Nearly Spring

Flora down in the Bollin Valley, Prestbury, Cheshire. There is a feeling that the worst of winter is over, conditions have turned quite mild though one should always prepare for a super cold ‘snap’ at this time of year. Much of the Bollin Valley is a mess of decayed weeds at this time but occasionally there are odd things that appear to be worthy of a picture.

Hog Weed

Pods

The Bollin Valley at Prestbury in Cheshire is a mass of deadheads and tangled parchment like grass, it is that time of year when one can find few but occasionally attractive sights — ready for the springtime now!

Reflecting Trees

A tree reflection in the river Bollin — with treatments.

Prestbury Snow

Still waiting for some decent snow this year, these images were taken in 2010 (Dec 18th) — it was a very cold winter, one of the coldest on record. Re-Processed with HDR and pre-Raphaelite lighting effects.

Fence to Summit

Re-working with heavy gold tone effect.

Infrared treated with vignette – image of light snow in the Northern fields around the village of Prestbury in Cheshire.

I trudged through the fields (in inappropriate footwear) mesmerised by the transformation of the landscape and the sense of frost bitten (very painful) toes didn’t seem to matter at all. This total submersion in the art and craft of pictures taking and simple joy of recording my environment is one of the highest forms of pleasure that I know.

I do like the way these conditions make the landscape look so much more photogenic.

Climbing up the hill, steeper than it looks due to geometric distortion of a very wide-angle lens. I had to grab on to that barbed wire to get up here! Coming down was even more fun and I virtually slid all the way down on my backside holding precious camera aloft at all times — of course! I was taken by the simplicity of this scene, which has been enhanced by the optical effect of the lens. Can’t remember how I treated this image but it has been deliberately enhanced to create a more high key effect. It was (and still is) very cold indeed!

I am now preparing for my first ever gallery show which will be comprised of mostly B&W work with a mixture of landscape and ‘found object’ – like studies — joy of joys indeed!

I seem to have missed my usual pre-Christmas update on here this year so this entry will have to suffice. I’m still running other more ‘business’ orientated blogs elsewhere but have since decided to use the blogger space (may soon move to WordPress) as a sort of overflow for these pages as well as a place to post more theoretical photography and photo hardware related material.

I have had a very enjoyable couple of days with Brother and SIL, a much-needed down shift from the recent nagging worries and now I am back home immersed in the quiescent inertia of these days between Christmas festivities and the New Year. Toby and Lill of course will be over here for the usual New Year nosh up at one of the local restaurants.

The weather has turned pretty drab all of a sudden with rain instead of snow but it is still reasonably cold, of course it is also completely overcast and grey. They have promised more snow for the New Year, not sure if we will get it here.

I do hope this coming year will be OK, I have a few trials and tribulations to get through in January but I am sure I will prevail – I usually do!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all that chance by — quite a few apparently!

The weather over the last few days has been very cold but also extremely scenic, we still have a lot of snow on the ground. I just had to get out with my camera and indulge that fascination for the kind of forms and vistas that others may miss. I now have quite a backlog of images to work with and some may find their way to this site, all should find their way to flickr.

I find these snowy settings to be quite inspiring and particularly amenable to mono treatments, though most of the images I have appear to be virtually mono in colour anyway —

This has been a year of strange good and bad luck for yours truly, flushed with no worries to almost destitute in the space of a few months and all compounded by less than wise job moves.

Next year has got to be a lot more stable, I have enjoyed the better times of 2009, specially the spring and early summer months when a sense of bohemian freedom gave rise to a state of permanent rapture. Conditions that can only be instilled by a feeling of complete autonomy and self-determination, my ideal state of existence as it happens.

Suffice to say that I am keeping a close eye on the fight against the king of trash, AKA Simon Cowell and his evil empire that seeks to promote the pre-eminence of all that lacks substance, style and meaning in contemporary popular culture. Over 100,000 people on Face Book have joined the fight. They are busily trying to vote up Killing in The Name by Rage Against the Machine for Christmas number one instead of the insipid, morkish and unoriginal identikit nonsense from the Cowell stable which has normally taken the spot.

I’m not as massive fan of RAM but it is the principal that counts and they do represent the idea of contemporary music as a vehicle for rebellion, provocation, protest and artistic design. Myself, I would have preferred something from the Jazz or new contemporaries set, a Battles tune for No1 would be quite satisfactory.