#343 – Reworked Images 9 – Jumbles Quarry Crane

Maybe it was because I visited the quarry with someone (I seem to produce better images alone, although the venerable Tarboat was excellent company) or whether the location itself was a challenge, but I didn’t come away with many images that really inspired me. I felt they made a good record of the place but…

#342 – Reworked Images 8 – Bailey Mill Loom

Another one I’ve never done anything with, although I do have a similar image taken on film on theviewfromthenorth.org. The problem in Bailey Mill was the light coming through the windows, as at the time (2007) I wasn’t aware of the possibilities of bracketing to capture the full dynamic range of a scene. The raw files…

#341 – Reworked Images 7 – High and Dry

When I visited the Duke of Lancaster a few years back, I took the opportunity to take a lot of photographs, from as many different angles as I could think, on a variety of different lenses. At the time, I only actually processed about 10 or 12 of them, but after a 3 years break I…

#340 – Reworked Images 6 – Jumbles Quarry

This was an image I’d scratched my head with in colour. I just couldn’t do anything with it, and I didn’t think it worked well in monochrome, so even though I liked it and thought it had potential it never really went beyond basic adjustments. I’ve always thought it an intriguing image, but one that…

#339 – Reworked Images 5 – Dinorwic Flower

 The finished image The starting point – pretty much straight out of camera with one or two tonal adjustments. I originally cropped this into portrait format, processed it, and subsequently presented it that way for several years. When I revisited it, I decided to process it in its original landscape format, and then decide afterwards…

#338 – Reworked Images 4 – Pleasley Colliery

Pleasley Colliery is the only preserved coal mine in Nottinghamshire, and is worth a visit if you are in the area.  I don’t think I’ve posted this before and it’s probably the best one I took on my visit. Unfortunately the sun was behind the mine when I was there, which made photographing it from the best vantage points…

#337 – Reworked Images 3 – Chatterley Whitfield

Another rework, with some quite dramatic changes to the mood. It is somewhat timely as I read this morning that two of Britain’s remaining coal mines are under threat of closure. The storm clouds continue to gather over Chatterley Whitfield with every passing year resulting in further deterioration, and I really don’t know what the future…

#336 – Mechanical Landscapes – my new website

Sometime in April 2007, in a paradox of high hopes and no expectations, I launched theviewfromthenorth.org. Since then the journey that the website and I have been on has been an interesting one to say the least, and one that shows no sign of coming to an end. The site has now had over 2…

#335 – theviewfromthenorth.org Backbarrow Pictures on the BBC

I was approached by the BBC asking for permission to use 6 of my photographs of Backbarrow Ironworks in a story they were doing. Only two were used in the end, better than nowt I guess. The Ironworks site has been sold and some of the vacant land is going to be used for a holiday village,…

#334 – Reworked images 2 – Grove Rake

This is another problem image that I’d had several goes at over the years and never came up with anything that I liked. I think it’s getting somewhere now, although I’m not sure it’s there yet. The problem has always been in balancing the tones. The light on the day was constantly changing as the…