• Members 880 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 9:19 a.m.

    Good set in general but this one is a standout. I love to see landscapes with a reference point giving a sense of scale, in this case the village below.

  • Foundation 1494 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 9:56 a.m.

    Yes! One can see by the look in his eye that he is on an important mission!

    David

  • Members 863 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 10:39 a.m.

    That turned out really well. The lens obviously works very well in your hands. Too heavy for me though, nice to be able to borrow one for a while.
    " guided missile" is a good description :-)

  • Members 863 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 10:43 a.m.

    We were lucky with the weather that weekend :-)
    They had promissed "rain for later" , but it didn't come until late at night. The next day it poured down

  • Members 863 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 10:54 a.m.

    Looks like it was a great hike with lovely views.
    The vista in number 1 sets the scene. That big rock oin the distance looks like a reasonbly easy hike from the back, getting to the big cliff face and good view. Is the Solutre rock you were standing on similar ?
    The bright autumn leaves in number 3 make for a good motive.

  • Members 863 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 10:59 a.m.

    Enjoy the new camera, it has found competent new hands!

  • Members 863 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 11:03 a.m.

    Cold I'm sure, but with the pretty lights this one looks nice and warm and inviting :-)

  • Foundation 1494 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 1:40 p.m.

    I should be interested to see your list of purpose for which it is good / not good.

    David

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 5:56 p.m.

    Those skies look familiar! Ayr is about an hour's drive for me. Some beautiful coast to the south.

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 6 p.m.

    Walking on water 😁 Excellent shot - interesting and even daring composition with the horizontal and vertical divisions.

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 6:03 p.m.

    These are all brilliant shots - the new toy has inspired you, as is often the case. The last is extraordinary!

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 6:04 p.m.

    Interesting contrast of textures between sculpture and water

  • Members 306 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 6:07 p.m.

    Holme Fell

    I took another trip to The Lake District here in England this weekend. This time I decided to revisit Holme Fell. This is a relatively low collection of rocky peaks that sits between Coniston and Little Langdale. Historically the area has seen a lot of mining and still bears the scars, chief amongst them being the flooded quarry at Hodge Close, but many of the smaller signs of abandoned industry are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

    The walk began mid morning at Hodge Close and then proceeded up through the woods to one of the many rocky peaks that form this fell, although I believe this one was the official summit. The plan had been to eat here, then head North East(ish) to Oxen Fell, but after crossing numerous undulations, we eventually hit an impenetrable barrier, blocking our way. Well, technically, it was a 3ft high fence that I could probably have stepped over if I hadn't been carrying so much gear, but given there were no obvious paths beyond the fence and it was getting late, we decided to scrap that idea and instead follow the line of the fence back to Hodge Close. This turned out the be the worst path possible, leading to a few slips and tumbles from both me and my walking buddy, but neither of us was injured and no expensive gear was broken, so it was all just part of the fun and eventually we arrived safely back at Hodge Close by dusk, although it was hard to tell as it seemed to have been just as gloomy for the last few hours anyway.

    Still, it was a nice long walk (in terms of time at least, taking 6 hours to cover just three miles) and highly enjoyable too.

    All images were taken on a tripod with the GFX100S and either the 32-64 or 100-200, mostly using a screw on B+W CPL filter. Subsequent processing was done in Capture One Pro 23 from individual raw files.

    1. Mossy Trees

    There are some rather nice trees around the perimeter of Hodge Close quarry, including this group wrapped up for the winter in some very shaggy moss.

    DSCF4963.jpg

    2. Hodge Close

    Looking down into Hodge Close Quarry itself. By pure coincidence, I took this picture from almost exactly the same spot as a photographer friend of mine had taken a shot of the birch trees on the left about four hours earlier (apparently there was mist too at that ungodly time!). I managed to miss bumping into him on the car park by about 30 minutes, which was a shame.

    DSCF4968.jpg

    3. Cave At Hodge Close

    This is a close up of the cave that's more or less central in the previous image, giving a better look of the framework bending off into the water that once supported some substantial piece of mining equipment. You can also see light spilling in from the opening at the back of the cave.

    DSCF4970.jpg

    4. Abandoned Reservoir

    As you cross Holme Fell, coming from Hodge Close, you'll likely encounter this abandoned reservoir which once provided water for the mining operations on the fell. They say you should include a person in a scene to give an appropriate sense of scale, but when your friend is about 5ft tall it sort of throws that idea out of the window.

    DSCF5018.jpg

    5. Dam

    My friend stood on the reservoir's dam.

    DSCF5022.jpg

    6. Bark

    This pair of trees by the water caught my eye as I approached the reservoir, but it took playing around with half a dozen different compositions from all sides before I found this one that satisfied me, mostly due to the texture of the bark on the tree in the foreground and the details in the moss on the ground.

    DSCF5057.jpg

    7. Reflections

    On the far side of the reservoir stand a pair of birch tree stumps, which the water was reflecting quite nicely, so I took a shot of the stumps and their reflection. Although quite pleasing in itself, I was more interested in the reflection than the whole image, so I cropped down to just the reflection and vertically flipped the image to get this abstract shot.

    DSCF5063 1.jpg

    8. Summit

    My walking buddy patiently waits for me at the summit as I find one exciting composition after another on the way up. You may recall that I mentioned earlier that the walk took about 6 hours to cover a little over three miles? Well, apparently only an hour of that was actually walking, the rest of it was me standing around taking pictures.

    DSCF5084.jpg

    9. Runestone Quarry

    Some months ago I published a set of pictures from Runestone Quarry on the lower flanks of Wetherlam, that was a great walk and well worth a visit. Anyway, this shot shows the quarry buildings surrounded by spoil heaps at the top of Runestone Quarry, as seen from the summit of Holme Fell.

    DSCF5090.jpg

    10. The Langdale Pikes

    This was taken on the way back down from the summit, looking across the reservoir towards the enigmatic pikes as they loom majestically over Great Langdale.

    DSCF5103.jpg

    11. A Wider View

    Taken a little further along the walk, this wider view introduces the next craggy peak we were going to have a scramble up.

    DSCF5104.jpg

    12. Rocky Outcrop

    A tighter shot of the rocky outcrop itself.

    DSCF5110.jpg

    13. Lone Tree

    As we continued across Holme Fell, we encountered many little summits, often adorned with a skeletal tree such as this one.

    DSCF5129.jpg

    14. Lone Tree #2

    ...and another one.

    DSCF5132.jpg

    15. Selfie

    You spend ages composing your shot and some idiot just wanders in and ruins it. Actually, that's me admiring the view and trying to hold my belly in.

    DSCF5149.jpg

    16. Tree With a View

    After hitting the impenetrable barrier we instead started heading down in the general direction of Hodge Close, passing this tree along the way (this was before we once more encountered the barrier and it's hilariously terrible adjacent path). I quite liked the way this tree appears to be leaning in towards The Pikes as if admiring the view.

    DSCF5167.jpg

    DSCF5132.jpg

    JPG, 1.4 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5167.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5103.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5149.jpg

    JPG, 981.4 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5110.jpg

    JPG, 1.2 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5129.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5090.jpg

    JPG, 904.5 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5104.jpg

    JPG, 557.1 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5084.jpg

    JPG, 509.9 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5057.jpg

    JPG, 1.9 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5063 1.jpg

    JPG, 604.1 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5022.jpg

    JPG, 1.7 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF4963.jpg

    JPG, 2.0 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF5018.jpg

    JPG, 1.7 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF4968.jpg

    JPG, 1.8 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

    DSCF4970.jpg

    JPG, 1.4 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Nov. 5, 2023.

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 6:19 p.m.

    Yes, they're both fairly easy paths up the dip slope of the rocks, though the paths were slippery in places from the previous day's rain. About 400m climb in total over maybe 9km.

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 9:06 p.m.

    Looks like a pleasant area of town. Nice warm and welcoming lighting.

  • Members 628 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 9:12 p.m.

    The quarry looks like my kind of place - just right for playing with multiple / ICM exposures 😁
    I often find that the reflections are more interesting than the subject and frame accordingly. Lovely colours and textures in all these.

  • Members 196 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 10:18 p.m.

    I will make more effort to post my "usual stuff " 😀

    A couple of recent "usual" subjects shots

    01.jpg

    iuouo.jpg

    444.jpg

    444.jpg

    JPG, 5.5 MB, uploaded by JimStirling on Nov. 5, 2023.

    iuouo.jpg

    JPG, 601.5 KB, uploaded by JimStirling on Nov. 5, 2023.

    01.jpg

    JPG, 8.7 MB, uploaded by JimStirling on Nov. 5, 2023.

  • Members 880 posts
    Nov. 5, 2023, 11:41 p.m.

    I liked he 2nd shot, took a while to work out that was water at the bottom but it was the 3rd shot that intrigued me the most.