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Showing posts from July, 2020

Short Break in the Peak District, July 2020

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Last weekend G and I went for a short break to the Peak District with our friends. It was the first time for all of us in this beautiful part of England (yet another one) and we all loved our visit and had a great time. We stayed in a converted barn near Bakewell, Derbyshire from where there were incredible distant views; we visited Haddon Hall which is sadly still closed due to Covid 19, but there was a great craft and artisan market in the grounds; we walked in Chatsworth park and Chatsworth House gardens. The house was closed (it reopened this Monday), but there was so much to see and take in in the magnificent gardens that we were quite happy to visit the house on another occasion. We also went to a very special location the name of which I wish to keep secret for the time being. I will blog about it in a later post.  Again, I was taking mainly video clips for more iMovies, but of course, I took a few stills too and in this post I am sharing a random selection of my favourite image

iMovie: Haworth, Brontë Country, July 2020, Day II

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In this post, which took a bit longer to create due to the fact I have been away on a short break, and also the fact that now I am learning about managing a YouTube channel as well as learning videography, I am sharing an iMovie of day 2 of my recent stay in the beautiful village of Haworth, the home of Brontë sisters. It was raining more or less all day, so I decided to spend the day shopping and visiting some of my favourite shops on Main Street and saying hello to my shop owner friends. In the evening I enjoyed walking around the Brontë Parsonage, Haworth Church and the graveyard capturing with my iPhone the distinctive romantic and melancholy mood enhanced by the rain. It was a beautiful day, inspired by the quaint vibe of the village and the ever present spirit of Brontë Sisters, my perpetual muses.   Day I

Cold Knowle End Farm, Brontë Country

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This beautiful house caught my eye on one of my recent walks around Haworth in Brontë Country. I love the old farmhouse building and its bleak setting with wonderful views. Camera: Nikon D7100 DSLR 18mm, f/11, 1/40 sec, ISO-100, Aperture Priority Post-processing: Lightroom 5, iPiccy.com As I am now more involved in learning videography and creating short films on my iPhone, I expect to take, edit and share fewer still photographs for the time being. I have decided that from now on, before I create a still image I will ask myself three questions the answer to all of which should be "yes": 1. Would I want to include this image in my new Etsy shop (not open yet) where I am going to sell prints of my best images? 2. Would this image possibly be suitable for a book cover? 3. Do I want/need to take a still image to include in my video.

iMovie: Haworth, Brontë Country, July 2020, Day I

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Here is the first in the series of four iMovies I have created from video clips I took on the first day of my recent stay in Haworth. All the short movies, created on my iPhone XS Max, will be made as a result of my deep love and passion for the countryside around Haworth that strongly inspired literary Victorian Brontë sisters, who lived and wrote here. The movies will convey my endless love and appreciation of nature and changing seasons, and they will be visual stories of the individual days I spent in the place that has become my haven and my spiritual home. Day1 started with my checking into Weavers Guesthouse , which together with Ponden Hall , is my favourite place to stay in Haworth. It stands in the very heart of the village, overlooking the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which sadly remains closed for now. My beautiful "Pennine View" room has a view to the Parsonage which at this time of the year is hidden behind the thick foliage of the trees. I soon set off on my f

Around Ponden, Haworth, Brontë Country, July 2020

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I have just returned from my beloved Haworth where I spent four wonderful, so much needed, so much craved days. As always, my trip was all about walking in the beautiful Brontë country, sometimes on the bleak moors, sometimes in the valley near the river and streams, and other times just around the pretty village. From the photography point of view, this time the focus was on taking video clips with my iPhone in order to make short iMovies recording and depicting each day. It is something I haven't done before, so something new for me to try and learn. Ultimately my intention would be to master the basics of professional short film making. Since I have been taking photographs for such a long time I feel a need to learn something new and yet not miles away from photography; and videography seems to me just the perfect thing to choose. To start with, I do not even have to buy any new equipment. However, I shall, of course, continue to take still images, although not as many as I have

New Image Licence Sale

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I am so thrilled that the Swedish furniture and homeware giant, Ikea, who I relate to in more than one way, have bought another licence for a still life image of mine to use for their art posters. January Still Life  This image is very special to me not only because it is a still life I created from scratch, but also because it was the first significant still life I created with my new iPhone as part of a quest to master iPhoneography at the beginning of last year.  Here is my previous Ikea image sale for art poster use.