Hi Rob,

10 degrees warmer and 2 hours of heavy rain washed away most of the snow, and then the sun came out. So Templot off, boots on, and a chance to try out my latest toy - a jam pot lid.

It's perfect. Press it on and it collapses the lens hood, and then the barbs inside the rim just grip the rubber nicely. Pull it off and it expands the hood at the same time.

Gloves no problem, although I didn't need them today. There's open space behind the collapsed ring, so easy to claw fingers around it rather than needing to actually hold it.

The lens hood seems to have cured any flare too. I like this one best of today's crop: 



A lower viewpoint would have been better. I have far too many photos taken from 5ft-6in  above the ground.

cheers,

Martin.

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     Autumn colours at Lambswick Farm in the Teme Valley

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5709143

Martin.

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 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5714180


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A balmy 12C here yesterday, but freezing here today, with a strong wind and snow on the hills. The day before yesterday was also mild and I was over in the Elan and Claerwen valleys:



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Martin Wynne wrote: A lower viewpoint would have been better. I have far too many photos taken from 5ft-6in  above the ground.

cheers,

Martin.
Hi Martin,

It makes my knees sore taking pictures so low however I have lots of pictures taken from 6ft-5in above the ground ....but at least when I am taking pictures of planes I am a bit nearer to them.

Back to Winter again today, soon be easter Remember this ? Cricket in the snow

Rob


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Remember that year. Several trips up the Welsh hills in snow, with the last in early June.
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Nigel Brown wrote: The day before yesterday was also mild and I was over in the Elan and Claerwen valleysHi Nigel,

Lucky you. I spent that day in West Bromwich. I knew there must be a reason to beware the Ides of March.

There is something about the Claerwen dam which always strikes me as dark and foreboding. Perhaps it is the knowledge that the dressed stone face is a sham (it is actually a post-WW2 concrete dam).

Here's some evening sunshine in the Elan Valley, where the dams are genuine Victorian engineering:



      Picnic Site at Penygarreg Reservoir
 
 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5709959

cheers,

Martin.

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Rob Manchester wrote:I have lots of pictures taken from 6ft-5in above the ground It must be inconvenient having your eyes that high. Don't you wish sometimes that your legs reached the ground?

I'd forgotten about the cricket in the snow. Thanks for the memory. It's snowing again here tonight, which is unusual in these parts for late March.

cheers,

Martin.

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          Derelict Quarry Building on Titterstone Clee
The NATS Radar golfball makes a striking backdrop to this scene of industrial dereliction.

  http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5709973

Martin.

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              Blackstone Roundabout
Wooded roundabout at the junction of A456 and B4195

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5710658

I have hundreds of pictures of nothing in particular, like this. I promise not to post all of them here.

This one loses points for having the tops of the trees chopped off. You are allowed to chop trees through the middle, but not just the top 2ft.

Martin.

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   The Rea valley from the Jack Mytton Way LDP
        with Neen Savage church in evening sun.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5710817

Martin.

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    Former Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway passing the castle pond at Stokesay

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5711132

Martin.

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  Stanford-on-Teme

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5711923


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    High summer in the Teme valley

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5711928



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Hello,
These images really show what a beautiful land we live in.It is amazing how it changes from the stark winter landscape to the lush summer views.
Regards
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Trevor Walling wrote: Hello,
These images really show what a beautiful land we live in.It is amazing how it changes from the stark winter landscape to the lush summer views.
RegardsTrevor,

It is a shame that so many nice places have been destroyed over the years in the name of progress

Rob


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Trevor Walling wrote: These images really show what a beautiful land we live in. It is amazing how it changes from the stark winter landscape to the lush summer views.Thanks Trevor.

My pictures do tend to be a bit chocolate-boxy. I take the grim & grotty too, but there's no real pleasure in taking them, and I never know what to do with them afterwards. Who actually wants to look at something like this, unless intending to model it:



cheers,

Martin.

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Talking of chocolate boxes:



 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5712235

Martin.

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     Old cottages in Ship Street, Drogheda

  http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5712711
 

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    Rhiw Valley Light Railway

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5712937


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Hi Martin,

Love the cottages in Drogheda. Odd how alternate parts of the roofs have been re-slated as only the far right cottages appear to be occupied. Keep the pictures coming

Rob


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Rob Manchester wrote: Trevor Walling wrote: Hello,
These images really show what a beautiful land we live in.It is amazing how it changes from the stark winter landscape to the lush summer views.
RegardsTrevor,

It is a shame that so many nice places have been destroyed over the years in the name of progress

Rob

Hello,
       I would imagine that was the way people felt when the railways first started.
Regards.

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Rob Manchester wrote:Keep the pictures coming


      Bevere Island Bridge, Worcester

This once fine bridge is now derelict and in need of restoration. It serves now only to provide livestock access to Bevere Island in the River Severn. It is thought to have been built by Richard Moon, chairman of the LNWR, who owned lands at Bevere*.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5713307



 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5713305

*pronounced Bevvery

Martin.

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Another bridge:



     Farmland near Severn Lodge
The Shropshire Way LDP and a high pressure oil pipeline cross the Severn Valley Railway under this bridge.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5713231

Martin.

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Martin,



Rob


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 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5713783

Martin.

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Another bridge. Not Ambridge, this is Ham Bridge:



 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5713838

One of my favourite pics. I remember going home with wet feet that day.

Martin.

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     Church Island in the Menai Strait

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5714005

Martin.

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From the archives:



    Syntley Farm in 1968

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5714554

Surprisingly little changed 50 years later:



 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5714578

I much prefer the old view. So much for modern digital cameras!
 
I'm intending to do more of these "then & now" pictures. The tricky part is identifying the location from the old negs. Google streetview helps.

Martin.

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"So much for modern digital cameras!"

In their defense the lighting was a lot different
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Andrew Barrowman wrote: "So much for modern digital cameras!"

In their defense the lighting was a lot different
Yes I know.

Lighting is everything, but out of doors you have very little no control of it if the subject is more than a few feet from the camera.

I shall go back and have another go one day when the lighting promises to be better. No doubt by then a large metal shed will have appeared in the foreground! I was surprised that so little had changed in half a century.

cheers,

Martin.

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Martin,

You haven't learnt in 50 years not to shoot into the light then Mind you gaining access to a spot that keeps the sun over your shoulder isn't easy. I bet the farm buildings see a lot less activity now than in 1968, probably used for a few old tractors or bits of machinery just waiting for a restorer to come along.

Rob


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More farming:



 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5714790

Martin.

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Rob Manchester wrote: You haven't learnt in 50 years not to shoot into the light then Mind you gaining access to a spot that keeps the sun over your shoulder isn't easy.The official way is to hang about for 12 hours while the planet rotates. Whenever I've tried it, the rain starts after 11 hours 45 minutes.

Martin.

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Martin Wynne wrote: Surprisingly little changed 50 years later

Martin.Martin, you and I seem to have rather different views on what constitutes 'little change'!  I can see some major changes in the view, some of which I've indicated on the accompanying edited view of your 1968 picture (I played around with levels to try to determine whether the building that has disappeared was attached to the farmhouse - I think it was probably separate but can't be sure).

The roof profile of the farmhouse has undergone radical change, to the extent that I'm not sure you could treat the 'shell' of the current building as a reliable guide to what was there before.  Often one can rely upon the current basic shell as a good indication of original construction, but here's a case where this isn't necessarily so.

If, like me, you are striving to create an accurate historical replica of a particular scene (in my case the station environs at Burnham-on-Sea), a good selection of historical photographs is helpful but needs to be interpreted with care.  My aim is to reproduce the townscape as it was in the period 1948-1954 approximately.  The best photographs we have of the area date from about 1963, leavened with a few shots that were taken immediately pre- or post-World War II.  Currently I am dealing with a building whose rear elevation has undergone a number of transformations since that War, and it is exceedingly difficult to determine what the building's appearance was during the period with which we are concerned.

Building details generally have changed quite a lot since those days, the widespread introduction of UPVC windows being particularly apparent, so that today I can often only rely upon the shell of surviving buildings as a guide to their original form, and even then I need to beware of major structural changes such as those that seem to have taken place with Syntley Farm.

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John Palmer wrote:Martin, you and I seem to have rather different views on what constitutes 'little change'!Hi John,

I was speaking in the sense of as seen through the camera viewfinder, and also in an agricultural sense, rather than the historical details.

The whole range of farm buildings could have been swept away and replaced with a big tin shed. Or alternatively converted to a residential development of barn conversions.

I don't have a map for 1968, but here is the 1901 25" map (black) overlaid with the modern map (coloured). The red X is the approximate camera position:



Based on that, I don't think the farmhouse was two separate buildings, but it is clearly now a smaller structure than before.

cheers,

Martin.

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            The Clee Hill Quarry Asphalt Plant makes a splash of colour on the hill.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5718861

 http://www.mqp.co.uk/clee-hill-quarry.htm


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  A South Shropshire panorama

The photo-stitch join is a bit too obvious.

Martin.

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Martin Wynne wrote:   A South Shropshire panorama

The photo-stitch join is a bit too obvious.

Martin.
Martin,

Looks a bit like my background sheets where they cross the baseboard joints Wish I was artistic, then I could paint them.

Rob


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Best of today's crop:



     Farmland from Leapgate Old Railway Line Country Park

The Regent Oil Co had a wartime rail-connected fuel storage depot here, but no trace of it remains.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5719895

Martin.

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