Flame-orange
This Marigold’s flame-orange petals are open just enough to have collected some water droplets from an earlier rain shower, thus giving the flower a spattering of moisture to cope with another humid Summer’s day.
*Shot on a Samsung GX-10 10mp dSLR using a Schneider D-Xenon 50-200mm f/4-5.6 lens set at ISO-200, aperture at f/5.6, pattern metering mode and an exposure time of 1/1250 seconds*
An accident waiting to happen…
… just around the next corner it would seem, considering how this hedge’s growth is interfering with this sign’s readability!
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS mkll lens with settings at ISO-100, aperture at f/6.3, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/500 seconds*
The solitary rock climber
As the Sun’s fading rays illuminate these tumbledown cliffs high above the shores of Dovestones reservoir in Greenfield, a solitary rock climber strives to clamber onwards and upwards in a race literally against Time itself.
The question is: can you spot the intrepid ‘boulder monkey’ within this stone-strewn landscape above?
(Click the picture twice for a bigger version to aid your observational quest!)
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-4.5 DC lens with settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/7.1, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/125 seconds*
A curious Gosling
This young Gosling – with its fluffy down dampened by the water – eyes up a potential meal on the Middleton stretch of the Rochdale canal. Unfortunately for this young Canadian Goose there is no food on offer, just the sound of a camera snapping away from the moron pointing a lens in its direction!
*Shot on a Canon 350d 8.2mp dSLR using a Sigma 75-300mm f/4-5.6 DG macro lens set at ISO-400, aperture at f/9, pattern metering mode and an exposure time of 1/250 seconds*
‘Acid House’ memories…
This neon-yellow Smiley Face conjures up memories from my teenage years, way back to the late 1980’s when growing up in Manchester in the UK meant it was a time for wearing flares and flowered shirts; listening to House music and Indie bands; and dropping Ecstasy pills and LSD tabs with this iconic image adorning their tiny surfaces: oh, to be a young, carefree and idiotic fool once again…
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS mkll lens with settings at ISO-100, aperture at f/5, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/200 seconds*
Glass panes
A Motorcyclist whizzes past five small oblong windows at speed, oblivious to how their stretched glass panes warp the surrounding world: peer closer though and these bizarre mirror images hypnotically beckon us to step across their framed thresholds and slide away into fantastical, shimmering realms…
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-4.5 DC lens with settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/6.3, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/200 seconds*
Sunrise or Sunset?
Does this picture show the orange brilliance of an early Sunrise’s warmth or the dying glow of a late Sunset’s embers? I’ll let you decide that one…
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Tamron 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Di ll LD lens with settings at ISO-400, aperture at f/4, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/4000 seconds*
The Forgotten Soldier
In an overgrown corner of an old cemetery – partly hidden in the emerald-tinged undergrowth and clinging damp mosses – stands all that remains of a monument to one of the many local lads who went off to fight in World War One. Like millions of other young men who did their duty for King and Country between 1914 and 1918, finally being laid to rest in a family plot back in England’s ‘green and pleasant land’ was the last time they’d travel along the streets, lanes and byways of their birthplaces again.
The poignant, lichen-encrusted inscription reads as follows:
“Private Fred Curry of the 16th Batt. Manchester Reg. who was killed in action October 16th 1916, aged 23 years.
He Hath Paid The Supreme Sacrifice.”
The base plate holding up these chiselled words also has an inscription, but is virtually illegible due to the overgrown grass. However, with the fragments that can be read, such as “… and Mo-” and “-urry” it would appear that this unfortunate young man was returned to the bosom of his dearly-departed Mother: surely the most fitting place to find oneself when your Time has come to pass…?
*Shot on an Olympus E-P1 12mp micro 4/3 system digital camera using an Olympus Zuiko Auto-S f/1.4 50mm lens with camera settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/1.8, centre-weighted meter mode and an exposure time of 1/40 seconds*
Beneath the boughs
The trees’ early morning shadows stretch beneath their leafy boughs, chasing one another in circles as the ageing day gets shorter and shorter…
*Shot on a Panasonic Lumix LX3 10mp enthusiast compact camera with settings at ISO-80, aperture at f/2.2, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/400 seconds*
Overdue repairs
This street light epitomises the lack of money available to any local Council throughout the UK: with its glass cover left dangling in the wind and its rust-pitted post getting weaker by each passing year, it’s a miracle that this amber bulb is actually still working!
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS mkll lens with settings at ISO-100, aperture at f/6.3, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/400 seconds*
Stretch the Horizon 