Windmill at Scarborough

The Old Corn Mill, Mill Street, Scarborough

Wednesday 30th September 2015

Had to go to Scarborough this morning, on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. As I approached the town centre I was aware of the old corn mill, with its white sails contrasting against a blue sky. I grew up around this area, when the 'old mill' did not have sails or a cap and was in a very shabby condition. The mill is now Grade 2 listed and dates back to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century and was used for grinding corn. It was rescued in 1988 and turned into a hotel; the sails and cap were replaced in 1999. Today the windmill is divided into two self catering apartments, plus bed and breakfast facilities on site, run by David Cain since January of this year visit the website for more details. It is a fine reminder of the past and also what can be done with an old industrial building.

Forces of good and evil

Part of 'Wave' Poppy Sculpture

Tuesday 29th September 2015

On the way home from Manchester we decided to call in at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. As we approached the entrance we were in a large queue and I couldn't understand why. Then we saw the poster for the 'Wave' poppy sculpture! The sculpture itself is one of the two sculptures that were installed at the Tower of London to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Here, they formed a red cascade from the top of the 'Cascade Bridge' into the Lower lake. It was a great sight, but with lots of people either stood on the bridge or taking a classic photograph of the cascade (which I took as well), I decided to adapt my own interpretation of the theme. Standing on the bridge, I isolated an edge of the display. Near to the bridge it was muddy with almost black reflections, whilst a few feet away there was greenery and light. I put the bright red poppies in the middle and so the poppies conveyed the good and the evils of war.

Reflections on Manchester

Reflections at Salford Quays

Monday 28th September 2015

Took a trip on the fantastic Metrolink Manchester tram system out to Salford Quays and Media City where the BBC have their Salford studios. It was a very hot sunny afternoon (someone told me, 'not like this in Manchester normally'), the new buildings dominated the area, many covered with glass, aluminium or equivalent. The afternoon sunshine provided some very abstract reflections from one building to another and for me there were pictures everywhere. As someone who likes abstract patterns I was in seventh heaven. I am told it is even better at night. Could not stay that long, so must make another visit.

Away from the noise

The Rochdale Canal in the heart of Todmorden

Sunday 27th September 2015

Yes, the delay in posting is once again due to a few days away. We travelled along the Calder Valley visiting the mill towns en-route to Bury. We stopped off at Todmorden and explored the town. I have driven through there a few times but never stopped. I found it a really nice place, with plenty of space and a beautiful park, unlike some of the other towns clinging to the valley sides, probably because it was at a junction of valleys. Todmorden is the home of 'community growing' under the 'Incredible Edible' banner. The volunteers plant herbs, vegetables (in raised beds) and even orchards around the town on any land that is available, including the police station and other public spaces. Local people adopt the areas and look after the crops, people can then harvest them for their own use, a great idea Visit their website. My pastoral image is in contrast to the large Sunday market and a festival, with lots of hustle and bustle, just behind the houses on the right. You may have guessed through my postings that I am drawn to canals.

Abstract

Food processor slicing blade abstract

Saturday 26th September 2015

Busy all day and not much time for photography. Late evening photographed a food processor slicing blade, I was not very inspired by the result, so decided to play about with the image.

Wind Turbine at Kilham

Love them or hate them?

Friday 25th September 2015

Which side of the fence are you on? I sit in the middle. They are functional - well sometimes, when the wind blows. They provide an alternative to fossil fuels - that has to be good. They are a thing of beauty - they can be in the right light. Lots of them can provide much needed electricity - Lots of them can be a blot on the landscape. We could always use less electricity by turning lights off and not using our computers and mobile phones as much! 
I drove to Rudston Beacon above Kilham and photographed this wind turbine as the sun was setting. I needed a very small aperture, to give me a slow enough shutter speed to blur the blades and show movement.

Hovingham Hall

Hovingham Hall Bridge

Thursday 24th September 2015

I was determined that today, I would not leave it until the eleventh hour to hurriedly take a picture! I had to go to Thirsk returning at tea-time via Coxwold and Yearsley. As I approached Hovingham, I saw the low sun striking this delightful eighteenth century ornamental bridge in Hovingham Park. I had to take a photograph. Hovingham Hall and the Estate has been in the Worsley family for hundreds of years and was home to Katherine Worsley - The Duchess of Kent. I wanted the bridge as the centre of attention, but I also wanted to show the course of the stream, so I offset the bridge to the left and kept the shadow from trees in the right foreground to balance the picture.

Fire

Flaming coal

Wednesday 23rd September 2015

Out doing my Cleveland Way maintenance today at Sutton Bank. Did not take a photograph, even though I was reminded during the early part of the day. It was not until gone eleven o'clock this evening that I suddenly remembered I hadn't taken a photograph. The only things in the room were, the T.V., the cat and the electric fire. The electric fire won!

Hessle Windmill

Hessle Whiting Mill

Tuesday 22nd September 2015

On a warm and sunny afternoon, I found myself in Hessle with some time to kill. I parked on Hessle Foreshore at the Humber Bridge and had a wander. I have photographed the bridge a number of times from both banks; whether it was the strong sunlight or my mood - I was not inspired. I have yet to walk and/or cycle across and I think there will be some interesting images for the future. Back to today; having walked under the bridge, I came to the Hessle windmill. It was bathed in glorious sunshine which was reflecting from the black building, actually making it shine. Each time I have visited in the past, it has always struck me as a very dark dismal building, hidden in the trees. Today, it lit up and the shadows from the trees showed it was not that black after all. It was used for grinding chalk and was built about 1806 and worked under sail until 1925 when it had the sails removed. It was then driven by electric power until the mill closed in the 1960's.

Scarborough South Bay

South Bay at night

Monday 21st September 2015

This evening I was in Scarborough with members of Driffield Photographic Society, photographing Scarborough at night. There was so much choice, from Peasholm Park to the bright lights of the amusements. It was a very still evening with little wind, so I chose classic views with long exposures. My photograph is a panoramic shot of South Bay and the Grand Hotel from the Esplanade.

Surfing

Going for a dip

Sunday 20th September 2015

Decorating all day today, but had to go through to Scarborough mid morning to that well known DIY store. Took a drive around the Marine Drive and to my surprise there must have been over one hundred surfers in the water in the North Bay! I parked and went to watch. They were bobbing around, clinging onto their boards offshore, probably waiting for the 'big wave' (which never came whilst I was there). Lots of people in the water, but not much action. I then saw this gentleman have a go on a wave, he was going okay, but as the wave broke, he took a tumble.

Clematis seed head

Clematis Tangutica

Saturday 19th September 2015

You can tell autumn is fast approaching, by the recent cold nights and some of the leaves on trees beginning to turn. One thing that reminds me of autumn in our garden is the Clematis Tangutica, which is a climber and has yellow bell like flowers. At this time of year it produces seed heads like the one above. This for me heralds the autumn. It is great to see this climbing plant covered in seed heads, but sad to think I will have to wait until next June to see the yellow flowers again. I photographed this with a macro lens on a large aperture to blur the background and soften the image slightly, sunlight was from the left.

Smoke

Smoke effect

Friday 18th September 2015

Enough of the landscape images, now I am back home a chance to try something different. Most photographers have experimented with matches and firing a flash gun into the smoke. I hadn't until tonight. I decided I would have a go. Against a black background, I fired a flashgun at right angles to the camera and by blowing the smoke, created different effects. Now I have tried it, I might do some more.

The Malvern Hills

Worcestershire Beacon (left) highest of the Malvern Hills from North Hill

Thursday 17th September 2015

What a change in the weather, blue sky and fluffy clouds! Having spent the night in Great Malvern, we could not resist a walk onto the hills that loom above the town. We chose to walk up North Hill, the second highest of the Malvern Hills at 1303 feet (397 metres), the highest being Worcestershire Beacon at 1395 feet (425 metres). It was a reasonably clear day with good panoramic views all round. My image is of Worcestershire Beacon (left) and Sugarloaf Hill taken from North Hill with the Welsh mountains in the distance.

Monmouth Bridge

Monmouth Bridge and tower over the river Monnow

Wednesday 16th September 2015

I have driven through Monmouth a number of times, but on the bypass. I was delighted to have some time to visit and photograph the only surviving medieval fortified river bridge in the country, complete with tower on the bridge. It was built about 1300 and was part of the protection of the town by the building of town walls and gates. There would have been a portcullis in front of the gate on the bridge and its main use was to collect tolls. I think it is wonderful that it has survived, considering it was still taking traffic across until 2004 when it was pedestrianised. I thought this was the best angle to include all the bridge features, sadly, the blue gable end wall of the house cannot be hidden!

Waterfall Country

Sgwd yr Eira  (Fall of snow) waterfall. Brecon Beacons National Park

Tuesday 15th September 2015

With an overnight stop in Llanelli and having dried out from yesterday, we decided to get wet again, with a walk in 'Waterfall Country'. We drove into Brecon Beacons National Park near to Ystradfellte for the start of a five mile walk taking in four fantastic waterfalls. With full waterproofs on and with it still raining, we set off. After yesterdays very heavy rain, we knew it was the right thing to do! The falls were very impressive, most having huge drops and I got some great photographs; but it was this waterfall (Sgwd yr Eira) that proved the most challenging to photograph. The public footpath actually goes under the waterfall, which has a drop of about thirty feet. I wanted to go behind, but the path was well and truly closed today (we were going back the way we came in). As well as the rain, the wind was whipping up the spray from the falls. I was tight up against a rock wall, with water pouring down my back from mini waterfalls above me. My brolly was up, my camera was on a tripod as I wanted a long exposure shot, but the lens would have been covered in water. It had to be a relatively quick shot. I settled on 1/10th of a second, then dried the camera!

Newgale Sands

Newgale lives up to its name

Monday 14th September 2015

Drove from Oswestry to Aberystwyth then followed the Welsh coast south, stopping off at various places. I knew we would run into heavy rain and gale force winds before the end of the day and it happened at St. David's. We parked to go and look at the Cathedral, only to decide we would get soaked walking the short distance - we moved on. Following the coast road we came to Newgale. Here there was a massive shingle wall between the road and the beach, to protect residents from coastal flooding, there was a surf shop and the car park was almost full. Thinking the sea would be full of surfers, I parked the car in their car park and climbed the shingle wall to have a look. No surfers (they were in the cafe), just two individuals with umbrellas on an otherwise deserted beach; that would be my shot. With camera under my coat, I decided on the composition, before quickly taking the lens cap off and taking the shot. Returning to the car (soaked), my wife said, "Was it worth it"? I thought it was.

Canal Junction

Canals meet at Lower Frankton

Sunday 13th September 2015

A lack of recent posts is due to the fact I was away for a few days. Still taking my image a day, but unable to upload them until I got home.
Sunday and I was east of Oswestry in Shropshire, at a place called Lower Frankton, where two canals meet - a junction. The Montgomery canal in the foreground was 35 miles long and ran from Newtown in Powys. It was abandoned in 1936, but restoration work began in 1969 and is continuing. The locks at Lower Frankton have been restored and it is hoped to have the full 35 miles restored. The canal running right to left in the image is the Shropshire Union canal and is very well used. I find canals very peaceful and with a speed limit of 'walking pace', no one is in a rush to go anywhere. The still water on the canals make for good reflections.

Star Turn

Nestle Pure Life water bottle!

Saturday 12th September 2015

I pulled out a plastic bottle of water from the shrink wrap package by the bottle neck. Turning it upside down I noticed this star shape on the bottom. The centre was actually concave, with the 'star' providing the stability for the bottle when stood on a flat surface. It being full of water, light was being refracted. In a darkened room, I lit the bottle with one light from one side which brought out the blue colour on the label. I liked the image, but decided to posterize it, to give it a different effect.

Japanese Anemone

Late flowering Japanese Anemone

Friday 11th September 2015

If there is one flower in the garden that cheers me up as autumn approaches, it is the Japanese Anemone. It flowers from August to late October and comes in different shades of pink, also white as above. The plant grows to about a metre high and has a profusion of flowers on long stems that sway in the breeze. It is a perennial, that some people regard as a weed as it can become a little invasive. Autumn is near and our garden is full of colour. I picked out a flower and photographed it using a shallow depth of field to blur the background.

Kettle Ness

Kettle Ness and Kettleness Sands

Thursday 10th September 2015

Cleveland Way Volunteers day today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, it could have been somewhere in the Mediterranean. We were lucky to be working at Kettleness on the coast, replacing worn out steps, surfacing and gate post replacement.  We worked so hard, we got a slightly early finish. I decided to go for a walk on the Cleveland Way path. There was a very good view looking down onto Runswick Bay, but I chose this view looking onto Kettle Ness. The area around Kettle Ness reveals the industrial rape of the coast to produce Alum, used to fix colours to the fabrics, in the dye industry. What you see is not a landslide, it is the remains of an old industry.

Lone Tree

Hill fog descends on the Wolds

Wednesday 9th September 2015

This evening I was travelling over the Wolds towards West Lutton. I had reached the top of the bank at Cowlam crossroads and was aware of what I thought were lots of swirling clouds. As I descended the hill towards West Lutton, I could see it was light towards the north west, but overhead it was getting dark with very low cloud or hill fog. I saw a tree on the horizon which I thought would make a good subject and took my shot. Colour was never going to work - there wasn't any! So turning it to black and white and increasing the contrast, gave me the look I wanted.

Banana

A ripe Banana

Tuesday 8th September 2015

There he was alone in the fruit bowl. The rest of the bunch had deserted him. What had he done to deserve this solitary confinement? Did he smell? - No more than the others. So why the punishment? - Because they knew he was ripe and he had brown blotches! 
Ripe Bananas do have their uses, they are great in Banana bread or in a smoothie. He (or she) did look sad, so I picked him up from the fruit bowl photographed him, then put him to one side, pending a smoothie. Need to get some unripe Bananas now.

Ebberston Hall

The smallest Stately Home in England

Monday 7th September 2015

A visit to Pickering today and home via Ebberston. For me, no visit to Ebberston is complete without a visit to St. Mary's church (where some of my ancestors are buried), a check on the deer in the field next door and next to that Ebberston Hall. The church and the hall are north west of the village on the north side of the A170 Scarborough to Pickering road. The Palladian mansion was built in 1718 for the mistress of William Thompson MP for Scarborough, the architect was Colen Campbell. It sits at the end of Kirk Dale and is tiny. I can imagine my ancestors in the village wanting to live in the little house on the hill. I exposed the shot to show the beautiful coloured stone work. There is even the customary Highland cow shading itself from the sun, centre frame.

Araneus Diadematus

The Garden Spider

Sunday 6th September 2015

What a nice change in the weather. Sat outside in the garden in lovely warm sunshine, having lunch. I happened to notice a large spider dangling from its web which was suspended between shrubs, just behind my wife. The web was not a beautiful typical web, it was quite tatty. I asked my wife to move, which she did without hesitation and with the sun lighting the spider, I took my shot. I don't know a lot about spiders, but it did look to have lovely markings on its back. I checked with the British Arachnological Society website to see if it was unusual, but it turned out to be a common 'Garden Spider', which is one of the largest British spiders. It spins a web during the night and catches prey during the day. Judging by the state of the web, it had been a busy morning.

Give us a clue

What is it?

Saturday 5th September 2015

Is it a tool? - Yes. Does it twist things? - Yes. Where would I find it working? - In the dark. Is it a form of saw? - Yes. Is it a pipe bender? - No, it is used for getting into small dark cavities. - No idea.
A dental Flosser - of course!

Rowan Berries

Late evening sun on Mountain Ash

Friday 4th September 2015

A cold northerly wind today and it felt cold. Dull for most of the day, then after tea the sun came out. I was looking out of our bedroom window and saw the sun shining on one of the Mountain Ash trees we have in the garden. The low angle of the sun made the berries glow. I picked up my camera and took a shot. What I did notice was the ends of the leaves were already turning brown, a true sign that autumn is not far away. With the Rowan trees bending with the weight of berries, does that mean we are in for a bad winter?

Hull. City of Culture 2017?

Please tidy up the bits where people walk

Thursday 3rd September 2015

Two years ago my wife and I had an interesting walk along the riverside from St. Andrews Dock to The Deep. There was decay, but you could make out some of the history of the area. I found it fascinating, people were walking, cyclists were using it, a good walk. Today, I parked at St. Andrews Dock and walked along the riverside path, I got as far as the lock gates, to find the footpath over the gates was closed. I walked around the head of the dock, knowing I wanted to be along the riverside path. Walking alongside the Lord Line building it was awful. Running a bulldozer over the area now and again would at least clear up some debris, as above. At the end of the building there was a sign saying that the riverside walk was closed due to flood alleviation works. Full marks for doing something about the flooding, but people are looking to the City now in readiness for the year of culture. It is no good promoting one area all the time, if other areas are completely neglected. A joined up approach would make the area welcoming. It is not just about 2017. It's about living in Hull today as well.

Ye Olde Manor House

Seamer Manor House

Wednesday 2nd September 2015

About six months ago I was driving through Seamer village and noticed part of an old stone building in a field behind the church. Every time I drive through there now, I keep wanting to go and have a look what it is. Today, on returning from Scarborough, I decided to stop and investigate. There is an information panel at the field gate explaining that it was the site of Seamer Manor House, built in the 15th Century. The site survives as earthworks on high ground on what led down to the 24 acre site of the Mere, from which Seamer gets its name. The Manor House was demolished and robbed during the 1700's, yet the one piece that remains is the main door to the house.  I wanted to convey the defiance of the last piece of this structure to succumb to Mother Earth. With this in mind, I took the photograph with the sun from the left illuminating the thickness of the wall around the door and taken close up to make the building stand out. 

Pattern

Basket Weave Pattern

Tuesday 1st September 2015

A simple photo today. I was attracted to this striking pattern of a simple piece of furniture. The more I looked at it, the more my eyes started playing tricks. There are more patterns than you think?