Tag: winter

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Road.

David M5 Comments

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Road.

Originally I thought I would go with two roads in summer many miles apart in Canada. Then I remembered a shot from Christmas day, 2017.

A back road in the summer on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. I was returning from photographing a sunrise when I stopped for this shot. I liked the way the low sun was illuminating the grass seed heads along the sides of the road.

A spring back road.

A back road on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario on Christmas day, 2017. Falling snow is obscuring the end of the road.

Snow covered back road on Christmas day.

This gravel road in Saskatchewan, Canada should have had a Road Closed sign at the junction so you wouldn’t drive down it only to find the road was underwater.

Photographer's wheels.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Ancient.

David M1 Comment

My contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Ancient.

I was considering various Roman and Medieval buildings I have photographed before deciding to go further back in time.

These photos are taken on Bickerton Hill in south Cheshire, England. This section of the hill is the site on an Iron Age hill fort known as Maiden Castle. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the ramparts defending part of the plateau where built around 600 BC. In reality this is an ancient landscape with very little of the hill fort left to see.

This photo shows the natural slope down from the plateau where the hill fort is situated. This escarpment forms part of the defenses of the fort, it’s a lot steeper than it looks in this photo.

Bickerton Hill escarpment.

What little remains of the defensive earthworks is hidden amongst the Silver Birch trees and Bracken.

Autumn colour on Maiden Castle, Bickerton Hill.

In this photo I am standing in what would have been the north west corner of the hill fort with the escarpment in front of me and the remains of defensive earthworks hidden in the trees to my right.

Standing on the site on an Iron Age hill fort.

Seraphic and Diaphanous.

David M6 Comments

My contribution to the Cosmic Photo Challenge: Seraphic, Diaphanous, Immutable.

Once I had used online dictionaries to find the meaning of each of the words I had to come up with an idea for the challenge.

This Red-breasted Nuthatch taking flight makes me think of some images of angels (seraphic) and the spread wings are delicate and slightly translucent (diaphanous).

A winter shot with deep snow behind the Cedar tree. The light reflecting off the snow helps to show the translucency of the flight feathers.

Seraphic and Diaphanous.

Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge – Yellow.

David M4 Comments

The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Yellow.

My first thought was the various species of flora and fauna subjects with yellow in their common English names. I then decided that idea was to obvious before remembering the giant yellow butterfly garden ornament I had photographed on a walk last winter.

A Giant Yellow Butterfly over wintering on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.

Yellow butterfly garden ornament.

Connections.

David M3 Comments

The new Tuesday Photo Challenge is Connections.

The challenge had me stuck for ideas until I thought of this shot. It makes me think of some sort of interlocking puzzle where you connect the pieces. Imagine how hard a large jigsaw puzzle of this shot would be.

The photo is of Privet leaves rimmed with hoarfrost. Photographed in Cheshire, England.

Privet leaves rimmed with hoarfrost.

Wings over water.

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The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Wings.

I thought about swarms of insects but decided that while you can see the insects you can’t see their wings while they’re flying in the swarm.

Then I thought about some of the photos from when I was a member of a small group of birders surveying and recording a winter roost of Gull species on an inland reservoir in south Cheshire, England.

A photo of Black-headed Gulls in winter roosting on Hurleston Reservoir at night. If something disturbs the birds on an edge of the roost they will fly to another side of the roost which is what they’re doing in the photo.

Black-headed Gull winter roost.

Some Best Buys.

David M3 Comments

The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Best Buy.

An unusual post for me as I don’t normally talk about camera equipment regarding it as tools used to get the image. I stopped following equipment trends long ago so most of my gear is a decade or more old and now discontinued.

Then I thought of this photo from last winter. It features some of my best buys in camera equipment, all of which is long discontinued.

  • The camera bag is a Tenba P895 purchased in the 1980s. Tenba discontinued the range about 15 years ago.
  • The tripod is a Gitzo G340, the tripod head is an Arca-Swiss B1, both from the 1990s and both now discontinued.
  • The camera is an Olympus E-3 from 2008 so around a decade old at the time the photo was taken and also discontinued.

I should add that since the photo was taken I have swapped out the Tenba bag for a canvas Domke. The reason for the change was two bad shoulders and deciding to try a bag that has a reputation for being easier on the shoulder. So far the Domke does seem easier on the shoulder but I still miss some of the features of the Tenba having used the range for decades.

The photo was taken with an old tablet I sometimes throw in the camera bag. It has an app that shows sun rise/set, moon rise/set times and locations along with a note taking app I use for recording dates and locations for future reference. There’s also an app for calculating long exposure times when using neutral density filters and an app for editing photos. Maybe the tablet should be on the best buy list.

Some best buys.