Good morning to everyone wherever you are in the world...thanks to Nigel for standing in last week.

• This long-running thread originated on DPReview has grown into an all-inclusive community in which all brands of camera are welcome.
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• A new week kicks off Saturday morning (UK time).
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I find I have very little time or inclination for editing at the moment so am resorting to raiding the archives.

I used to get emergency call outs in the middle of the night and had to walk huge distances along underground tunnels like this on my own, deep underneath London streets, to access remote networking or telephony kit. No other humans around, just an occasional eerie noise or shadow. Had to stop my mind playing tricks on me. This tunnel has a similar vibe, although isn't one of them. IIRC this tunnel is actually at Down St, London and was part of an unused tube station that was repurposed as a a VIP shelter in World War 2.

I took these shots a couple of weeks ago, after a job near Parma. I wanted to fill in some gaps for my Romanesque project and I had lunch in front of the castle in Fontanellato (photogrphy is prohibited inside).

1 Fontanellato near Parma

2 Fontanellato near Parma. The view from where I ate lunch outside a bar.

3 San Genesio, Parma. I like the way this Pieve is lost in a sea of grass. This needs to be seen big.

4 Fontevivo Parma

5 Fontevivo. This statue by Antelami, is about a thousand years old.

6 Fontevivo.

7 Fontevivo.

8 Collecchio, Parma

9 I went especially to photograph this baptism in the Pieve in Collecchio. It too is about a thousand years old

10 Collecchio, Parma

11 Collecchio, Parma

These two took my eye. The sheer power and immovability (tm) of the first contrasts nicely with the fragility of the fourth.

Pretty creepy, the photo, transmits this vibe perfectly. I see you used the good old EM5, what a splendid little camera that was.

I believe London has lots of places strange tunnels and secret underground bunkers. When I worked at the MoD in Whitehall, I remember having to go several levels down, to deliver some maps to some place with a barred door and which was well guarded.

Tales from The Krypt, pt. 3

For sake of completeness here is third day's photos of The Krypt opening. That Sunday evening I was doubtful if I should go or not, as 2 evenings of music and photography and some beers were quite tiring. But then I decided to go and was not disappointed, as it was quite fun evening. The theme of evening was punk music and first and third band provided it, with this relaxed 'we effed this song, maybe next will be better, but let's drink first' and laid back attitude. Second band was more serious, playing metal-punk-rap mix with strong social messages. Overall good experience and great end for opening weekend.

Bluebell Season

I think landscape / woodland photographers work on a different calendar to normal people, we count our progress through the year with a unique set of seasons;

• Blizzard season
• Blossom season
• Bluebell season
• Everything's green and the sky is blue, so why bother season
• Autumn, yay!

Of course, here in Northern England these each seem to last about three days, often coincide with gale force winds and are interspersed with perma-gloom (a mix of overcast skies and incessant rain). Blossom season being a case in point.

About a week ago I forced myself out of the house one overcast evening only to be treated to a beautiful grove of pink and white blossom trees that were suddenly illuminated by the sun peeking through an unexpected gap in the otherwise leaden sky. Naturally, I hadn't taken a camera with me (always carry a camera, when will I learn?) so I vowed to return the next day and shoot them properly. Of course, the next day we were hit with high winds, leaving the blossom in a sorry state and marking the end of that season in this particular photographer's calendar.

Bluebell season is another one that often passes me by. If I'm lucky, I'll catch the very tail end of it, only to be presented with a wilting carpet of faded cyan weaved in amongst the ever vibrant grass in the woods. But not this year, this year I managed to catch a few hours of the bluebells at what I suspect is their peak when I went out for a walk one evening earlier this week.

As usual, I was unprepared, short for time and a little bit overwhelmed by what greeted me when I entered the woods. I found myself struggling to find good compositions and seemingly resorting to just taking pictures of anything that looked nice, pretty secure in the knowledge that the next time I visit the woods it's not going to look anything like as good as it did on this occasion, so I'd best make the most of it.

it's rained ever since, so I reckon I'm going to be right in that regard, but at least, for once I managed to catch peak bluebell season, all three hours of it.

All images taken with the Fujifilm GFX100S and the GF45-100 f/4.0 mounted on a tripod. I think everything was taken with a CPL, adjusted to minimise reflection on the foliage wherever possible. All processed from single raw files in Capture One Pro 23.

The Murder House

These ruins lie near Brinscall Hall (yes, Brinscall has a hall, I didn't know until last week despite regularly parking a few hundred yards away from it) alongside the route of the long dismantled Chorley to Blackburn railway. I was going to photograph them last week, but completely forgot where they were (I ended up walking within about 50ft of them, but completely missed them). I'm not sure what they were originally, as they're not actually on the moors, so they're not listed in any of the references I usually rely on. The best guess I have is that they were something to do with Brinscall Print Works which is marked close to their location on the 1849 OS map.

More recently, the location was used in the Netflix mystery drama Stay Close, which I think is how it got its grisly nickname, which I've shamelessly stolen from the running club I used to be a member of before the whole heart condition thing kicked off, who had their own unique names for local landmarks.

A Hint of Bluebells

House Plants

A more substantial ruin stands on the opposite side of the track to the murder house. This was taken from inside the ruin. I like the way the ivy is gradually consuming the interior (I say interior, but it's really just a single wall with a pile of rubble behind it, I was stood on said pile of rubble here). Unfortunately I couldn't find anything particularly interesting to line up through the window. I would have been tempted to go a bit wider here too, but the interior was swarming with midges so I didn't fancy changing lenses in there, not to mention I was quite eager to get out of there.

Picture In Picture

This window is in the main standing wall of the ruin. I quite like the view looking through it with the soft evening light on the trees up the lane. There is a large scrubby plant partially blocking the window from the outside, so this ended up being taken with a 10 second timer, so I had enough time to scramble across the rubble and carefully pull the plant to one side so it was out of the way. A few leaves remained just above the sill, so these have been cloned out in C1P.

Into The Woods

When I went into the woods a week earlier the bluebells were difficult to spot, but now they're so vibrant. As I mentioned in my intro I was struggling to find interesting compositions. Usually in woodland I look for trees with character and use them as either individual subjects, in groups or simply framing devices, but seemingly carpets of bluebells don't grow anywhere near these, instead tending to form amongst some of the most humdrum looking trees in the woods. Also, I'm kind of limited with where I can place the camera as I don't want to walk on the bluebells, so I'm generally on or at the side of a path, which limits my compositional choices a bit (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Backlit Bluebells

This is looking back down the gently rising slope of the woods towards The Goit. You can just make out the boundary wall in the distance.

Forked

I tend to stay away from the dehaze control when processing images, but here I've added a bit of negative dehaze (haze?) around the edges to add a bit of glow.

The Winding Path

Again, not the most exciting trees, but I like the shape of the path, plus the tones and colours here, with the bluebells in the foreground and the distance really standing out. I don't normally find the slightly shallower depth of field that comes with medium(ish) format to be an issue, but this is f/11, focused on the base of the tree and there is literally just inches of depth either side of it that's in sharp focus here. Fortunately, I like the dreamy effect, so it's not an issue.

Sheltered Path

I think this might have benefitted if I could have stood further to the right as I might have been able to exclude the bush and logs on the left, but I'm right on the edge of a meadow of bluebells as it is.

Broken Wall

Waning Light

This was taken a little after 7PM. Sunset is currently around 8:30ish, but by this point the sun had fallen into the cloudy clutches of the Irish Sea Permafog, sucking the vibrancy from the colours, so it was getting time to pack up and go home (also I hadn't had my tea, which was even more of an incentive to call it a day).

Early Days Of Ivy

One last shot before I make like a tree and branch leave. I was quite fascinated by the first tendrils of ivy getting a grip around the base of this tree and liked the way its dark leaves contrasted with the bark. There are a couple of interesting trees behind this one, but once again I couldn't get a good angle on them. Also, did I mention I was ready for my tea?

Easter in Macedonia

This weekend is orthodox Easter. I'm currently in Ohrid on the Macedonian leg of our Balkan journey. This morning dawned cold and wet so spent the morning visiting some of the town's 365 Byzantine churches. Sancta Sofia is the cathedral, seat of an archbishopric that once spanned from Moldova to southern Italy. The building dates from 11th century and the frescos from 13th century.

The churches here in Macedonia all have signs prohibiting photography which everyone totally ignores.
The baptism is nice - I like the depiction of the water.

Know it well ;-)

Ha! As a 17 year old in London, punk was very important to me before it became horribly commercialised. Shame they can't let it rest in peace. Godd photos though, as usual.

I enjoyed the ruins, always drawn to them and let my mind imagine what played out there.

The lone tree has lots of atmosphere as does the last. Albeit very different.

The shots are good, but the subjects do not have the impact of the Heavy Metal groups you have shown us before.

There is something about middle aged Punks, that is not quite right. Punk was a music of youth rebellion, it should have died with the Sex Pistols.

The last one looks like a lovely location with those frescoes.

Our Russian friends always bring us some decorated eggs at Easter, seems to be an Orthodox thing.

I think the pictures of the ruins are the best of this set. Bluebells are difficult to shoot, they never seems as spectacular in a photo.

I like this one a lot as you might expect.

They should have given you a bicycle :) I wanted to visit unused tunnels butTFL charges £40 + plus for these tours, I find it a bit pricey.