Category: Garw

Tree felling in the Garw Valley and the aftermath…….

Over the last few months the trees in the Garw Valley have been felled due to an outbreak of ‘Phytophthora ramorum’ which is a fungus-like pathogen of plants that causes extensive damage and mortality to trees and other plants.

It is so sad to look out of my windows overlooking the once green hills that are now barren due to this disease but from what I have read this is the only way to stop the spread.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-85TDX6

I decided to take a walk and try to document how this has changed the once beautiful tree covered valley using both Digital and Film.

All these photographs were taken using a Nikon FM2n and 50mm lens on ilford Delta 400 and hopefully shows the decimation this has caused, I think the Black and White gives a more poignant/sad feel to the images.

I am sure mother nature will prevail and cover this once green valley again.

Thanks for looking……  click to view a larger image….. 

My first roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and home developing fun……..

Last week I decided as I was shooting more and more film I would have to have a go at developing my own negatives. This is something I have not done since school.

When studying for my ‘O’ level Art my teacher Mr Halley who was a keen photographer set up a darkroom and some of us who were interested in photography got to waste our Friday afternoons developing and printing our own stuff which is where I got gripped with the photography bug over 30 years ago.

With a mixture of memory/facebook friends and youtube I ventured into my makeshift darkroom /bathroom 🙂  and thought I had made a total mess of my film.

First it all unwound and dropped to the floor, then I managed to cut the leader at an angle so it would not wind on to the spool, eventually I emerged from the bathroom thinking the worst but I was so pleased after opening up the processing tank when I saw images instead of clear or black film.

It is such a thrill to process my own film it brings back so many memories, I love processing my digital shots too, but there is something about the look/feel and smell of Film.

These shots are far from perfect but as it is all my own work I love them…….

Thanks for looking…….comments are very welcome  🙂

Click on photo to view larger……….

Snow comes to the Valley…………

The weather forecast was for snow to arrive here in South Wales around 10am on Saturday and they were not wrong, it snowed until late afternoon when sadly it turned to rain but as it was still extremely cold overnight most of the remaining snow has turned to ice.

Because it was snowing while we went out for a walk I didn’t really want to take my DSLR so used my trusty Olympus E-PL1 and as it is always in my pocket my iPhone4 using Hipstamatic.

The iPhone shots used the combination of the James M lens with Ina’s 1969 film.

While the Olympus was set to Pinhole mode and the emulsion frame effect was added in Photoshop.

iPhone……

Comments greatly accepted…………..

 

A Black & White Day……..

There is something about Black & White photographs that draw the viewer into the shot, I don’t really know what it is but I find that if I look at my own pictures in both Black & White and colour most often than not the B&W version seems to have more about it.

Maybe its because I am not distracted by so many colourful elements that it gives me more time to really look at the composition and lighting and my mind and eyes are not competing with each other so find what the photograph is all about.

Here is a selection of fairly ordinary shots from a few of my local walks that seemed to have much more about them in B&W if I had not gone back and looked through my Aperture library for this exercise they may have never seen the light of day here on my blog.

Comments are very welcome………..

You have to love Film………..

I took my 1st roll of film to Boots today for their 1hour service just to see the test results from my new Nikon FM2n.

I shot various subjects just to get used to using a fully manual camera on Kodak Ultramax 400 film. The portraits were shot using the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 and the others with the Nikkor 50mm f1.8.

I wasn’t very impressed with printing or the scans from Boots but I was very pleased with the focus and exposure considering I am used to Aperture priority and Autofocus.

I can’t wait to get some Fuji Professional PRO 400H and some Kodak Professional Portra 400 and shoot loads more stuff but get it processed by a decent lab.

The camera is a real pleasure to use and I am so pleased with the results, there is such a difference between using Film to shooting Digital it slows me down and makes me think about the photograph instead of just snapping away and picking the best in post production.

Feedback on the photographs greatly received……..

A Break in the Weather…….

At last on the day before I am due to go back to work there seems to be a break in the incessant rain we have been having here in the South Wales Valleys.

I decided to just set out with the Olympus E-PL1 just in case I got caught in a downpour.

All of the shots here are using the ‘Art’ filter… Pinhole, as I shoot Raw all the time selecting the Art Filter writes a Jpeg with the selected effect and an untouched Raw file incase the effect was not successful.

I really like what the Pinhole filter does to the images even though you do lose some of the detail and sharpness.

click on an image to view………

Boxing Day…………….

A quiet Boxing Day here in the South Wales valleys, the weather is Grey and very wet so no trips out with the camera.

Still have the Nikon 50mm on the camera so I decided to annoy the family with some candid abstract shots around the house using the D7000 and the SB700 flash.

Not the most exciting of shots but it sums up the relaxing day at home……lol

Morning walk with Instagram……

Went for a nice bracing walk yesterday before going to shoot the Rugby game and intead of dragging my Dslr around I just took my iPhone4 and used Instagram to snap some random photos for a change.

It was very liberating just using the phone camera but I did feel like I was missing something by not taking along my regular camera.

I was pleased with what I captured even though they were pretty random stuff and will not be winning many awards………..

click on image to view larger…….

No Rugby today again……….

For the second week running Pontycymer RFC’s games have been called off so no rugby for me  😦

I decided to take the camera setup for rugby on a little walk as it was not raining and see what I could get that was a little slower paced.

The gate copes very well with the sheep but is not so great with the other local wildlife…..lol

I also tried out a new photography app for my iPhone called “Streemate” and will be posting up some of the shots I took later on.

Nikon D7000,  Nikon 80-200mm f2.8  iso400 @f2.8

click on image to view larger…….

 

 

A Nice afternoon stroll……..

Its half term in school and I have a week off work so I have been decorating since the weekend and as the sun was shining late this afternoon I took a break and went out for a stroll with my camera.The Autumn colours are great but I decided to take a 3 shot bracketed shot of the Lake just to see if I could show the full range as I saw it.

I don’t think it looks too over cooked, comments appreciated……..

Nikon D300s,  Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 VC

click on image to view larger…….