but I am trying not to get too addicted.

So here are a few examples:

70013 Oliver Cromwell at Par

One for all you train spotters out there. Got up early and headed to Par station where I got a good spot on the bridge to see this steam through.

Forgot that standing on the bridge would mean that I would be in the steam cloud itself, so got a couple of interesting shots of... steam.

The engine was at the back as it was on it's way back upcountry and it didn't stop at the station, so I was pretty pleased that I managed a couple of half decent efforts.

Train spotter info:

70013 Oliver Cromwell is a British Railways standard class 7 (also known as the
Britannia class) preserved steam locomotive.

The locomotive is notable
as one of the four steam locomotives which worked the last steam railtour on
British Rail (BR) in 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban.

(Thanks wikipedia)

Luxulyan Water Mill

We headed to Luxulyan Valley to walk over the viaduct and explore the trail which is part of a World Heritage site because of the amount of old industrial buildings / works that are still there.

This mill used to have a huge water wheel which powered an incline to Joseph Treffry's railway to Pontsmill.

Dirty Horses



Just a couple of dirty old working horses. I experimented with textures on this too, probably a little overdone.

Larger sizes can be seen on my flickr

Roundabout

I wanted to enter a competition 'Movement' at my local camera club. I had taken a shot of a friend hanging off a roundabout the year before, and decided that I was going to reshoot - different person, same roundabout.

I took a couple of shots, here they are:

View larger sizes at flickr

Waves, Skies and Stones

I recently borrowed a Sigma 10-20mm wide angled lens for a week and decided to make the most of it by visiting a couple of my favourite places to see what I could take.

I went over to Gwithian Towans near Godrevy in Cornwall on my first outing and was blessed with the most beautiful sky. My first challenge was getting to grips with the lens, I wasn't used to things being so far away in the composition and I realised I had to step into the composition to get anything vaguely interesting. I was quite pleased with my results that day considering it was the first time I'd used it.

All of the photographs look a million times better larger, I promise.

The next time I took the lens out, I wasn't so lucky with the weather. Cold, damp and overcast, I wasn't sure if I was going to get anything at all! I headed up onto Bodmin Moor to another of my favourite places, Minions. Aside from the Cheesewring (which I didn't photograph that day as the light would have been terrible) there are a couple of stone circles called The Hurlers and numerous old abandoned Tin Mines.

I only took one strobe with me (I foolishly took one out to make room for the borrowed lens in addition to my other lenses - but since I only used the wide angle, I could have rearranged my camera bag if I'd have thought about it more) which presented some limitations due to the lack of natural light and me being a total novice in the world of off camera flash.

Still, I got the chance to have a go at balancing flash and natural light, so it's all part of the learning curve.

The Hurlers

Bodmin Moor : A Triptych

You can see Dartmoor in the background.

Visit my Flickr to see the large sizes and other photographs.