Old Masters

 

So I may have gone a little over the top with the number of pictures for today's offering but I couldn't help myself. To be honest I could have shared loads more images of these beautiful flying machines.

This is the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight performing a flying display at Rhyl in August. I have been privileged to see these fly on many occasions because I used to live very close to where they are stationed at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. I would hear the sound of the Merlin engines and rush out of the house to see them overhead, it was always a joy.

Of course the history of these aircraft is sad as many pilots were lost and it is a fitting tribute to see these planes preserved. The Lancaster is the only flying example of the plane in the world.

I remember stories that my dad told of watching these planes in action above the south coast of England where he lived during WWII which were exciting and frightening at the same time. 

Fly Past

 This incredible bird's piercing cry could be heard every day as it flew along the valley in search of prey.

Most often it flew some distance away but occasionally it came close enough to get a good look and just once I had my camera ready for the shot as it swooped overhead. Not only did I hear its cry but also to powerful rush of air as it flapped its wings above me. 

One Night in Alsace

 I have not long returned from a week's holiday in Alsace, a truly beautiful region of France. We stayed in a fabulous cottage on a hillside 700m above a village called Fraize. On the second night of the stay there was a beautifully clear sky and although the moon was in its third quarter and very bright it was still possible to look up and see more stars than I would ever see in the sky above my home in the North West of England. So of course I couldn't resist getting out there to capture some pictures of the stars.

For the first image I have stacked 22 separate 20 sec shots to try to capture part of the spiral of the milky way. It is far from perfect I know; I did not use enough dark frame shots to reduce noise in the image hence the annoying horizontal line, and of course despite using the tree to the right of the image to mask the moon it was so bright and some of the colours are washed out. Even so the number of stars visible in this shot is incredible.

For the second image I have gone for my second ever attempt at a star trail and I am really pleased with this one...

I took a few test shots to try to get the image framed right. The illumination of the house is entirely from the moon across the valley. The cottage had a security light over the front door and to avoid setting that off I had to climb in and out of the dining room window which was fun especially when I startled a local cat that was hunting in the hedges close by.

This image is a composite of 204 shots each of 30 seconds so taken over a 2 hour period. There was a 3 sec cooling down period between each exposure and I have had to eliminate some shots because of a plane flying through which left an annoying yellow streak through my first attempt at processing this. Actually this was the third attempt because for the first one I was aligning the stars rather than setting up for a star trail so it was very disjointed and I thought I had messed it up. However taking the time to review it meant I finally got it right even though i had been ready to abandon the project altogether. I am so glad I stuck with it and hopefully you will agree that it was worth it.

Night Skies 3

 

Normally when I go out with my camera for  3 or 4 hours I will come back with hundreds of shots and several that I will want to share via this blog. However, when I went out to photograph the night sky I was left with effectively just two views one to the south with the headland illuminated by the beam from the lighthouse and a second facing west taking in the lighthouse itself and the skies above. Not a lot for the time and effort you might think, but actually I learned a lot from this trip and I am very pleased with the images I got. If you look at the posts over the last two days you will see some of the better images and today I have posted my favourite images from the night.

Firstly you have the view to the south, this was a 90 second tracked exposure (ISO 1600, 17mm F/4.0). The bright orange star slightly above the horizon and slightly to the left is Antares, the 15th brightest star in our night sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpio. If you can zoom in you will see the other stars in Scorpio fanning outwards. Above that you have the constellation of Libra, and then above that slightly to the right is the bright white star Arcturus the brightest star in Bootes. 

I know it is hard to make things out and so I am aided by a neat app called Stellarium and another called Star Walk 2 which help to nicely map the sky and get my bearings on what is where. Stellarium is great because I can go back to the sky map for the exact date and time I was there and it takes out the guesswork.

In the second image, which I love, we have the lighthouse casting its beam into the Irish Sea. We are looking west and in the sky above the lighthouse we can see the constellation of Leo, the two bright stars in the centre sitting almost horizontally to each other mark the top of the constellation they are Denebola and Zosma and then towards the top of the frame almost directly above is a lovely cluster of stars, which are part of Coma Berenices, they just have numbers instead of names (eg 12 Comae Berenices).

I don't know about you but I am fascinated by the night sky, just being there in the early hours, despite the biting cold, it was a real treat to be able to look up at the vastness of space and to be able to see so many celestial bodies and to marvel at the beauty that we so rarely get to see.

Look Up!

I hadn't intended to share this picture I just took it as a record of one of the fabulous sights in Florence the ceiling of the Baptistry of San Giovanni. I had thought it was a painted fresco but in fact it is a most amazing mosaic and that is why I thought it was worth sharing.

The octagonal vault is 80 feet across and the burnished gold mosaics depict scenes from the bible. It took several decades between the 13th and 14th centuries to create this work of religious art and you just can't help but stand looking up in awe at the immense skill of the artists who most likely dedicated a significant portion of their career to this work,

Old Spiral

One of my favourite pictures that I have shared previously is of a spiral staircase in the Palace of Versailles (http://chipster63photos.blogspot.com/2014/09/spiral.html) and when you look at it I hope you can see why I like it so much.

Today's images are of a slightly less fancy but no less wonderful staircase in the Chateau de Haut Koenigsburg in Alsace. I had to wait a while for the train of visitors to pass so that I could get these shots. I love black and white photographs and so I knew that I would shoot in both colour and black and white to show the contrast between the two and while I think the second image is my favourite of the two I think the first shot is also really effective with the warmth of the colours in the bottom half and the colder greys towards the top. 

Can you tell from these pictures whether you are looking up or down?

I suppose the light gives it away and you are looking up...

Street Art On A Grand Scale

Graffiti is one form of public art and yesterday I shared some nice examples from Vienna. One of things with graffiti is that it is temporary and so unless you are a Banksy, Blu, Lady Pink or even Greg Mike the work gets painted over and forgotten. But while it's there it can evoke a range of different emotions and after all that is what art should be about, whether it is in a gallery or on a wall in town.

Everyone has an opinion about art in the public space and I wonder what your first impression of the artwork that is the focus of today's post will be.

In recent years, it has become a thing for the Ringturm in Vienna's Innere Stadt to get "wrapped" and host a work of art  by renowned international artists.

2018 sees a work by controversial Viennese artist Gottfried Helnwein. It marks the 100th anniversary of the First Austrian Republic and it is titled "I Saw This" and is intended as an imposing reminder of the evils and terror of repression. 

It certainly is imposing as it features a young girl aiming a sub machine gun over the Danube. It can be seen from a long way off and is sure to raise eyebrows as well as heads and maybe even get people thinking. 

I really like this work and hope you will agree that it is very striking. 

If you would like to see examples of previous artwork in the Wrapping the Ringturm click on the link