Steely Solitude
A few more shots from the day spent exploring the abandoned steel mill… 
The light on the day was pretty perfect, streaming through all the holes in the steel cladding of the buildings, and that was fortunate given the utter lack of lighting or power within the buildings themselves. It sure was extremely dark in places, which the shots belie. Sometimes the only way to focus was with the aid of torchlight.
Looking forward to the next trip, that’s for sure. Someday… soon… hopefully…
Quiet Abandonment
I have to confess that there’s little that appeals to me more than wandering around an old abandoned steel mill with camera and tripod, spare batteries and cards, a working flash-light and my own never ending curiosity. Especially when there’s some pretty amazing light streaming through the holes in the walls and roof.
The pictures seriously do NOT give an accurate idea of exactly how dark it was in there though, and trying to navigate between various levels in almost total darkness was decidedly entertaining… especially when venturing right up on top of the roof!!.. Ladders and ascents not for the feint hearted, especially with all the necessary camera gear in tow.
The doorway shown above, at the end of the narrow walkway was the one that led out on to a narrow platform before the final ladder to the roof, and maybe gives a better idea of how dark it actually was. Fun fun fun :)
Rumour is that there’s a possible buyer for the place though, so maybe this was my final abandoned adventure there, unless I manage to squeeze in another one obviously. Still have a few shots left to post at least. :)
Karma’s Scavenger Hunt – June
I unfortunately really never had time to get any shots for this months Karma’s scavenger hunt, apart from one purple flower thingy wotsit, so I’ve pretty much had to trawl through my archives… But in an attempt to compensate for my lack of time and effort, I’ve included a couple of shots for most of the required themes…
The themes were…
A Colourful Bird
And as I wasn’t allowed to post a “proper” Ladybird.. lol… Well… I had to just plump for a few old pics of some colourful birds…
A Grad (of any sort)
So we have Peppa Pigs Class of 2010… and they DID all graduate… Honest… ;)
We also have me graduating in the basics of simple science, thanks to the teachings of Aswirly, and YES, I DID graduate… Honest… ;)
A Dad (of any sort)
Well I was going to plump for an old fave Swan shot of mine, but I’m thinking that it’s likely a Mother and baby, and as I’m not sure how to (or brave enough to) determine the sex of Swans… well… I went with an old clone shot of Me(s) and my Daughter(s) and Cat(s)…
Something Purple
Well this is the one shot I actually did manage to take for this month… and it’s one of those flowery type things… The PointyPurplePettalus… I think..
Oh, and one of my favourite “purple’y BLUE” shots, of The Lloyds “inside out” Building in London
A Butterfly
Well this was “nearly” a shot from this month, but it was from a trip last month to a wildlife centre with a tropical butterfly house, and unbeknown to my youngest daughter, one of the largest of the BF’s in the house landed on her hat… and sat there for some time, happy to just ride around, much to the amusement of everyone except my daughter (who couldn’t see it)… Oh, and a couple of other butterfly shots for good measure..
A Funny Face
Well, you can’t beat a cow at close quarters for a funny face methinks… especially as close as this shot was… This is a pretty old shot, and using the wide-angle lens I was, I had NO idea exactly how close said cow was… That was until the tongue came out and covered my lens in cow spit… Which was nice… lol.. And as a special bonus, there’s the shot a friend took of me capturing the cow spit shot…
A Cow
Well if the first two cow shots don’t count, then there’s an additional one of some cows on a rather moody day in the Lake District… This one was captured without having to endure additional cow spit, but if you look at the sky, you might be able to figure I got pretty wet shortly after taking this shot…
Up and At’em
More than enough flowers and fluffy stuff… Time for some new good ol’ fashioned modern old stuff…
Slugs In Print
Well I was asked, and did promise to post more info on the two shots I’ve just had published in two camera magazines… So here they are…. finally in glorious print….
I have to confess to being ever so slightly pleased to have had some shots published, but the best part for me is that I never submitted the shots to the magazines, but was actually approached and asked if they could publish them…
The double page spread “Potters Rays” is in this October’s issue of PhotoPlus magazine (Iss 40), and “Part Deux” was in September’s issue of Digital Camera (Iss 103)… Sorry once again for blowing my own trumpet, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been published… :D
Steel Climbing
Well I know this shot isn’t going to be to everyone’s liking, but I have to sometimes confess to having a bit of a thing for industrial photography…
So today I had the opportunity to have a wander around one of our local steel plants, where they crush the slag (by-product of steel manufacturing) for use in road surfacing materials… During the tour I managed to venture up to the very top of their highest crushing silo for the grand view of the… ummmm… beautiful surroundings… lol… But who’s going to refuse a huge climbing frame in an adults playground… Not me that’s for sure… Don’t know exactly how high it was, but it was plenty high enough for me to be pretty determined not to drop anything…
So anyway, sorry it’s not quite as appealing as a sunset or a pretty flower, but sometimes you have to mix it up a little bit… :)
Looking Up
This is another from the night spent cruising the streets of London… and even though the weather itself was rather uninspiring, this particular building was the highlight of the evening… and where the two absolute extremes of security personnel were met within minutes of each other….
You may recall the national security threat I posed when standing on someones step… Well this was that very same building… and the curved building you see here directly opposite was where the complete antitheses in security guards resided… I guess they have to work that closely so as to maintain the security balance….
I was just setting this shot up when he came out… and there was me wondering exactly which toe had set in motion the next cataclysmic event of the evening…. when he took me completely by surprise by informing us that the lights on the Lloyds Building go off at exactly 10pm… so we have only 3 minutes in which to get any other shots we might want before darkness descends…
And he was right… On the stroke of 10pm precisely the lights went out…
So proof that they do exist…. elusive as they may be to find, there ARE some nice security guards…
National Security Threat…
Yes… That’s pretty much what we were last night… Armed and dangerous, and very much a threat to national security with our cameras and tripods…. lol… Maybe the tripods were confused with missile launchers… ;)
I mean seriously… Exactly how much damage can you do to a piece of architecture with a camera !?!?!…
So last night the City of London was due a nocturnal visit, and I was severely reprimanded by a power-hungry security guard, obviously looking for a quick kill…. And for what reason you may ask… What high security government complex did I infiltrate… What national armourment access codes did I steal… Hmmmm…. Well funnily enough, all I managed was to stand on his “step”, just to see if there was a different angle for a shot…. which there wasn’t…. So I stepped off again…. and walked away…
Black and White or Colour ??..
He tracked me down though a few minutes later, and started spouting the section blah blah blah rules of trespassing…. and how I’d “stepped on to their property !!!!”…. I was polite and apologised, saying I didn’t realise, as there was no delineation between public / private property…. but he was off on some power trip, and started spouting how my house was private, and he’d not walk in to my living room the way I “stood on his step”…. Lol…
Then he pointed out some tiny studs buried in the paving, and said “If you see these studs, then you’re allowed to stand THAT side, but you’re trespassing THIS side…. Then he radio’d in to head office how he’d foiled a major security breach…. LOL…. They are SUCH idiots…. He was one of many last night, all on the same power trip…. Give them a badge and a uniform and they’re like the next Fidel Castro… ;))
A Load of Old Rubbish..
Yup, that’s pretty much what sums up this shot the best…. Just a load of old rubbish, in a ditch… Can’t really add much more than that, only that I’m surprised there weren’t more shopping trolleys in there… or ANY come to think of it….
Two Burnt..
Well we had a bit of a return visit to this fire ravaged retirement home, only this time armed with trusty tripods and remote releases, and naturally a dustpan and brush (had to tidy up a bit)….
We certainly spent quite some time here too, as the weather didn’t quite pan out the way it promised, 
so a nice open fire in a cosy comfy rustic cottage held infinitely more appeal than the great outdoors… Unfortunately it looks as though someone took “open fire” slightly too literally though….
I’m certainly going to have to have some 
stern words with the cleaners though, as I’m sure they’ve been using the wrong polish… I HATE pine scented… I gave strict instructions to ONLY use lemon… Grrrrrrr….
Gotta take this opportunity though to apologise to the residents of this luxurious abode… They didn’t seem overly impressed with our arrival… Mind you, 
throwing themselves at the first floor windows in order to make their escape I thought was a bit excessive… Lol… And they didn’t seem overly bothered that they scared the cr*p out of us either…. with all their flapping and stuff… Sure was one spacious dovecote though… ;)
Come Dine With Me…
Seriously, I am definitely going to have to have some stern words with my staff…. Not only has my interior designer had a relapse, it would appear my head chef has run off with the cleaner…. I came home the other day, and all I wanted was a caviar sandwich and a mug of 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Jeroboam, and this is what I done did gone and discovered…. I had to make my OWN sandwich, and pour my own wine….
You just can’t get the staff these days….
Part Deux…
So here’s another one from yesterdays hospital visit…. Processed with an altogether more gritty ominous feel…. I may have a few more up my sleeve too… :)
Rail Way 2
So this is what it has come to… It’s a choice at the moment (because of work and the winter weather) of re-working some old shots, or taking photo’s of the kiddies toys… and tonight the kiddies happened to be busy with their cardboard boxes and paper bags (they are so spoiled), so re-working old shots was the only option…
Fortunately I still do have a couple of old favourites that I can use a smidge of the extra familiarity I now have of photoshop since processing the original… I was going for a slightly more natural feel here than with my original processing…
In addition to spending an awful lot more time on the processing, which involved countless colour filters / blends / layer masks / overlays / blending of the original RAW / secret sluggy sauce / chewed finger nails / eye of toad / lesser spotted mermaids tail…. etc… I also adjusted the crop too, which hopefully balances it a bit better too… So the original image probably took me about 15-20 mins to process just over a year ago, and the rework probably took me a good hour or so more… starting completely from scratch again… I guess to appreciate the difference though you’d need to see the original images… Hopefully the extra work was worth the effort….
The SOOC untouched shot
The original processed shot
True Grit
Well it’s been a while since I last had the opportunity to venture in to one of my favourite fields of photography… And I’ll admit it may not be to everyone’s liking… But personally I can’t get enough of shooting something that others find totally uninspiring.. I also enjoy the test of making the unappealing kind of appealing… So this area is heavy industry, or urban exploring… or anything that looks decayed and gritty and mucky… Can’t get enough muck… lol… This is an old shot btw.. I really must find some new industrial material…
It’s definitely not the easiest of subject matters, but I enjoy the test of finding something unique… and I have to say it’s not quite the same 
as portraiture… lol… Here’s the original file too just to show that these shots generally take quite a bit of processing to make them look semi appealing… ;)
I guess it’s pretty much like Marmite…. Love it or hate it…. Personally, I say spread it thick and savour the taste… :)
Tropical Paradise
So maybe it’s not quite tropical…. and maybe just maybe it’s not exactly what you’d class as paradise… And to be honest when you consider we’re looking at a power station, and an oil refinery and a steel recovery plant, then it’s not really worth even taking a shot of….
But when you slap a stunning sky behind even the most unappealing of foregrounds, then something amazing sometimes tends to happen…
I LOVE sunsets…. and if I can use them to make the unappealing appealing, then I’m a happy bunny… :)
FS Photography 