MorseBlog

Click Above to go Straight to the Photos on Flickr! The last couple of years I have done what a lot of people do and try and select a limited number of 'best' photos of the year. These are of course by my own judgment though I do factor in likes from Flickr users in my decision.  This year I was very prolific in terms photos taken at about 375 (compared to about 50 last year!). I also have to say the yield of good photos was better. I attribute the increase in numbers mostly to my retirement from full time work this year. Covid-19 has limited travel but also provided a basis for more focus. The number of photos I am happy with went way up I think primarily because I chose to focus on intimate woodland as as subject and my further focus on three local woodlands. I have also been steadily improving technique and looking critically at the results. I ended up with perhaps 30 candidates on my initial long list.  The year divided almost in half betwe...

I was looking forward to this morning for the last couple of days. The gale that has been blowing winds is finally done and a high pressure was due to park itself over the area. Finally we would have the first frost of the year (extremely late historically) and perhaps some fog. So I scraped the windshield (windscreen) and bundled myself into the care at 5:30am. The sky was deep blue with just a rim of orange on the eastern horizon. Venus was up as was the moon along with a couple of wisps of cloud. It was dead still.  It didn't feel that cold when I got out of the car. There was frost but the sense was it was barely freezing and hadn't been that cold for very long. I had been vacillating about where to go amongst my 3 local choices. I settled on Woodwalton Fen on the theory that with lots of water about the place perhaps that would improve chances of fog. On the way I didn't see any signs of fog patches so probably any choice was bound to disappoint on that front.  I pulle...

Woodwalton has been on my mind lately. Like some neglected responsibility it creeps into my subconscious. I had not visited there for many months. So yesterday I went for about an hour around sunset. I brought my Mamiya 645 mostly to see what was happening with fall color.  I ended up taking a few photos but it was quite windy and with the dying light my Ektar 100 was pretty useless except for some mediocre sunset photos. The roll of Ilford 3200 I am shooting at 1600 as an experiment faired a little better but hunting for color with black and white film is well, crazy.  Pond: Woodwalton Fen (Mamiya 645 Pro 150mm f3.5 handheld Ilford Delta 3200) Still I had the reserve to myself and enjoyed the walk around the place. I discovered there is a grove of quaking aspen trees ( Populus tremula ) there. Where I grew up in Flagstaff the San Francisco Peaks had large groves of a related aspen also called quaking aspen but a different species ( Populus tremuloides ) which means 'tremble...

Recently I have been shooting more photos in my woodlands exercise.  I started this project last November and it has been useful to help focus me on a local subject and explore some less obvious images. So much of landscape photography is of a few well know places I wanted to do something that was unique and personal.  On another visit to North Yorkshire I found this magical little stream near the main road. It is richly populated with lush vegetation and lends itself to many small vignettes. Except for some rain and a lack of time I would have probably shot many more images. As it was I had to finish up this roll of HP5+ in Monk's Wood. The prints I made from North Yorkshire are discussed here .  A recent post on self-critique had its genesis in the visit I took to Monk's Wood. I took a number of photos there which got me thinking more deliberately about how I find and take these woodland photos and what I have learned along the way. Later,  I also went to Woodwalt...

Introduction During the last few days as I have been making and toning images on Ilford MG Art 300 paper I got the idea that the paper has such a nice weight and feel it could make good note cards. Pursuing this idea I started with the Gradient Birch image I have been using lately. Needless to say I like the image a lot. It is also easy to print as it doesn't require any manipulations like burning or dodging. Since I plan to make a lot of these I didn't want an image that is complex to produce. Blog Post Cover Image Card Layout: Deciding on a Size I started out with the 12 inch x 16 inch dimensions of the paper I have. A reasonable card size is 4x6 inches folded from 4x8 inch paper. I can get 4 of these from a 12x16 sheet. At £3 a sheet it is less that £1 cost for each card. I then have to figure the image size and aspect ratio and borders. I doodled on paper starting with the 3:4 ratio of the 4.5 x 6 cm negative. Not surprisingly 3x4 inches works nicely with fat borders. These...

Yesterday was a strange day weather-wise. The glorious and rare spring weather had changed to cooler and wetter weather and was not completely unwelcome. Yesterday however as warmer air moved in ithe weather was very close humid and almost foggy the air was so dense. Gray clouds lay low as I headed out mid-morning.  I vaguely had the idea of heading back to Holme Fen. The last time I had visited was in March and then it was very much still in a wintery state. I missed the transformation of spring time and so now I would see it in early summer. It had changed incredibly. The ground for the most part in winter is swathed in brown dead bracken beaten flat by the rain and rot. Now in addtion to the Birch and Oak in full leaf the ferns stood a full meter high and obscured the ground underneath so thick were they. These are birch forests and unlike thick conifer forests the ferns seem to get more light and can carpet the whole forest floor in thick tall stands....