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Monday 27 August 2012

Bubble away your Monday blues ....

Bubbles and Seahorses on a beach hut in New Romey, Kent, England

Tags
bubble bubbles beach hut seahorse sea horse plants pebbles 1 sky blue

Sunday 26 August 2012

Fuel rods and Dungeness

LR-7485_PS_shopped - Bit of a play on terms but severing a similar purpose. Dungeness Power Station is a pair of nuclear reactors, always seemed to me to be a barren waste lands associated with these things. First time I have been this close to one, a building or two that inspires very little in the artistic appeal area, for me any ways.
May be it was living quite a bit of my life with the media pumping the Cold War down my throat and the three minute warning and films like when the wind blows etc.
So this is my humour at all those thoughts and miss sold concepts from many years ago.

The stations are built on the largest area of open shingle in Europe, measuring 12 km by 6 km, which has been deposited by the sea and built up over thousands of years. The entire area is moving slowly north and east as the sea moves the shingle from one side of the ness to the other. It is surrounded by a nature reserve Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). A fleet of lorries is used to continuously maintain shingle sea defences for the plant as coastal erosion would otherwise move shingle away at an estimated rate of 6 m per year. Around 30,000 cubic metres of shingle are moved each year. It seems that deposition on the north shore of the ness does not keep pace with demand. In all 90,000 cubic metres are moved each year along parts of the coast between Pett Level and Hythe. This is necessary for the safety of the entire area including the power stations. Approximately 100 million litres of cooling water are extracted and returned to the sea each hour, after being heated 12° Celsius (22 °F). Citation

I have been shooting in RAW recently and you will notice LR prefixing the image numbers, this one is probably my first bit of post processing to enhance an image. Normally in Lightroom I crop and use a predefined settings to deliver what I thought was in the viewer at the time of the shot, mainly because I haven't read the manual to put some settings in the camera. Hence the removal of the SOOC statements

Friday Tripping - It's coffee time ...

LR-7606_PSwords - So I attempted to omit all branding from the shot and realised on posting there is just a little bit left!
Coffee a double Expresso to wake me up after driving for 4 hours to get to the ferry terminal on a Bank Holiday Friday from Dungeness

Expresso

Life is good....

LR-7341_PS_words - Do I need to say any more :)

Life is good AT THE BEACH

Sun Light House

LR-7426 - Probably one of the reasons the journey home took a little bit longer than expected!

There have been five lighthouses at Dungeness. At first only a beacon was used to give warning to sailors, but this gave way to a proper lighthouse during the reign of James I in 1615. As the sea retreated, this had to be replaced in 1635 by a new lighthouse nearer to the water’s edge known as Lamplough's Tower.
As more shingle was thrown up, a new and more up-to-date lighthouse was built near the sea in 1792 by Samuel Wyatt. This lighthouse was about 35 m (115 ft) high and of the same design as the third Eddystone Lighthouse. From the mid-nineteenth century, it was painted black with a white band to make it more visible in daylight; similar colours have featured on the subsequent lighthouses here. Though this lighthouse was demolished in 1904, the lighthouse keepers' accommodation built in a circular form around the base of the tower remain in existence.
In 1901 construction commenced on the fourth lighthouse, known as the High Light Tower. It was first lit on 31 March 1904 and still stands today, though no longer in use as a lighthouse but open as a visitor attraction. It is a circular brick structure, 41 m (135 ft) high and 11 m (36 ft) in diameter at ground level. Its 169 steps give visitors a bird’s eye view of the shingle beach.
As the sea receded further, and following the construction of the nuclear power station which obscured the light of the 1904 lighthouse, it proved necessary to build a fifth lighthouse. This was brought into operation on 20 November 1961 and is constructed of precast concrete rings. Its colour of black and white bands is impregnated into the concrete. It remains in use today, monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations and Planning Centre at Harwich, Essex.[1]
citiation

Your Not Going to Fence me in with that

LR-7383 - Bit late Bank Holiday traffic in the UK was a bit rough. If you think your going to keep me fenced in think again, no matter the weather this weekend.

Have a great weekend, enjoy HFF

Dappled trunk

IMG_6940_LR - Just had to stop and take a moment to capture this

Rusty Back Pitch at St MIchael's

LR-6861 - Different shot same location, but kept hoping the might just pop out for a second and light these fronds up a little more, sadly not, but did manage to get enough light to make it work how I had seen it driving past on one of those sunny days.

Rusty's Back at St Michael's - on the edge

LR-6845 - Some Rusty Backs hanging around in the guttering of the vicarage attached to St Michael's church.

Bit of dull day so tweaked in Lightroom

Cone, Palm and Sun

LR-6821 - Knew there had to be one somewhere, look it's even bigger than the dog and the people, tall as a tree :)
Strange how it looks fake or is that flake, nothing like a 99 but where is the 100's and 1,000's and the strawberry juice. Not seen Mr Whippy in years, did he get lock away?

A Petal, from the warm glow - Bellows + 20mm

LR-6649 - Thought as the 42mm converter arrived I should give it a test run on the 7D, then found I needed to put the camera away from the bellows so added a 20mm extension tube :)
Slight adjust in Lightroom as the lens appears to have a slight bit of mould on it :(

Asahi Pentax Auto Bellows (fully extended) + 20mm extension tube + Helios 44M at F2 (in full sun)
Tripod
Need to think about these a little bit for the next attempt, it does require a remote or use the delay, plus remote camera to control the light as the bellows sucks it up.

I See Red, when sorting my pencils

LR-6604 - This was so much fun for 99 p, the plan was to drop them from my hand and catch a moment of complete chaos, but the strange thing was most of the time they landed, they seemed to organise themselves in to hue groups, but after I don't want to even think about counting drop, this was the most disarranged colour set I could find. Then darn the florescent tube still shows in the green, done deal for the moment though, well may be, perhaps I'll try again.

Strobist, White light, reflected and still not able to catch a reasonable light shot :(

Dinner!


Dinner!, originally uploaded by Rusty Marvin (experimenting).

IMG_6391_PS - Well Brian and his friends have been out and about, really should findout what they have been up to lately

Seaview II


Seaview II, originally uploaded by Rusty Marvin (experimenting).

P1740951_PS - Different shot and edited in CS6 slight forward rotation, the reflection is original which I liked in this shot, which was meant to be the one posted :) Bur LR would not let me see it or select it when I did!
Bit of vibrancy added plus a white drop

You have to love a camera that can go underwater.
The incoming tide coming in over the kelp generates bubbles from the trapped air.
Ryde Pier or Shipping in the Solent taken from Seaview.

TZ5 + Waterproof housing
Free hand just below the surface

Seaview


Seaview, originally uploaded by Rusty Marvin (experimenting).

LR-1740950 - You have to love a camera that can go underwater.
The incoming tide coming in over the kelp generates bubbles from the trapped air.
Ryde Pier or Shipping in the Solent taken from Seaview.

Cropped and rotated
TZ5 + Waterproof housing
Free hand just below the surface

Down Deep Inside

LR-1740944 - John Doe had taken the plunge literately but had become snagged in an old fishing net as his last gulp of air can from his tank, then expelled from his mouth piece he laid entrapped watching what to be the last breath rise to the surface.

The sea is the master just be careful in there, but have fun

SOOC
TZ5 + Waterproof housing
Free hand 12 inches below the surface

Remote Flower

Remote controlled from the computer to see if I could get something reasonable out of artificial light and just grabbed the nearest thing. Interesting technique can see a lot of uses, not sure how you can see from a kite! but that's another project then
Firmware upgrade to Version 2.0, seems to be better, but been shooting raw (small) as disappointed with the Jpeg stuff.
The wall is not that colour so that was an interesting result but SOOC with a crop.
CS6 arrived and is installed think that is about going through the examples, to much to soon otherwise, perhaps

Pilot Cutter 1, Southampton out of Portsmouth

Pilot Cutter 1, cutting out of Portsmouth

Friday Tripping - Path to Home

Clouds ,sky, sea and Quarr

Friday Tripping - Sun Power

LR-6181

Not SOOC started shooting RAW quite a bit so need to convert them to jaypeg's
Cropped
Filter Cokin P121S Graduated used on the trip except for the pilot cutter
Free hand

Friday Tripping - Refining 50 Shades of Grey with White

LR-6120 - Just playing around on the way home, going to have to find some way of cloning that of any images towards Southampton or perhaps look the other way :)

Filter Cokin P121S Graduated used on the trip except for the pilot cutter
Free hand

20 Buttons and 30 lights!

LR-5979 - I have not idea, but some body probably does, I like the semi abstract on this, don't know why really, moving to fast, walk past it every day twice and never take any notice of it or the detail on it. The only thing I can think of is a fire alarm instrument panel for 10 split floors. Mounted at an angle behind a dirty glass in a badly lit corridor.

Scavenger Challenge
1. Instrument panels may be found in your car (too easy), planes, radio/tv stations, etc.

A Short Tail - Over the garden fence

IMG_5717_LR - Well it is the best on the tail front with showing parts that would be consider as outside of the family value limits, got some excellent pigs tails, but didn't realise the relationship with Hamsters on a certain front :)
So here is rear end and tail of an albino White rabbit named Strodal or Strudel or even Stroodle who lives with a lop ear friend, who's name escapes me. We had quite a good chat, think he had a bit of cold twitching his nose all the time I was talking to him.
I was questioning him about the Faeries but he was more concerned about the crocodile !

Cropped
EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 which is interesting as quite a lot my shots have had a bit wobble in them using this lens no stabilizer + 10 foot (3m) away
Free hand

Scavenger Challenge
10. Tails are the subject (absolutely NO vulgarity or crude humour here, please!)

Fairy Two Stub Friday

IMG_5697_LR - Fairy sitting on the fnece, what ever next

Have a great weekend everybody Happy Fence Friday to one an all

Small-Tortoiseshell

IMG_5355_LR - Went for a wander at lunchtime to chill out, follow this little chap for a few hundred feet (30m) as it would not wait and pose. then when it land shut it wings just to tease some more, well it went into a slightly extended lunch hour.

Seen down by the Historical Dock yard in Chatham Kent on the Meday


Small-Tortoiseshell
Aglais urticae

Power Houses for the Morning Coffee

IMG_5888_LR - Experiment hadn't even had a sip of coffee at this point, can I take photographs in a sleep state?

I like this one, I think overall, but posted both for your honest and open opinions

The reason amazing rising sun in some strange clouds and the association with the power station upping its output to support everybody making their morning drink

Six before I got to this, so please with the result

Kingsnorth

Power Houses for the Morning Cuppa

IMG_5879_LR - Experiment hadn't even had a sip of coffee at this point, can I take photographs in a sleep state?

I like the rays in this one, but overall think I prefer the other shot.

The reason amazing rising sun in some strange clouds and the association with the power station upping its output to support everybody making their morning drink

Six before I got to this, so please with the result

Cropped
Freehand

Kingsnorth

Well sometimes they just come out that way!

IMG_5817_LR - Having the previous night rolling around in a field and not producing a decent shot, thought the broken stem could be shot using the strobist set up, check settings all done and away we go, flash working, speed looks good, set ISO to auto seemed to work last time. Does the camera always know best and sometimes an accident looks nice

Experiment - IMG_5387_LR - Filters - Sand Castles and Clouds

IMG_5387_LR - Not to many beaches in Chatham, but a few sand castles, so playing around with filters to see how it goes, still some work required on the clouds, but if it was perfect what fun would it be :)

A Leaf in B&W

IMG_5849_LR - Strange how a simple assignment can be so complex, spent weeks looking for the right leaf, still didn't find it, but thought it needed to be separated out from the madding crowds

Scavenger Challenge
15. A leaf, using black and white

Strobist, + low power defused light

50 Shades of Grey - The English Gentleman

IMG_5164_LR_PS - More loving on the Sunday trip, thiught the guy was the perfect English Gentleman, not slobbing or hugging tight a sort of Hugh Grant uncomfortable bit of loving perhaps

50 Shades of Grey - The Snuggle

IMG_5175_LR_PS - Seemed to be a bit of a cuddling trip on Sunday. But hey why not nothing wrong with a cuddle and a bit of love

50 Shades of Grey - The Sneaky Coffee

IMG_5152_LR_PS - Was a sneaky or shared coffee who knows it was a quick peck and act natural. Oh what a story you could make out this Mr & Mrs Jones!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

50 Shades of Grey - element

IMG_5140_LR_PS - Seems to have a few of them, perhaps why it is only singular; fire (sun), sea (water), girl (?), Beer (?)

First ferry trip with the new camera

Bird Watching!

Img_5554_lr ps - Well it had to done, pretty sure this in an Essex Platinum, wrong shape for a Chatham girl (according to local sources). I did hear the native call of an Iphone, but saw no nearly mate, the vocal tones sounded more Essex and less of the Kent tongue but it seemed to have quite strong vocal cords, considering this was taken more than 40ft away.

"The Only Way Is Essex"

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Berry Seductive by candle light

LR-3060 - Sorry only a few more to go. Bit of role reversal and splicing a Blackberry on to a Rose, strange how both are thorny and one is editable and has not been embrace, whilst the other is held high esteem
I love the way the light form the candle almost turns it into a painting rather a image/photograph

Slight crop and exposure tweak in Lightroom, not quite got the setting right will try harder
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Tripod five candle 4 to the left and one front right (sure they call that strobist !)

Available in a mini series more....

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Bit of Rough with the Smooth

LR-2723 - Barking berries, brambles or black still pushing them as the best thing since sliced bread. A few more ideas yet


Crop Lightroom As Is
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Silky Smooth berries on Shades of Grey

LR-2612 - Yet another attempt to sex up those Bramble/Black berries, having done the wet'n'wild thought it was time to calm down before the the bit of rough already requested but thought this would give them time to reflect a little :)

Square Crop and tweak in Lightroom
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Monday 6 August 2012

Wet'n'Wild, Juicy Berries

LR-2595 - Yet another attempt to sex up those Bramble/Black berries, haven't done the bit of rough yet requested but thought this would give them a bit of an uplift :)
Sorry I am just bramling on. still not convinced that it is as could as it can get

Crop and tweak in Lightroom
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

The original shot

Finger Licking good, Olympian

LR-2494 - Well I have watched some, but this sums up most of my interest in all these people, running, rowing, jumping, cycling. Cycle to a shady spot, watch someone else put in all the effort, whilst relaxing on a bench in the shade, just my sort of reality television.

Lightroom crop As Is
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Newport Isle of Wight England

Olympics - Stroke and the Floppy hat

LR-2473 - Not sure if this guy was a late entry for the Tour-de-France and found the wrong mode of transport, personally I was laughing with him as the amount of effort he had put in was of Olympic standard, but sadly no lanes marked out and only Gulls for spectators as he rowed against the current, which hammers out of Newport (to his right).


Lightroom crop and tweak
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Newport, Isle of Wight, England

Olympics - Synchronised Swan'in and the Judge looks on.....

LR-2469 - Not sure it is a full on Olympic sport synchronised swans, this crew on the river Medina would have done quite well :)
A strange little spot on the Medina, very tranquil and very nice to have Mrs R go for a walk with me, even if she did moan about the camera tagging along.

Lightroom crop and tweak
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Figure sculptured from Ciment fondue further information on the wildlife area more....

Scavenger Challenge
4. The theme is protecting wildlife. Show an example of wildlife conservation in your area.
Interestingly I went down here for her facial features, completely forgot why, but something in the subconscious must have kicked in

Well it had to be done!

Img_2443_ps - Well it has to be done with any camera when it's new to you, really pleased with the result on this; the detail is quite good, plus it was with the 75-300 and on the 7D I have been getting a little bit of handshake, so is it all about the light or did I manage to not wobble (best of three).

Just cropped to enlarge otherwise 'As Is' (i.e SOOC cropped)
Canon EOS 7D + Canon 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 II (manual focus)
Free hand

More Luna stuff from various cameras and experiments.

Waning Gibbous Ryde Isle of Wight England

Saturday 4 August 2012

Berries on Wood

IMG_2346 - bramble berries or Black-berries the subject of regional differences, picked from the carefully cultivated bushes in the garden (that just happen to grow when I water everything else). Having previously shot these, it would seem they have no artistic appeal, so found a couple of pieces of wood, and placed them in the window light to see if some thing more appealing can be created, jury is in your hands for them in this state, but I'll be happy when they pop themselves into a Meringue tomorrow with some Greek yoghurt, probably topped with a couple of strawberry halves.

The idea was to have some focus on the wood grain and then take you on to the berries, I also like the knot behind. Apologies the distraction in the right-hand corner, will try harder :)

SOOC
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Freehand

Bee Happy, don't worry aka Sunshine, Blue skies, Lilac and Honey

LR-2425 - Watched a couple of Bee's doing their thing whilst building Rusty kennel (probably to mine soon). Waiting for this guy to climb to the brow of the hill, just working with animals and children as they say.
A few of others below, the original SOOC, a myth buster, they still fly when the wings stop and curtains for the end of the day :)
The neuro jukebox selected a couple of songs, whilst pushing buttons (lyrics from a Temps song) and then that well known artist Bobby McFerrin ok, here's the song and with lyrics, just in case you don't know them :) But be happy.

Little bits on the right cropped
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Free hand + sun light

Experiment - Strobist - Coyote Skull (single)

LR_-2172 - Not sure if he/she married but it's on it's own now,
More playing, talking of light, bit of strobist try the light box. Sadly the DMC G1 and I fell out on this topic, it didn't want to do what I wanted it to and we continually argued about the whole set up, thinking the Canon I worked well with this, even if the natural light bulb overhead. again.

Tweak in light room, black background was not as strong as I would have liked.
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Tripod Strobist natural day light bulb to the right, flash umbrella left at around 60 degrees

Experiment - Strobist - Grapes a bunch of

IMG_2229 - More playing, talking of light, bit of strobist try the light box .

SOOC
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Tripod Strobist natural day light bulb to the right, flash umbrella left at around 60 degrees

Experiment - Strobist - The Strength of Elephant Garlic

IMG_2233 - More playing, talking of light, bit of strobist big of High Key perhaps, probably just over the top but the light box might it managable.

SOOC
Canon EOS 7D + EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Tripod Strobist natural day light bulb to the right, flash umbrella left at around 60 degrees

HFF Late entry

LR_1979_PS-LR - Horsing Fence Friday, this would have been a really neat shot, if I had not screw up on the metal five bar gate. But learning by my mistakes.

Have a great weekend, everyone