Sunday 6 January 2008

I'm back!

My predicted few weeks absence turned into several months, largely because I moved to a different part of England! But, now that I'm settled, and all those time-consuming, but necessary jobs connected with moving house have been done, I'm ready to hit the blogging road again.

However, I'm resurrecting PhotoReflect, so there'll be no more posts at PhotoQuoto. My first post of 2008 is imminent at http://photoreflect.blogspot.com/ . I hope to see you there!

Regards, Tony

Saturday 2 June 2007

No new posts for a while

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PHOTO
I will be "otherwise engaged" for a while, so there will be no posts on PhotoQuoto for a few weeks. My last post is an image from my garden featuring flowers. In the background is sage and forget-me-nots. However, the white petalled shrub in the foreground is a species I an unable to name. If anyone can enlighten me I would be delighted!

QUOTO
" Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding."
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) Russian-born French painter

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70mm macro (35mm equiv.)
F No: f11
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Friday 1 June 2007

Two of a kind

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PHOTO
A pair of venerable rowing boats on the River Nidd at Knares borough, North Yorkshire, their glowing, varnished wood starting to show the effects of use and weather.

QUOTO
"A lot of people go through life like they are rowing a boat. They look at where they have been rather than where they are going."
Anonymous

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 36mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Thursday 31 May 2007

61, 65, and more

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PHOTO
Green and red rowing boats lined up on the River Nidd at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, wait patiently for the first customers of the day.

QUOTO
"Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat."
Jean-Paul Satre (1905-1980), French existentialist philosopher and writer

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 86mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Cruising

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PHOTO
Cruising along the sun-dappled Lancaster Canal near Ellel Grange looks idyllic. But is this kind of linear boating a past-time that soon loses its charms?

QUOTO
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
Kenneth Graham (1859-1932), Scottish-born writer (from "The Wind in the Willows")

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 54mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Tuesday 29 May 2007

Homeward bound

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PHOTO
The wood-built fishing boat, "Helen Mona", constructed in Denmark in 1973, showing a Ballantrae (Scotland) identification code, but fishing out of Fleetwood, Lancashire, rides the tide up the Wyre Channel in the evening sunlight, heading for its berth, followed by some optimistic gulls.

QUOTO
"In the morning be first up, and in the evening the last to go to bed, for they that sleep catch no fish."
English proverb

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Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 176mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: 0.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Monday 28 May 2007

After the rain

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PHOTO
A holiday-maker on Blackpool's central promenade looks at the clearing sky, from beneath an ornate shelter, after the rain has passed.

QUOTO
"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist (from "Venus and Adonis")

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 44mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Sunday 27 May 2007

The Wyre Channel

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PHOTO
The Wyre Channel snakes out to sea, marking the course of the River Wyre as it flows into Morecambe Bay. It is the deep water route taken by the ferries as they enter the port of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Here, a few holiday-makers walk along its banks, overshadowed by a dramatic sky recently cleared of rain, and the distant Cumbrian Mountains.

QUOTO
"The sea washes all man's ills away."
Euripides (484?-406B.C.), Greek dramatist

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 80mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Saturday 26 May 2007

Tame calves, wild processing

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PHOTO
Taking photographs when the sun is at its highest isn't recommended: nor, usually, is placing your subject in the centre of the composition. And as for wild processing - well, make up your own mind!

QUOTO
"The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk"
Ogden Nash (1902-1971), US poet

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 22mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.3EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Friday 25 May 2007

Beach tractors

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PHOTO
Old tractors are used in the Ribble estuary at Lytham, Lancashire for catching shrimps and for launching small boats. I caught this vehicle and its distant companion against a threatening sky.

QUOTO
"The winkle ship sank and the shrimp ship swam."
Anonymous, a Tongue Twister

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Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom at 26mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/1250
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: -1.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Thursday 24 May 2007

Holes

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PHOTO
I was in Blackpool looking at an exhibition today. The subject was worthy, but the presentation was dull. However, the pierced metal supports of the exhibition stands were very interesting!

QUOTO
"Black holes are where God divided by zero"
Steven Wright (1955- ), US comedian, actor and writer

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70mm macro (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Big shell, little shell

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PHOTO
Two shells - both, I am told, varieties of the species Murex - laid on a mirror in front of a black background, with natural lighting.

QUOTO
"I have the world's largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world...perhaps you've seen it."
Steven Wright (1955 - ), US comedian, actor and writer

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70mm macro (35mm equiv.)
F No: f18
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -2.0EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Tuesday 22 May 2007

Beached hulks

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PHOTO
I don't know how many years these wrecks have been stranded on the banks of the Wyre estuary at Fleetwood, Lancashire. But time and tide are certainly taking their toll.

QUOTO
"A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy."
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom @ 22mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Monday 21 May 2007

I DO photograph birds!

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PHOTO
But only herons! It seems that herons are like buses - you wait for ages for one to come along, and then a few turn up all together! This one was stalking in the estuary at Arnside, Cumbria.

QUOTO
"The cloud never comes from the quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it."
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), English novelist

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom @ 300mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen

Sunday 20 May 2007

I don't photograph birds

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PHOTO
I don't photograph birds. I haven't got the lenses or the inclination. But when I come across one that is big, and lets you get quite close without flying off, like this grey heron by the Lancaster Canal, I sometimes point and shoot.

QUOTO
"Craiget heron near the hill
Plenty water for the mill;
Craiget heron to the sea,
Fine weather it will be."
from "Spectator" (1st June 1895), herons as weather forecasters

INFO
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: Zoom @ 300mm (35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV
photograph (c) T. Boughen