I’ve been taking photographs since I was a teenager – and taking them in black and white for more than 35 years. I 'graduated' to large format 5x4 photography in 1994 and since then that's where my photographic energies have been concentrated. My main subject matter is the landscape and its 'micro-landscapes' though I've recently developed a strong interest in photographing in churches and cathedrals. The first entry in this blog (May 2009 - "Tomorrow ...") will tell you what my blog is all about. You'll find much more of my work on my website at: www.virtuallygrey.co.uk The B&W images from my blog are linked here. Prints of the black & white images are available for purchase. If you are interested, please follow the 'Print Sales' link on my website. The colour images are from my little digital camera and are not for sale. If you'd like to contact me by email then please do so via the 'Contact' link on my website at: www.virtuallygrey.co.uk/contact.html
All photographs and all other content in this blog are Copyright © 2012 Stephen J Gledhill

Thursday 29 October 2009

#22: Site of the Battle of Landsdown (1643) - Outskirts of Bath

What to say about my worst day on the Cotswold Way? It was dull grey overcast sky for all of the walk. Whilst the southern third of the Cotswold Way is attractive and pleasant countryside, it is no match for the northern two thirds. I took no colour snaps and managed to find just one b&w photograph located on the edge of Bath Racecourse. I'll reserve judgement on that until I see the negative. If that turns out to be a dud then it will be the first stretch of the walk without a b&w to show for it.

However, my gloom was most likely to have been a reflection of the fact that I felt increasingly ill as I walked. It became a real struggle to make the last couple of miles back to my car. I completed what I set out to do but really I shouldn't have set out in the first place. One day later as I write this I feel fine - I attribute my ill feeling to what was probably a dodgey bowl of mussels eaten the evening before.

Notwithstanding the tribulations, I am now just two miles from the centre of Bath. So, one more day and I'll have completed my walk. I'm planning my last day to be a very short walk allowing most of the day to photograph in Bath. I've visited several times without my large format camera and I know there's a wealth material to consider photographing. Hopefully I'll end up with being able to post several b&w images from that day.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

#21: Dyrham - Site of the Battle of Lansdown Hill (1643)

Eastern Sky

Octabench

Not such a Pleasant Stretch

Yesterday I wrote that it would be next week before I got my next chance to walk. Most of that was down to commitments, but I was potentially free on the next day. I had looked at the weather forecast and seen almost unrelenting rain but yesterday evening I took another look and Wednesday's forecast had suddenly ameliorated and there was to be a dry interlude between 7am-ish and mid-evening. So I walked, and for walking the weather was perfect. The rain held off until 5 minutes before I got back to my car at 3:30 - but I won't sound off here about what I think of the accuracy of our forecasts.

There was a lot of rain yesterday and overnight and, just my luck, one stretch near Pennsylvania had been ploughed the day before. At least the farmer had marked the path across the field by flattening the route with his tractor wheels. By the time I'd made it the 1/4 mile across the field my boots were so heavy with the thick heavy clay mud I was really struggling to walk. I muttered to myself for a bit - then I got over it, forgetting for a while that I had to do the same again on my return later in the day. But I'm left wondering whether the hamlet of Pennsylvania in Gloucestershire is an unusual example of a place in the UK being named after a place in the USA?

Tuesday 20 October 2009

A break in my walking schedule ...

It's 12 days since my last walk along The Way and it looks as if it will be another week before I next get the chance. Frustrating, but my excuses are perfect - my mother-in-law fell and broke her hip then a few days later my mother fell and broke a toe. So, other things are keeping me occupied at present! There was to have been a break anyway as we were due to spend a week in Corsica but of course that was cancelled.

But last week I did manage to keep a long standing arrangement to visit London to photograph the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square. I took several pictures with which I am very pleased. Follow this link to see them on my website.

Sunday 18 October 2009

#20: B&W Images: Old Sodbury - Dyrham

Coomb's End Clump

Tormarton Church Organ Pipes

Tormarton Church Yew Berried Tombs

Thursday 8 October 2009

#20: Old Sodbury - Dyrham

Sheep & Strip Lynchets - Frenchpiece Wood

The Ceysell Brass - Tormarton Church

XXIII to Cirencester, XIII to Tetbury, X to Bath

Kissing Gate at Dawn

Mixed feelings about today's walk. Firstly, it was a most beautiful early morning with the sun rising on mist in the hollows and the first frost of the year was very welcome, photographically speaking. So, lots of potential photography to be had - but I was still in the car and didn't arrive at my start point until some of the best light had dissipated. Another lesson for me though it's not as if I don't know it. But I did find one lovely backlit group of trees which I photographed in b&w just in time. When I first saw the scene there were dozens of backlit woolly sheep which would have made the picture even more appealing - but after a couple of minutes of frantically setting up the tripod and camera, loading the film, metering the scene the sheep count on the ground glass was down to just two or three. I wish I could have done what Alfred Hitchcock did with "The Birds" - he's quoted as saying in response to a question about how did he get them to do what he wanted, he replied "I paid them well".

The Ceysell Brass in Tormarton Church is beautiful, but easily missed. It's hidden under the blue carpet to the left of the entance - slide the carpet to reveal all. I have a close up b&w photograph of the organ pipes in the church that I'm looking forward to seeing.

Once over the M4 motorway there is a stretch of perhaps 3 of miles or more of very boring walking along the edge of large farm fields with almost nothing to rival the scenery of most of the rest of the walk from Chipping Campden.

I'm finding the limits of the capability of my knees whilst carrying my heavy camera backpack, and today's 12 or 13 miles was a bit too much. I need to throttle back a little to my more usual eight or nine miles.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

#19: B&W Images: Somerset Monument - Old Sodbury

Old Sodbury Church

#18: B&W Images: Wortley Hill - Somerset Monument

Hartstongue Fern in Ivy

Alderley Church