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2013-05-22 10:26:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Seeing as how lenticular clouds cropped up in another post somewhere, I thought I'd share these - quite nice cloud structures I found last night whilst walking the dog - surprisingly lenticular in nature as there aren't any hills around here to speak of, least of all in that direction.

#cloudscape   #galloway   #scotlanduk  

2013-05-20 22:27:44 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Home for Some

...that's quite close enough, too.

A serendipitous discovery whilst out with the dog at lunchtime today. For a few years I've been trying to get a decent photo of bluebells, and the trouble has always been the time, moment, optimum separation of subject and background in 3 dimensions (also requiring an angle that reveals the curve and petal shapes pleasantly). Today I saw this, composed with the copious bokeh (f/1.8 on the Pentacon 50mm lens), and right in the middle of shooting, the wee spider ran down its web into the middle of the frame for a few seconds. 
Blink and you've missed it.

#blackandwhitephotography   #blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery   #closeupphotography  

2013-05-18 23:28:51 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Water Feature (2)

It's been a slightly stressful day involving an awful lot of water. I came back home after an hour away to find a gutter load of water bypassing the drain by the road and flowing down the slight incline into our driveway which resembled a swimming pool, having flooded the garage 4 inches deep and dislodged enough gravel to make opening the gate difficult. Half an hour of shovelling gravel around later and I was well soaked... so was the front garden flowerbed, too.

This is for #zensunday   with +Nathan Wirth +Charlotte Therese Björnström +Simon Davis-Oakley 
#blackandwhitephotography   #blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery  

2013-05-18 14:11:48 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I live at http://www.shinyphoto.co.uk/ , selling via RedBubble - any advice of a better backend would be appreciated :)

Also just taken up blogging (a bit late to the game, perhaps), at http://soc.sty.nu/ .

2013-05-17 20:58:35 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Dwarf Hyacinth

More fun in the evening light a couple of nights ago.

2013-05-16 15:48:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Horsetail

Having established that these weeds are horsetail, I went back today with the Lensbaby to get a better photo - it seems to separate the subject and background a little better whilst retaining lots of nice detail in the lower leaf bokeh than my earlier attempt did.

This is for #lensbabythursday  with +Gloria Roldan 
#weed   #flowerphotography   #closeupphotography   #closeupthursday   #blackandwhitephotography  

2013-05-15 21:42:20 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

OK +Google+ . There are some issues with this new interface.

The two-column layout means I can't read any one item top to bottom without distraction from the other side. This is bad.

I use GTalk for IM; this is not the same as a hangout nor do I want it to be. To stop friends popping-up in my G+ Chrome tab, I have to sign out of Hangouts altogether, which leaves wasted space down the right margin.

The way post-snippets appear as a nested box within the notifications drop-down is offputting.

The left menu does not need to both float and have whitespace allocated for it. Either float and overwrite items when clicked, or just go back to the previous design with the left margin always there.

Perhaps worst of all, my profile page has made the background photo even larger, to the extent that it no longer fits within the height of a 1440x900px... more »

2013-05-15 21:15:20 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Dance of the Bluebells

Experiments in time, space and light - a combination of 7 frames, involving full-on sunlight with trees casting shadows on the undergrowth, fill-flash and comparatively long exposures. The secret's in the selecting which 7 frames to combine, in what proportions, to obtain optimum texture patterns.

2013-05-14 20:41:21 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Splash of Colour

Couldn't resist the light this evening.

#colourphotography   #light   #flowersphotography  

2013-05-10 11:27:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I've had enough of +BBC News, for 3 reasons:

1) the volume of articles about Boston marathon outweighed the death of over 200 Iraqis the same day by a huge (dis)proportion.

2) UKIP are an offensive right-wing party with xenophobic leanings. After the local council elections, you'd have thought the BBC was their mouthpiece. The less publicity they get, the better.

3) Their article on Prince Charles's speech against climate-change-deniers shows the lunacy of the corporate "all opinions are equally valid" policy; it goes downhill pivoting on the word "But" to introduce a patronising idiot's opinion for no discernible reason. We do not want to be dragged into the soap-opera mire of mere opinion and might-makes-right; we want facts, insight and journalism (sometimes even on the same webpage).

On these grounds I've uncircled thep... more »

2013-05-09 20:12:35 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

The Answer...

...is blowing in the wind.

Or at least these trees are.

I've taken this scene before, but thought I'd return to it as it was blowing a gale making walkies quite difficult, and the trees are boasting thicker foliage a few weeks since I last photographed it.

(An 18-shot panorama, processed in #photivo , #hugin  and enfuse, with +darktable for black&white conversion and two grad-ND filters (now that we can add multiple instances of the same module, yay!).)

#blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery   #blackandwhitephotography   #treephotography   #scotlandphotography  

2013-05-09 20:09:47 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Trees & Light

The undergrowth is thickening - can't wait to see if it all sprouts forth into a bluebell carpet.

#treephotography   #woodlands   #scotlandphotography   #scotlanduk  

2013-05-09 20:08:29 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Proto-Tree

Detail of a tiny young tree sapling just sticking its first pair of leaves out to catch what little sun it can on the woodland floor - barely a few inches tall. I wish it well :)

#treephotography   #blackandwhitephotography  

2013-05-06 22:17:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

All the Time in the World

Sea, sky, stone, time...

standing on the edge of the harbour wall with the parents, gazing out to sea. 

#minimalmonday  with +Olivier Du Tré 
#minimalism   #water   #blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery  

2013-04-30 13:46:59 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Sycamore

It's that time of year again, when the sycamore/field-maple trees are putting forth juicy succulent buds.
Thought I'd return to my simple-subject warm-toned black&white style for the day.

This is for #treetuesday  with +Christina Lawrie +Shannon S. Myers 
#bokehtuesday  with +Bob Baxley 
#todaytuesday  with +Brian White 

2013-04-28 22:46:47 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Cloud Iridescence

One of the advantages of the Galloway landscape is you get very big skies...

The sun behind cloud, one morning whilst out with the dog.

#weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 

2013-04-28 22:35:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Dunskey Castle (2)

Dramatic rocky coastline. It was so windy I lost a few frames to camera-shake with the tripod being buffeted around.

The Wanderlust Pinwide pinhole "lens" suffers from huge vignetting and lurid green/magenta-shifts across the frame beyond what I consider viable, even for a vintage type effect. And of course its tiny aperture exposes the worst sensor-dust imaginable... So I made this from 11 frames, a wide-ranging HDR and slight panorama (maybe 80-90% overlap for noise-reduction) and subtracted a reference-frame in +RawTherapee prior to stitching them all in Hugin+enfuse.

#pinholephotography   #pinholeday   #blackandwhitephotography  

#zensunday  with +Nathan Wirth 

2013-04-27 23:12:52 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Warmth

Detail of candles on the fireplace, low-key.

Well, I thought they looked nice so I took a photo of them :)

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 
#blackandwhitephotography  

2013-04-27 22:22:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Dunskey Castle

...has also seen better days. Well, if I'd been around since the 13th century, so'd I.

Simple bracketed HDR to retain detail in the rocks and sky (difficult, with the sun immediately left of the shot).

#hdrphotography   #scotlandphotography   #castlephotography   #ruinsphotography  

2013-04-24 22:55:34 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Daffodils

It's funny how hard it can be to find just the right angle on just the right subject to highlight a simple flower from its background... not sure if the vast number to choose from helps.

2013-04-24 10:51:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Unreserved

Much of the past 6 months were spent admiring the aesthetic and/or photographic potential in fenceposts. As if that was insufficiently mundane, here it appears the roadside reservation barriers are worthy of study. One could say nature's overtaking ;)

2013-04-24 10:49:39 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Sharpness

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people. - Jim Rohn 

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. - Ansel Adams

The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses. - Ovid

In nature there are few sharp lines. - A. R. Ammons 


This is 37 megapixels of optional sharpness.

2013-04-22 11:34:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Selectivity, or Why is Good?

What makes a photo good, and are those good reasons why a photo should be well received or not?

#photography   #photographytips   #philosophy  

2013-04-21 09:24:04 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Fairies' Chapel

A year or so ago the parents and I discovered Healey Dell, just over the border into deepest darkest Lancashire. Cutting through the usual murk of folklore stories, the dell features a nice interplay of man's viaduct and nature's rocks and water.

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 

2013-04-21 09:21:19 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Clouds

Take one summer evening and some nice light. Walk from study to patio, point camera, take 3 shots and go process. Simples. :)

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 
#cloudscape   #skysunday   #skyphotography  

2013-04-20 11:22:07 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Social Commentary: evidence

2013-04-18 15:55:14 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Truncated

I thought the classic Lensbaby Composer effect suited this truncated tree-stump I found whilst walking the Dog today.

This is for #lensbabythursday  with +Gloria Roldan 
#blackandwhitephotography  

2013-04-18 15:43:08 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Portpatrick Harbour

Three (currently) photos taken of water and rocks in Portpatrick Harbour, down the road from us.

As with everything I shoot, these are experiments in blending - in the first image, a wave passed entirely by, the breaking front passing across the frame from left to right, in the course of half a dozen frames.

2013-04-14 22:09:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Some Trees

I noticed this strong diagonal line with the mixture of hawthorn and beech growing on it a couple of weeks ago, when I first drove down the road in the snow. It was well worth revisiting, to see the snow receded and enjoy the morning light.

#zensunday  with +Nathan Wirth  #blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery  

2013-04-14 22:06:36 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 7 +1s)

Minimalism

'Tis a photo of two halves.

Still some tiny remaining fragments of snow on the ground.

#zensunday  with +Nathan Wirth  #minimalism   #blackandwhitephotography  

2013-04-14 16:50:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Escapist Dog

One of the first things we did on buying this house was to fix-up the kennels. These consisted of a set of 4 thin hutches, each with concrete floor and a rear wooden compartment behind a wooden door with cat-flap so we could put his bed, water and toys in out of the rain. 

We knocked two of the thin kennels together and patched-up one of the hutches, adding polystyrene foam insulation and wooden board for extra comfort.

So this morning, I put Dog in his shiny house and wandered off to church. Came back a couple of hours later to find herself(TM) complaining that I’d put him on the wrong side of the door before shutting it… animal found wandering around the garden. At least we now know he won’t willingly leave the garden altogether, but that was pretty scary.

On investigation, it transpires he left his nice comfy house, went into theneighb... more »

2013-04-13 21:03:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Wet Leaf

When I lived in Perth, I visited the Falls of Bruar about 5 times - and then, since moving to Argyll and thence Galloway, had not been back for about 4 years. So when I had occasion to drive the A9 again a few months ago, I rather relished having a couple of hours to spend at Bruar again. Of course there's the usual waterfalls - two or three levels, depending on how you look at them, in a spectacular gorge. But there's also this little microcosm, the most trivial of tributaries to the river, with these leaves stuck submerged on a small rock - a closeup detail while behind me the river thundered.

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 
#closeupphotography   #motionblur  

2013-04-07 14:56:57 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Satisfying one's pyromaniac urges - the first bonfire having just moved house feels particularly gratifying.

2013-04-06 21:49:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Loch Etive

It was gone 10pm by the time I arrived at this viewpoint near the north-east end of Loch Etive; the calm stillness in front of me was matched by the groups of campers enjoying themselves playing flute and guitar around their fires behind me.

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 

#scotlandphotography   #longexposurephotography  

2013-04-04 10:52:20 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

This house smells strange ;-)

Paging +The G+ DogPark :-)

2013-04-02 22:27:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Ovis aries

Ah, go on then. Can't beat a bit of Spring cuteness :)

Yesterday with veg, today with balti... ;)

#sheep   #lamb   #cutenessoverload   #blackandwhitedailyphoto  

2013-04-01 23:00:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Sense of Proportion

Today marks my 1000th consecutive daily photo posted to blipfoto.com. Some numbers to consider:

4.4×10^26 m - radius of the observable universe

1.5x10^11 m - 1AU, the radius of a sphere in which one molecule of homeopathically diluted substance might be expected to be found

7x10^8 m - radius of the Sun

7.1x10^7 m - radius of Jupiter

6.4x10^6 m - radius of the Earth

10^2 m - a good distance to run in 10s

1m - <-- you fit in here, alongside fenceposts and other human-sized things

1.7x10^-1 m - a good length for a kitchen knife

1x10^-3 m - a mustard seed

1x10^-4 m - thickness of a human hair

3.63x10^-6 m - pixel-pitch of the sensor that took this photo

4.4x10^-7 m - diameter of a Megavirus

1.62x10^-35 m - Planck length, shorter... more »

2013-03-31 23:15:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Environment

A couple of days ago I drove down this road - it had been cleared but there were drifts from the fields cut 4-5 feet high, about the height of the car. This shot was taken today, where the drifts were still 3' deep in the fields. Considering "it never snows in Galloway", this is a pretty rare event.

A tale of the environment - what it does to us and what we do to it.

#hdrphotography   #androidography   #scotlanduk   #snow  

2013-03-31 21:51:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This World's Not My Home

I've mentioned the idea before, that landscape photography is sometimes a contrivance - this one in particular arose from a concerted effort to choose a coastal scene on a comparatively grey day; quite some time spent poring over the OS map and the area on flickr and thinking it had potential, then more time spent blethering in Jessops and by the time I'd driven up there the light was failing - quite cold, heading on for the blue-hour having bypassed the golden hour altogether. Still, it made for a distinctive pleasantly silvery tonality in the resultant black & white image.

A long exposure at Tarbat Ness lighthouse, #highlands  .

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 
#blackandwhitefineartphotographygallery   #longexposurephotography  

2013-03-31 10:22:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Phenomenon

A couple of years ago, now, I went for an exploratory drive one Sunday afternoon up the side of Loch Maree in the Highlands. On the way up the southern shore road, I encountered this wall of falling hail and precipitation - never heard such a deafening noise on the windscreen before. It passed, fortunately quickly, but as I emerged the other side and resumed the trundle westwards, I saw a gorgeous rainbow in the rear-view mirror. A very quick sprint through woodland and I screeched to a stop on the loch shore at Slattadale, to make this and other photos.

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 
#atop  +Atmospheric Optics  #rainbow   #highlands  

2013-03-25 22:50:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

It's just occurred to me. A year or more ago, in my early days on G+, there was a thread concerning the size of watermarks superimposed on photos. I recall a particular photographer's attitude was a an unsubtle variation of "I have this brand and I'm going to publicize it and you'll like it".

The irony is, I remember the thread, but after uncircling for what I considered both excessively distracting watermarking and that attitude ... I genuinely don't recall his name any more.

#reverseStreisand   #irony   #protestTooMuch  

2013-03-25 12:19:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

How much palm oil is in your Easter egg?

Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian rank the lowest on their use of sustainable palm oil in Easter eggs. Divine and Booja-Booja were deemed to have the best overall credentials, with neither using any palm oil in their chocolate products. Traidcraft, Co-operative Food and Sainsbury's also scored very highly.

Unsustainable palm oil poses an increasing threat to the world's rainforests, their indigenous wildlife, and the people whose livelihoods depend on the forests.

Ethical Consumer magazine and charity Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) surveyed over 70 brands with the aim of encouraging consumers to buy the best-rated products, and forcing companies not taking their environmental responsibilities seriously to use more sustainably sourced palm oil.

Easter eggs rated by use of unsustainable palm oil:
... more »

2013-03-24 17:51:47 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Old Signpost

Yesterday whilst searching for reports of weather and road conditions, I stumbled across a photo on geograph taken just up the back-road from here: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2385010

Slightly amused that someone else had thought it worthy of documenting, today I took my own - funny how vintage it looks in black & white.

#blackandwhitephotography   #blackandwhitedailyphoto   #snow   #weather  

2013-03-24 17:49:31 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Game Theory

With a longer stroll than usual for a morning
I gained more exercise;
Dog gained more exercise and a new friend without peeing on anyone;
the driver of a small van regained access to the main road again;
the farmers had great fun trying to convert an assault-course of a road into 6'-high snow-men and gained easier access to their beasties.

Everyone's a winner apart from the snow and a borked shovel.

Funny idea, this co-operation malarky.

2013-03-23 19:12:27 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Water and Light

Landscape photography... it feels like such a contrivance at times. I saw the potential for a nice sunset as I drove through the Highlands toward Fort William, and so chose to go further along Loch Eil and back until I was facing the town again. I even saw sunset approaching along the length and round the corner of the loch, until the orange light on Ben Nevis was reflected in the water.

I also notice there's a fashion for minimal element-ary photography, an art born of simplification - and it doesn't get much more simple than this - and wonder if it's time the fashion changed to ways of handling complexity instead.

This is for #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis 

2013-03-22 16:12:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Snow

So it does snow in Galloway after all.. there's anything from an inch or two over most of the driveway up to a drift of 3.5' outside the gate. Yow.

#dumfriesandgalloway   #weatherandnaturalforces   #snow  

2013-03-22 11:07:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Best snow of the winter so far. Mostly just an inch deep but it's coming down sideways in gusts over 40mph - and I found these drifts a foot deep as well. Yay, bring it on ;-)

#hdrphotography   #winterwonderland   #blackandwhitedailyphoto  

2013-03-19 11:41:20 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

The Silence of Eternity (2)

I was feeling a bit minimalist this morning...

Techie notes: all source images taken with the Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 lens and Lumix GH2, RAW conversions done in Photivo. Two shots for the sky, rotated 180deg on top of each other and blended with paper (from my texture library) and a plasma fractal in the value channel in Gimp in order to control the homogeneity; because the seagull layer was almost a silhouette already, the layer mask was a copy of the layer itself, greyscale and inverted. Final black&white and selenium toning done in +digiKam and a slight crop to place the bird on a harmonious triangle intersection.

This is for #todaytuesday  with +Brian White and #textureblendphotography   #textureblendtuesday  with +Gemma Costa.
#minimalism  

2013-03-17 12:16:31 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 22 +1s)

Calm

One summer evening in 2011, I drove back from Inverness to Argyll, calling in on Rothiemurchus and, as if my travels weren't long enough already, Glencoe and Glen Etive. It was gone 10pm by the time I reached the head of Loch Etive, here; I like the way this scene is so still and peaceful yet behind me a few groups of campers were having fun with flutes and guitar around their fires as well.

For #weekendartmarketplace  with +Matt Shalvatis : prints available from my website, http://www.shinyphoto.co.uk/pictures/loch-etive-boulder-colour

#zensunday  with +Nathan Wirth +Charlotte Therese Björnström +Simon Davis-Oakley 
#scotland   #longexposurephotos  

2013-03-13 11:55:28 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Wiggly Wednesdays: #3

The untitleable abstract art series continues... at least I gained a new texture (pleasantly lit stone tile) to add to my library too :)