Whitby Reflections

It was such a lovely day on Saturday that we decided to go to Whitby - and so did the rest of the North East of England it seemed.  I guess everybody was suffering from cabin fever after all the wet and windy weather.  Remembering that it was still early January we were very surprised to find that three of the best fish and chip restaurants had queues outside at 1.45 pm!  Worth the wait though as they do some very good fish and chips in Whitby.

Just a couple of photos which I thought worth keeping.  The fishermen on the pier made me laugh - obviously they were taking no notice of the 'No Fishing' sign.

Steetley Pier

Only an hour or two spent with the camera during October.  We hosted a speaker at SPS, Sue Brown, who is well known for her long exposure images of sea pools.  She asked if we could take her to Hartlepool so that she could photograph what remains of Steetley Pier.  This is all that remains of the old magnasite works.  I wish I had know it was there before they cleared it all away as I have seen some super pictures of the derelict works.  However I've heard that the site was very toxic so maybe it was just as well.  It gave me the opportunity to try and get used to using the 10 stop filter.

Friday - The Last Day of our Short Break in the Lake District

Friday was an extremely dull day and probably not the best day to choose to try our the Nikon D70 which has been converted for Infra-Red.  I wanted to get the colours which can be achieved by Channel Swapping in Photoshop.  My attempts were not really successful probably because it was such a dull day.

We started the day at Blea Tarn.  Not the best weather for open landscape but good for recording the colour in the trees.  I did take one shot of the tarn as a 10 shot multiple exposure to smooth out the water in the absence of a big stopper filter.

Later we walked to Slaters Bridge and on the way found the wonderful pollarded tree.  Was it snowing?  You can decide.

The three versions of Slaters Bridge show the Channel Swapped effect with the converted camera, then the same file with Topaz BW Effects and also a picture taken as seen with the Nikon D300.  I prefer the Mono but it's good to experiment and I will have to remember to get out with the converted camera on a bright sunny day. It was almost dark when these pictures of Slaters Bridge were taken - it always amazes me how much light digital sensors can pick up.  Had we been using film we would have given up at least an hour earlier.

Loweswater and Home Wood

The weather wasn't so bright and sunny on our second day in the Lake District so we spent most of the time in Home Wood around Loweswater.  The autumn colours were just right.  I also spent some time on intentional camera movement while photographing the trees.  One of which, when turned into a landscape format, makes an abstract sea and skyscape.