Mechanical Landscapes

  • #189 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 6 submission

    OK, so I’ve got a pile of prints and some blurb to describe what it’s all about, we’re now in the final straight. The guide in this is the RPS distinctions handbook which you can download from the RPS website, it’s superb – well written and very informative. It’s got pretty much everything you need to…

  • #188 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 5 statement of intent

    For the ARPS and FRPS distinctions, a Statement Of Intent is required to be submitted with the panel. Basically this put the panel into context and sets the scene in the minds of the assessors. It’s not difficult to put together, but it does need some thinking about. As a professional engineer, I am fascinated by…

  • #187 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 4 printing and mounting

    As mentioned before, I was considering getting my prints done by a lab, but given the amount of control I needed over the final output, I opted to print them myself, without quite realising the amount of time and money I’d end up throwing at it 😦 Calibrated my screen – wow, what a huge…

  • #186 – Runner Up

    Time to blow my own trumpet again – after 5 years of entering, I have finally managed to place in the Brownedge Arts Festival, coming second with my Duke Of Lancaster photo! I also took two commendeds for Tornado and Dinorwic, thus giving a 100% record for my print entries! I’ve not seen the other…

  • #185 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 3 Post processing

    As discussed in a previous post, I’d never really got into doing lots of local adjustments to my images, more global ones. The concept wasn’t new to me, as I’d done it in the darkroom at college, but had never followed through and done that much of it digitally. With my final selection pretty much frozen,…

  • #184 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 2 image selection and sequencing

    As I was going to be submitting a panel of my urban exploration images, I had many to choose from, but only a few were actually good enough. I had a short list of about 30, and these I discussed with Margaret Salisbury. In these discussions, I picked up several things of immense value: 1)…

  • #183 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 1 getting some good advice

    After nearly 3 years of on and off work putting together a portfolio for submission to the Royal Photographic Society for an Associate distinction (ARPS), I finally submitted it and had it accepted. So how did the journey start? I’ve been involved with my local photographic society for several years, and although a number of people in the club…

  • #182 – Panel accepted by the royal photographic society!!!

    After several years of hard work, a not inconsiderable amount of money and a lot of time, I received an email on Thursday telling  me that my panel of prints had been accepted by the Royal Photographic Society for the Associate distinction! (albeit with the caveat that it needs to be ratified by the council) That…

  • #181 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit part 5 – Self Portrait

    Unlike many explorers, I rarely do self portraits, in fact I’m rarely photographed at all, as I’m usually on the other side of the camera. Plus, I rarely bother to take a tripod out when I explore, without which self portraiture is troublesome. Hence, I suffer from a crippling lack of imagination when I do it,…

  • #180 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit Part 4 – 3 Kings

    #180 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit Part 4 – 3 Kings

    Similar to a photo from my last visit, but with a slightly different sky, I captured this just as the mist was clearing. It’s still a colour photo, but you’d be hard pressed to tell as it’s a somewhat monochromatic scene.

  • #179 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit part 3 – Railway Miscellenea

    #179 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit part 3 – Railway Miscellenea

    Like pretty much all power stations, Thorpe Marsh was rail linked, in fact it sits alongside the East Coast Main Line. For some reason, the sidings are still intact, albeit heavily overgrown with those trees that seem to grow spontaneously on all disused railway lines. Intriguingly, there are also bits of the signalling insfrastructure still…

  • #178 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit part 2 – Inside The Egg Cup

    Ever wondered what it looks like inside a cooling tower? It looks like this:) Well stripped out ones do. Normally they have all kinds of cooling gubbins in, but this is just a shell.  The fog had just lifted, although the sky is still slightly hazy, but the hint of a shadow shows that the…

  • #177 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit – part 1

    #177 – Thorpe Marsh Revisit – part 1

    I’ve been fascinated by power stations and cooling towers since my dad took me to see the massive cooling towers at Kearsley Power Station in Bolton being blown up in 1984. Dad had grown up in their shadow in the 50’s and 60’s and it was fairly poignant for him to see them come down.…

  • #176 – The Last Days Of Fernhurst Mill – DoF Tomfoolery

    With the trespassing element of the visit complete, I thought I’d indulge in a bit of creative arty-fartyness. Nikon D700, 28-70mm, 1/1600 @F2.8  

  • #175 – The Last Days Of Fernhurst Mill – Return Visit

    #175 – The Last Days Of Fernhurst Mill – Return Visit

    Depending on the circumstances, there are two approaches to exploring old buildings – stealth or high visibility. Dressing in high visibility vest and hard hat makes you look inconspicuous around an abandoned building or demolition site, as that’s what you’d expect people to wear around those places, yes? OK, its not infallible, but for sites where there’s no security,…

  • #174 – Astley Hall

    Been busy recently with family and suchlike, so although I’ve taken plenty of photos of my 8 month old daughter, not much indutrial has been in front ofmy lenses. I’m busy writing various blog posts but have found that I’ve not got the photos I need to illustrate them online, grrr. So, here’s one from…

  • #173 – Nokia N8 vs SLR again!

    #173 – Nokia N8 vs SLR again!

    A couple of Bamburgh Castle from my holiday in Northumberland. Very impressed with the N8 again, in fact I took more with it than on my compact.     By way of comparison, here’s one from the D700, at this size there’s nothing in it.  

  • #172 – Beamish Part 3 – Black and White

    Last in the series from Beamish and inevitably it’s some black and white’s. Yes, I couldn’t resist having a tinker to see what they would come out like. The absence of any trains, meant a wander down to the station to see if I could find anything interesting. There was, but I couldn’t find any…

  • #171 – Beamish Part 2 – Abstracts

    I’ve recently been re-re-reading ‘How To Take Your Photography To The Next Level’ by George Barr. It’s an enjoyable book that I dip into every now and again, and while I’d describe the author as an accomplished rather than an inspirational photographer, I do enjoy his abstracts, particularly of mechanical stuff. With that in mind,…

  • #170 – Beamish Part 1 – Big Stuff

    A weeks holiday in the north east allowed for a visit to the Beamish Open Air Museum. I’d last visited about 20 years ago, and my memories were somewhat sketchy to say the least, but a check of their website suggested that a few new areas had been added to the site, so it had…

  • #169 – Attack Of The Giant Egg Cups – Thorpe Marsh Part 3

    Ever take a photo that is deeply satisfying? This one does it for me. OK, there was a bit of post processing involved and cropping involved to get the image as I wanted it, but the simplicity of this is something I really enjoy. No fancy compositions, no foreground interest, just three towers from a few…