I’ve included this image in my previous post ‘Sketrick Island’ – but looking at it today in the Cocoon, I thought it was worth a little more work, probably because of the textures.
It’s not a macro shot! This is an anchor chain, and it’s huge! I imported it into Capture One and gave it a closer crop, and some extra presence and clarity, to accentuate the textures. The shot was made with the Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm, f/4 @ 1/250th sec on ISO250.
Coincidentally, while I was manipulating the image in Capture One, the Alexa device was playing Leonard Cohen singing his poem ‘Born in Chains!’ Cohen certainly is a wordsmith of the highest quality, – dissertations could (and probably have been) be written on the deeper meanings of his words.
This poor wee black beastie was looking round and giving me a mournful look when I was taking her photograph. I don’t know whether it was because she was camera shy, or perhaps embarrassed at the state of her kitchen! After all, who wants the whole world to know that your water source is a slurry tanker!
Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm, f/5.6 @1/60th sec on ISO800
Sketrick Island is a favourite place for a walk, and a walk needs a camera… Today, Friday 8th May 2020 Janette and I went for a socially isolated walk along the causeway out to the island. It was a lovely warm, calm sunny morning. Here’s some shots…
Sketrick Island, on the shores of Stanford Lough was the nearby destination for my single permitted exercise period today. I’ll post some more of the images in a separate post, but meanwhile here’s my Sketrick ‘shot of the day.’
Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm, f/4 @ 1/180th sec on ISO100
I went to Comber today to get a few things from the shops, and while there I made this image of people queuing outside the Tesco Local shop. Queues outside shops have become a feature of the Lockdown, as premises try to maintain the ‘social distancing’ regulations. One of the side effects is that people are avoiding the larger supermarkets, with their huge queues and are instead supporting smaller local shops.
Fujifilm X-T30 F=120mm, f/10 @ 1/160th sec on ISO200, Acros film simulation.
There’s an inevitability about this image. We’ve had a couple of days of sunshine, and already the low lying land around the top of Strangford Lough needs water. There’s newly sowed crops in this field, and a steady watering regime is being maintained.
Watching the farming community at work is a favourite pastime of mine. I love work – I could watch it for hours!
Fujifilm X-T30, F=175mm, f/8 @ 1/160th sec on ISO200
There’s a certain beauty in freshly ploughed fields, they speak of a new beginning, of spring and new growth and a new start. Word has just trickled down from Downing Street that there may be an easing of the Lockdown on Monday. that would be good news for us, and perhaps a new start!
This idyllic horticultural scene was outside Comber just earlier today.
Our local area is rich in agriculture, and especially in vegetable and crop horticulture, and Comber is famous for its potatoes. Returning from essential work around lunch-time today I noticed that the fields around Scrabo are full of activity. And what a glorious Spring day for working outdoors! Ah well, back now to the Cocoon for me!
Fujifilm X-T30. F=200mm, f/8 @ 1/160th sec, on ISO200. No tricks, gadgets or Nikon lenses!
One of the challenges of the Lockdown, of course, is to find ways to illustrate the present situation – and photographs of ‘locks’ seem too appropriate, perhaps even clichéd! Yet my original ‘padlock’ photo has been downloaded on Pixabay 588 times to date! So, there’s market in padlock-downs!
Here’s another example. I’ve called this one
The Rusty Lock(down!)
Captured on the Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm (plus 11mm Macro Extension tube), f/5.6, @ 1/60th sec on ISO400. Pastel effect added in post capture processing.
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