I did hang around to get someone walking in front of the backdrop in this case. But often it's an instinctive grab shot.

I am afraid I cant see a strong connection on this one.

Very nice, clinical execution of a beautiful building. I like portrait orientation ones and last one the most.

I dont know the name of the building, this is a ceiling in St John's College in Cambridge.
Pixelations is due to low file size export. I dont want to upload full 20+MB files.

"Dream Walker"

This seemed like a question that needed some space, and was a good idea for a Blog post, or a thread here, rather than a reply. So you can read something about the techniques behind these images, with a breakdown using the source images.

I mostly used full shift, to eliminate floor area.

The metal ties are there to counteract the horizontal spreading forces at the base of the arches. They also help out during earthquakes.

Visual trickery or no, this one is a visual feast.

That is a really nice Gothic ceiling.

A psychedelic dream at the very least.

Summer recollection

Haven't shot anything recently so going over last year's shots, here are some photos from my summer walk on hiking roads.

Walk started with tour on moor. It was used to produce peat but this has ended long time ago and now nature takes over. Trees there are small and stubby, trying to survive in such non-favorable conditions.

Small road, used by humans and probably by animals as well

Typical to this landscape view

Aegviidu is crossroad to many hiking trails. RMK stands for national forest management center, it is responsible for building and maintaining those hiking roads. These roads are marked with colours and have designated camping places with restrooms and fireplaces. I have hiked part of these trails, maybe when I retire I'll walk all of them, in total it's like 2000 km...

Small forest lake.

Another view to this forest lake. It's a growing lake and shore consists of soft and bouncy vegetation on top of lake, which carries you. Until it does not and you get your feet wet.

Family. Death of some is life for others.

I see you met Nick Frost. What next, Simon Pegg?

Impressive building. But I can't stop wondering if all the effort and wealth to build such things could been spent more in line of Jesus teaching...

These floating forests are curious. I've seen something similar in Norfolk, UK. They bounce if you jump up and down - but not too much or, as you say, you get wet!

"Trying to Understand Batman's Secret Identity"

A photography experiment yielding what appears to be phases and glimpses as to who or what Batman is.

Caw Blimey

Another weekend, another trip to The Lakes. This time I headed over to Dunnerdale for unfinished business with the Birkett's around Caw, well, three of them, the other four will need to wait for another time. These are the fells we abandoned a few weeks ago when the unexpected blizzard hit, forcing us to turn back and head to a part of The Lake District which is served with less terrible better roads.

On this occasion, I was tackling Caw, Pikes and Green Pikes. The forecast was for temperatures down to freezing, overcast skies and a less than a 5% chance of rain. With a forecast like that and the Met Office's recent track record, I was fully decked out in waterproofs. If I'd realised just how bad the weather was going to be I'd have brought the Olympus E-M1 MKII, but as it was supposed to be dry, I was packing my current lightweight kit, which comprises the Nikon Z7 and 24-70 f/2.8, which I don't like getting as wet as it did on this trip (still, at least it didn't get another dunking in a river). I also had the 24-200 sat in my rucksack in the event I really needed a bit of extra reach, which, in the end, I didn't.

The weather started rather gloomy and we'd barely walked a mile before we were in a mix of fog and drizzle, both of which persisted all the way up to the summit. The wind also picked up as we ascended Caw and by the time we reached the summit it was very blustery and lashing it down, with no view whatsoever. So we found a sheltered spot and hunkered down for lunch, a bit deflated as the climb had been hard and we'd seen nothing of the surrounding fells on the way up to compensate us for our effort.

After eating and with no indication the fog was going to clear, we packed our things away and prepared to move on when suddenly the sun began to break through. Thinking we might be treated to a Brocken Spectre (a phenomenon where the sun casts a shadow of the viewer on the clouds below, often accompanied by surrounding spectra), we hung around for a bit trying to find the right sort of position to encourage such an effect, but it never happened. However, our patience didn't go unrewarded as the clag abruptly dispersed treating us to spectacular views over the surrounding fells and really nice conditions that lasted throughout the rest of the circuit and back to the start location in Seathwaite.

All in all, I think this walk was a bit of a hidden gem and would give great views of the surrounding fells on a clear day.

All images taken handheld on the Nikon Z7 + 24-70 f/2.8S. Processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23.

1. Rocky Roots

It always fascinates me how trees manage to take root and thrive in what would appear to be terrible locations.

2. Always Cross The Stream

Otherwise, how are you going to reach the other side?

3. Erratics

I was fascinated by the substantial boulders sat on the rocky outcrops in the distance. Presumably placed there by a helpful glacier quite some time ago. Either that or they're trolls having a nap. It's 50:50 at this point. I only spotted them once I was well past them and looking back down the path, so I didn't go back for a closer look, but for someone looking for a low level photography walk, this area could be a goldmine of interesting subjects.

4. Trees In a Field

As you can see, the conditions are getting murkier as we progress along the walk.

5. Looking Back Along The Path

Honestly, not stopping for breath. Crampy calf muscles though? Quite possibly. And this is before the real climbing began.

6. Open Air Open Plan

About half way up Caw, our route led us through a disused mine with some abandoned and quite decrepit buildings. Despite having no roof on or significant contents, the inside of this particular building smelt distinctively musty. Quite an achievement considering the conditions. Ooh! A cave!

7. In The Hall of The Mountain Things

Note to self; when heading to an abandoned mining area and debating whether or not to bring a torch, bring a torch. We both had headtorches, but my powerful hand held LED torch was still sat at home on the coffee table when we started exploring these mines, which is a pity as the extra light would definitely have come in handy. It might have been helpful if I'd noticed the lens had fogged up when we entered the cave too. This was quite a relatively deep and cavernous working, opening up into a large space and probably deserving of a better planned photoshoot if I ever return to this location again.

8. Good News, The Fog's Getting Thinner

For the remainder of the walk, there was nothing to be seen as the fog remained as dense as seen in #6. As I mentioned in my introduction though, after lunch the fog rapidly dispersed revealing our surroundings for the first time in quite a glorious manner.

9. Raven's Crag

From the summit of Caw the best views were clearly looking towards the estuary as the clouds roiled over the near backlit landscape. This shot is looking towards Raven's Crag, one of the Birkett's we were leaving for another day.

10. The Summit of Caw

This is what the summit of Caw looked like, complete with a treacherously placed trig point. We sheltered for lunch against the rocks below it. The view was not this good at that time.

11. A Bucket of Birkett's

I'm not entirely sure what the collective term is for Birkett's, but the ridge in this image comprises four of the buggers. When planning this walk, my friend had, somewhat overambitiously, suggested we try and visit all four of them as well as Caw, Pikes and Green Pikes (she's the one currently "bagging" Birketts, I quit the "bagging" game once I'd completed my first round of the Wainwrights and my experience of Birketts has been mixed). Given that the group of Caw, Pikes and Green Pikes were just about within the capabilities of my chalky heart it was highly unlikely that was going to happen. I'm not even sure I could have managed all seven of them in one hike before I developed heart issues.

12. Descending Caw

The path (I use the term loosely) down from Caw is a somewhat steep one, I even had a figuratively heart stopping moment when I slipped on some wet turf, fell on my back and began sliding down it, fortunately managing to stop before I slid over the edge of a looming precipice.

In the middle distance before us lies Pikes and beyond that towers White Pike, the termination of a ridge that leads up to Dow Crag and eventually The Old Man of Coniston, both sadly hidden from view in the clouds on this occasion.

13. The Unnamed Crag

On the way down we spotted this rocky protruberance, which might be called Tail Crag, although that name could refer to some crags further down the side of this, so we decided to check it out. It was worth the detour as it gave splendid views over the plantation woods on Broughton Moor. This shot includes a small human for (misleading) scale.

14. White Pike

I took a number of shots of White Pike, but I think this is my favourite as it's the moodiest. With Dow Crag and The Old Man hidden in the clouds, it's quite an imposing looking fell, but at a little under 2,000ft I think I could still make it up there from the Seathwaite side, which might make it a good candidate for a future walk and might even make a cheeky visit to Dow Crag a possibility. Watch this space.

15. Harter Fell

This was taken looking down into Seathwaite as we descended from Green Pikes. The pointy lump on the left is Harter Fell, another favourite that I've ascended a few times from the other side, but never from this.

16. The Back of Great Langdale

This was taken a little further down into the valley and focuses on the distant mountains, which together form the top end of Great Langdale. The pointy one in the centre of the image is Bowfell. To its left is Esk Pike and to its right is Crinkle Crags, in front of Crinkle Crags is Little Stand, which doesn't look particularly little from this angle. The clouds may be obscuring them, but the Scafell bro's are lurking moodily to the left of Esk Pike.