Bishop Auckland

I decided to take a trip to Bishop Auckland and have walk around the market place and Auckland Castle & grounds whilst the weather was nice at the weekend. I took advantage of the autumn colours and strong light to create a vibrant set of shots looking at the architecture and history of the area. Hope you enjoy...



The Town Hall in the centre of the Market Square



This shot is from the rear of the town hall with St Anne's church on the left


The Deer Houe in the two shots below was built in the 1800's to offer shelter to the Deer that roamed the Castle grounds.

The grounds around the Castle offer a pleasant walk, refferred to locally as 'The Bishop's Walk'

Just outside the entrance to the estate lie some cottages and the Clock Tower, leading to the estate.

If you'd like to purchase prints of any of the above images please drop me a line. Thanks for visiting!

A more sombre approach



I'm not sure if it's just the change in the weather or the shorter days but I've been a bit meloncholic recently. Using more monochrome or capturing scenes of a more tranquil, or 'lonley' nature.

 

During the summer this is a hive of activity but during the cooler months all that can be heard is the gushing water and the odd Land Rover Defender passing by. (Below) Early morning mist providing an erie cover for the Cathedral in the background

Clearing mist reveals fisherman. I increased the red levels in this one to accentuate the dawn light and warm the scene a little

Desaturated this one a little to keep to simple tones and concentrate more on the leading lines



I'm a bit indecisive about this shot. I wanted to get the impression of being left behind by capturing people walking away into the distance.



Sunrise

Stopped on the way to work the other day to capture the Sun coming up. Beautiful Aumtumn Sunrise; hope there's lots more to come!

 

Flooding in Durham UK 2012

The North East of England was hit with flooding on a large scale this month. Many areas had roads closed and some houses and businesses were badly affected. The shots below are from Durham City. The River Wear begins in the Penines and runs through much of County Durham, via the city itself before reaching Sunderland. It floods almost anually. Prints of any of these are available if you'd like to get in touch.

 

Small car washed away... (top left of pic)

Graveyard Shift

Black and White

B&W or monochrome as it more popularly referred to at the moment, can give dramatic results. This is especially true if you have a very strong composition. Sometimes de-saturating your image can allow you to pick out the focus points where strong colours can cause a distraction. It was probably the best weather we've had for a long time the other morning so I dropped by a cemetary to try and catch some good light on my way to work.

Graveyards are a strange place to wander around but there are many people who find it fascinating to see the various sculptures and headstones. For a photographer they offer a place where you will probably not be disturbed and you can take your time setting up before taking advantage of all sorts of textures, contrast, decay etc etc.



Original and  (right) slight crop and b&w conversion







I really like the older areas of graveyards...

Some strong contrast and bold shapes lurking in the overgrown grass

Worn sculpture offering some 'soft' lines. Sepia used rather than staight forward b&w conversion



I like the way this has given the impression of a moonlit shot.




 



Green filter applied in Lightroom to make the grass softer and brighter



Taking HDR further

From my previous post on HDR I talked about keeping things looking natural but still being able to bring out various tones and colours to counteract flat light. In these shots it's more about creating more vibrant and detailed images that stand out from regular exposures.


The street shot above, makes use of the various colours and textures. I tried to lead the eye into the scene when I set up the shot. I personally love the mixture of textures, from the worn paint on the railings to the bricks, cobbles and rendering on the buildings. To increase the tonal range of this shot and most of them in this blog, I increased the bracketing range from 0 to +1.3 & -1.3. The sky was pretty washed out but underexposing the shot by an extra .3 allowed a little cloud detail. .

In the image above of Durham Train station, I wanted to draw attention to the symmetry and repetitive pattern leading into perspective. Again +/-1.3ev and 0ev were used.

The shot above was, again, aimed at drawing the viewers attention to the dynamic shapes. The architecture of The Deep building in Hull is as impressive as the huge aquarium it holds. Sometimes it's all too obvious to stand 25m or so away from a building to capture it's design. The real architecture is sometimes best appreciated from up-close.



Tanfield railway above is a great place for photography in the North East. I love the station, complete with advertising and decoration from the old days of Steam. This image is the result of 5 shots -2, -1, 0, +1, +2ev and the details slider pushed all the way up in Photomatix. Not too much to worry about in terms of 'noise' (the speckles that can appear in digital images using high ISO settings) as the greenery does a good job of disguising it.

Images using only a few elements

Part of the philosophy I have around my images, is that I would like them to generate some kind of emotional attachment with the viewer. In keeping with this, I really enjoy capturing scenes which contain very few elements (Meaning, scenes which appear to be very sparse of movement, people or items). Upon first glance, the images appear very simple but correct use of main points of focus can allow the viewer to let their imagination wander as to what situation surrounds the image.


3 main elements in this shot. The lush, green grass and the roaming pathway that leads they eye to the resting point of the large rock.

The above shot was taken in a busy park during the middle of the day. however, the lack of movement and other distractions gives the impression of a private place for reflection and peace. Selective foreground blurring provides the element of distance and sharpening the rock itself helps lead the eye 'into' the picture.


The stones are the main focus here and everything else seems to 'blend' away.

In the original shot for the above, the sky was bland and grey. Adding a selective colour-faded filter in Lightroom has added interest without taking away from the main focus.

A Small boat on Ullswater. The poignancy of this, is that it was taken during terrible floods that ruined bridges, yet the boat remains calm and unaffected. Just sitting patiently and calmly

The key to capturing this type of image is looking at the scene and working out what it is that is important. A wider view showed the fence around the lake almost completely submerged but I felt that it distracted away from the peace that the boat was unaware of the chaos around it (Yes, I know it's an inanimate object, we're being philosophical here haha) once that is established, correct composition will allow the main elements to 'pop' out. It is less about putting elements into context and more about leaving the viewer wondering what the rest of the scene may look like.

A simple, large moon in the mid-afternoon winter sky.

In the above shot it was important to use a long focal length to make the moon larger and a low iso setting to keep the sky looking smooth and silky. Blue, cloudless skies can be hard to handle at higher iso's.

Hope that you enjoyed these images - Check back soon more updates on the way!

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