A Weekend Away

I don't usually post pics of friends, in the assumption that if I do they may not stay friends for very long. However a few weeks ago I spent an enjoyable weekend away in Suffolk, at an old mansion house. It was great fun and we enjoyed ourslves and so here are a few highlights. The pics will not win any prizes but sometimes its nice to take photographs to record an event without worrying about the technical side of things. So this post is just for fun, I hope you enjoy.

Saturday morning saw us getting all competitive on the go karts...of course the girls team won!!!

We took along our very own Grumpy Old Man to cook the BBQ...notice a male domain!!!!!! PS He is not at all grumpy!!

We tried an experiment with marshmallows cooked on the BBQ and soon discovered it didn't work, it created some rather sticky faces and I don't just mean amongst the children.

And finally a few random pics snapped during the weekend.

St Albans Cathedral and Abbey

The Cathedral of St Albans, http://www.stalbanscathedral.org/,  is a popular visitor attraction, but if visited on a Saturday it seems to be quieter and that allows the photographer to work undisturbed. Having said that I was trying to produce some low level pics and whilst on the floor of the aisle I was gently tapped on the shoulder by a friendly guide who asked if I could let his tour pass by and suggested I could take the opportunity to set up my camera for the next shot, all with a smile on his face. I find it a pleasant change when so many places seem to be suspicious of photographers. 

This is the picture I was taking at the time.

















Then, taking the gentleman's advice, I switched to my IR camera. I had no idea if this was an appropriate subject for an infra red photograph but, believing that nothing ventured, nothing gained, I gave it a go. Lots of rubbish pictures resulted but this one is passable, I dont think it will win any prizes but I enjoy it, its seems to have a 'sparkle' that the straight mono pictures lacked.

As I didn't have my tripod I spent much of the time looking for cameos to take, close up of details, again many have gone into the bin but these two survived.

Hidden away at the back of the building, this seems to fit in well with the ethos of the Cathedral.

Finally my favourite image of the day. I have edited several versions of this and am still undecided as to which I prefer but for the time being this is the one!

Going Round The Bend

Those who know me may think the title of this post is a description of my mental state! However it is reference to the fact that, determined to take a pic or two today, I walked around the corner to the local park, which is part of the Dunstable Downs, with my IR camera and fish eye lens.

As I took this pic, sitting on the ground, I was joined by a friendly golden retriever who seemed very interested in what I was doing. Not only did he come and 'say hello' but he then sat himself down next to me and watched what I was up to. It took his owner quite a bit of gentle persuasion to get him to continue his walk.  Anyway I continued and was pleased with this, which has been converted to black and white in PS using the gradient map and then edited using Fractalius.

Along similar lines, a dandelion seed head
from the ground. Unfortunately my IR camera does not have an articulating screen, so this involved not only sitting, but lying flat on the ground, fortunately there was nobody around, not even a friendly golden retriever.

In the forest again

You will be aware by now that Ashridge Forest is a real favourite for me. By today I needed to get out and blow some cobwebs away and so I visited again with my camera and a selection of my current favourite lenses. In my mind I also had the topics of the club competitions for our next season, yes, I know, way ahead of myself but as I will need 12 in each category I decided to start to think early and get a few possibles saved and in the bank.

This is the first attempt, I think this could fit into either the 'Differential Focus' or the 'Worms Eye View' competition, but I think its more likely to end up in differential focus, if any at all, as its probably not near enough to the ground for a true Worms Eye View, I think I can do better than this.

Whether it ends up in either competition or not, I rather like it, and that at the end of the day is all that matters.

Moving along I came across this fellow photographer honing his skills.

A good plan, get them young.










I then got back in the car and travelled down the road to the monument, where I found the start of a classic car rally, all good fun. http://www.spiritofdacorum.com/

They had an old fire engine on display which was a firm favourite with the youngsters.


I call this pic 'Too small to be a fireman'
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finally I went for a walk amongst the trees with my IR camera, again looking for something new. I noticed that the sun was very bright and shining through the leaves of the trees. Knowing that IR seems to work well in bright light I wondered about the effect I could get if I focused on the leaves
 

Again images I rather like, perhaps a subject to be explored further.

A Day In France

This week I was fortunate to be able to spend a day in France with a photographer friend.  It was fantastic weather with temperatures hitting 25, maybe 26 or 27 during the day. This, of course, bought out many people to the beaches and created its own set of difficulties later in the day when we were looking for those uncluttered cameos.

We started at Le Touquet and wondered up and down the beach area as people started to arrive for the day.

This was one of the first images I took, it was as though somebody had turned up in advance and set it up ready for the people to arrive. Apart from cropping and a low opacity layer of gaussian blur this is much as taken.


Further along the beach and there were more people starting to arrive, but the scenes were still very simple with few elements in them. This image also uses the low opacity gaussian blur layer to give it a slightly dreamy effect.

Sometimes things happen which are difficult to explain. I have no idea who these people were or what they were doing, but the tubing and protective gear indicated that perhaps it was some kind of drain repair...who knows! This image is called  "Who you gonna call? Ghost busters"


As the day wore on more people were emerging and it was more difficult to identify those special moments, or as Cartier Bresson would call it ...that decisive moment.

This was one of those lucky shots,  saw the girl on the mono cycle too late to get a front view, but as she passed I turned and was determined not to miss the chance of a shot, just as this woman stopped to look. Pure luck.

I call this "I wish I could do that"

Later in the day we went on to Etaples war cemetery  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89taples_Military_Cemetery

Making use of my fish eye to obtain a more inclusive view I also decided that I would try out my IR camera, as I had read that cemeteries are good places to use IR photography.

Finally a grave which got me thinking......
You will notice that the grave in the right hand corner is a German grave. There are areas where the German soldiers are buried together, but this one is amongst British graves, why would this be so? I have tried to find an answer by doing a web search but so far I have not found out why. If anybody has an answer I would be interested to hear.