Graeme Skinner » photographs

Out for a wander

Graeme — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:58:29 +0000

We went out for a wander yesterday with some friends, as we were going in the afternoon it could not be too far off the beaten track so we went up Cat Bells. It was a fairly warm day but it was nice to get out and wander slowly up the Fell.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

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 -

larger version link

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yet more morning photographs ;-)

Graeme — Sun, 23 May 2010 09:09:34 +0000

Okay, I take a lot of early morning photographs, I may be getting addicted

I’ll try to take some at other times of the day, though I’m not saying how hard I’ll try, early morning light has a magic feel about it.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There’s something wrong here

Graeme — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:02:17 +0000

As I was driving home from work this morning I was in a bit of a hurry, try spending 12 hours in a box and you’d be in a hurry for home too Anyway, the mist had filled the valleys and was drifting across the fields, looking towards the Pennines I could see the Sun was just clear of the hill tops and was doing its best to break through the mist.

I did not look at the images as soon as I arrived home, I had some sleep to catch up on, when I did finally put them onto the computer I realized I’d have some Photoshop work ahead of me I don’t mean anything drastic like moving a tree or adding something, I had to remove a plethora of dust spots. As I worked my way around the image removing spot after spot the thought struck me, surely there is something wrong when you spend more time correcting the blemishes than you did taking the image in the first place. Perhaps dipping the camera in soapy water would help?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Cloudy

Graeme — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:44:27 +0000

When I woke this morning the cloud was hanging low over the Pennines, it would have been rude not to try and photograph it

I also took a large panoramic (12 exposures stitched) it turned out so large I could not easily fit it in the available space here, so please check it out by clicking here

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

On the Common

Graeme — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:02:42 +0000

We drove West to see my folks this morning and I had to stop for a couple of photographs on Caldbeck Common.

This has to be one of my favourite trees…

Then there was the view over to the snow covered fells….

I need to get on the tops one of these days soon and take the view looking down rather than looking up

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I love the smell of crap in a morning….

Graeme — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:40:33 +0000

…or do I? Well no to be honest with you. It’s one of the few downsides of living out of town, around this time of year the tractors arrive and start spreading the crap all over the fields; it used to be they’d apply one layer and go away – now they spread layer after layer until even when you are shut inside and have the windows shut you can almost taste the smell.

Other than that studying is now the priority this morning (having watched England lose to New Zealand by ten wickets, been for a walk, taken some photographs, and set up this site).

Bookmark It

Hide Sites