View From The Roadside

Farley Mount Rapeseed Field
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

This is a view from the opposite side of the road to the Farley Mount monument. Every time I drive past it, I just catch a glimpse of it through the hedge and trees, and keep thinking it would make a nice photograph, just not today when the light/clouds/trees/whatever aren’t right. I had tried to photograph it before but the ploughed field and the way the shadows fell across it didn’t work at all. Then, one day last May, I tried again. I was looking to photograph the rapeseed anyway, it’s yellow always mixed well with a blue sky. I took a few shots, was reasonably pleased with it all, then I seem to have forgotten all about it.

I presume this is connected to my new monitor. It was a few weeks after buying it before I got around to calibrating it, and I remember being very reluctant to process any pictures until then. It being the summer, when I didn’t really get to take that many pictures at all, everything just hid away unnoticed. I was backing up pictures during the week (always a good idea) when I found the folder again to copy it to the DVD. I had a look to see what the pictures were of and thats when I found this one. Two lessons for me there, always back up stuff, and always keep old stuff so you can go back to it again later and maybe find something you missed the first time through.

Salisbury Crosses
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

Driving around a few weekends ago I found myself near Salisbury. The sun was getting low at this time, and it cast the Cathedral in that lovely glowing “golden hour” light. I parked the car and went for a walk around. It was only when I got to the Cathedral that I remembered why I hadn’t been there in a while. Between the scaffolding on one side and the walls and trees of whatever is on the other side, there really is only one aspect of the Cathedral available to photograph, and I’d already taken pictures of it before. Nevertheless, I took the same pictures as before with this new light and leaves on the trees. It was fun later seeing how similar my composition was, but at the time I was a little disappointed. To “save” the trip I went looking for something new. The impressive statues on the façade just weren’t working for me but I saw that I could frame the top of that façade and the spire together if I stood in the right place. The result is this picture. It was at least a new angle on the place and I was pleased with that.

Backlit Tree
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

The last picture here is from a copse of wood near the house. I had actually thought of going to the New Forest again to look for trees, a long enough round trip with a touch of needles and haystacks about it. I had a flash of inspiration, don’t go there, stay here. It has been ages since I went anywhere near any of the paths through the woods around the house. It’s fairly natural woodland in that it’s not pre-planted in neat little rows and for my purposes it was just as good as the forest would have been, maybe even better. I will have to go walk around it again in different light to see what else might be there. This tree, on the edge of a clearing was in full sunlight. I saw this view of it walking along a path behind the camera. A quick walk around to find the best spot and that was that.

If nothing else it was nice to walk around the local area again anyway, something I hadn’t done in far too long. The light wasn’t really right for many more shots but there were some places that would be well worth another visit in the hope of catching better light. The train track picture is also from that walk, a touch cliché perhaps, but I really couldn’t not take it. Far better to decide it doesn’t work later on the computer screen than not to take the picture at all.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under About Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.