Historical enactors can be a superb source of subject, especially when they are caught unawares!

The first photo was taken at Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham, England. There they have a working farm set in the wartime era (1940's) and this enactor was chopping firewood whilst having a conversation with another. 

I shot 5 or 6 of this lady in different swings of her axe and decided that this was the best shot. I then thought about film types, Ektachrome was developed in the 1940's and I had images of a couple of styles of slide frame I could use.

In reality Ektachrome 64 would not have made a significant colour change to the original image but as 1940's film deteriorated with age I thought a little bit of aging would be appropriate.

I called this photo "Determination"

Funghi, Mushrooms, Toadstools, whatever are a major feature of woodlands during Autumn. But they can be difficult to photograph. So here I have used the simple appraoch of taking three exposures, one under, one over and one just right combined them to produce this rather striking image.

Not so sure if it is edible, but it looks nice!

I have a mild fascination for watching other photographers take photos, and here on the NYMR at Gromont. I have managed to catch two phone photo ladies taking a shot of the steam engine. Why Black & White, well that just so happened to be the way I had set the camera up for a little bit of steam train nostalga.

I had already posted this photo of a lane in Licoln with a rather determined lamp post determined to get in on the act. When I posted it I thought that it looked best in monochrome but now I have reprocessed it as an HDR. I think it looks really good.

Well, just as you think you have just taken the perfect photo of this flower in the Rose Garden at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire.

You get home, process it and ...a spider has got in on the act and started weaving a web in the background. Oh well next time perhaps!

Some days you plan a visit, you have for one reason or another to go on that day, and well things are less than kind to you.

That is exactly what happened to me on the 10th of May 2014. Staying in Edinburgh and with a tight schedule I could only visit the lovely Inveresk Lodge Gardens once and not for the whole day.

So when the alloted day arrived, cold dull and wet I just had to go!

This is the original ISO of 800 and 1/250th of a second (to avoid any kind of camera shake) the greyness of the day comes through.

However with the rain droplets and a little bit of post processing, I think the end result is, well, not bad. What do you think?

I sometimes think that photography is really about opening your eyes to your surroundings!

This photo was taken in the side passage of The Blue Bell in Fossgate, York.

A pub that is considered to have an interior of national importance. It consists of two small rooms served by a central bar and here in the side corridor by a hatch, no doubt much in vogue when having a glass or as described in some parts of these islands as "a wee refreshment" was not socially acceptable.

This photo forms one of my series on British Pubs.

Double Redhead. That is the title I have given to this little piece of fun. Purporting to be one of thise "disasters" of the film photography era where you accidently make a double exposure! Later in this Blog I will be posting some real 1950's/60's double exposures all taken by accident.

Sometimes you don't have to look far to find an interesting subject. This one was actually taken through a window of my home.
This is Weather Hill in County Durham. Not very big or very noteworthy although Watling Street (the Roman road) crosses it.
Not a lot of post processing here and the only thing special about taking the photo was the use of a polarising filter. What I have done is cut the size down to a letterbox format so that the eye is more focused. Do you like it?

Here is another Infrared photo this time underwater in a rockpool in North Yorkshire, can you spot any wildlife?

Ever since I discovered infrared photography in the late 1960's I have had a mild fascination for it.
I quickly learnt that some things make better subjects than others and that they can be quite startling.
Digital Infrared gives you the ability to create images in colour as opposed to chemical Black and White.
This photo was taken in late Autumn (Northern Hemisphere) and since then I have experimented with different tones I think that this one brings out the feeling of an autumn evening.

Just off North Road can be found  this gem in the heart of Durham City.
The park occupies 4.3 hectares of land hugging the hillside just to the North of the city centre.
At its peak there are grade 2 listed Battlements dating back to 1858.
19th century philosopher John Ruskin, described the spectacular views from the battlements of Durham Cathedral, Durham Castle, the railway viaduct and over the City as 'the Eighth Wonder of the World'.

Todays Flickr post is of this fifty year old locomotive in straight HDR she can now be found on the NYMR in North yorkshire

Today's second post is an HDR of the River Arun discharging into the English Channel.

Relatively simple process taken by a three shot HDR technique two stops under exposed and two stops over.

The real problem I had was levelling of the horizon which was at a 25 degree angle due to the rapid shooting at HDR.

before Levelling off the horizon

The finished article

Is it HDR or is it not, well, yes it is, I know I could have simply increased the contrast and the colour saturation, but I didn't.

Taken as a three shot HDR 2 stops under and 2 stops over exposed and then processed with Photomatix. Gives I think this pleasing result.

Rievaulx Abbey

A former Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park.

Headed by the Abbot of Rievaulx, it was one of the wealthiest abbeys in England until it was dissolved by Henry VIII of England in 1538.

founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian abbey in the north. With time it became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.

Its remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world. The patron, Walter Espec, settled another Cistercian community, founding Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates.

The abbey lies in a wooded dale by the River Rye, sheltered by hills. To have enough flat land to build on, part of the river was diverted several metres west of its former channel. The monks altered the course of the river three times during the 12th century. The old course is visible in the abbey's grounds. This is an illustration of the technical ingenuity of the monks, who over time built up a profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe. Rievaulx Abbey became one of the greatest and wealthiest in England with 140 monks and many more lay brothers. It received grants of land totalling 6,000 acres (24 km²) and established daughter houses in England and Scotland.

Towards the end of the 13th century the abbey had incurred debts on its building projects and lost revenue due to an epidemic of sheep scab (psoroptic mange). The ill fortune was compounded by raiders from Scotland in the early 14th century. To make matters worse, the great reduction of the population caused by the Black Death in the mid 14th century made it difficult to recruit new lay brothers for manual labour. As a result the abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381 there were only fourteen choir monks, three lay brothers and the abbot left at Rievaulx, and some buildings were reduced in size.

By the 15th century the Cistercian practices of strict observance according Saint Benedict's rule had been abandoned in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle. The monks were permitted to eat meat and more private living accommodation was created for them, and the abbot had a substantial private household.

The abbey was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538. At that time there were reported to be 72 buildings occupied by an abbot and 21 monks, attended by 102 servants, with an income of £351 a year. The abbey owned a prototype blast furnace at Laskill, producing cast iron as efficiently as a modern blast furnace.

Henry ordered the buildings to be rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead. The site was granted to the Earl of Rutland, one of Henry's advisers, until it passed to the Duncombe family.

In the 1750s Thomas Duncombe III beautified his estate by building the terrace with two Grecian-style temples. They are in the care of the National Trust. The abbey ruins are in the care of English Heritage.

When awarded a life peerage in 1983, former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a Yorkshireman, adopted the title Baron Wilson of Rievaulx.

I find that the period setting of Beamish Museum, in County Durham, adds enormously to the feel of this photo. Taken at 1/400 and f9 and an ISO of 400 the image responds well to processing through Photomatix.

The Tramstop

Beamish Museum's Sunderland No 16 tram alongside a Tramways Inspector.

 

No 16 was built as an open-top tramcar by Dick, Kerr & Co., Preston, in 1900, however to increase capacity it was later rebuilt as double dekker.

 

Sunderland's tram system closed in 1954 and No 16 became the changing rooms for local football clubs.

 

Eventually it found it's way to a farm and was used as storage until the tram found a new home at Beamish in 1989. But it was not until 2003 that it finally entered service at the museum.

The picture I have chosen to upload for today is of the rear entrance to the extensive walled  at Llanerchaeron This shot was taken on a bright sunny day in June 2015 as a three shot HDR. However rather than just process as an HDR I have here, converted it to a "Artistic Monochrome" in Photomatix and bled colour back to 20%. Following that I have increased the green hue using Photoshop. I think it adds a mysterious but inviting look into the walled garden.

Llanerchaeron, onetime known as "Llanayron House" , is a grade I listed mansion on the River Aeron, near Aberaeron, Ceredigion designed and built in 1795 by John Nash for Major (later Colonel) William Lewis as a model, self-sufficient farm complex.

The neighbouring parish church of St Non was also redesigned by Nash.

My first post to Flickr for 2016.

This image taken underground with, unusually for me, my Canon set to Automatic. Is of an enactor at Beamish Museum in County Durham.
Simply adjusted for tone and shadows it was converted to black and white and then a 20% tint added.

                                                              The Pit Deputy

 The deputy could be compared to a supervisor, he was responsible for an area of the pit underground, known as a "District".
He would walk the roadways (tunnels) and crawl along the coal face where men were working. He would be supervising all aspects of health and safety and mostly stop and speak to the men on his District.

 There would be a deputy on that distrct/area every shift and they would "hand over" to each other.

Although an official, he would mostly be part of the team and would most likely be part of the community above ground.

He would have a senior man higher than himself, that person being an Overman who would be responsible for a number of districts.

One below the Deputy would be the shotfirers, which as it's name suggests were responsible for exploding the powder to break the coal or rock into smaller pieces.

Seen here in Beamish Museum's, Drift Mine (a mine that can be walked into, rather than a Deep Pit that required shafts and lifing gear).

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.