Waterfall

This image did not really fit into my Summer 2023 Road Trip: Part 1 – The Lake District post, but it was taken out the back of the camping pod that we were staying in at Troutbeck Camping Pods. In fact we could hear the waterfall all night!

This was a two-second exposure, with a neutral density filter and a circular polarising filter to extend the shutter time and control reflections, taken on my Fuji X-T2 with the 18-55mm “kit” lens.

Summer Solstice Walk

Yesterday was the summer solstice – so I decided to go out for a walk with my camera, with a vague idea of capturing the sun going down for the shortest night. I was walking between Coventry and Balsall Common and could not find an interesting view to the west. However, I did like this shot of a lone tree in the golden light.

Usually, on a warm summer evening, I would be out on my bike, but with my knee still not right after my ride to Hatton, I have been enjoying getting out for walks with my camera instead.

Montezuma Beach – Throwback Thursday

This photo, taken when we visited Montezuma in Costa Rica (ten years ago!), recently won third place in a “seascape” themed photography competition. So I took it as a good excuse to share it (again) on my blog.

It is crazy to think how much our lives have changed since we went to Costa Rica – shortly afterwards Jen and I started renovating the house where we now live with our two boys. And I have not been abroad for over three years, nor do we even have any foreign travel plans for the foreseeable future. Although it would be nice to take the boys over to Costa Rica…

Autumn Colours on the Trent and Mersey Canal

Recently I realised that although I spend a lot of time at Cannock Chase, I only ever see the mountain bike trails, and vowed to explore some more – ideally with my camera! This weekend I had to pick up an eBay purchase so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and have a photography stop on the way home – actually I killed three birds with one stone, as I gave my Toyota MR2 a good run out too! The weather even played ball, as it was one of those sunny, crisp autumnal mornings. The previous day I had mentioned to Jen that I thought the autumn colours were particularly pretty this year. Maybe it is down to the nicer than usual weather (or global warming)?

I stopped right at the northern edge of the Cannock Chase AONB, in a village called Great Haywood. I’d chosen the location because there were two canals, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal, in addition to the River Trent. The area nearest to where I had parked was actually the most photogenic, especially with the autumn colours reflecting in the water. It was a great way to break up a journey and something I am going to try to do again in future.

Canal By Night – Throwback Thursday

Canal RoundaboutAnother post inspired by the #throwbackthursday hashtag on Twitter. This photo was taken exactly four years ago, from the NIA in Birmingham. I’d actually forgotten about it, until a night photography thread popped up on PistonHeads, so when I found it and noticed it had been taken exactly four years ago I had to post it to my blog.

 

Rugby Cement Works

Cement Works

These cement works dominate the skyline of Rugby and over the four years I’ve lived here I’ve grown to like them, when returning from a long journey, seeing them on the horizon is a sign I’m nearly home.

I can see the cement works from my kitchen window and had been wanting to take a long exposure photo of them lit up at night for quite some time, but as it is so near to home I was waiting for the perfect sky, (slightly lighter and less cloudy than in this image) but sometimes you just have to go for it! I’m glad I did as I am pleased with the result and will certainly have a print of it on my wall when I move away from Rugby!

Costa Rica: Tamarindo Sunset

Tamarindo Sunset

I’m still working through images from my trip to Costa Rica (renovating a house, is taking up most of my free time at the moment), but I’m getting there! This sunset was captured in Tamarindo, the last place we stayed and there’s just something I really like about it, so I thought it was worth blogging. The photo isn’t technically perfect, in fact it was taken on my Canon Powershot S90 compact camera, but I really like the colours of the sea and the sky (I did accentuate them a bit when processing the raw file) and it just makes me want to be back in Costa Rica on the beach at sunset.