Say It With A Camera

Landing Zone

2014-04-13T23:17:00.000+01:00

Whilst I’m mainly a landscape photographer, occasionally I get in the mood to photograph a bit of wildlife using the Sigma 150-500 lens which doesn’t get used often enough. It’s not the fastest lens but in reasonable
lighting conditions you can push the ISO and get a good photograph without too much noise being induced.

The Spinnies at Aberogwen is my favourite spot for bird photography. There are two hides. One with views out to the Menai Strait and the lagoons and the other hide with just views of the lagoons. Great place to go and if there’s not much activity it’s only a short drive into the Snowdonia National Park or a quick drive across the Britannia Bridge to Anglesey.

What about you? Do you specialise in one type of photography? Or do you like to try different things? I’d love to hear from you?

Soviet War Memorial–Berlin

2014-04-13T12:59:00.000+01:00

Erected in 1945 just after the fall of the city, this memorial is one of several built by the Soviets in Berlin. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of both Germany’s it was considered to be located in what was then the British sector. During the Cold War, Soviet guards from the Soviet sector (East Berlin)
stood in front of the memorial, no matter what the weather or time of the day. It was rumoured that the guards stood on air vents which could blow hot or cold air, but I don’t suppose we will ever know. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Located in the Tiergarten which is a large public park, the front of the memorial was bounded by the Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Street) which during the Cold War was closed to public transport. Tourist buses and members of the Allied Forces were allowed vehicular access to the road in front of the memorial but were not allowed to get out of their vehicles.

I have fond memories of my time in West Berlin during the Cold War. It was a vibrant city with so much to see and do but at the time my one regret was that i was never able to visit East Berlin where many of the historic buildings were located.

Years later I joined a company with offices in Berlin. Needless to say I managed to arrange several trips to rectify my previous inability to visit the East and first on my list was the Soviet War Memorial which you can freely walk around now…..and you know what. I forgot to look for those rumoured vents.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument

2014-04-12T20:36:00.000+01:00

Should I be taking part in the Weekly Photo Challenges? You see, I moved from WordPress to Blogger for the greater flexibility including the ability to sell my photographs direct from my blog. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this?

In the meantime to this weeks challenge. Over the years I have photographed many monuments but this small piece of artwork made of driftwood and the remains of a fallen tree has impressed me the most. Artist Frank Lund and a team of very talented people worked to build Grace in three weeks and it’s big enough for children and adults to step on. You can read more about the building of Grace on the Hoylake Village website.

So who was Grace Darling? Wikipedia describes Grace as an English lighthouse keeper's daughter, famed for participating in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in 1838. some how I find it rather incongruous that a pirate ship should be named after Grace Darling. What do you think?

Do I Need SEO?

2014-04-10T19:14:00.000+01:00

My blog is about my photographs from the Snowdonia National Park and the beautiful North Wales coastline. I only started it last week but previously I had a blog on WordPress dot com which had over 2100 followers, but we all know that followers does not necessarily mean traffic to your site.
To be honest it had gone stale and so had I. All to often I was trying to please the great god of SEO instead of doing what I do best photography.

Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools are not for me this time round. I spent far too much time before, looking at their stats trying to improve my rankings, optimising my site etc. For what? About 4 or 5 comments on every post I made.

No more. Photography is what Say It With A Camera is about and photographs are what you are going to get.

Walking along the Miners Track you get this view of Snowdon and Crib Goch, two of the most famous mountains in the national park which by the way I own the copyright for. No! Not the view, the photograph. Talking of copyright just so we are clear. I own the copyright of all my photographs. Full details can be found on the Legal Stuff page of this blog. Some of my photographs are for sale through REDBUBBLE. My most recent prints can be found on the Buy Prints of this blog.

Today I was at a small nature reserve called The Spinnies. It’s a great place for bird-watching, especially as you can get pretty close by using the hides. They say when you are blogging you should always ask questions so here it is. Are you interested in Wildlife photography? Or would you prefer landscapes? That’s two questions, so I must be doing something right.

Free Texture Set - 1

2014-04-08T17:19:00.000+01:00

Over the years I have used textures in my artwork and eventually I started designing my own. Now I'm making them available to you for free. I'm not asking for anything, not even your email. You don't have to credit me if you use one, but it would be nice. All I ask is that you do not load them up to the web as your own.

To get the textures all you have to do is download the zip file from Microsoft OneDrive to get the complete Texture Set 1. Or if you like you can download the individual textures.

This is a series of textures that I will release over the coming weeks so be sure to check back now and again.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold

2014-04-06T17:39:00.000+01:00

I wonder what’s behind that door? Walking through Prague in the Czech Republic I spotted this ceremonial guard standing in front of a doorway.

A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere. They are often momentary, chance-sent things: a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing a threshold, the shadows cast by a setting sun. Sometimes they are a matter of luck; the photographer could not expect or hope for them. Sometimes they are a matter of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that he has seen and lost or for one that he anticipates. Leaving out of question the deliberately posed or arranged photograph, it is usually some incidental detail that heightens the effect of a picture – stressing a pattern, deepening the sense of atmosphere. But the photographer must be able to recognize instantly such effects. - Bill Brandt

I love the way he give me that sideways look without directly looking at me, that’s my incidental detail.
But I still wonder what’s behind that door…..

What Links Mrs Thrale To Corpus Christi, Tremeirchion?

2014-04-06T12:56:00.000+01:00

She is buried here. But who is Mrs Thrale? Hester Lynch Thrale was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and 18th-century life.
When her father became bankrupt she married a rich brewer called Henry Thrale with whom she had 12 children but the relationship was far from idyllic and Hester was known to associate with whom she pleased.
Using her husband's financial status Hester was able to enter London society and as a result she met notable figures like Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Bishop Thomas Percy, Oliver Goldsmith. In 1775 Samual Johnson wrote two verses for her, the first in celebration of her 35th birthday, and another in Latin to honour her.

When Henry Thrale died in 1781 Hester married Gabriel Mario Piozzi, an Italian music teacher but it caused a fall out with Samuel Johnson which was only mended just before his death. Hester and Gabriel meanwhile moved to a specially-built country house on her Bach y Graig estate in the Vale of Clwyd, near Tremeirchion village in north Wales.

It was here that she published Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson (1786) and her letters (1788). Hester Piozzi died at number 10 Sion Row, Clifton, Bristol, of complications after a fall, and was buried on 16 May 1821 near Brynbella in the churchyard of Corpus Christi Church, Tremeirchion, next to Piozzi. A plaque inside the church is inscribed "Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in an age of Genius She held ever a foremost Place".

You can see the ivory white plaque on the left hand side of the church sandwiched between the brass plaque and the archway contain the effigy of a knight.

Related articles

Reflections at Night

2014-04-05T15:34:00.000+01:00

Occasionally you get lucky with a photograph and all the conditions are right to let you produce the photograph you imagined when you first looked at the scene.

Take this one of the BBC Scotland studios. I don’t visit Glasgow often and when I do I always stay in a hotel very close to this building. In my minds eye I to photograph this building I imagined a flat calm river basin at night, where the reflection was absolutely perfect.

However in past trips there’s always a wind, breaking up the reflection on the water. Have you ever been in that situation? You want to photograph something but the weather conditions aren’t right. I know I have, often.

Last year though, the weather conditions were perfect. A still cold night, bitterly cold in fact, not a breath of air at ground level, flat calm water and the building lit up. Just what I wanted.

Of course there is a way round this. I could always have achieved a great reflection in Photoshop using the “How to create a cityscape reflection in Photoshop” by Jimmy McIntyre.

Spring Daffodils

2014-04-05T14:59:00.000+01:00

In the spring daffodils pop up with those beautiful yellow heads. Normally we see them growing in clumps at the side of roads, in woodland and in gardens.
But I’ve never seen them grown on a commercial basis like this. Have you ever seen fields of flowers like this, row upon row, stretching to the horizon.

The Narcissus is a genus of mainly hardy, mostly spring-flowering, bulbous perennials in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Various common names including daffodil, narcissus, and jonquil are used to describe all or some of the genus. They are native to meadows and woods in Europe, North Africa and West Asia, with a centre of distribution in the Western Mediterranean.

Now I never knew that. I always thought they were native to Britain.

Squinty Bridge?

2014-04-05T14:48:00.000+01:00

The Clyde Arc (known locally as the Squinty Bridge), is a road bridge spanning the River Clyde in Glasgow. It’s located near the Clyde Auditorium and SECC with Pacific Quay and Glasgow Science Centre in Govan.

A prominent feature of the bridge is its innovative curved design and the way that it crosses the river at an angle. The Arc is the first city centre traffic crossing over the river built since the Kingston Bridge was opened to traffic in 1969.

The bridge was named the "Clyde Arc" upon its official opening on 18 September 2006 but previously it had known as the "Finnieston Bridge" or the "Squinty Bridge.

Llyn Nantle Uchaf

2014-04-03T19:13:00.004+01:00

Another one of those cold Snowdonia pictures. Bitter wind, grey skies, low cloud base with the odd patch of sun breaking through. And yet Snowdonia and the National Park has a charm all of it’s own. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful places in Britain, no matter what the weather.

Snowdonia National Park (Welsh: Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) was established in 1951 as the third National Park in Britain, following the Peak District and the Lake District. It covers 827 square miles (2,140 km²), and has 37 miles (60 km) of coastline. The Park's entire coastline is a Special Area of Conservation, which runs from the Llŷn Peninsula down the mid-Wales coast, the latter containing valuable sand dune systems.
The Park's natural forests are of the mixed deciduous type, the commonest tree being the Welsh Oak. Birch, ash, mountain-ash and hazel are also common. The Park also contains some large (planted)coniferous forested areas such as Gwydir Forest near Betws-y-Coed, although some areas, once harvested, are now increasingly being allowed to regrow naturally.

Northern Snowdonia is the only place in Britain where the Snowdon lily, an Arctic–alpine plant, and the rainbow-coloured Snowdon beetle (Chrysolina cerealis) are found, and the only place in the world where the Snowdonia hawkweed Hieracium snowdoniense grows.

A large proportion of the Park is today under designation (or under consideration for designation) as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Nature Reserves, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Biosphere and Ramsarsites.

And the beauty is I get to photograph this all the year round.