Land Rover Katy

I can't resist a plug here for my new on-line presence http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/

I think this one if going to be a long and expensive journey back to pristine condition and probably quite a few picture opportunities along the way

In a Happy Place

Feeling in a completely different mood to my recent post on Being in a Dark Place  I can relate on how spent a happy afternoon in Axbridge recently. Not actually a happy occasion as reported in Paint it Black, but with people who shared interests and backgrounds, especially the aspect of liking our dear departed friend Chas Weathered

I had a wonderful afternoon and evening the one thing I can easily say is that the only Boring thing was the old museum building and that only in terms of the woodwork so my first picture is entitled ...

A Boring Landscape

After the ceremony we were entertained by some of Chas's old friends... non looking older than the Morris Men

Love me... Love my Hat 

Who despite many a grey hair between them could still manage a sprightly dance.. please note close proximity to the nearest available watering hole...

A flock of handkerchiefs

As I understand it's a legal requirement for Morris men to drink real Ale.. So how could I do otherwise

I'm sure Chas would have been happy I made it this far in my pint

Getting there

Regards
Andy

In a Dark Place

I've found some images to show my mood tonight

All of this may seem over dramatic and I'm sure it is, but just sometimes when the day has been too much I like to hide myself away and try and find a positive spin on what has got me to this point. So here's my day in three pictures

In a dark place ... spinning around

So the Question I ask myself is...

And the answer is ...

And I'm one of them... Work has been manic I've been spinning all day and it's not stopped when I got home with emails and phone calls demanding more of  me than I feel I can give.

The final thought however is that there has been someone at the door of my den who cares for me and loves me despite my mood and my rants ... maybe I should just lighten up for her !

Trip to the Red Light District

Sorting out some of the files on my laptop I came across this again. A few years ago I booked onto an Art Photography course at the local university. I think that I need to do much more portrait work to get comfortable, but the most important feature is to find good models, which is one of the reasons I went on the course. 

Actually the teaching on the course wasn't up to much, but this young lady was a superb model and I wish I'd had more time to work with her.

After the portrait work I took an interest in the light itself and got comfortable as I really got into my element ;-).  



These were both taken with my Olympus e-510 camera using the 40-150mk II kit lens on ISO 1600 handheld as there was a lot of movement in the studio with more than one model. I used -1ev to keep the blacks dark and have increased contrast in post processing to get the clean final look I wanted

Going Undergrond for the Winter or coming out After a Hot Summer Ready for Love

It's late night ( well early morning ) and I've been working on a presentation for the 2011 BCRA Cave Science symposium which we're hosting in Cardiff University in March.

In doing that I have had a need to look through quite a few of my caving pictures and I came across these old friends 

In late August we went underground in a local cave to look at some old archaeological digs that were done by the Cardiff Naturalists Society in the 1800's Whilst there we were treated to the sight of a couple of local inhabitants that had taken up residence.

Before you get ideas of bearded hermits here are a couple of pictures of the creatures in question. 

The first is the Tissue moth (Triphosa dubitata) who overwinter in caves in order to undergo a period of diapause (suspended development).  This is apparently necessary for the successful production of viable eggs in the following year

The second is the golden caddis fly Stenophylax permistus  who stay in caves in the summer to undergo a similar period of rest or diapause.

 

Both of these pictures were taken in early August 2010 when the weather was still nice and autumn hadn't really set in so I guess they were both just enjoying a cool dark place for a rest like we were. They were both taken with the E-30 and 14-54mm  lens which is great for getting up close to insects if they are nice and dormant like these two were.

The pictures are both lit with a single FL-36 flash on a CB-05 extension cord to be able to put a shadow across the insect otherwise pictures like this look misty and flat because of the levels of moisture in caves. 

Another moth that does the overwintering is the Herald Moth featured in an earlier post

Learning a new Lens

Back in November I was pleased to take delivery of an Olympus 7-14mm super wide angle lens


I had been able to test one at one of the Olympus e-group meetings in South Wales a few years ago, but had not been able to afford one until recently so I was really pleased to get this in perfect condition from a member of the e-group who was downsizing at a significant reduction to the list price


It's a beast of a lens with a domed front element and a real case of "mind your feet" if you point it downwards, especially in portrait mode


With poor weather and work commitments I've not had the time to play lens properly until this weekend when we went to Southerndown on the River Severn to look at the Jurassic Lias cliffs (geology note!)


I've still got some practising to do to get the hang of what levels of distortion are going to be acceptable in a picture (some is inevitable with close items and this lens) but I an happy with these as a first real use


I would have liked to be further back from the cliff for this one, but the tide was too far in

 The pebbles on the right are a little too distorted for my liking, but it's fun to be able to get down and close to the ground

Of these three this is my favourite one, in the corner where the gryphaea can be found and looking back towards the main area of cliffs

Geological Note

These cliffs are Jurassic in age. that's about 190 Million years old in this case. They are known as Lias from the German for layers and are layered limestone's and shale's which contain marine fossils telling us they were laid down under the sea Gryphaea mentioned above is a type of fossil oyster that grows in a very curved manner and is often referred to as "Devils Toe Nails" because they look like the toes of gargoyles

Picture of the Year 2010

In an earlier post I mentioned that there was a Picture of the Year 2010 competition on the UK Olympus e-Group

At that time as voting was still open I thought it inappropriate to talk further about what I had been really happy with in 2010, but now votes are in and counted so I feel free to talk.

So my top three were

Ice plants - these were sedges crowing on Mynydd Llangynidr that I really liked when we saw them in the winter of 2010 just after new year - this wonderful day out was a superb way to start the year and getting down close and personal with these natural ice sculptures was a wonderful way to start the year. More of these Here This was taken with my E-510 with the kit 14-42 lens at the long end, it's F8 at 100 ISO

Goldcliff

As Spring wore on I was happy to spend another wonderful day out with Rhian who I persuaded to pose for me in this picture taken on the mudflats at Goldcliff. She'd been working whilst I spent a wonderful 2 hours taking pictures of the mudflats and the fish traps.This was taken with my new (at the time) E-30 and the absolutely wonderful 11-22mm lens at f5.6 to give a reasonable, but not ulttrasharp DOF and -1.7 ev because I was shooting into the sun

 in writing this I've realised that I never put any of these in my website. I will develop a gallery for the River Severn as it's so photogenic around here

Last and by no means least is my weekend in Tenby

We had planned to be lead on a field trip by Professor Brian WIlliams, but Rhian received a phone call at work.. "Hi Rhian... I'm phoning from the Hague.." The trouble was that was the weekend of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland which is why there are no planes in the sky and I didn't need to photoshop vapour trails out of that weekend's pictures at all. It's also taken on my E-30 and once again the 11-22mm lens. Tenby is always a pleasure to visit and take pictures of as you can see Here 

P.S. if you want to make a model of the Volcano .. http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/highlights/iceland/3dVolcanicModel.html

Paint it Black

"The only time you find anything blacker is when you shake off your mortal coil"

Chas Wethered - Artist, Potter, Caver, Jazz Lover, Morris man, Gentleman - recorded in the ISSA Radio4 programme Paint it Black in 2002 when he was aged 62 and still caving after his quintuple Heart bypass 

Keep on caving Chas ... I Hope it's black enough for you

Chas’s died on Monday 24^th January. He had just bought a large supply of snuff in the Bath snuff shop and stopped off to sink a couple of pints in the Apple Tree before returning to his local in Axbridge for a couple more.

Everything to Excess!

Robin Gray

His wish to die in a real ale pub with a pint in his hand came true.. it was just a pity he was just at the top of his first pint

There is a follow-up to this post Here

Not Caving - Mostly

We went across to Mendip this weekend to visit some of our close friends in the the ISSA cave art group for their AGM meet.

As we left wales I had a sudden realization.. I had left my caving camera at home

Well at least I still had my above ground equipment with me so I could concentrate on taking pictures in the sunshine OK. Plan B looked inviting until just as we arrived in the Mendip area the clouds rolled in, it started to rain and and plan B looked a little less inviting as well

Nothing ventured as they say and we headed off to a secret location to see the site of one of the cave digs and maybe even take part. I got roped in literally as my rope and ladder were sequestered into the cause to make the diggers safe, but I (not reluctantly) stuck to the above ground support role with my camera

So I kept myself entertained with some of the excellent views you can find in a small Mendip woodland

Somewhere deep in the depths of the wood lurks an as-yet unknown to science new type of tree crawler. Well that's at least what it looked like to me when I first saw this leaf frozen to the branch of the tree.

Deep in the woodlands you find other unusual things and this is a lesser spotted Meg wandering around at the back of this picture. I have kept the depth of field short to protect the innocent

 Also with a close depth of field is a close up of the old winding gear of a cavers winch used when excavating into the bed of a stream to find out where the water was going to. It's now a bit beyond its productive life, but forms an interesting unusual feature on this nature reserve walk

I'd like to thanks Robin and Barry for arranging an excellent weekend and in particular for showing me the delights of East Twin Swallet and the major engineering works that have been done by the local cavers in trying to explore more of this cave. In particular the link to Spar Pot which has the most incredible fossils on-show and is a place I really need to go back to WITH my caving camera

Homeward Bound

One of the nice things about My Tree is that it's got a wonderful view back towards home so whichever way you turn there is a picture

Snow shots are often criticised for being somewhat grey so I don't know what the purists will think of my orange snow, but this was the view a few minutes after the last shot in the My Tree section. I used a fairly small aperture (f16) because I wanted a good depth of field on this picture, and +0.7 ev (exposure variance) to keep the snow bright even thought I was shooting into the sun. 

Clearly a couple of blown highlights in the sun and one at the bottom, in the reflection, but I'm going to not worry too much I'm not a pixel peeper

The long and winding road is the way home. it's about 2 miles and along the way there are many fine pictures to be seen. This one is a little closer to home I've only about a mile to go before I will be warm...

or so it seems because this was actually a few days before and I was going in the other direction and had to shelter in the pub when the blizzard landed ....

At least that's my excuse.

In this picture I opened up the aperture to F8 which is a good compromise in terms of depth of field and still being bright enough for a reasonable shutter speed. Once again +0.7 ev because it's predominantly a white scene 

Using exposure variance in this way is important in pictures that are dominated by Bright or dark because scenes because your camera will try to adjust to an average  

We DID make it home eventually...