Pictures & musings from Cheshire
Getting down low in Pott Shrigley, Cheshire. I liked the abandoned telecoms line heading up the side of the hill and ending with a cut off. This combined with a certain primitivist and abstract submersion in nature. The image has been toned to simulate the look of an old platinum print and some texture layers have also been applied to flatten out dynamic range.
A very old and narrow footbridge across the river Bollin near Mottram Hall. This is an obscure footpath that runs from Prestbury to the bottom of the golf course at Mottram Hall hotel. It is a path that I have rarely used until recently as it is a nice avoiding route for that last bit of hill on the Axxx when heading back to the village on the very last leg of the return from a long bike ride out west.
I like the geometric and perspective effect in the wide shot and the tonal quality of the wood, earth and winter leaves. Both of the images have been blended with a paper texture layer.
A high angle view of the bridge looking in the direction of home – or rather home is a ninety degree turn to the right as indicated by the sign. Red and yellow levels have been pushed up in the conversion to create a look that is a little reminiscent of infrared film.
A new view of New Road in Prestbury Village, Cheshire. The new view has been made possible by the removal of trees and shrubs in the garden of the Bridge Hotel and it is a vista that I have not seen for more than twenty years. The picture was shot with a 50mm lens on 1.5x crop frame camera so equivalent to a 70mm focal length, the composition is a little cropped at the bottom but you can just about make out the stone bridge taking New Road over the Bollin.
Interesting to note that all of the buildings in this view pre-date the road as the original main street through the village runs along what is now the rear of these buildings where it then made a ford crossing of the river before winding sharply left past the farm that is now the Bridge Hotel and up through the old centre of the village.
Winter scenes in the Bollin valley near Prestbury Village, Cheshire taken during the very cold winter of 2008/9. A seasonal mood for the festivities and my ‘virtual Christmas card’ for social media this year. I don’t think we will be getting anything like this now as the weather forecasts for the remainder of December seem to show double figure temperatures into early January!
The picture above has been treated with HDR, orton laying and texture layers.
2018 has not been a particularly productive year for me with only one big (cycling) outing early in the year so I hope 2019 will be much more active. I intend to do a lot more work around Castleton and the Peaks.
Another picture from the same session with an even more intense orton treatment. This has been published in several places already but I decided to have a go at re-editing it and trying to rectify many contrast problems in the original with texture applications. Any allusion to watercolour painting is totally accidental.
An experimental or ‘artworked’ picture of trees on Bakestondale Moor above Pott Shrigley on the Cheshire, Derbyshire borders. A beautiful and very atmospheric location which has more than a passing resemblance to the Yorkshire dales and is yet another of the many varied landscape aspects in this corner of the UK. The image has been treated with various filters, coloured layers and a texture overlay to create a kind of painting-like effect though this was not the primary intention. Instead, I wanted to create an image with a unique photographic quality rather than a painting simulation. Noble and resilient trees in this kind of wild landscape is a favourite subject of mine and I am always on the lookout for those wonderful wind-shaped Scots pines standing along and resolute on remote hill tops.
One of Bollington’s most notable landmarks, Clarence Mill, is now home to numerous businesses and residential accommodations. The large former steam powered cotton mill is a relic of the towns once prosperous silk and spinning industry and is now particularly notable for the retention of the steam engine room exhaust chimney. I like to imagine how exciting it would have been to manage the dramatic power system in a mill such as this, lots of noise and complex moving parts.
The upper floors have been mostly converted to residential use with a variety of flats and apartments that take full advantage of this fabulous and atmospheric setting. Beautiful views are guaranteed from all of these windows.
