• Members 789 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:14 a.m.

    Loved that title.
    And enjoyed these inimate little close ups with the dramatic backdrops.

  • Members 789 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:15 a.m.

    Beautiful. I like the darkness in these.

  • Members 792 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:22 a.m.

    At first I didn't like the first where the two people are obviously annoyed about being captured like that. Shows well in their expressions and I guess they wouldn't have approved of the result.
    I was going to vote for the second , but then, looking again, I thought wait a minute, there's something interesting missing in the middle of the shot :-)

  • Members 792 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:26 a.m.

    I guess with a mask like that he is just going to win :-)
    Interesting shot!

  • Members 792 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:35 a.m.

    Very good work,as usual !!
    It's nice to set yourself a goal and then go and do it. Even better when it works and the results are good!

  • Members 792 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:39 a.m.

    That will keep the pigeons out :-)
    Good to see artistic looking structures around a city! nicely captured

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 10:45 a.m.

    Local Wanders

    Some random walks from the last week or so. The first two shots were taken with the GFX100S towards the end of last week during a dull but unpleasantly hot afternoon on the moors, while the rest came from an evening wander in the woods with much nicer conditions and a lighter camera (X-T50 and the 23,35 and 56mm primes). All processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23. The X-T50 images will appear to be taking with an X-T5 as I'm still deceiving C1P by tweaking the EXIF of the raws in order to get it to process them for me.

    Surveying The Land

    I posted this towards the end of last weeks thread, but I think the thread had kind of died by that point, so I'm tacking it on here. I'd gone out for a walk on my birthday, but it was way too hot for me and I didn't get very far, about a mile up Black Brook before I figured I'd had enough and decided to turn back. Carrying the GFX, two hefty lenses and a tripod probably didn't help. One advantage of carrying the tripod is the occasional possibility of a self portrait, that rare bit of evidence that I actually once existed, given that none of my close friends actually take photos (at least not with proper cameras). I had a similar issue gathering photos of my dad together for a tribute video at his funeral, as my dad was the only one in his circle of friends who took photos there are very few pictures of him in his youth as he was always the one behind the camera, probably more once I was old enough to pick up a camera.

    Anyway, I also took a few pictures of me coming up the hill, but this more contemplative shot is the only one I'm really happy with.

    DSCF9405.jpg

    Black Brook

    At one point when wandering up Black Brook, I was precariously set up with the camera on a tripod, balanced on a narrow path just a few inches wide and completely blocking it. A young lad came wandering up the stream in my direction and I was about to move my kit out of the way when without skipping a beat he just stepped off the path onto a rock in the stream and then to the other side. Cautious of slippery rocks I hadn't even noticed there was a way across there, let alone a viable path on the other side, so instead of my usual tactic of retreating to a path that runs higher up the side of the gully, this prompted me to do the same thing and carefully make my way up the stream on the opposite bank, excited to be discovering new angles on familiar subjects in the process. I took quite a few shots, but to be honest, I'm uninspired by any of them, so here's a familiar shot from a familiar angle that I quite like instead.

    DSCF9302 1.jpg

    Roadside Growth

    A few days later I went out for an evening walk and, stuck for inspiration, found myself drifting towards a wander in Brinscall Woods, somewhere I haven't been in a while. As I wandered along the road leading to the woods I spotted this triffid growing over the (not so dry) stone wall, with other flora sprouting up to meet it from this side. I quite liked the way the light was falling on it, so I took this shot.

    XT501795.jpg

    Tunnel of Trees

    For a change, I took the route that leads up by Brinscall Hall (yeah, I didn't know there was a hall either until recently!) which eventually took me down this tree lined track.

    XT501814.jpg

    And To My Left...

    ...was this scene as I walked along the track.

    XT501816.jpg

    Ruins

    I think this is the remains of a building that was something to do with the long defunct Brinscall paper mill. It was used as the scene in a Netflix crime drama set in North West England that apparently took some serious liberties with the geography around these parts, jumping between Blackpool, Runcorn and this place as if they were all right next to each other.

    XT501841.jpg

    Tree

    Just a tree on the edge of a field, with some invasive balsam adding colour.

    XT501851.jpg

    Wyrd Tree

    This is a fantastically gnarly tree, that's often nicely backlit in the evenings. I keep meaning to shoot it in autumn but have never managed to get round to it. Maybe this year?

    XT501871.jpg

    Into The Woods

    Finally I made it into the woods.

    XT501887 1.jpg

    Heapey Moor

    Checking Heapey Moor from one of my favourite vantage points on the South edge of the woods. The hill in the middle distance is Healey Nab, the same hill that's in the background of the first picture in this set.

    XT501904.jpg

    Pathway

    I took a lot of these woodland shots in black and white. I'm in two minds as to whether they work better in colour or B&W at this point. There's been a lot of discussion about the film sim dial on the X-T50, most of it negative and (as far as I can tell) mostly by people who don't actually own the camera. To be honest, I was sceptical about it too, but having owned the camera for a while now, I actually quite like it as it makes it much easier to switch film modes, something I never really bothered doing with any of my previous Fuji cameras (or the GFX for that matter), but having it on a dial definitely encourages me to use it more in the field. The loss of the drive dial isn't a big deal for me, as having drive mode on a button instead matches the UI on the GFX, so it's pretty intuitive. I do miss the ISO dial though, but I've got that mapped to the tiny button on the top panel which matches the GFX, even if it is on a more fiddly button to find.

    XT501910 1.jpg

    Fungi Fun

    I spotted this little guy while wandering around one of the ruins in the woods. Getting a shot of it required hunkering down on my knees to get in close. Anyone close by in the woods as I stood up again would have frozen at the sounds of a strange beast crying out in pain. Getting old sucks.

    XT501939.jpg

    Leigh Place 1

    After spending a little time at the Marsden's Farm ruins (where I spotted the fungi), I picked my way through the woods to Leigh Place, one of my favourite woodland ruins. In terms of ruins, there's not much to see, mostly a pile of rocks, but adjacent to it, is a square of flat land surrounded by a low stone wall. This was once the garden of the farmhouse and around this are some quite characterful trees. The presence of the empty garden area means there's a gap in the canopy which can light the trees rather delightfully.

    XT501958 1.jpg

    Leigh Place 2

    The tree on the left stands at the corner of the garden area and is separated from the tree in the middle of the picture by what would have once been a major cart track past the farm, but now identifies as a muddy stream, particularly when it's raining. They seem to be waving at each other.

    XT501968.jpg

    Leigh Place 3

    I crept a little closer into the former garden for this portrait shot.

    XT501969 1.jpg

    DSCF9302 1.jpg

    JPG, 1.6 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501795.jpg

    JPG, 1.2 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    DSCF9405.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501841.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501910 1.jpg

    JPG, 1.8 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501851.jpg

    JPG, 1.6 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501814.jpg

    JPG, 1.4 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501816.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501871.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501969 1.jpg

    JPG, 1.9 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501887 1.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501958 1.jpg

    JPG, 1.7 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501968.jpg

    JPG, 1.7 MB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501939.jpg

    JPG, 972.6 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

    XT501904.jpg

    JPG, 936.9 KB, uploaded by SteveMonks on Aug. 10, 2024.

  • Members 1101 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 11:30 a.m.

    What a fantastic selection. Thank you for the exceptional tour. Fab!!!

  • Members 792 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 11:36 a.m.

    This is my favourite too :-)

    And Happy Birthday to Steve!

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 2:41 p.m.

    For a moment there, I thought you were visiting the UK. That image could be straight out of The Lake District.

    These look like the same sort of flowers I photographed in Mardale last week. Throwing my picture at Google reverse image search I identified these as Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia).

    Who needs more than 12MP anyway? (he says, glossing over the 102MP camera hiding in his cupboard). Nice shot. I think your D90 is going to a good home.

    One of my nephews is starting a photography GCSE in the new school year. I offered him my old, but immaculate D300 which has returned to me after my dad passed away, but he didn't want it. Apparently they're being discouraged from using proper cameras and encouraged to use phones instead, which sounds like lunacy to me (so, business as usual here in the UK then).

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 2:50 p.m.

    Rain? In Scotland? Surely not! If was to go off my experience of visiting Scotland (all three visits) I could be forgiven for thinking it rains all the time there. Chances are, someone very occasionally visiting Lancashire would probably come to the same conclusion.

    I like the out of focus specular highlights in all of these.

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 2:55 p.m.

    I like it too, but I think I tend to agree with Wormsmeat on this one, a square crop on the left hand side of the frame might work quite nicely here. Interesting structure.

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 3:09 p.m.

    I think I prefer the first one. The timing and general look of bemusement/disdain on the people as they look at you setting up your shot (presumably crouched down like a mad man, hovering your camera just above the puddle, we've all been there...) really makes it for me.

    Is there some digital trickery going on with the reflections in the 2nd shot? The outlines around the reflection of the blue sky in the puddle look unnaturally sharp to my eye.

  • Members 268 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 3:14 p.m.

    Fascinating stuff, I'd never heard of this artefact before. Nice looking cathedral too, well shot as always.

  • Members 1456 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 3:21 p.m.

    As sombody else said, the three small figures, really lift this shot.

  • Members 1456 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 3:25 p.m.

    Hope they enjoyed the mountains. Looks like your weather is a bit cooler than on our side of the Alps.

  • Members 1456 posts
    Aug. 10, 2024, 3:27 p.m.

    The out of focus water blobs, really make these shots special.

  • Members 789 posts
    Aug. 11, 2024, 9:34 a.m.

    My vote goes to Wyrd Tree from this set. And the vignette, whether natural or added, works well.