Graeme Skinner » Photography

The Setting Sun

Graeme — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:46:44 +0000

Some images from last night….

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Sunbathing Bunny

Graeme — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:39:51 +0000

I saw this bunny having a bit of quality time in the Sun yesterday and thought it worth a photograph

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The Eden & Stones

Graeme — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:23:09 +0000

This afternoon we had a quick run out first stopping at Long Meg stone circle, then round to see how low the River Eden is.Long Meg looked excellent with the Summer Sun almost overhead, I took a few photographs but I think this one sums the place up for me -

We then went on to Armathwaite to look at the Eden, it really is looking like it could run dry almost any day, when I think back to how I’ve seen it in the past it’s quite amazing really.

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St Michael’s Church

Graeme — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:24:50 +0000

This morning we stopped by St Michael’s Church near to Lowther Castle, we’ve driven and walked by it many times but never looked inside.It’ll be worth going back one day with a tripod, but I did manage a couple of photographs despite the low light levels this morning.

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Morning wander

Graeme — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:46:15 +0000

This morning we went out for a wander and took a few photographs as we went Often I take photographs of scenes I want to use as reference for paintings, and if you feel the need to use any as reference for painting please get in touch.

The first few were taken near Armathwaite.

These two are of the River Eden between Lazonby and Kirkoswald.

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Appleby North

Graeme — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:35:08 +0000

As you may or may not know I work at various locations on the Settle to Carlisle railway, last night I was again working at Appleby North signal box and I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a photograph or two.I had of course to be careful that taking these photographs did not interfere with my ‘work’ which makes it a bit harder to concentrate on the photography

Signals cleared for the last Southbound passenger of the day -

View from the balcony -

Can you see the ghost?

Sunset -

Venus above No.3 signal

Appleby North box at night -

Notes – It’s called Appleby North because at one time there were a number of signal boxes dotted around Appleby.
All photographs were taken at a time when there would be no compromise to the safe passage of trains or personnel.

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Getting lost

Graeme — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:54:22 +0000

I find it very easy to get lost, which won’t come as a surprise to many people I’m sure. Anyway, there is a view section of road that I drive along every now and then that can really get me lost to everything for a while.

I obviously don’t mean I suddenly need to find a road map to set me back on the right track, but lost in a World of my own where the landscape around me transports me in an instant to a World of fantasy. It’s easy to drive by rolling hills dotted with trees, cows, and sheep without seeing anything but the grey in front of you, but it really is worth stopping the car every now and then and getting out to see what surrounds you.

This particular stretch of road makes me want to paint scenes from Shire, I know I’m a bit obsessed about Tolkien at times, but I ask you, if you’ve read either the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings how could you not feel the urge to illustrate a page or two when you are standing in front of a view like this -

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Perhaps it’s the greens that shout Shire, or perhaps it the way the hills roll away from you, I don’t really know – as an experiment I tried one of the images in black and white and it still inspires me you splash paint on paper for a while.

Splashing a little paint on paper may not be enough though, maybe I need a huge canvas and attempt to drag the images out of my brain and into reality, who can’t see a couple of Hobbits wandering down the side of these fields, maybe stopping for a picnic by a tree for a while -

Finally I took two images of the same scene 13 hours apart, and whilst the first image says ‘the Shire’ the second one, taken just after dawn screams of magic and unknown adventures.

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Green & Squidgy Worms

Graeme — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:19:57 +0000

A few images from this morning, two green images, I took them more for their colour than anything else -

And finally a sequence of photographs of a female Blackbird gathering worms -

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Acorn Bank

Graeme — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:56:49 +0000

Today we visited Acorn Bank, near Temple Sowerby, Cumbria. It’s a National Trust run site and the gardens are well worth a visit, before the gardens though we had a wander through the woods and I took a few too many photographs.

End of photograph overload

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Morning Mist, Leaves & General Distractions

Graeme — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:58:06 +0000

This morning I went for a wander with the dog and the camera fully intending to take some reference photographs of horses. As I wandered along the lane I became more and more distracted with the mist and the leaves and the way the moisture clung to everything. I did take a horse photograph but it was in the end a distraction to the magic that mist can create.

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