My final posting on Flickr for 2015 - From Threads Come.....

At Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. Shot at 3200 DIN and 1/50th of a second this image of a weaving machine, of some sort, was lightened in Photoshop and then processed using Pixir - something new for me.

Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution and is now a museum of the cotton industry. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

The mill is on the bank of the River Bollin which provided water to power the waterwheels. It was connected by road to the Bridgewater Canal (see my previous photo post) for transporting raw cotton from the port of Liverpool.

First today was Opulant Dining at Tredegar House, simply shot at 3200 DIN, 1/40th of a second and f3.5.

later I lightened the shadows and added just a hint of contrast.

Tredegar House / Tŷ Tredegar

is a 17th-century Charles II-era country house mansion in Coedkernew, at the western edge of the city of Newport.

 

For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar (until they left in 1951); one of the most powerful and influential families in the area. Described by John Newman in his book The Buildings of Wales, as "The grandest and most exuberant country house" in Monmouthshire and one of the "outstanding houses of the Restoration period in the whole of Britain".

 

The house stands in a now reduced landscaped garden of 90 acres (36.5 Hectares).

 

After 1951 the house was bought by the Catholic Church as a convent school with boarders, later St. Joseph's Roman Catholic comprehensive school. It was bought by the Newport Corporation Council in 1974, giving rise to its then status as "the grandest council house in Britain".

 

In December 2011 the National Trust signed an agreement with Newport City Council to take on the management of the building, as well as the 90 acres of gardens and parkland, on a 50-year lease from 2012. The Trust said that Tredegar House was of "great importance" as many similar properties had been lost in the past 100 years.

Next up yesterday was The Farmers Wife. The Redhead and I chatted with this lovely lady an enactor at Beamish Museum, County Durham prior to the photo.
Simply converted to Artistic B&W and then brought back to 20% colour in Photomatix.

First up to Flickr was Fountains Abbey from a slightly different perspective and in, for me at least, quite heavy HDR. processed in Photomatix

Fountains Abbey is a joint venture, if you like, between The National Trust and English Heritage.

The NT own the property and manage visitors, whilst EH maintain and repair the structures.

Members of either organization can gain free entry to this World Heritage Site.

This is an image of the drawing Room at Cragside in Northumberland.

Cragside is a country house in Northumberland. It was the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power. Built into a rocky hillside above a 4 km² forest garden, it was the country home of Lord Armstrong.
Named after Cragend Hill above the house, was built in 1863 as a modest two-storey country lodge, but was subsequently extended to designs by Richard Norman Shaw, transforming it into an elaborate mansion in the Free Tudor style. At one point, the building included an astronomical observatory and a scientific laboratory.

This image which was taken in August 2015 has caused me a couple of headaches, not least because I shot it with my Canon's colour balance set to "Cloudy", I had an orange picture. This was sorted by manipulating the RAW image to "Tungston". The second problem which was easier to overcome in Photoshop was that the top of The Redhead's hair managed to get into the shot at the extreme left of the image.

Her Ladies Drawing Room, Cragside, Northumberland.

Helmsley Castle on a glorious day in September 2015.

This is the result of three photographs rapidly shot one under exposed one correctly exposed and one over exposed. The merged in Photomatix to give this picture. It is then tidied up a little in Photoshop and posted on Flickr.

Decisions, decisions. after processing what was a standard portrait taken on the Fountains Abbey / Studley Royal Estate with "Dreamy Photo App".

I spent some time trying to decide if I should post it to Flickr or not.

I did'nt I posted on Ipernity instead ( which is where a lot of my second thoughts pictures end up)

Beamish Museum in County Durham offers lots of photo opportunities especially when you are considering a Faux Vintage image.

This one taken in one of the wartime themed farm cottages looks much better in sepia than original colour.

Simply converted using Photoshop

One of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately three miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for over 400 years, until 1539, when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

After a dispute and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine house of St Mary's Abbey, in York, 13 monks were expelled (among them Saint Robert of Newminster) and, after unsuccessfully attempting to return to the early 6th-century Rule of St Benedict, were taken into the protection of Thurstan, Archbishop of York.

He provided them with land in the valley of the River Skell, a tributary of the Ure. The enclosed valley had all the natural features needed for the creation of a monastery, providing shelter from the weather, stone and timber for building, and a supply of running water.

After enduring a harsh winter in 1133, the monks applied to join the Cistercian order and in 1135 became the second house of that order in northern England, after Rievaulx. The monks subjected themselves to Clairvaux Abbey, in Burgundy which was under the rule of St Bernard. Under the guidance of Geoffrey of Ainai, a monk sent from Clairvaux, the group learned how to celebrate the seven Canonical Hours and were shown how to construct wooden buildings in accordance with Cistercian practice.

Fountains Abbey is a joint venture, if you like, between The National Trust and English Heritage.
The NT own the property and manage visitors, whilst EH maintain and repair the structures.
Members of either organization can gain free entry to this World Heritage Site.

This blog is the background to my posts on Flickr, Ipernity, Vimeo, YouTube and elsewhere