Week 5: Two Views of the Thames

Travelling to and from a client's workplace I tend to drive near to the Thames so this week I thought I would try and capture the magic of the river. However, having taken a few very different shots I could not decide which one best captured my feeling for the river, so I am posting two contrasting views.

Details: Nikon D80, Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, focal length 42mm, 30 seconds @ f/16, ISO 200

This first shot was taken from the bank of the Thames at Pangbourne, opposite the Swan pub. Pangbourne is a place I like as the "vibe" feels good any time of the year. I used to have an office in the village and felt it was time to capture something of the feel of the place. Taken at night on the way home from work, I had planned to take a quick shot before meeting some friends and an hour later I was still looking at the view and getting cold!

Details: Nikon D80, Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, focal length 125mm, 1/125 second @ f/7.1, ISO 200

The second picture is much closer to my company's HQ just to the East of Reading and on the same campus park as Microsoft and Oracle. There is a watersport centre on the bank of the thames and the pile of canoes on the opposite bank reminded me of my canoeing experiences many years ago. So, feeling nostalgic, I desaturated the image to take it - and me - back a few years.

Week 4: Chepstow Race Course

Details: Nikon D80, Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, focal length 28mm, 1/50 second @ f/18, ISO 100

Seems strange to take a picture of a race course and no horses but my wife and I were there for a a rock and gem show and were just captivated by the scenery. This shows the view from near to the finish post up the final straight towards the last bend and you can see the 1 furlong marker n the middle distance.

I only got to see this glorious part of the countryside a couple of weeks ago when I went to Monmouth and drove down the amazing Wye Valley, sadly to collect my ill daughter and then to get her car. Given the circumstances, I had no opportunity to take any pictures as I was running to a tight schedule but I am hoping to go back there sometime soon with camera and tripod to capture more of the place than just the glimpse from the race course. Tintern Abbey is one of the places in the Wye Valley that I glimpsed from the car midday and when the Abbey was lit up in the early evening and one place that my camera seems to be drawn towards.

Week 3: Back In Woodstock At Night

Details: Nikon D80, Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, focal length 135mm, 30 seconds @ f/13, ISO 100

I had the chance to go back to Woodstock (see Week 1) but this time at night. The town has a great ambiance and I spent a happy (if cold) couple of hours walking through a small section of the town with camera and tripod. Aside from the one or two weird looks most of the town's folk seemed to regard the sight of a lunatic with a tripod taking obscure pictures of their town as a normal occurrence.

This is a detail from the parish church for Woodstock, St Mary Magdalene, "which has been at the spiritual and geographical heart of Woodstock for a thousand years". Somehow the cross and shadow were evocative and timeless, capturing the age of the town while also asking us to remember mankind's troubles, so pertinent in the current strife-ridden climate of our planet. It also seemed 'right' to process this as a black and white shot, processed in PS using the "B&W Filter 1.0" with a B&W filter setting of "Red", a development type of "High Contrast", paper set to "Grade 4 - Hard" and colour tone set to "Kallitype".

I have posted some other shots from this session on my SmugMug site including a full view of the church.

Week 2: Trapped In My Own Imagination

Details: Nikon D80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 with reversing ring, focal length N/A, 2.5 seconds @ f/22, ISO 100

Well, this week I did not do much travelling at all, largely working in my Company's Reading office and at home. It was a hectic week and, as a consequence, photo opportunities were rare. However, I did have some time today (Sunday) at home to play with my camera and a new reversing ring for my prime lens, my first foray into the world of macro.

I would love to say that it was easy but I soon discovered just what the expression "shallow depth of field" meant and my admiration for the others in the DPC PAW who have made macro their theme increased tenfold. I was also using Nikon's Capture Pro hooked to Picture Project for the first time so I could see the images as they were shot to check for sharpness and focus, which proved to be a major benefit. So, armed with camera, tripod, office lamp and other sundry items, the session began!

So where have I been this week? Adrift in my own imagination!

I discovered that my wife's love of crystals and my love of science fiction coupled with a dried flower gave my imagination the chance to work overtime. The picture is an attempt to represent some alien life form crawling over an "other worldly" landscape, the landscape being an amethyst crystal (wonderful mountain ranges and colours close up) and the alien life form a dried seed pod of some kind. The colour and form of the "alien" were augmented in Photoshop to make it pop a little.

I think I need to get out more...

Week 1 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Details: Nikon D80, Nikon Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens, 1/80 s @ f/13, ISO 200

This was a week when I was supposed to be travelling a lot to various client sites but instead made a single journey to one, which is in the heart of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire. One of the delights of the journey to and from the client site is the town of Woodstock, the place where Blenheim Palace is located, seat of the Duke of Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. The town is a delight in all seasons and I caught this picture at lunchtime on Tuesday, January 2nd.

As pictures go it is not the most dynamic but it captures two of the three essential elements of any small English town or village: the Town Hall and a pub, in this case the sign for the Bear Hotel. The third element - the village church - just could not be squeezed into the frame. I hope the picture captures the colour and warmth of the local building material, the aptly named cotswold stone. Most old towns and villages in the Cotswolds seem to be carved from the stone and to me it offers a real feeling of warmth and comfort.

Sadly, the clear blue sky in the picture belies the fact that just about everywhere else there were dark clouds and about 10 minutes after starting to shoot the rain came in. Given this and the fact that I had stolen time in my lunch break to take the photos, it meant that I did not cover as much of the village as I would have liked. But I will be returning soon...

Theme and Test Picture Upload

The theme I have chosen for my PAW is "Where I Have Been This Week", a chance for me to try and capture the various places I get to visit as part of my job and have never really bothered to acknowledge or record.

Details: Nikon D80, Tokina 18-200mm lens, focal length 28mm, 8 seconds @ f/16, ISO 200

As to the test picture, this was taken just before Christmas at the Christmas illuminations of the trees at the Westonbirt Aboretum. The walk is enchanting and a lot of fun for the kids, especially as there are hidden fairy grottos and intriguing use of lights. Really interesting place to visit if you get the chance.

Why This Blog...

This blog is a place for me to capture my "picture a week" for 2007, an undertaking that has been inspired by the Digital Photography Challenge (DPChallenge) web site. This is the first post to the blog and acts as a disclaimer for this work in progress.

Part of the sense of the PAW is to select a theme for the photographs and use that as the inspiration for the series. This, as is the blog, is a work in progress but will be something along the lines of:

• Organic textures
• Prime time (pictures only taken with a prime lens)
• My neck of the woods
• My world in black & white
• The macro world
  

or some combination of the above. But I guess I will decide on this soon as I have to submit a photo in the next 10 days.

I guess the whole point of my participating in the PAW is to embark on a journey of some kind so this post is the first step I guess. To quote Greg Anderson:

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

Someone wish me "Bon voyage!"...