Rose window

The rooms above the hallway at East Riddlesden Hall have rose windows, one on either side of the house. They are simple, plain glass pieces set in a stone trellis, and each window is different. I decided I'd have a play with them, overlaying one above the other and making them more colourful. I ended up with a few different versions.

 

Playing with light and shadow

Whilst I was exploring The Mercer Gallery in Harrogate, I became fascinated by the shadows cast through the blinds, which had a pattern on them that echoed the chandeliers in the main room. I've been playing with them in my editing software. I've made several variations on the theme and I think I like this one the best. It's a composite of a few layers.

Framed

Playing with multi-layers... another image from my little project capturing the iconic details of Saltaire. I'm not sure exactly where it's leading as an endeavour but it is fun. Many of Saltaire's houses have windows with rounded arches, and a few have blocked up windows. I had the idea to frame the church's domed tower in a window arch. 

The essence of Saltaire

Having lived here for over 25 years, I feel I know Saltaire pretty intimately. There are aspects of it that just scream 'Saltaire' to me and I think I'd recognise them wherever they cropped up. One such 'icon' is the iron railings along Victoria Road and Albert Terrace, which have arched mouldings. Another is the arched windows, both in the houses and in Salts Mill. A third is the original, ornate lamp-posts, once gas powered and now electric (though the Council in its wisdom is adding more modern LED streetlamps, not necessarily an aesthetic improvement!). The whole of the village and the Mill, although built over a span of about fifteen years in the mid-1800s, was designed by the same architects, Lockwood and Mawson. There is an overall cohesiveness to it, which is one of the reasons it is so celebrated and protected as a World Heritage Site. 

I have started a small project to try and capture some of these aspects in a creative way. Here's an example. 

Wild!

Well, I didn't know I was going to create this! I started with a photo of light coming through autumn leaves - and in Photoshop layered it and blended it a few times, just experimenting. It's fun to 'play' sometimes. It's turned into a weird insect family or something! I'm never sure whether these kinds of experiments have any real merit but it was certainly a surprise once I finished. 

This was the original:

 

Acer explosion

Another from Thorp Perrow. The acers were a stunning colour, seemingly a darker red than sometimes I've seen them. One or two of them were against a background that was uncluttered enough to try a 'Pep Ventosa' effect (basically several photos taken from different viewpoints, layered and blended to create one composite). Some people can create these in camera using blended multi exposures but my camera won't do that so I do mine in Photoshop. It produces a very similar effect, either way. 

Sunday meditation: Refreshed

'He refreshes my soul.' Psalm 23:3

I've been skimming back through some older photos and I found a few that I overlooked at the time but that, with further scrutiny, seemed worth a bit of playing with. This is a composite of a few images I took in Bradford's City Park one summer. The Park has those variable water jets that the young people just love leaping about in. On a hot day, it's a refreshing pastime. Obviously this type of image isn't everybody's cup of tea (a good old English saying!) but I enjoy being a bit looser and more creative sometimes.

Our creative response

Layered history. 

River, water meadows, mills

Reclaimed by nature

'Walk and Draw' workshop, Elland (see previous two posts)  - After the guided walk, we went back to the coffee lounge, where there was a wonderful array of mostly natural materials to play with. There was charcoal to draw with and lovely paints made from onion skins (brownish), beetroot (reddish), turmeric (yellow) and red cabbage (blue/purple/pink), some of which changed colour if you added bicarbonate of soda, lemon juice or salt. I found all that rather fascinating. I'm increasingly interested in 'going natural' for cleaning materials so it was an extension of that really.  We were encouraged to make a response to what we'd seen and heard on the walk. 

Mine, above, was intended to be a stone wall overlaid by the course of the river and some of the nature I'd found on the way. The turmeric wash I used turned out too bright a yellow but never mind. I'm not at all 'artistic' or skilled in a drawing/painting way but I really enjoyed playing and wasn't inclined to be too self-critical. My daughter, on the other hand, has always been very artistic (she did Art at A-level) and produced a rather attractive grid, finding some beautiful colours and shapes.  

I'm much more comfortable with photography - and words to some extent - so the top collage (and haiku) is my usual style of response. I'll probably go back again to the photos I took and see what else I can create from them. 

Seed heads palette

The final one of this series. I'm playing with them only because the weather has been too horrible to venture out much and I'm a bit stressed. Although there has been a tiny amount of progress on the legal work towards me buying the new apartment, it is still going to take a few weeks longer. I find I'm not sleeping very well. I've been watching the highlights of the Australian Open tennis, which helps to take my mind off my preoccupations though leaves me wishing I was in warmer and sunnier climes!

I did manage to go for a walk in between rain showers mid-week. These seed heads - hydrangea and sedum, I think - were in the allotment alongside Victoria Road. The vibrant combination stopped me in my tracks, though composing a photo was somewhat hampered by the metal railings that were a bit too high to lean over in the way I really needed to. I was hoping no-one was watching me as I must have looked a bit oddly contorted! 

 

Shells palette

So many colours and tones in these shells that I found covering the wall of a shed. I could even have picked out a few more. 
 

Natural palette

Another subtle colour palette. I think this would be a good way of deciding what colours to paint my new walls... if I ever do manage to move! 

For those who have asked how I do these, it is done in Photoshop by extending the canvas of the photo, creating the box outlines and then using the colour picker to sample little areas of colour in the photo, before filling in each box outline with the paint bucket tool. A bit convoluted but easy enough once you've done a few. I quite like the effect. 

Rust and blue palette

Getting slightly obsessed with doing these palettes... With Storm Isha battering at us, it's been too awful to go out and I need something to take my mind off the fact that I'm not able to move house yet!

Malham Tarn palette

I love colour and find I'm craving it at this time of year. It's fun to extract some of the colours in images into a 'colour palette' like I've done here. It's a long time since I tried this but I quite like the effect. These shades are quite subtle. 

Playing on a bridge

The design of the new bridge over the lake at Harlow Carr Gardens references the DNA of the Thale Cress plant, the first plant to have its genome fully sequenced. Made of blond wood and Corten steel, it's rather interesting and allows room for a photographer to 'play' - so I did. 

 

Tree fantasia

I've taken so many photos of Saltaire itself over the years - and so have many other people! It's not that I get bored with it; the light changes, the seasons change, there's always something new. But it is difficult to come up with an original interpretation of such a well-known place. In nature however, the changes are more obvious and more rapid, from the march of the seasons to the ephemeral shifting of patterns and colours in water. It's those that I've lately found myself drawn to observe and photograph. While the trees were still bare, I was trying multi-exposures of their reflections in the river, like those above. I'm safe in the knowledge that each of those is unique - so unique that even I'd struggle to repeat them exactly. Whether they have any merit is a different matter, but they are pleasing me for now.

Salts Mill fantasy

(This is better viewed large, on black - click on the image.)  As I said not long ago, I've been trying some blended collages, just for fun. This is a medley of views of the canal side of Salts Mill. I tried a tryptych (which you can see on my other 'Roots and Wings' blog HERE) but I'm not sure if the image on the left on that one quite works, so I removed that for this version. The problem I have with doing these type of creative images is that some days I like them and other days I can pick loads of faults in them. Perhaps it's always like that with the creative process. 

Roberts Park in blossom time

I was inspired by some artwork I saw in a gallery recently to have a play with layering some of my images into collages. It's a new kind of challenge to learn what works and what doesn't and how to blend different images together effectively. These things are always harder than you might think! The image above is by no means perfect. I'm not sure that the scale of the statue and the bandstand work together, although I didn't mean for them to look like one photo. I should maybe leave more of an obvious border between the images... Anyway, there's no such thing as perfection. It's about having fun with the process and stretching myself, both technically and creatively. I shall keep on trying, in the never-ending quest to produce some work that truly expresses my response to my surroundings. 

Blended moments

I'm struggling a bit to find my mojo again, since I've had Covid (though I guess it is still 'early days' in the overall scheme of things). It's such a dreary time of year, with little light most days, and I haven't ventured far yet so I'm back to the same walks, same views. It's hard to find something new and engaging. I am, however, trying to make sure I get out for a short walk every day, mainly to rebuild my strength but also because, if I'm not 'out there', then I definitely won't see anything new and engaging! 

Yesterday I walked along the canal towpath and then back via Salt's sports field. I was briefly entertained by a couple of pairs of goosanders on the canal. They dive underwater for so long you think they've gone - and then pop up, comically, often quite a way from where they submerged. I'd love to see what goes on under the water. They were unfortunately too far away for a decent photo with my phone. 

I was then intrigued by the shimmering reflections of bare-branched trees, with something very beautiful about the tonality of black tracery on blue-grey water, as well as the gentle movement. On the way back I passed behind the stands on the football field, painted blue and nicely weathered. I 'collect' such textures for use in creative photos, so it occurred to me that if I superimposed one of the reflections and one of the textures, then in one image I have a kind of summary of my walk: there and back in one. It was fortuitous, I guess, that the colours worked well together, and that wiggly line of foam on the water is really what makes this for me. So - a Covid brainstorm or a valid piece of creative art... perhaps both! Fun to do, anyway. 

The last of the Christmas cards

Being struck down by Covid over Christmas and New Year has been an unwelcome development. I felt really rough for a few days but once the symptoms started to subside, I've been feeling pretty bored. Covid brain-fog is apparently a real thing and I've had little concentration. I've quite a few new books in my pile but it has been hard to focus on reading. A friend lent me some jigsaws, which proved to be a good idea as you can apply short bursts of energy to those. 

Once I started to feel better, I cleared away the few Christmas decorations I'd put up. It always seems a shame to discard the Christmas cards, so I got out my phone on a slow shutter app, took a few ICM photos and then played around with saturation and layering. It's always fun, though hard to know when to stop.

I'm now waiting until I have a negative Lateral Flow Test and then I'll gradually be able to resume normal life, though clearly it will take a while to regain my usual levels of energy. I think I only had a mild dose but even so I felt wrecked. I can only sympathise with those who have had it worse. Thank God for the protective effect of the vaccines. 

 

Lighting the way into the New Year

'And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.' 

Rainer Maria Rilke

'Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. 

Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.'

Anon

 

'You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.' 

CS Lewis

'Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. 

They merely determine where you start.' 

Nido Qubein

'You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.' 

Martin Luther King

'Be so busy loving your life that you have no time for hate, regret or fear.' 

Anon

'What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.' 

Vern McLellan

'If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.' 

Maya Angelou