Lumiere

Lumiere, a collaboration between 60 light-and-sound artists, staged as part of Durham's bid for UK culture capital in 2013. The highlight of the night was a phenomenal lighting up of Durham Cathedral, with pages from the 7th-century Lindisfarne Gospels. Pages borrowed from the British Library, and photographed, and somehow rendered in a slow-moving panoply, 100 metres wide and crawling up those impossible spires, by projection artist Ross Ashton.
What a great night and such a spectacle. Thanks to Ross for this fabulous show.

I've just been emailed from the BBC who are using my images for today on their website. Here's the link for today
My Pictures

After that you can access them on the following link Woohoo!!!!

Here's a link to the artists website too. Thank you to Ross for commenting on my little video.

Below is a video of some of my photos taken tonight. Enjoy!

Another view of the Cathedral through the modern art on the green.

Durham Cathedral

I'm 51 years old and I've never been to this part of Durham city before. The viewpoint of the Cathedral and Castle were fabulous.

Durham Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a truly international Art event with the innovative use of light at its heart. This world class festival celebrates the City through the eyes of two very different cultures, with illuminated art installations forming a trail of lights leading through the heart of the City.

The main Enlightenment programme includes four impressive light based Art installations on and under the City's bridges and have been designed by two Indian and two UK based artists. These are, 'Calcutta Lights' by Nandita Palchoudhuri, 'Light of Darkness' by Sanchayan Ghosh, 'Chandelier' by Lulu Quin and 'Illuminated Carpet' by Julie Westerman.

Durham Riverside

It was a beautiful day today so I decided to take a walk along Durham riveside. The view is of the Cathedral. The river was running pretty fast because of all the rain we've had just lately.

Haystacks

I never got out tonight with the camera club as it was raining and I thought no-one would turn up. Later on at 8:00pm it stopped raining and i saw the sky light up like a fog of orange light. I ran, put my shoes on, grabbed my camera and got in the car and headed for the top of Castleside. I no sooner got there than the sky went dark again and the sun went down. Just my luck. However I saw some haystacks in a field and decided to take them. The light wans't brilliant so I decided to have a play in photoshop. I've given them a sort of soft focus painterly effect. I like it... Hope you do.

The Houndsgill Viaduct (Gill Bridge)

The Hownsgill Viaduct (The Gill Bridge) was constructed in 1857 and spans 700ft across a ravine, it is made up of almost 3 million white fire bricks and stands 175ft tall weighing approximately 12,0000 tonnes. It has 12 arches each with a 50ft span and at a total cost of £12,500 to build. It was Thomas Bouch an engineer who was given the tender and later knighted by Queen Victoria during his career but later ended his life in disgrace after the collapse of his greatest achievement The Tay Bridge. Before the viaduct was built the rail journey had been interrupted by this ravine and freight had to be taken across it on wagons which were lowered and raised by means of a stationary steam haulage engine.Now, part of the Derwent walk it is still used by cyclists and walkers crossing the ravine and unfortunately now more notably a place where people in despair take their lives, Most recent that of a mother and her child. Because of the suicide activity at this bridge, it has gained a reputation with those down on their luck and, used as a term for feeling low, out of luck and as an insult, a place to go and jump.

Old Mausoleum

These were taken in Blackhill cemetary tonight on our camera clubs Mondayphotographic jaunt. There was only four of us turned up on a very miserable evening. The clouds had just started to break a little and the light started to get better as we got there. We just thought we'd try some moody shots tonight. (The first image is 7 bracketed images merged together in Photomatix).

Settings (1st image)

• Olympus E510


• 11-22mm lens


• Aperture F/9


• ISO100


• Aperture Priority


• Shutter Speed 1/25 sec

Settings (2nd image)

• focal length 150mm


• Aperture F/16


• ISO100


• Aperture Priority


• Shutter Speed 1 sec

Settings (3rd image)

• focal length 38mm


• Aperture F/5.0


• ISO100


• Aperture Priority


• Shutter Speed 1/4 sec

Terris Novalis

I think i've mentioned the Terris Novalis art in my home town of Consett. The gleaming stainless steel replicas of the late 19th Century surveyor’s instruments are twenty times life size and weigh four and five tonnes made of stainless steel. They are the work of Turner prize winning Tony Cragg.

Tonight was the camera club meeting and it wasn't a very nice night, very grey, dull and bad light. But as always we decided to take some shots anyway of the Terris Novalis sculptures.

Lumley Castle

Took these photos Friday night on my way to my camera club. It's not that far away from the club so took a slight detour. The Castle is now a very elite hotel which holds functions and weddings etc.

Tulips

Taken in the Botanical Gardens, Durham.

Settings

Shutter Speed - 1/125sec
Lens Aperture - F/6.3
Focal Length - 22mm
ISO 100
Metering Mode - Pattern
Exposure Compensation - -0.3 step

Durham Botanical Gardens

"The first Botanic Garden in Durham was founded in 1925 when the grounds of the science laboratories where laid out as an experimental garden. As the sciences expanded within the University and more buildings were constructed the garden decreased proportionately, and it was decided in 1969 to move the garden to a new site where it could develop undisturbed and develop and idenitity of its own". (This information is taken from and old guide book written for the Botanic Garden in the early 1970's)

The Botanic Garden has been on this site since 1970. It was created primarily for teaching and research. As the garden matured a visitor centre was built and was opened in 1988 by Dame Margot Fonteyn, the Chancellor of the University at the time, to accomodate the 6000 annual visitors. The garden now attracts over 80,000 visitors annually.

It is set in an Eighteen-acre garden in mature woodland with exotic trees from America and the Himalayas. Prince Bishops’ Garden, tropical house, cactus house with butterflies and insects.

As the sun goes down

I got finished early tonight from work and decided to catch the sunset. Unfortunately I wanted to go to the Derwent reservoir to catch the sunset but the entrance was closed off. So I made my way up onto the moors and caught last sightings of sunset. However the sky (even though it was a little misty) turned a nice colour as the sun went down. The light was shining on this old barn and the sheep were grazing on a bale of hay, I just couldn't resist a quick shot. I didn't have much time to set up my tripod so I just placed my beanbag onto a wall and took a couple of shots. I'm quite pleased with the results. Up in the top right is the moon. Below is a photo of the sunsetting.

Settings (as the sun goes down)

• Camera Olymus E500
• Aperture - f/22
• Shutter speed - 0.6 sec
• ISO-100
• Focal Length - 22mm
• Exposure compensation -1 step

Settings (Sunset)

• Camera Olymus E500
• Aperture - f/22
• Shutter speed - 1/15 sec
• ISO-100
• Focal Length - 22mm
• Exposure compensation -0.7 step
  

I am still trying to get used to the settings on my camera. I think these shots could've been improved if I had chosen different settings. It's all a learning curve and I'm always experimenting to get the best results. However, any advice on settings for these lighting conditions is gratefully received. Thanks.