It's a gas (ring)

Another for my online photo group. The challenge was 'light trails'. I know I should really have gone out and spent hours composing amazingly lyrical photos of speeding car lights. To be honest, I didn't fancy trekking out (on my own) in the wind, rain and darkness to set up my tripod on a bridge over the ring road. So I experimented a bit closer to home. This was a gas burner on my cooker, snapped with the humble iPhone and the incredible 'Slow Shutter' app. Well, I like it!

Centenary Square

Trawling through the archives again, here's a picture I never got round to posting. Taken in Bradford city centre, just across Centenary Square from the City Hall, it shows the interesting mixture of old Victorian buildings that grace the city, alongside some of the newest. The sharply angled corner is the edge of the sweep of modern bars and restaurants that now forms one side of Centenary Square. Incidentally, it is built on the very spot that once held the office block in which I first worked in Bradford. Even my own personal past is being obliterated!

Unhinged

'We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.' David Brower

I came across this quote recently and I'm still pondering upon its meaning. David Brower was an environmentalist, so it's quite possible he meant it fairly literally. But the quote chimed in with some philosophical thoughts I've been having recently. I've taken the decision to retire from my job sometime next year, probably September. With that decision has come a bubbling of excitement for all the new possibilities to be explored with the gift of more time to 'play' (though friends have warned me that time soon fills up mysteriously and one still never feels to have enough, even without going to work!) I have quite a clear image and sense of entering what I'd call 'my delta phase'. A river that reaches its destination slows down and deposits the sediment it's been carrying, spreading out into a myriad smaller channels, weaker and often shifting but covering a lot of ground - and often very beautiful seen as a whole. So, there'll be an inevitable and gradual slowing down; chance to cast off some of the clutter, both physical and mental, and a branching out into new ventures - but playfully, lacking the determined pulsing of the younger self that carved out a path in the world.

What that has to do with ironwork on a church door I cannot say, except that these hinges reminded me of river deltas.

Ha, told you I was being philosophical... unhinged maybe?

New Mill chimney

Pale winter light on Saltaire's New Mill chimney seems to really emphasise the ornate design of the stonework.

I don't know if you can see them but there are always gulls perched on the roof of the Health Services offices. It must be warm up there.

The holly bush in the foreground is one of several planted at the bottom of Victoria Road. It seems the village founder, Sir Titus Salt, was a bit of a collector of them and there are a lot of holly bushes growing all around this area.  I note they have been threaded through with strings of lights recently, as part of Saltaire's Christmas decorations. I don't think they have been decorated in previous years. I must remember to go and see what they look like lit up. It might be rather pretty.

Faded forest

I desperately need to go out with my camera and get some photos. I'm running out of 'stock'. It's always a tricky time of year, when the evenings are dark by the time I get home and the weather often not conducive to walks and photography. I have been experimenting with a few processing effects on some images. I quite liked this faded forest, though it didn't really turn out the way I was trying to make it look.

Sulphur Tufts

Before the frosts come (and they are late this year) the woodlands are full of fungi. These pretty little mushrooms remind me of some kind of fairy village, the stuff of childhood fantasy books perhaps. (I always loved 'The Magic Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton.) In fact these are not so innocent and could cause a very nasty tummy upset and even paralysis, if you ate them. (As far as I can tell, anyway - I'm not an expert) they are Sulphur Tufts [Hypholoma fasciculare] whose purpose is to speed the decaying of old wood.

Pylon power

Mostly I try to avoid photographing the poles and wires that adorn our landscapes, preferring to paint a more idyllic scene. Sometimes you can't avoid them - and just occasionally they seem worthy of a starring role for themselves.

An Amazing Circle

I love making these 'Amazing Circles'. They are really easy to do, using Photoshop's Polar Coordinates filters. (Lots of tutorials on the internet.) The effect varies every time you make a slightly different crop of the original photo. They end up looking like those beautiful glass paperweights you sometimes see. Beguiling.

Firelight

I'm coming home from work in the dark these days... How I dislike the short days, when I don't see my house in daylight at all. It means I can't take the scenic route home via the canalside either. There was a good sunset one evening though, so I walked (briskly, it has to be said) round via Salts Mill's yards, slightly better lit than the canal towpath. My reward was this: the setting sun's glow prettily reflected in the wet pavement on Albert Terrace. I've added some texture, though the colour didn't really need boosting.

Route 696

Not quite Route 66 but National Route 696 is still significant. Also known as the Airedale Greenway, it is a cycling and walking route that connects Shipley to Keighley along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath. There is the odd muddy puddle but on the whole it's a well-maintained route with a good surface and only gentle gradients. Sharing the towpath between cyclists (some of whom ride at a cracking pace!) and pedestrians can be a bit of a nuisance but most people are considerate of other users. I sometimes feel I need a sign on my back that says 'deaf' as I don't hear cycles or their warning bells coming up behind me; I've learned to walk on the edge of the path! But if I was a cyclist I'd feel far safer on the Route than on the roads. Added to which, the scenery is interesting and attractive.

Since I took this photo I noticed the post and sign have disappeared... Considered a hazard for cyclists,  perhaps?

Art, beer and curiosities...

It seems somewhat strange to me that as traditional pubs are closing down, new outlets are opening up that sell beer. This is one such: The Triangle on Bradford Road in Shipley. It's a small shop/off licence selling specialist craft beers, alongside artworks from local artists and a range of music including vinyl records. They have a gallery upstairs and host live music events, exhibitions, food and drink 'tastings'. They also sell goods from Edward Street Bakery - an 'independent craft bakery' that has recently sprung up in Saltaire. The bakery (which I think is just a small house in the village) makes bread, cakes and savouries that they sell from their garden shed on some Sundays, in Saltaire's monthly market, through The Triangle and from pop-up shops that appear in various places (such as Leeds rail station).

I can hardly begin to understand this new type of retail: local, community focussed, almost experimental, communicated through word of mouth and - crucially - social media to those in the know and 'on trend' (ie: generally, not 60-something grannies like me!) It is not, somehow, very graspable... But the retail model seems to work, for as long as people want it to, and it offers something a bit different and 'limited edition' - be that food, beer, clothes or whatever.

Advice from a tree

Advice from a tree:

Stand tall and proud

Think long term

Embrace with joy the changing seasons

Remember your roots

Drink plenty of water

Be content with your natural beauty

Be flexible

Enjoy the view

Taken from a poem by Ilan Shamir

ICM

Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) is an abstract style of photography where the camera is deliberately moved during a long exposure. It produces an artistic effect that's a bit like Impressionist paintings. I've tried it a few times with my DSLR, with mixed results. Recently I found out you can get a 'slow shutter' app for smartphones that allows a long exposure and so enables the possibility of ICM. I enjoy playing with my iPhone and found it relatively easy to produce pleasing (to me anyway) images using the technique. Autumn is a good season for it as there is a lot of natural colour around.

ICM is quite addictive at first. I think I'd soon get bored with it if this was all I did but like most 'techniques' it is fun to experiment and learn. Some photographers have made it their signature style and produce images with a lot of 'wow' factor.

Lucky strike

The top flat in the Victoria Mills apartment complex apparently won the lottery this day! A pot of gold anyway... We seem to be doing well for rainbows just lately. I spotted this one as I was walking home at dusk. I liked the way the sunset turned the windows into gold.

Purple harvest

Another photo assignment for my online photography group .... vegetables. I'm not that fond of turnips; they're pretty tasteless on their own. I thought they'd make a good subject for a photo, though. I love the purple tones and adding the red onion seems to bring the colour out even more. I arranged them on brown paper but a texture layer gave a bit more depth. It gave me pleasure to make something so humble look quite rich.

Confusingly, 'neeps'  - a traditional vegetable in Scotland and the north of England - are actually not turnips at all but the larger, yellow-fleshed swedes. They make up the dish known as 'Haggis, Neeps and Tatties', commonly served on Burns Night in Scotland.

Canoe see them?

Before the floods.... Walking home one day, across the aqueduct that carries the Leeds-Liverpool Canal over the River Aire, I suddenly noticed these jewel-bright canoes pulled up on the riverbank. The crews were having a refreshment break, sitting chatting on the bank. It was nice of them to leave their boats so prettily arranged, I thought.

Floods

I took these photos yesterday (Monday), showing the River Aire in flood. (Note helpful sign!)  The autumn was quite a dry one but the last couple of weeks we've had much more rain, culminating in an Atlantic storm (Abigail - they've started naming them now!) and the remnants of Hurricane Kate hitting our shores. Cumbria, Lancashire and this part of Yorkshire have been hit quite badly over the weekend. Ilkley and Otley towns have both been flooded by the Wharfe and the Aire has spread out into (designated) flood plains like Roberts Park (above) and adjacent fields in Saltaire, and the rugby club in Bingley. In fact the water had receded a lot by the time I took these pictures. (For some much better ones click here.) The tumult over the weir by the New Mill was still spectacular.

I wasn't able to go out with my camera on Sunday as I was helping to mop up floodwater and tons of mud in my daughter's house. Ironically, they live high on a hillside above Hebden Bridge, well away from the River Calder. But there was so much rain Saturday through to Sunday that the field drains above their house could not hold it and cascades poured down through their front door and flooded their hall, a sitting room and downstairs bathroom overnight. What a mess to wake up to! Their neighbour was similarly afflicted. They have lived there 30 years and say it has never happened before. So that is such bad luck for my family, who only moved in four months ago. The only saving grace is that they had not fully furnished that sitting room yet and it was still full of boxes piled high. The stuff in the bottom boxes was ruined but they managed to salvage a lot of the others. The insurers will have to decide whether the wooden floor is beyond redemption - and who knows what lies beneath... By the time I arrived the water had mostly seeped away through the floorboards but it left behind a thick layer of mud (thankfully not sewage). Dreadful.

Bingley's leafy avenues

The Bingley St Ives estate is on a hill and from some points along the perimeter paths there are good views of the surrounding valleys. Here, we are looking over towards the 'posher' residential parts of Bingley: substantial houses built along leafy avenues. The centre of this little town is further to the right. Up on the hillside you can just see several big buildings peeping over the trees. These were once the halls of residence for a teacher training college. The college closed a long time ago and the halls are now converted into luxurious apartments.

Pathways

Moments of peace in a world gone mad ...

Sunbeam

I took a lot of shots on my walk round Bingley St Ives, trying to capture the look of an English wood in autumn and mostly failing. I did manage to catch this stray sunbeam. I'm still not sure what conditions combine to focus the rays like that but they are certainly attractive to see.

'From the first opening of our eyes, it is the light that attracts us. We clutch with our baby fingers at the gossamer-motes in the sunbeam, and we die reaching out after an ineffable blending of earthly and heavenly beauty which we shall never fully comprehend.' Lucy Larcom.