Website Updated - New Images from USA & Bredon Hill

I've just updated my website with images from my recent visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and The Cascade Mountains of Washington State - linked here.

The Rain's Coming

And I've added a few images to my "On Bredon Hill - 2016" - the one image per hike page - linked here. I've now completed 32 Bredon Hill photo-hikes so far this year. My blog of this photography project which contains up to several images from each hike is linked here.

Three Tree Sunrise

27 hikes on Bredon Hill so far this year ...

I've now completed 27 photohikes on Bredon Hill since starting on 1st January. After each hike I post a few photographs from the day on my Bredon Hill blog - linked here.

Circumhorizon Arc ...

I recently returned from a road trip that took in The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Seattle and the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Whilst staying in Chelan I was lucky to see a spectacular Circumhorizon Arc just above the horizon directly below the sun. I photographed it (of course) and sent it to Les Cowley who runs the superb website Atmospheric Optics. He immediately let me know that it was a particularly good example and that he’d use it for a forthcoming “Optics Picture of the Day (OPOD)”. He posted it this afternoon, here are the links:

Webesite Home Page: www.atoptics.co.uk/index.htm
OPOD - it’s here for the next few days: www.atoptics.co.uk/opod.htm
Permanent location if you miss it as the OPOD during the next few days: www.atoptics.co.uk/fza118.htm

It was spectacular - the first time I’ve ever seen one.

Now on Day 12 of my "On Bredon Hill - 2016" project

Today I completed my 12th hiking and photography outing "On Bredon Hill - 2016" since starting on 1st January this year. By now I must have covered about 80% of the public and permissive path on the hill and have so far published 50 photographs on my project blog: linked here: https://onbredonhill2016.wordpress.com/. So I'm just starting covering some ground for the second time which is where the challenge comes - to find new images from where I've been before. This will be partly facilitated by the changing seasons, by my aiming to walk in 'the other direction' and at different times of the day and of course in different weather and light. In addition to the photographs from each day's hike I select just one from each day and post it on my website here: http://www.virtuallygrey.co.uk/on-bredon-hill-2016 - 12 in all so far.

Reflected Oak

Image Aspect Ratios and Camera Design

I'm a photographer who is in no way wedded to any particular aspect ratio. I will trim my images to whatever I consider suits them best, whether or not they fall to one of the recognised ratios or some non-integer ratio. But, I resent losing pixels. In particular, square format images have to be sliced out of an already elongated 3:2 ratio image - 1/3 of the sensor's pixels having to be ditched.

Easily selectable aspect ratios of maximum pixel count in digital cameras raises some questions about higher-end camera design. I've been mulling this over for a while and concluded that some fundamental changes to camera design would be enormously beneficial.

First a few statements of the obvious:

• Sensors are rectangular with width greater than height.
• One always has to turn a camera through 90 degrees to take a portrait orientated image.
• All cameras are designed to handle most easily in landscape format orientation.
• Some alternative image aspect ratios may be available via menu options but they are limited and clumsy to select.
• All lenses throw a circular image around a rectangular sensor.

It's the last of these statements that suggests a far better approach to camera design and handling. Cameras ought to be able to take advantage of the full image circle by having a circular sensor to capture all of the image data. In-camera software should enable easily selectable aspect ratios (predefined or infinitely variable) via a simple dial option which accordingly masks the EVF and screen. There are many positives to this but there are two of real significance:

1. Utilising the full image circle means that the maximum possible image size (pixels) would always be available for every selected aspect ratio within the image circle.
2. Portrait oriented images could be made whilst the camera remains in the comfortable 'horizontal' position.

Clearly this requires a new approach to some significant aspects of camera body design, but not lens design. Larger sensors would be required because they would now need the full image circle to be accommodated rather than the 3:2 rectangle. And consequently the EVF and screen would need to be square so that the selected aspect ratio is shown at its maximum size whilst masked.

Additionally, the in-camera software should offer the photographer the option to save the full circular image raw data along with the crop decision made at the time of capture. This would allow an alternative crop decision to be made later. Amendments to processing software to accommodate this would be required. No doubt, Adobe and the like would oblige!

An innovation such as this would be a huge step forward which, for some (probably many) serious photographers, would be irresistible.

My new Photo Project: On Bredon Hill - 2016

After completing my last photography project in September of last year - Photohiking The Thames Path (linked here) I've been looking around for a new one which involves far less driving. Bredon Hill is a short distance from home and is where over the last 30 years I've occasionally walked. I've decided to see how I can portray the hill throughout 2016, taking about a hike a week throughout the year: all weathers (perhaps not torrential rain), all seasons, any time of the day and night. At the time of this post I've completed my first 4 days. As with my Thames Path project I've set up a blog where I'll endeavour to post some photographs from each day's hike along with just a few words reflecting the day.

The blog is linked here: https://onbredonhill2016.wordpress.com/

Hebrides, Edinburgh, Northumberland, York, Peak District

We recently returned from a photo road trip with four friends from the US. We met in Glasgow then headed off to Oban and the ferry to Lochboisdale on South Uist. Working our way north over the next few days through North Uist, Benbecula, Berneray, Harris and Lewis we were delighted not to be assaulted by the worst of weather that we were really only half prepared for. Indeed the weather was largely benign making for all round excellent and varied photographic conditions. We departed Tarbert for Uig and then spent a couple of days on Skye where the good weather continued.

Enjoying a drink at 10pm in the bar of the Lochmaddy Hotel someone rushed in shouting "they're out, they're out". It was the Aurora Borealis. I couldn't have arranged it better if I'd tried!

After Skye was a stop in Fort William then on to Edinburgh for a few days, at which point all but two of us departed for home. The next few days were spent meandering through Northumberland, York and The Peak District on our way back to my home in the Midlands. Two and a half weeks of excellent photography, good company, good food and drink, with good weather to boot. What more could one reasonably wish for?

My images from The Hebrides are linked here on my website in the Hebrides and Western Scotland gallery. A few of those images and some from Edinburgh and beyond are linked here in my New Images gallery.

Completed - My 'Photohiking the Thames Path' project.

Just a short post here to say that after almost 2 years, last week I completed my 'Photohiking the Thames Path' project. It has a blog all to itself (see here) where I've been posting photographs from each of the days I've hiked along with a short commentary on the day. I've just made my final post there reflecting on the last 2 years.

Trulli

We recently spent two weeks in Puglia - the heel of Italy. Trulli (singular - Trullo), the small conical roofed buildings, are a distinctive feature of the region, particularly around Alberobello. They date back to the 16th and 17th centuries when they were the homes of the poorer families. They still serve as homes, some having been made particularly luxurious. But there are many in various stages of neglect or dereliction. The conical roof has an interesting history. In this region of Italy there was a roof tax - similar to the window tax in Britain. But Puglians were smart - the conical roof could be very rapidly removed whenever there was a roof tax inspector in the region, thereby avoiding the tax. And then rebuilt promptly after the roof tax inspector had departed. More information here.

Click on any image to see full size views of the images.

Website Update + New Camera

Two days ago I completed my 20th day hiking The Thames Path. The latest photos and blog entry are linked here. And I've now updated the New Images and Home Page images on my website to reflect the progress I've made so far. I've covered 125 of the 184 miles - but as I hike in both directions it's really 250 of the 368 miles.

Under the M4

I recently sold my aging but excellent condition darkroom equipment and traded in my Canon 7D and lenses (after 5.5 years of excellent service) to help with the purchase of a new Sony A7II and two Zeiss zoom lenses. So far so good, superb image quality and excellent dynamic range which to me is highly important. The images from Day 20 were my first with the A7II after a few days playing with the camera at home to get familiar with its huge range of configurable settings. I'm getting there ...

Suffolk with a Point & Shoot

For a short while I'm without my DSLR - it's been traded in for a new one and I'm awaiting delivery. So whilst I staying in Suffolk for a few days I've been using my superb little Canon S95. I've had it for several years and know just how good it is. Here is a small selection which demonstrate that if one doesn't need large images, say greater than about A4 in print or for any web use, then there's almost no need for a camera of more than about 10MP. The two St Edmundsbury images are stitched from 6 and 7 handheld images.

Click on any image to see full size views of the day's set of images.

The Nave Ceiling - Lavenham Church

Hinge

St Edmundsbury Cathedral - Bury St Edmunds - The Choir

St Edmundsbury Cathedral - Bury St Edmunds - Altar and Crossing

Wicken Fen - Old Water Pump

Wicken Fen - New Water Pump

Progress on Photohiking the Thames Path

I've now completed 19 days and about 118 miles of my project to hike the full length of The Thames Path - in both directions. It's 184 miles one way - so 368 miles both ways. Each day that I hike I'm going 'there and back', so I've covered about 236 miles so far. Each hiking day I start at the point where I finished the previous time. I hike out for half a day then hike back to my starting point. It's proving to be a productive, challenging, enjoyable and at times frustrating experience. All of the good things come from the hiking, the photography and the progressive achievement of building a coherent body of work. What will success look like to me? I'm still not sure, but it feels like things are going well. And the frustrations so far ... there's one definite one, it's the struggles at times hiking on some lengthy sections of the path which are so thick with sticky, glutinous, slippery mud that it takes all the pleasure out of the exercise. I have to watch every step to ensure that I know where I'm placing each foot to be certain not to slip and fall. Somehow, so far, I've not fallen in the mud! And the other frustration is that now that I'm in the latter stages of the hike, I'm also much further away from home, which means that each of my hiking days is much further to travel before I can start the hike - and, of course, much further to travel to get home afterwards.

At my current rate of progress I have about another 11 hiking days to go to cover the remaining 66 (132) miles. So, I hope to be finished by about July this year.

My blog following this project is linked here.

Demise of my Darkroom

I set up my darkroom at home over 23 years ago and for a few years enjoyed playing at printing. But, unlike some people who achieved a real mastery of the darkroom, I could never manage to reach that level and was never satisfied with my printed output. The advent of digital processing was for me a revelation. I took to it like the proverbial duck to water. I got Photoshop in 2001, along with my first scanner and ink printer and haven't looked back since. Since then digital image capture has taken over too. For me this has all been good. So, I finally decided it was time to let go of my darkroom. It all went this week in two ebay sales to two darkroom enthusiasts where hopefully it will bring them years of pleasure. And it has provided some funds towards replacing my aging digital camera and lenses!

65,536 Shades of Grey

The title perhaps indicates something else, but, it is the title of an illustrated talk I'm putting together to give to photographic societies who are interested in black and white photography. In case it's not clear, 65,536 is the number of equal gradations or shades between pure white and total black in a digital workflow working with 16 bit RAW image files. The number is 2 to the power of 16. There's a huge advantage of working with 16 bit files over 8 bit files, typically JPEG files, which have a total of just 256 grades or shades. The talk touches on some of these advantages, but is really more about my approach to and experience of producing black and white images and is illustrated throughout with examples from my portfolio.

Website Update for Namibia

I've now selected and processed a few of the many photo files from our trip to Namibia. I have a few that I'm very happy with - but I made far too many snaps. My selection is linked here.

Namiib-Naukluft Dune

Chevy Dashboard

Namibia in September / October

Just back from a family holiday in Namibia. Two weeks taking in the edge of the Kalahari Desert, the Namib Desert, the coast around Walvis Bay and Swakopmund and finally the Etosha game reserve.

900 year old Camel Thorn Trees at DeadVlei

Saw and photographed much of the county's wildlife (except for Leopard and Cheetah), but wildlife photography isn't my speciality so I'm concentrating mainly on processing my landscape and other images. Huge numbers of image files to cull before I post a small selection on my website in a few weeks time. This image from DeadVlei is like many such images on the web, but it doesn't diminish the experience of being there and photographing these ancient dessicated trees.

NASA's Earth Science Picture of the Day - EPOD

A few days ago I had my eighth photograph published by NASA’s Earth Science Division Picture of the Day - known as EPOD. It’s of Bowling Ball Beach on the coast of Northern California. It came as a surprise when I looked back that I’d had eight in total since I submitted and had accepted my first photograph in August 2011. I’ve just been looking back over them and taking stock of why they seem to be accepted quite readily. This quote from their ‘About EPOD’ link really reflects what I try to send them for consideration - “The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives.” I don’t go out looking for photographs that might interest them, on the contrary I only look for images that interest me which, fortuitously, sometimes match up with what they want to see. I try to keep my image making simple which perhaps helps to focus on one particular feature of the landscape that contains sufficient (usually) geological interest. Anyway … all 8 of my EPODs can be found by searching for ‘Gledhill’ (so far I’m the only one) in the search box on their EPOD home page. One is from Madeira, one from England, one from Wales, and five from the USA. Their EPOD is announced daily by @EarthPic

Copied from the EPOD footer:

EPOD is a service of NASA's Earth Science Division
and the EOS Project Science Office
(at Goddard Space Flight Center) and the
Universities Space Research Association.

Resumed Photohiking The Thames Path

After a break of almost 9 months, my Thames Path photohike is under way again ... blog linked here.

Lake District Sky

A few days ago The Cloud Appreciation Society published another of my sky photographs taken recently in the Lake District.  It's linked here - and is shown in the post below - Watendlath Sky.

Virtually Grey Website Updated

Following my recent trip to California, Oregon and Washington and an even more recent visit to the English Lake District I've updated my website with images from both. The USA visit is linked here and the Lakes visit is here. And here are a few of the images.

Chaotic Falls into Lake Quinault

Wizard Island in Crater Lake

Pine Candles

Watendlath Sky

Rydal Water Slate Mine