Images of the day - a day at the Museum

As we had nothing planned for yesterday we though that it was high time we got our rears into gear and visited the local museum located in the capital city (Cardiff). To be honest not allot had changed since we last visited in 2005. There was an exhibition about Queen Elizabeth in art and media and one about Scott of the Antarctic which was very interesting.

Please excuse the quality of today's shots i managed to forget my 16gb memory card and had to make do with a measly 4gb and had to set the camera to JPEG mode :(

The external of the cities museum.

 Some of the buildings many watchmen atop the roof

The remains of our nearest human relative

A Hawk Moth? I likes it that much i had to photograph it

Perseus with the head of Medusa

A Close up of that infamous snaked headed woman

A View from the first floor balcony

A reflection shot looking across the width of the museum

Someone looking very interested in the art 

The last stand of a Templar

Some of the detailing on the domed central roof

A marble lady with jugs (water jugs that is) 

Shaun

Images of the day - Baton down the hatches

A quick drive out in the car yesterday saw us in the little village of Llanblethian, Cowbridge, where my need of finding somewhere to photograph outweighed the want of fining somewhere to stop for a spot of lunch. Before i knew it i was off the beaten track and was following tourist information signs. Not knowing where i was going and travelling for a little while up a small farmers lane we came across the remains of a castle, St. Quentins castle.
 Around 1102 Robert Fitzhamon, the first Norman Lord of Glamorgan bequeathed the lands of Llanblethian as a lordship to Herbert de St Quentin who is thought to have built the first fortification at the site of the castle. This initial construct was believed to have been a simple ringwork defence with timber walls, a bank and ditch. A rectangular stone keep was built in the late 12th century, whose remains can now be found within the later gatehouse. This keep may have replaced a similar wooden structure.

Entrance to the gatehouse

 The first inner chamber

The remains of the castle top

The View from the upper floor toward the keep

                

The long decent to ground level

From the keep looking back toward the gatehouse

I hope you have enjoyed this as much as we did

Image of the day - Grave danger

After passing this church and graveyard today i couldnt pass up the opportunity to photograph it. I have tried a couple of different effect to see how they came out.

A little semi-macro of some buttercups

And this cheeky one of Gem for luck

Shaun

Images of the day - My Hero

As i have previously explained in various blogs about my love of photography, how i  have grown into it and   where the inspiration had come from all those years ago as i stood in the dark room with my grandfather as he develop his photos.

Well now is your chance to meet him, This is my Grandfather. After serving in the RAF during WW2 he returned home to become master projectionist in the local cinema house.
 This was taken when he was about 30 years old in his projection room.

The original untouched image

And after some fine re-touching i have managed to rescue the photo to this.

I hope you like.

Shaun

Images of the Day - Round we go again

Hello fellow bloggers, this and i will admit now is not one of my better attempts of photography. It was taken while driving around a roundabout (not something our friends stateside see many of) and trying to take photos out of the window.
This is a local sculpture within Merthyr Tydfil town center has stood for decades, built by sculptor Charles Sansbury sometime in the 1970's.

 I tried butting a bit of an arty twist on the first image, and my trusty mono conversion on the second. I hope its not to detracting to the already half decent work i have done previously

Image of the day - All alone

While visiting the local bay side, there was a wooden structure that sat in the water all on its own. I cant seem to work out what it is for. It made an interesting photo all the same and the sky made it even more moody.

Image of the Day - Click Flash Bang

As i have touched apon in my 'About Me' page, my love of photography had come from my grandfather who i spent many a weekend in the darkroom developing photos. This image is a bit on the arty side, but is of one of his first ever cameras. It is a Kodak Brownie from approx 1942, this is a really nice camera, with a big bright view finder, and produces 12 4x4's per roll. They give a great introduction to the 127 tlr experience before you spring big (ish) money on a Yashica or Rollei.
I am hoping to get more images of his camera history to share with all and to show the driving force behind my photography addiction.

Shaun

Image of the Day - Here pup pup

Well as i have already put numerous photos up of our little girl Missy, we keep forgetting about the man of the house. This is Dylan, a 6 year old standard Yorkshire terrier. He's pretty photogenic and this is his blog debut.

Image of the Day - Stairway to heaven

As ive had a pretty hectic week (sorry for the lack of posts everyone) i have only had chance to get out and get this one decent image. Its the local walkway off of the main river Taff.
 I thought i would go crazy and use a soft sepia on this as apposed to my more conventional mono. The path had always been just a muddy, slippery embankment but after some work by M.T.C.B.C (or the local council for short) was carried out it became passable with the log inserts creating steps.

Image of the Day - Ready for my close up

Seeing that yesterday i decided (without permission) to but a photo of my Fiancee up on my blog, she thought it only fair that i added a photo of myself.
 Its not the best effort by a long shot (or my better side) but its the best i could muster while trying to take a self portrait without looking a complete burk.

Oh yeah forgot to add that i don't usually have a viking style mustache, im growing it ready for a heavy metal concert at the end of March

Shaun

Picture of the day - Forest Gem

After our walk on Saturday i have finally gotten around to processing all of the photos, i know she will kill me for posing this but what the heck. I fancied using the selective coloring mode in Photoshop to see what i could come up with.
 Here is the result

Images of the day - Afan Argoed Park

After capturing the lovely Gemma off guard yesterday and startling her with the macro shot i told her that i would take her out for the day, anywhere she wanted to go i would take her (within reason).
 We ended up going to a local Forestry park that we have been previously do do some mountain biking, but never used the dedicated walking trails. After leaving the visitors we set of on an all day hike fest through the forest, it was a really nice bight day but with temps hovering around 1 degrees c it wasn't weather to hang about in.

These are the best images from the day

The bridge to enter the trails

 Our Missy smiling as usual

And posing

A shot from the summit of the mountain

Now the interesting shots, these are my FIRST EVER ATTEMPT at photographing wild birds, or any birds at all to be honest. I haven't a clue what most of them are but im going to have a good go, Please feel free to correct me if i am completely wrong.

Robin

Blue Tit

Blue Tit and Chaffinch

Unknown

And the feather in my cap, a beautiful Red Kite. And stupidly i reset my camera so didnt realize that i shot all these in Jpeg format not my standard RAW.

Shaun

Image of the day - Deep in thought

Managed to capture this beaut today, the fiancee was not impressed that at 300mm focal length i managed to snap this macro shot. the flash startled her but shooting at a healthy shutter speed i caught her before blinking. Sorry Gem, i'll try and be a little more sympathetic next time.

Shaun

Images of the Day - Painting on the farm

After a freezing cold night spend on a local farm, i took the camera along so that i could try out a new technique to me, Light painting. Although i have tried this once before it was in the comfort of my home and using a small flash light. On a slightly larger scale (and in the rain) I tackled a small digger, and then onto a monster JCB. The streetlights in the background were making things difficult, but i am pleased with the results. I guess the phrase " practice makes perfect" is true in this case

Shaun

Images of the Day - Walkways and Street lamps

As the dark night are starting to lighten slowly but surely, im able to get out just a small amount to get some photos. Here are today's efforts. I know there are now days for skywatching, reflections, critters and fences. But there are none for walkway Wednesdays or streetlamp Sundays

Here are today's photos

One of the walk ways in Merthyr Tydfil town center between the shopping prescient and the police station (on the left)

One of the old street lamp in the town center, converted now to take bulbs instead of candles. I think this has been around for quite some years and gives the town a historic look from a time when we were iron masters of the world.

Shaun

Image of the Day - Eye of the beholder

As the newest addition of our ever growing reptile family, id like to introduce Valentino. He is a male Harlequin crested gecko. Its a nightmare to get a photo at the best of time of him during the daytime (being nocturnal) but today he must have been feeling adventurous . This is the only close up i managed to get before he scampered off.

Image of the day - End of days

As it is getting more difficult to get images for each day (dark nights after work) i though i would turn my hand back to some photoshopping. This is a series of images that i have gathered over the last month or so, thrown them into CS5 and cam out with this. There was no particular direction just went with the flow.

Image of the day - snow down

After a fair amount of snow down yesterday I managed to capture this before getting covered, This is my snowy view from my back garden.

*click for a bigger photo*

Then there was then an unexpected trip to the Brecon Becons, apologies for the quality, it wad taken on my mobile phone.

*click for a bigger photo*

After a day on the road, and now completely drained i am signing off..

See you all again tomorrow for the start of another week.

Shaun