2019 Project 52 by David ("Rufus")

[Rufus]

With that City Mill photo there is a faint problem in the sky above the roof apex. Otherwise it looks good to me.

Yes, I cloned some sky and I realise now that I should have used "content aware fill".

[joebranko]

Thanks for sharing these pictures of older buildings. Their history is always interesting.

[Rufus]

Week 9 #22 - Flying buttresses on the south side of Winchester Cathedral
1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 100:

I hoped f/11 would give good depth of field. I chose not to increase the ISO to get a larger DOF.

The 35mm lens enabled me to look down at the foreground and place the focal point on a third. And the open door on the left nicely covers what might have been a less interesting wall.

I am not sure about the lighting, but the lighter warmer distance does draw the eye into the picture.

Only minimal post processing was required this time.

C&C most welcome.



After 450 years the Old Minster, the predecessor of the present building, was demolished. Its stones were used for a new Cathedral, consecrated 1093. William Rufus, William the Conqueror’s son, was buried here in 1100. He was killed by a stray arrow of an unknown bowman (thought to be Sir Walter Tyrell) while hunting in the New Forest and was buried under the tower of his father’s great Norman Cathedral (which collapsed seven years later!).

By the early 16th century, much of the Cathedral you see today was complete.

Jane Austen, now celebrated as one of England’s greatest novelists, was buried in the Cathedral in 1817.

By the early 1900s, there were fears that the east end of this ancient building would collapse, after centuries of subsidence. Early efforts to underpin its waterlogged foundations failed until William Walker, a deep-sea diver, worked under water in total darkness every day for six years placing bags of concrete. His dedication saved the cathedral.

[Shadowman]

Hi Rufus,

Nicely captured, I think this is a setting that you could've experimented with different apertures to see if deep or shallow focus would really make a difference. With the scene as shown I don't think using deep depth of field matters as the viewers eyes will do the job for you, if you had a human subject placed anywhere within the corridor then it might make a difference.

[Rufus]

...I think this is a setting that you could've experimented with different apertures to see if deep or shallow focus would really make a difference. With the scene as shown I don't think using deep depth of field matters as the viewers eyes will do the job for you, if you had a human subject placed anywhere within the corridor then it might make a difference.

John - thank you for prompting me to think about this some more.

I think I just assumed that, as there was no subject to focus on part way down, I should try to get the whole scene in focus. I was certainly thinking the foreground should definitely be in acceptable focus. Consequently, I focused on the first or second buttress beyond the doorway – about 12-24 feet away.

Having checked my DOF app after the event, that should give a near focus of 6-8 feet. I may have been a little closer than that, but not much, so the foreground doorway may be slightly out of focus; but if it is, I am content with that as it is only framing the picture.

The far focus would have been at 500 feet to infinity so the picture should be in focus throughout. So, my guess achieved what I had in mind at the time.

Had I used a shallower DOF (say f/4), I would have blurred the foreground and the far focus would have been somewhere close to the second buttress. A compromise at f/7.1 would have kept most of the distance in focus but still blurred the foreground doorway, which would have been a shame, I think.

But I now wish I had taken those additional shots to see the difference!

[Geoff F]

The foreground looks fine to me.

[Cantab]

David, I think the photo, as you took it, works well. And thanks again for the historical information.

[Rufus]

Christ's College was first established as God's House in 1437 by William Byngham, a London parish priest, for training grammar school masters. It moved to its present site in 1448. In 1505, with a royal charter from King Henry VII, the College was re-founded as Christ's College. One the college's alumni was someone by the name of Charles Darwin.

Week 10 Image #23 - An entrance to Christ's College, Cambridge.
1/125 sec at f/4.0 and ISO 200.



The 35mm lens seemed to suit this well. A little correction to converging parallels was required and hopefully the result is acceptable.

This shot was taken fairly late in the day in overcast conditions so it lacks depth. On the screen the gold comes out quite well, but when I tried a printed version the gold and the red tudor roses lacked the same vibrancy. I imagine I did not add sufficient vibrancy prior to printing so I will have another attempt at that.

There is a taxi rank immediately opposite this gatehouse so I had to wait for one to move away and take the shot before the next one in line drew up in front of me!

I left the small amount of road in the image rather than crop to the kerb otherwise the pedestrians look as though they are walking along the frame! I hope that was the right call.

I always welcome your C&C.

[Geoff F]

A rather tricky shot with quite a wide brightness range but this looks fine to me. Because those people are standing close to the pavement edge you made the right decision to include a little bit of road.

[Shadowman]

Post 68, nicely framed.

[Cantab]

I agree with Geoff. Your photo worked out well.

[Rufus]

Thank you Geoff, John and Bruce for your comments on Week 10, Image #23.

[Rufus]

I am catching up with my Project 52 so I am at present in week 11 ending 17 March. The photographs were taken at Ironbridge when the River Severn was in flood - so much so that there were signs to say the road would be closed the following day!

I will start with two images of the iron bridge. It has recently been given a lick of paint which is, apparently, true to the original colour. I couldn't possibly comment as to whether my photo is similarly true to colour.

During the 1960s there was talk of dismantling the Iron Bridge and selling it for scrap, but in the 1970s it came under the auspices of what is now English Heritage. They have recently completed a thorough £3.6m conservation project which lasted 2 years.

As the world's first bridge to be built of cast iron, the Iron Bridge set an exciting precendent for engineers around the world. It was 1779 and the surrounding area was a bustling hub of industrial activity at the forefront of what would become known as the Industrial Revolution. The bridge was so successful that it gave its name to the whole Ironbridge Gorge - now a World Heritage Site.

Made from 378 tons of iron, the bridge is a credit to the driving force behind the project, Abraham Darby III, an architect. In the early 18th century, Darby's grandfather, Abraham Darby I, pioneered an economically viable method for the mass production of iron using coke. This process was a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution.

In my photos the river's water level comes almost up to where the iron meets the stone foundations. Normally there would be a several feet of stonework showing.

Near the bridge is a little lane for pedestrian access to some houses. As always, not many people explore further, but I thought these made a pleasant street scene for the third image.

C&C always most welcome and appreciated.

Week 11 Image #24 - The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK.
1/90 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 250:



Week 11 Image #25 - The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK.
1/90 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400:


Week 11 Image #26 - Lane Leading to Houses at Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK
1/180 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400:

[Geoff F]

Good compositions. A pity about that rather bland sky but it does look better in the Lightbox view. I wonder if you could get away with carefully and selectively darkening it just a fraction without it looking unnatural?

[Shadowman]

Week 11, nice series.

[Rufus]

Good compositions. A pity about that rather bland sky ...

Unfortunately, the next week's images have some bland sky and flat light, too.

[Rufus]

This week's photos are from Dublin. We arrived on St Patrick's Day at a lively hotel. Funnily enough, the streets were deserted the following morning The light was not good but some blue eventually appeared in the sky on another day.

There are two cathedrals within a few hundred yards/metres of each other, but neither seemed to provide ideal vantage points for photographs, so I did what I could. The first image should have been framed with more at the top.

The horse and carriage made an appearance as we walked from one catherdral to the other so I grabbed a shot of it.

The bridge was bult on 1999 at a time when the economy was booming and is part of a significant waterside development of plush offices, apartments and a convention centre. I have bent the rules of my Project 52 and included the shot of the bridge as it was taken with my 24-105mm lens set at 29mm which is close enough to 35mm...and there was some more interesting sky.

Week 12 Image #27 - Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
1/180 sec at f/8 and ISO 100:


Week 12 Image #28 - Horse and Carriage , Dublin.
1/90 sec at f/8 and ISO 250:


Week 12 Image #29 - St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
1/90 sec at f/8 and ISO 100:



Week 12 Image #30 - Samuel Beckitt Bridge, Dublin.
1/180 sec at f/13 and ISO 200:

[Rufus]

This week's photos were taken on the north coast of Northern Ireland. The three coastal views were taken on the track leading to Dunseverick Harbour. The final image was taken at the Giants Causeway and is of geological interest being fractured hexagonal interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. There are some 40,000 columns along this stretch of coastline.

Week 13 Image #31 - Dunseverick, Northern Ireland
1/350 sec at f/9.5 and ISO 200:


Week 13 Image #32 - Dunseverick, Northern Ireland
1/250 sec at f/16 and ISO 320:


Week 13 Image #33 - Dunseverick, Northern Ireland
1/30 sec at f/22 and ISO 100:


Week 13 Image #31 - Basalt Columns, Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland
1/350 sec at f/9.5 and ISO 200:


C&C invited and appreciated.

[Geoff F]

Unfortunately, the next week's images have some bland sky and flat light, too.

Yes, that is so often a problem with the UK and nearby countries. Even when there is a decent interesting sky a low angle shot frequently comes out bland grey.

At least you have some interest in the sky from your latest images and have avoided any backlit fringing issues.

With the cathedral in #27 if you included the roof tip by a slightly different angle you wouldn't really want to lose any more from the bottom. I wonder if actually cropping tighter at the top might be an alternative option? Crop just above the highest turret so it looks more like a deliberate planned shot than a mistake?

The others all look fine to me.

[joebranko]

On week 11 image 24. Loved the bridge. Also appreciate the historical background you gave