Random/Not Categorised Pics

This will likely be the last update post of old stuff, unless I discover some really cool shots (unlikely!)

These are all utterly random pictures which wouldn't be worth blogging separately.

Shrooms.

So, let's start with a picture of some mushrooms. Yes, really, mushrooms.  I just saw this outcrop of bright orange mushrooms bursting out amongst some newly seeded fresh green grass shoots.  Oh, and it just happened to be at sunset, so the lighting was gorgeous.

This was actually taken in the grounds at work, as was the next picture.  Which is of a tree.  Yep, I'm that kind of photographer, I suppose!

Golden Branches.

This was one of those weird moments when I saw this old tree in the grounds at work, with its autumn leaves all shades of green, yellow & orange, and the deep blue morning sky in the background, and I actually tried to frame an image.  I failed completely because I was still about 200 yards away from the tree and there was all sorts of other rubbish cluttering it up.  Then I found myself standing under the tree and looking up.  Click.  No edit required.

Sepia Snow.

After autumn comes winter.  This crumbling farm gate is a short stroll from my house.  I went for a walk one day with the express intention of taking some pictures of Stratford in the snow.  Not many of them came out, and even this one was a bit of a waste of time, so I just started messing around with a few filters.  Nothing really worked until I was demonstrating the temperature setting in the G+ photo editing software to my housemate and dragged the slider all the way up.  Sepia.  So tacky, but it somehow worked for this one.  Well, I thought so anyway!

Thawing Thistle.

On the same expedition, I saw this thistle with a cap of snow.  The macro focus on the Xperia S seemed to work pretty well and I ended up with a well focused subject and completely defocused backdrop.  Just a vignette to frame it and job done.

Burning Branches.

After winter comes spring, and we're back to the grounds at work for another picture of a tree.

I caught this one at sunset on my way out of the office.  Again, I just really liked the contrast of the orange sunlit tree against the cool blue sky.  It did come out a bit noisy, which is why I've added the blur.

I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's a compromise.

Moving on, the next snap is of a very fine spring blossom.  I'd noticed the buds coming out a few days earlier, but by the time I got around to snapping this one, the petals had already started falling.

Again, the macro worked really well and gave me a decently focused subject with a nicely blurred backdrop.

Tweaked for atmosphere and framed with a simple vignette.

Blushing Blossom.

Perky in Pink.

Another flower up next.  This one is actually a weed growing in my lawn, but the tiny pink petals caught my eye against the green lawn.

Once again, macro working a treat.  Sony phones always seem to perform really well at close quarters.  You can see just how tiny this flower is by comparing it with the blade of grass right next to it.

Rusty Rope.

And I'll leave you with possibly the most random image of the whole bunch.  In some pathetic attempt at trying to continue a vague theme of seasons, this one was taken on a summer camping trip to the Lake District.

On a walk up the Old Man of Coniston, we went past the ruins of the old mine.  There's lots of derelict buildings made of slate and lots of old rusty rails and pulley systems.  Something of a photographer's dream, really.  I couldn't do any of it justice, but I kind of like this one.  It's an old winch line which would have moved the rail carts up & down the mountain side.  You're looking down the mountain, back towards Coniston Water where our campsite was.

A bit of a mixed bag, this lot.  I hope you like some of them.  The images are free to use for any purpose, but please do link back to this blog if you use them.  Thanks.

Landscapes

I wasn't going to bother with another post today, but why not?  This time, landscapes.  No particular theme, just photos of landscapes.

Love Is.

First up, a picture from the beer garden at the Crab & Lobster Inn at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.  A bit of a heart warmer for all you romantics, as a couple rest up after being out on their bikes and take in the sea view.

Taken on a Sony X10i in 2010.  Sharpened.  Vignetted.

Sunny Stratford.

Next is probably one of the most photographed scenes in Warwickshire, but it is pretty.  This is the view from the pedestrian bridge over the river Avon in Stratford.

Taken on a Sony Xperia S, sharpened and vignetted.

I should think this bridge sees hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, and many of them stop to take a picture in this direction, often as a background to a family snap.  I dread to think how many of them I feature in, as I can't always stop before the shutter fires!

Gorgeous Gorge.

Off to France next, and this is a view of some French types enjoying the water running through the Verdon Gorge in the south of the country.

I think this was actually one of the challenge pictures when we were competing in Chronicle Rally's Mountain Madness adventure through Europe, but it's just a lovely picture and I had to share!  Taken with a Sony Xperia S, sharpened, vignetted.

Lovely Lavender.

Still in the south of France, there were loads of these lavender fields everywhere, but they're just so beautiful.  This was actually taken from a moving car, so I'm surprised it's so level and there's not much motion blur.  I guess that's a complement to the designers of the camera in the Sony Xperia S!  This is pretty much as it came out of the camera.

Biker Vista.

I must confess, I'm not entirely sure where this one was taken.  The rally was called Mountain Madness because we spent a lot of time in the Alps, traversing all the most amazing mountain passes, but that did mean doing a lot of border hopping between Italy & Switzerland.  This could have been either, but the vista is certainly bella either way.  No, I don't know whose the bikes are, I just thought it looked cool to have them in shot.  Again, this is pretty much as it came out of the camera.  I've just played with the colour balance/saturation.

English Countryside.

Heading back to Blighty, this is an image snapped on a camping trip to the Lake District.  In fact, this is actually on the campsite and is basically the view I woke up to each day.

Xperia S again.  Just given a little pop to bring out the colours.

Green Mountain Pass.

And finally, I'll leave you with another British sight.  This time, back in Wales.  Yes, I do spend a lot of time in Wales!  Why not, they've got awesome roads.  This is actually known as the Black Mountain Pass.  It's a mountain pass which goes through the Black Mountain National Park.  Imagine that.

This was another Chronicle Rally adventure.  The work takes me to the coolest places!  This was last year's Run to the Hills rally, and it was great fun.

Also snapped on Xperia S, sharpened & vignetted.  I'm nothing if not predictable!

The usual small print: please feel free to use any of these pictures as you see fit, but please include a link back to this blog and also credit Chronicle Rally for those I've mentioned were taken during a rally (those in France, the bikes and this one in Wales from this post) by including the URL http://www.chroniclerally.co.uk/.  Thanks for looking.

Wood & Stone

Continuing my edit & post fest, here's a post featuring photographs of things made out of wood and/or stone.  Because I like stuff like that.

Rings & Ripples.

After some pretty major flooding in my home town of Stratford upon Avon a few years ago, there was a lot of debris and detritus strewn along the river bank.  This wooden palette was teetering on the edge down by the Lucy's Mill weir.  I liked the contrast between the obviously distressed wood, the concrete edging on this part of the river, and the now-calm water gently lapping at the shore.  And then I went and defocused almost everything because I thought it would look good.  Meh.

Chesterton Mill.

The palette pic was taken on a Sony X10i - an 8mp smartphone snapper.

This picture from inside Chesterton Windmill was taken on my 13mp Sony Xperia S.  Aside from a slight vignette and some sharpening, this is how it came out of the camera.  I had many more images of the mill I wanted to post, but the Google+ photo editing software - which I use for all of my edits - wasn't playing ball and would only allow me to edit landscape images for some reason.  I may try again another day and do a separate post, as there's some lovely shots in that set.

Don't look back.

Next is an image from a Chronicle Rally planning trip to Wales.  It's another Xperia S snap which didn't come out of the camera too well at all.  It was wonky, slightly out of focus and the contrast was all wrong.  A few edits have put most of that right, but a moody/stormy affair was about the best I could do to make it presentable.  Funny really because it was a really nice day when I took the picture!  Creepy Causeway.

Weedy Window.

Here's another one from the same expedition to Wales, and it's another one which came out very poorly.  The phone sensor couldn't handle the huge contrast between the dark interior of the tower and the bright vista beyond.  The result was an excessively overexposed window and poor detail on the stone.  Once again, Google+ came to the rescue and I was able to bring out much of the detail in the stone work and recover at least some of the countryside in the background.

Don't look down!

More from Wales, this one was fairly early in the day.  As such, there was still a lot of cloud cover.  Good news for the phone, as there wasn't such a great contrast to deal with.  Again, I've just sharpened this up and added a vignette, otherwise it's as it came out of the camera.

Technicolour monastery.

Grey Friary.

Now, here's two versions of the same picture.  Actually, it's two separate exposures, but they're almost identical.  I couldn't decide whether I liked it better in colour or black & white, so I did the two versions.  On the one hand, I love all the colours in the stone, the purple heather behind, the red stained wooden benches and lush green of the grass.  On the other hand, I like the atmosphere afforded by the B&W version.  There's also a processing artefact in the B&W version.  It's slightly less obvious with the colour taken out, so that helped me to decide which one should be which!

Purple hills.

There was no such uncertainty with this picture of the ruins.  Those purple hills deserved to be presented in all their glory.  As it was overcast, and slightly misty, there was little to be done with this one.  I tried straightening it up, but it just looked worse the more I fiddled, so I just plonked a vignette on it and left it as Sony intended.

Colourful Cloisters.

Grey Gable.

Alas, the indecision returned with this one.  The myriad colours in the pillars and the vivid green grass look fantastic, but then there's this drab void in the upper right corner.  Stone always looks just fine in black & white and it balances out the dull spot.  That said, removing the colour seems to remove something of the soul in the stone.  That's why I present them both here.

And you'll no doubt be glad to hear that little dichotomy represents the last of the images from the monastery.  You may be slightly less relieved to hear there are more pictures of Wales yet to come!

White Cross.

Another Welsh ruin snapped with a Sony Xperia S.  Again, the contrast was all over the place, but not as bad as the window in the tower from before.  Still, it was very dark, so I went with a black & white job.  For something so simple, I think this picture says a lot!  I can just imagine being a Welsh bowman aiming my weapon at the invading English through that little slit.

Right, just one more Welsh castle and we'll move on.

Below is a picture from the now English village of Whittington in Shropshire.  The castle you see would have been right on the front line during any tests on the border, but it was pretty tiny.  You're looking at the gate house.  There's a moat, gardens and a few ruins inside, but you'd still describe it as sweet rather than imposing.

Cute Castle.

With good lighting, this one's much as it came out of the camera.  You guessed it, I just added a vignette.  And sharpened it up a bit.

I love that a duck just happened to be landing as I took the pic (completely by luck) and cast a bunch of ripples onto the moat.

Don't jump!

And a final image from Wales!  This time it looks like a seagull about to throw itself off a pier.  I can't decide if I like how this one is framed or not, but it's the contrast between the wood, rope and iron on the pier with the water & rocks beneath which I like.

Perhaps the gull is simply taking in the view!

Reach for the sky!

Leaving Wales behind altogether, we head off to Belgium for this one.  Antwerp, to be precise.  Still using a Sony Xperia S but in bright daylight now.

There's a little bit of faux HDR applied to this to help with contrast, otherwise the tower was mostly in silhouette.  Aside from that and my usual edits of a little sharpening and a vignette, this is pretty much as it came out.

Right, just one more before I call it a day on this post.  I'm going to bring it home to Stratford with a picture of Holy Trinity Church, below.

This is one I took on a snowy January afternoon in rapidly fading light.  I could have included it in my earlier low light post, but you would have thought I was cheating!  The image was noisy and not particularly sharp, so I've actually dropped the contrast and left it looking a little bit washed out.  Obligatory vignette to break up the otherwise white sky, give some depth and draw the eye to the subject.

Chilly Church.

As I always say, my pictures are free to use as long as they're attributed back to this blog.  All of the Wales images on this page should also be attributed to Chronicle Rally with a link to http://www.chroniclerally.co.uk included.

Night & Dark Photos

I've been going through some old photos in my Google backup and decided to edit & post a few.  I'll start with some low light pictures, as I was discussing night shots with a friend yesterday.  I brashly said something along the lines of "I could do better than that with a phone, staggering back from the pub.  Drunk!" whilst discussing someone else's pics.  I may be about to eat my words, but all of the pictures on this blog are taken with a mobile phone.  As some of these are a little older, I might share details of the phone model (by way of a caveat for the low quality!)

What's through there?

The picture on the left here was actually taken with my current phone, a Sony Xperia Z2.  The manufacturer has aimed this one squarely at the low light problem, with a larger aperture, larger sensor, and down-sampling tech to produce a less noisy but lower resolution image by averaging local pixels.

A tower of light.

The result was actually a pretty decent original picture.  I've messed about with this (obvs.) but I still like the result.  The only light source was a security light on a house on the other side of the hedge, making the gate stand out.  I like the sense of curiosity with this one.  What's on the other side?

The image on the right was taken with my old Sony Xperia S.  It's a bit noisier, but still a very respectable shot.  The light source was fairly strong, as the cathedral is illuminated at night, but you still might not expect a mobile phone to take such a respectable snap.

The harbour lights.

We're going even older with this one on the left.  This picture was taken with a Sony X10i, the first phone to drop the Ericsson branding altogether.  It had an 8mp sensor with few concessions for taking low light images.  As such, I think this one turned out very well indeed!  I toyed with going black & white on this one to help bring down the noise, but I decided it had much more warmth as a colour image.

Stratford sunset.

Lastly, a sunset (obviously).  This was snapped on the Xperia S again, so we're talking about a 13mp Exmor sensor.  Exmor was supposed to help reduce noise by altering the layering of the sensor and bringing the pixels in closer contact with the light coming in.  Perhaps just marketing mumbo jumbo, but it did take a nice snap if there was enough light.  Sunsets are bright enough for a reasonable result and the colours in this sunset were stunning.  Like a special effect from Star Trek or something!

Low light smartphone photography.  Discuss!

As always, these pictures are free to use (if you really want!) with a link back to this blog.

Family Holiday to the Isle of Wight

Yesterday, I got back from a week on the Isle of Wight with my family.  We were hugely fortunate with the weather with only one day out of seven being rainy.  Pretty good going for a bank holiday weekend in England, let alone a whole week!

Yachts in the Solent

Anyway, here's a few snaps from the week, starting with a ferry crossing of the Solent.

As you can see, it was a pretty warm, sunny and calm Saturday to be out on the water.  The yachts were making the most of it and the scene almost looks like something you'd expect to see in the South of France rather than the south of England.  My brother & I enjoyed a beer on the deck and instantly started to chill out.

First view of the beach

The house we had rented for the week was ludicrously close to the beach.  On first laying eyes upon the beach from a cut-through beside a seaside café, I thought I'd stepped into Wonderland.

Brightly coloured beach huts lined the top of the beach for as far as the eye could see.  All manner of holiday makers were there, but it was like walking into a timewarp.  There were no crowds at all, but there were families, dog-walkers, and even horses walking along the sand.  Holiday mode well & truly engaged!

Watching the sun set with my brother and a glass of wine

I call this "Orange on White"

This is just about when I give up on chronology, but taking a glass of wine down to the beach after dinner became something of a ritual.  The rest of the pictures will be in no particular order!

Here, for example, is a completely random orange rock on top of a white rock somewhere on the beach.  Actually, I think it's a bit of brick which has been weathered by the sea, but I just really liked the contrast.

Bembridge RNLI station

Woodland path

And above is a snap of the Bembridge RNLI lifeboat station.  It's a recent multi-million pound replacement for the old station.  The public are allowed inside and I highly recommend you take a look around your nearest station.  The volunteer in this one was very informative.  He was able to answer all of our questions and gave us a great description of the £2.5 million self-righting lifeboat.  It carries up to seven crew, goes out in all weather and, should the boat capsize in high seas, it rights itself within four seconds.  It was also absolutely gleaming like a new boat, even though it's several years old.  The volunteer said it would still look exactly the same in twenty years' time when it will likely be sold to a foreign navy and replaced with a new model.  Fascinating stuff!

To the left is a wee cut-through which Dad knew about.  It took us from near the lifeboat station back into the middle of Bembridge on our way to the shop for the daily papers and some tasty buns.

Beach huts

Back to the beach, here's a snap of some of those beach huts.  If you think they look a bit tatty, you're right.  But that's not the norm here.  Most of the beach huts were severely damaged in the February tidal swell and their owners are still in the process of effecting repairs.

Driftwood

We were able to talk with some of the owners.  They seemed strangely happy about having to repair, and in some cases rebuild their huts.  I suppose it's an opportunity to do some upgrades, but I can't say I'd be too happy about it.  Must be the excuse to spend a few more days on the beach!

Sunny seas

Er, here's some driftwood.  I like driftwood.

And another shot of the practically caribbean looking sea.  We really were so lucky with the weather.

Sunset Shiraz

Donnelly Dolphins

Oops, and a bit more wine on the beach...

Then there's this amazing sculpture to the right.  The plaque on the fence (out of shot) reads "Donnelly Dolphins: Here once stood a majestic Cupressus Macrocarpa.  Blown down in a storm in 2012.  The trunk and fallen bow was transformed into this wonderful sculpture by Guido Oakley."

The main part of the sculpture visible here (the rest is out of frame to the left) is actually the original tree trunk and is still in the ground.  That means the carving was completed in situ, which is a rather impressive feat if you ask me!

High and dry

With the tide almost all the way out, this boat was left high & dry.  I'm not sure why, but I really liked this image when I saw it.

I wonder if the mooring belongs to the same people as those who own the beach hut directly opposite at the top of the beach.

Zig-zag tree

Another tree-related image; here is a fine example of a tree with determination to survive.  I've never seen a tree with such a full 'head of hair' entirely on what must have been a single branch.  Any other branches and most of the trunk were trimmed or otherwise lost a long time ago and it looks like the sole remaining branch was broken in two places at some point in its history, and yet the tree prevails.  The result is a weird zig-zag branch, in the end as upright as the original tree would have become, but offset by almost two metres from the trunk.  Very cool!

More wine, Mark?

And more wine!  This time you can see me attempting to keep my tiny brother's alcohol levels topped up with a gigantic glass of Shiraz.  He was very grateful.

As always, I hope you enjoy these pictures.  They're free to use in any way you see fit, as long as you attribute them back to me by way of a link to this blog.

I welcome any comments or questions you may have.

I'll deposit a final, unedited image to sign off.  It's my lovely family enjoying an after dinner drink to the soothing susurrations of the sea.

Mum, Dad, Brother