Christmas Eve: Narrow boats and canals
Today, as my title suggests, I’m going to use some of the photos I’ve taken this year of narrowboats and canals. I have a lot of readers who are bloggers, so I’m going to include some information and advice on blogging too.
Tipton Canal and Community Festival in pictures
I photographed the Tipton Canal and Community Festival on Sunday. It’s organised by the Tipton Community Association and features stalls and a fun fair as well as the colourful narrow-boats. The weather was quite cloudy, as usual… (more…)
Photography: Random shots
I’ve taken a few photos of this pub, but I think the addition of the horse and cart outside makes it more interesting. It conveys an image, that many people might find appealing. There are lots of colours in the picture that reflect light too, which is important. (more…)
Photography: weekend pictures
The weather was a little better last weekend so I managed to get a few unusual pictures. These steps lead to the top of an aqueduct. The elderberry trees make it more interesting and natural. The canal goes over the road quite high up. (more…)
The Review: Easter
Easter means different things to different people these days. To many the religious significance is still important, but to others religion is in disrepute. The Prime Minister claiming divine guidance hasn’t helped. (more…)
Photography: Black Country canals
There’s a narrow-boat gathering and a beer festival next weekend so I was on the canal on Sunday, getting in some practice. Here you can see the narrow-boat has just come out of the lock near the weighing station. (more…)
The Review: Another week of writing and photography
Today’s photo was taken on the Walsall canal at Ocker Hill. I do try to show the Black Country in a good light; that’s when I get a good light to take the photo. This is one of the pictures I’ve entered for the waterways calendar competition.
Black Country Canals
There is a lot of interest in fishing in the Black Country and I’m starting with this photo today. This lad caught this pike in the Walsall canal on Sunday. This post should be syndicated by the YamYam. Fame at last aer kid! Locals might want to know where this is on the map so check it out on Google maps. (more…)
Photography: Competition Photos
I took this photo yesterday when the sun came out. It looked like a great shot, but it was into the sun. The tow path was damaged and uneven and I was on a very narrow part next to the water. You need to be careful in such locations! (more…)
Photography: Slow speeds.
At first glance this photo looks good, but it’s slightly blurred. It would have been good if I could have held the camera perfectly still. The other option is to use a faster shutter speed. You can see the frost on the tow path of the canal, so I was shivering a little! A faster shutter speed was the obvious answer. (more…)
Neodigital Art and photography
We want the Black Country to be represented in a 2015 Waterways calendar and so I’ve taken some canal pictures. The light wasn’t good when I took this one and despite the editing and fancy frame. I don’t think it’s interesting enough for a calendar. The tree silhouette against the sky is artistic though. (more…)
Photographing and preserving history
There can be many reasons for taking photographs. It can be to create art, for nostalgic reasons, to preserve history or just for the fun of it.
Neodigital Art | Transport
Yes, I have been out taking transport photos. This is of two locks on the canal that are side by side and I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else. These would have been built in the 18th or 19th century. (more…)
A different pace of life…
There is something fascinating about narrow boats. I suppose they represent a slower pace of life away from the madness of modern life. They might be slow, but they get there. Someone has nicked all the lighting from the canal and stripped out the cable; it would have been dark staying there overnight. No wonder they are traveling in a convoy. Most of the boats have television aerials and some even have satellite dishes. That dog looks happy enough on the tow path and his owner was reading the paper. Farther up the tow path they were sitting on the benches having a little barbecue. They have all moored on that one side of the canal though and all is not what it seems. The local people tend to walk down this side, because if they walk down the other side it leads nowhere. The drunks on their way home from the pub, the graffiti artists and the odd jogger. (more…)
The mystery of elephant rock…
The way to elephant rock?
I put a photo of Moorcroft Wood on Facebook and someone asked where it was. They also mentioned ‘Elephant Rock’. My memory isn’t what it used to be, I was going to mention it to the doctor; but I keep forgetting. I have no central heating this weekend. I was lying in bed last night, cold and bored sheetless, when I remembered that the chemical lane ran past elephant rock and then under the railway bridge. The chemical lane is long gone, but the railway is still there, the Midland Metro runs on that now. There is a bridge over the canal, but I think I saw one that I could walk under, so that could be where elephant rock used to be. It was a huge rock bigger than an elephant, some thought it was a meteorite; but who knows. Could it still be there? (more…)
Don’t time fly when you’re having fun?
Happy birthday to me…
Yes, it’s my birthday yet again. My mate Richard; in Sydney, Australia posted a picture of a teddy bear and a birthday cake on Facebook earlier (my birthday started early in Oz). That took me back to when I was a kid, playing doctors and nurses with teddy and the girl down the road; she was the doctor. I’ll never forget what she did to teddy with that three feet of plastic tubing; no wonder his eye fell out. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Difficult Light
Winter photography
When I’m taking photographs in winter the light is often difficult. I was standing on the bridge over the canal to take this shot. The sun was low in the sky in the afternoon and behind me for this shot. I edited this photo and added highlights to try to make the tree silhouette against the white bleak sky. Depth is provided by the tree and the canal going away into the distance. I also like the hedge row that runs along the side of the canal. (more…)
A Monday morning ramble…
Photography
I took this photograph yesterday after I had gone thrifty shopping! My intention was to photograph the canal which I did but those photos are a little dark after the rain. I noticed some trees and bushes and set a wide aperture and got some interesting shots. I think this bush is a yew, it has strange flowers that are very sticky! (more…)
A Sunday ramble…
I wanted the colours in this photograph to be more pastel, like a water colour. I might have overdone it. The water looks the wrong colour, that’s a canal on the right. I took this photograph yesterday, we have lots of canals and this one looked good, when I checked it out on Street view! (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update 21
Black and White
It poured with rain on Friday and when it stopped we took a few photographs, this one shows the effect of bad light and a suitable subject. This was a demolition site and the water adds to the effect. I also did a sepia version of this photograph, but the black and white seemed to work better. As usual, I used Windows Live photo gallery for the editing. (more…)
Neodigital Art: Update Four
Neodigital Art - A church can look spectacular
My first picture is in silhouette and I altered a few attributes on the photograph to get that effect. In Windows Live Photo Gallery click ‘edit’ at the top of the screen and it’s brings up a lot of editing tools. You need more control and so click fine tune and some useful tools are on the right of the screen. (more…)
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