Well I made it to week three, a feat in itself. With the last two weeks consisting very little in the way of deliberate outings, this at least involved a wander with some purpose.
It came about after I managed to get away from work with an hour to spare before the kids needed picked up from school and the weather was favourable. Limited time that it was meant I had to chose my location carefully to allow me sufficient time ti get to the school. I decided on a local Bing (old coal slag heap) about a mile or two from my home.
South Lanarkshire was once a busy coal mining area with pits and rail line dotted around the whole area with only over grown Bings left as a reminded of their existence. This small Bing near Flemington Farm just outside Blantyre is one I had wandered in the past and with it having parking at the foot of it makes it ideal for easy access.
I got there and grabbed the IR converted D80 with the Zeiss Distagon 25mm f2.8 which is ideally about 35mm equivalent on the cropped sensor, a favourite combination for my infrared photography. It was quite breezy but the wind was warm and pleasant and it was blowing white fluffy clouds quickly across the sky creating ever changing light. It’s been a recent feature of my IR photography to try and capture the movement in the trees with their foliage in full bloom and catching every breath of wind that passes.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_42072 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_42072 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_144836 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_144836 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
So it was this motion I attempted to capture and looked for small groups of trees catching the breeze. This led me to the lone Pine tree (the 3rd image above) who’s character I had been drawn. I moved down a level of the Bing to try and find a way to emphasise its stature in it’s setting.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_59800 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_59800 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
The darkness of the coal slag that had become visible over time more than likely due to rain was also an interesting element to this environment. I moved into more dense areas of foliage and tried to find parts of the wild woodland that would highlight the contrast of dark and light especially when I was shooting infrared black and white.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_84546 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_84546 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
When I checked my watch it was a mad rush to get to the car and down to the school. Unhealthily I often get agitated if I don’t manage to get my fix of photography so having managed to squeeze even this littlest of shoots into my routine was very pleasing and extremely satisfying.
My next opportunity was on Father’s Day when we took the kids to the seaside at Maidens in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. We had to make the most of the good weather, so we packed a picnic and off we went. Normally I would have liked to have taken the big camera and waited for sunset or at least late evening light but with the sun not going down until 10pm it was never an option as we would have to get the kids tucked up in bed long before that for schol the next day.
So it was the good old Sony I was left to play with on the beach. Firstly I found some nice complimentary colours next to our little area of beach and found some interesting detail too.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_224361 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_224361 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
The sea was uncharacteristically calm with just a little haze blurring the view over to the Isle of Arran. A very picturesque view with lovely summer pastel blues and pinks, I tried to emphasise it with a little ICM using a ND16 filter on the sony to slow everything done a bit.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_243510 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_243510 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
This was really all about spending the day on the beach and enjoying the weather though.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_262248 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_262248 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
And ultimately as a father it was about spending it with my girls, and it was the best Father’s day to date.
#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_273291 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1498123388211_273291 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
Once again thank you if you’ve made it through to the end, if even one person enjoys it then that in itself is a huge bonus.
Until next week…….
