National Fireworks Competition

Plymouth

What gunpowder was used for before the angry man got hold of it.


Wild bills grandpa told him the secret to a long and productive life was a pinch of gunpowder in his oatmeal every morning,
 when Bill passed 92 years later he left 7 children, 19 grand children, 15 great grandchildren ,
 3 great great grandchildren and a 15 foot crater where the crematorium used to be.....

After The Rains.

Golitha falls, River Fowey, 13/7/12. Previous day had been heavy rain all day.
 We could hear large boulders possibly many hundredweight being moved by the force of water.

Arthur.

Portrait of a friends border collie atop Carn Grey rock.

Wild Waterlillies

Carn Grey quarry, a disused former granite quarry where I used to fish as a boy.

Now an SSSI (site of special scientific interest).

Common Blue

Dandelion & Dew.

Meadow Pipit

Many once common farmland birds, like the pipits & wagtails migrate to the coast in the winter, where it's easier for them to find sustenance on the shoreline.
As they don't eat berries & seeds they need live invertebrates, so when the farmland gets cold & their regular food dives deep in the soil they are often seen turning seaweed & pebbles to catch sandhoppers & the like.

Sunrise Harvest Moon.

" even the finest scenery loses incalculably when there is no one to enjoy it with.” Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880.

Oak Mirror

I've photographed this oak tree once before & made one or two interesting mandalas from the images.
Thought I would look at it again in different light & more detail.
The tree is probably about two hundred years old, growing on a field boundary not far from home.
So whilst the dogs where chasing imaginary bunnies I said hello to an old friend.

Agapanthus

I have a love of hoticulture, & also pyrotechnics, so to me flowers resemble fireworks exploding in slow motion.

Mevagissey Harbour

A tourist hotspot in the summer but still beautiful on a still day in winter.

The view from home

Taken from the fields behind my home looking out over St Austell Bay.
I imagine there's a photo to be taken under every shaft of light.
Click on thumbnail & view full screen to see full size.

Nothing in nature is perfect

A rework of another colour image from my archive.
Hosta 'Sum & Substance' with an unknown fern, the leaf had to have one little nibble or it wouldn't be natural.
The damage gives the leaf a facial quality so sometimes you have to thank the slugs.

Helman Tor

Juxtaposed.
A rework of a colour image from my archive.
The contrasts between the ageless granite, the stunted thorn leaning away from the prevailing wind & the ever changing weather grabbed me.
The Tors of the South West peninsula are a photographers dream.
The way the granite has formed & it's hardness means that they have been sculpted over countless millennia & their shapes are like abstract sculptures in a natural wild setting.

Blue Tit & Great Tit

Nature is beautiful in all its scales & I've spent a lifetime marvelling at the smaller parts.
Digital photography has allowed me to look closer & hopefully convey that beauty.
This photo is a bit of a cheat.
Common garden birds like the tits are easily tempted with peanuts.
A feeder made from wire mesh & fixed out of shot makes the image appear more natural.
Also I constructed a hide near to the feeder to get a closer view.
If you don't want pictures of birds on feeders & don't want to bother with disguise focus on the trees & bushes around the feeders & photograph the birds waiting for their turn.

Willow Garker Wood 2011

Apart from my recent endeavours at landscape I like to play with images by holding a mirror up to nature.
In my humble opinion there is no perfect reflection in nature.
Or if there is I've yet to see it.
So when you make one, & combine it with the way our brains instinctively see things you get entertaining results.
I spent my childhood playing in nature & find it hard to let go, so this is a way I connect to the former me.
Spending time with a camera looking for interesting shapes & combinations of foliage instead of pure composition & light is total escapism, but fun.
I was turned on to this by Sean Helmann a true craftsman in all his endeavours & someone who obviously loves the wild places of Devon like I love wild Cornwall.
Hopefully one day I will get to thank him in person.

Tavascarow

Helman Tor 5/3/12

I'm only just exploring landscape photography.
Cornwall can be a grey county, lots of grey stone & grey weather.
Waiting for the light can be frustrating.
Learning to wait, & not be to disappointed when it doesn't happen is a good lesson to learn.
Not one that comes naturally to me.
The Tors of Devon & Cornwall are the igneous roots of an ancient mountain chain long eroded.
They are like the jutting vertebrae of the regions spine.
I love the way the thorn is growing close to the rock & the contrast it gives to the image.
Cornwall juts into the Atlantic & the highest points have no protection from the weather regardless of direction.
Growing from a crack in the rock it could be sixty or more years old & only four feet high.
One to visit again.