Mechanical Landscapes

Tag: Nikon D700

  • #75 – rare station photo

    I’ve said in the past that I never take pictures in stations. So here’s one I took at the weekend! As I’m not a ‘rivet counter’ I don’t get much satisfaction out of taking photos of stationary trains in stations. But as the train was delayed, I thought I’d see if I could make an…

  • #74 – it’s grim up north

    Vale Mill, Mytholmes. I think that this was a path from Oakworth village and I imagine that it was used by generations of mill workers going to and from the mill in the valley floor. I took this when I was unsuccessfully trying to figure out a composition where I could include the mill and the…

  • #70 – When colour works…..

    I’ve blogged a few times about how sometimes colour works best, and sometime black and white does. Here’s one where colour does. I visited Jumbles Quarry deep in the Trough of Bowland with David Kitching (see his excellent website here), after failing miserably a couple of weeks back. Tracing the route of the old railway…

  • #69 – Threads

    Sometimes I take a picture and then review it and for some reason just find it interesting. This is one of them. Cheers.

  • #67 – Colour? Or black and white?

    I took this late on a February afternoon, with the sun low in the sky on the other side of the bridge. Clouds kept partially obscuring it, but I kept getting some terrific light on the railway arches, but no train! It finally arrived (on time), and I got this image. I must admit that…

  • #66 – it doesn’t always go according to plan… (part 3)

    Somewhere in this valley is a quarry that was abandoned in the 1920’s, complete with steam crane and some railway track. Unfortunately I’ve no idea where. I’d seen a report on a forum containing some pictures from the 70’s, and a search on geograph eventually showed me where it was. However, with all the recent…

  • #65 – over-reliance on technology?

    Stabilised lenses (VR in the case of the Nikon system that I use) are a fantastic innovation that has allowed me to take photos in circumstances that would be impossible with a normal lenses. However, I learnt an important (but cringingly obvious) lesson the other night – by and large, they work best when the…

  • #64 – Guesswork / bulb mode

    Sometimes, you run out of pre-set exposure times on your camera and you have to resort to the ‘guess’ mode, AKA  Bulb. This particular scene was tricky as the big floodlight in the background kept being turned on and off, which made exposure a pain. After several tests, I ended up thinking f*ck it, counted to…

  • #63 – new toys, old toys

    My policy on camera equipment puchases is one of gradual upgrades, basically using spare money from overtime, backpay and annual bonuses. I’ve just bought this years purchase, and it’s likely to be the last for some time. And this is it, a near mint Nikkor 28-70 F2.8 AFS. It’s a HUGE lens, even on the…

  • #62 – Details

     Who said railway photography has to have the train as the main, or only, compositional element? OK, so unless you are a railway enthusiast you may not recognise these lamps as being used on steam engines, but as part of a larger set of images, it adds a different perspective to it. As I often…

  • #60 – it doesn’t always go according to plan… (part 2)

    Following on from my post the other week, I attempted to photograph the Cotton Mills Express again. Right, I thought, I’ll watch it locally, then head out to somewhere more photogenic. So I saw it a couple of miles away from my house (which was further than it got last time – it failed at…

  • #59 – Hand held vs tripod

    I’ve always regarded tripods as a necessary evil. I hate their weight and the fact they’re so big, unwieldly and time consuming to set up and such like. It’s for these reasons that some people like using tripods, as it forces them to slow down and indulge in a more contemplative type of photography. Each…

  • #58 – Paddy’s Hole

    Fishing boats at ‘Paddy’s Hole’ on South Gare on the River Tees. I liked the contrast between the little harbour in the foreground and industrial Teeside in the  background, and of course the setting sun always makes for a nice sky:) I took this when the light was fading rapdily, and as I didn’t want…

  • #57 – sunset

    I always moan at how in the UK we don’t get those lovely skies we see in those fabulous photos of steam in China. This is as good as we get in Preston. I wanted to capture the young lady at work on the engine, perhaps need a bit of dodging to bring her out…

  • #56 – adding a bit of atmosphere 3

    More steam trains! If on the off chance you read this blog regularly, you’ll have noticed a few recent posts of steam train pictures. I love steam trains, and have done for years, although I kind of drift in and out of photographing them. I enjoy the challenge of trying to make something creative and…

  • #55 – wheels of industry

    I was approached via my main website (www.theviewfromthenorth.org) by a director of a mill in Huddersfield. They’d bought the old Brook Dyeing site and wanted a set of photos for their archives. I agreed on the proviso that they let me photograph their other, working, mill in Huddersfield. They agreed, and I spent an interesting morning…

  • #54 – it doesn’t always go according to plan….

    What’s missing off this railway viaduct? A train. The steam hauled ‘Cotton Mills Express’ was due to travel over it, unfortunately the engine failed at Preston, so they cancelled it. I didn’t find this out until I got home, having waited for well over 2 hours. I kept thinking, I bet it’ll come as soon…

  • #52 – Adding a Bit of Atmosphere 2

    Following on from my last post, here’s another from the East Lancs Railway. Same idea, as before, although the engine is now a much larger part of the overall scene. However, I chose to compose it with the mill, water tower and signal box all in the scene, to help add a bit more visual interest.…

  • #51 – Adding a Bit of Atmosphere 1

    I’ve now been using the Nikon D700 for exactly a year, and I know this because the first place I took it was to the East Lancs Railway winter steam gala at the end of January. One year on, time for a return visit. Other than a nightshoot at Bury, I’d not done any railway photography since then,…

  • #49 – The Art of Cropping

    I was one told that a good way of deciding how and where to crop was to cover up the bits you wanted to keep and just look at the bits you want to crop. If they contained nothing of interest, or didn’t add anything to the image, then cut them off. With that in…

  • #46 – the last resort

    I’m a fan of the British photographer Martin Parr (or certainly his earlier work), and when I saw this scene at Redcar,  I was reminded of his book ”The Last Resort’. If you haven’t seen it, it was an ironic look at New Brighton which showed the somewhat squalid conditions endured by visitors to the…