One of my favourite photos I’ve taken this year, ideal for today’s Wordpress Daily Prompt Darkness
At the top of the 199 stairs stands the remains of all that’s left of Whitby Abbey, overlooking the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, the fictional final resting place of Bram Stoker’s Dracula the Prince of Darkness
A recent shot of the Space Shuttle Enterprise been transported to its final resting place in New York has to be one of my ‘all-time’ favourite iconic images, as it truly is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ photograph by NASA’s photographer Bill Ingalls.
Two of New York’s famous icons stand so tall and proud in this shot with the Statue of Liberty, a true American symbol of freedom, while on the right rises the classic Empire State Building, and then… high in the sky in the background flies NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise sat atop a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C. en-route to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and then onto its final home at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the West Side of Manhattan.
Recently I got in a few conversations with some Twitter followers from New Yorker about this classic shot, most of them were saying it’s not possible to get ‘that’ shot, as the Skyscrapers from the Financial District, Tribeca and Soho would obscure the view between Liberty and the Empire and that it was ‘Photoshopped’ image. Not been a New Yorker, I couldn’t dispel these claims, but deep down I had to believe it was real ‘in-camera’ shot. So with the help of Google Earth Pro I managed to plot a path and find the exact spot NASA’s Bill Ingalls was positioned.
Bill was actual positioned 7 miles away from the Empire State Building on The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbour in New Jersey, just off the Port Jersey Boulevard
When you now realise how far away Bill was, it makes the enormity and beauty of his capture even more incredible, and rightly deserved to be classed as one of the All Time NASA iconic Space Shuttle images.
A quick Photography Post from tonight’s fire cracker of a sunset over Leeds, it started with the most gorgeous wispy clouds and finished some of the most stunning of colours I’ve seen for a long while…(click to enlarge)
Continue reading Vignette of Colour
I have to say I have a bit of a fetish for photographing the moon, and last nights Super Moon, scientifically know as the Perigee moon was no exception, as it appears 14% bigger and 30% brighter as it passes closer to Earth. It this apparent increase in size, as it comes within 221,457 miles of the big blue marble, that is most striking and is like a ‘moth to a flame’ for us photographers.
As usual much of the UK was swaddled in the traditional bank holiday blanket of rain and even snow clouds, so it wasn’t the greatest of sky watching weekends. However!!, after last years ‘no-show’ Leeds saw one of the natural world’s most spectacular light shows, and I was there ready with ‘old trusty’ the camera. Continue reading The SuperMoon
You’ve probably guessed by now I have a special place in my heart for the unspoilt and un-commercialised seaside town of Filey on the East Yorkshire coast, for me one its most endearing qualities is its people, and how friendly they are, no more so than on a morning whilst they are preparing for the hustle and bustle of tourism to kick in. I’ve noticed this greater since getting my little ‘mans-best-friend’, she really loves its beach and getting up for an early morning walk for the papers, no matter where we stop, or how far away it is, we’ll wander of into town ‘rain or shine’ …recently we even did a 5.30am walk ‘excited doggie’, despite this, it’s on these walks that you get to meet the ‘real’ and friendly people of Filey, I don’t think I’ve actual met someone who’s not is willing to say hello back or even propose the hello first. This is such a delightful character for its population of nearly 7000, something which my suburb town of CrossGates (with its meagre population 2200) doesn’t seem to have.
Over the Easter break we encamped again in the beautifully refurbished Abbots Leigh Guest House for 3 days of R&R, under the friendly control of Stephanie and Chris, who like me share a great passion for the art and heritage of Filey. Over these days I managed to grasp a few special ‘me-times’ to wander again with ‘Trusty the Camera’, doing a 3 hour night shoot (which I’ll blog about later) and a wet and wild day on the beach which provided some profoundly atmospheric scenes to capture.
Geek Carl 