Sunday, June 13, 2010

night and day











Unusually for this country we seem to be having a proper summer so far, in that the sun has been shining. It didn't really do this for the last two years so I have been out and about a lot and not on the internet as much as I usually am, so apologies if I am a bit slow in getting back to anyone at the moment.

The first couple of photos were taken on the beach around the time of the last full moon in May. I lightened the second photo a bit to make it easier to see. The exposure for this was 20 seconds with an ISO of 800. It is quite odd on the beach at the time of a low tide and full moon. I don't like to get near the cliffs as they crumble and fall so often, making it a dangerous place to be. Under a moon at night they seem even more imposing for some reason. The red stone is about 250 million years old and at that time it is reckoned that this place was a desert.

The last two photos are of a swallow flying out of a mill door. I tried to take photos of the swallow flying in through the mill door but it just came in too fast. Instead I took it from the inside, as it had to fly round the interior before exiting, so it was moving a lot slower. After about an hour I had five pictures, these were taken at 1/1250 of a second. I was trying not to disturb the bird but it was very busy and didn't appear to be bothered by my presence. I don't have the type of lens that is good for taking pictures of birds and it isn't often I can get this close to one so it was a nice thing to try.

The nearest I usually get to a bird is the very cheeky blackbird who hops in through the back door to shout for food, something that I try to discourage at this time of the year as there is plenty around outside for it.

All the birds here are very busy now and the days are about as long as they get. It starts to get light at around a quarter to four in the morning and doesn't get dark until ten o'clock. In the winter it gets light after eight in the morning and is dark again at five, though some days it doesn't really seem to get that light at all. If you stay up at night now you can easily follow the progress of the sun as it moves round just below the northern horizon to come back up in the east again.

6 comments:

reem said...

Hi john ,swallow is a beautiful small bird ,it comes to my country at spring . I like the first photos you are all right ,it is dangerous place,mybe as our life .

you have a beautiful eyes , so you can see the beauty everywhere around you ,thanks for your nice comment about my work.

nobody said...

Nice work John. I love those long exposure night shots. It brings a weird intensity to the colour of it all. And the swallow. Damn. I'm surprised you got anything at all. Um, do you have a bird bath? Your swallow won't stop in it but just about everything else will. What with being on the third floor I can only dream of having one but it does make photographing the little beggars much easier.

Aargh battery's nearly gone. Gotta run. Ciao Ciao.

nobody said...

Meant to ask before, is that svelte lovely there the maid? If so, she should be in movies, ha ha.

nina said...

Obviously, the figure is the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw.

John, I love your works. Thank you.

john said...

Cheers M'dears and thanks for all your lovely comments.

Hello Evat. Yes i like to see the swallows. We don't have them for that long here but they are such charming busy birds. I have really been enjoying the song of the swift this year, I don't know why.

Hi Nobody and thanks. These were taken on a place nearby and not at the place I usually stay, but there is a birdbath here, mostly used by the blackbirds. A lot of birds seem to pass through here but don't stop for long for some reason.

Yes I enjoy taking the night photos, I'm always surprised more people don't do it as it's easy with digital. Then again apart from the odd fisherfolk I never meet anyone much on the beach at night, sometimes a fox.

Yes that's the maid. She was trying to work out which part of the field she wanted to pick a tick up from next. She's a star, though she drives me nuts.

Cheers Nina and thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying the photos. I must get up on the moors again soon and see if I can spot Catherine, she must be cold and lonely..as the songs goes anyhow. The maid does a fair impression of the old country folk though mostly it's to stop the sun from burning her beauty I think. Cheers for now m'dears.

john said...

Hi there everybody. I have been spending quite a bit of time outside so I am a bit slow on posting anything lately. We're having a summer, which is not something that happens every year. Well it does, but not always with sunshine.

Just in case anyone missed it there was an article by Andrew Gavin Marshall on the 24th June which I thought was worth a read:
The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order