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For this blog article on the story behind the image, we will be considering the amazing spiders webs I was able to capture the other week.  Spiders Web Vibrating on Car Door This one in the car door handle, is amazing  Spiders Web on Wooden Fence On one of the few and far between days, when it was sunny and fine in the morning during September, we were able to capture these images. The midges were still around and evidently the spiders were having their pre-winter feasting as they had managed to build webs everywhere.  Water droplets on Spiders Web Not only had they built webs between the fence posts,  Water Droplets on Spiders Web they also had built them on the gate  Spiders Webs around Gutter and all around the guttering. Though the most amazing ones were those on the car. We did not notice the one shown above on the passenger handle until moving off, which then gave this amazing image as the threads of the web vibrate due to the cars engine. Spiders do have quite amazing building skills and strength of materials.
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 Sunset #4 This is a post on the process I have gone through to catalogue and tag my images. Instead of focusing on a few specific images I thought it would be good to reflect on how the cataloguing of the images has been changed on our site over the last 6 months. Initially the images were catalogued by name, but when we came to having a series of sunsets calling them sunset and sunset #1 etc .. sunset #5 etc things began to get a bit confusing. So we changed to giving the images reference numbers. Initially the reference number was allocated randomly, as they were added to the system. This is fine for a computer, but not really much good for humans.  Sunset #5 Say the images have ref 100 (Landscape Collection), 101 (Plants Collection), 102 (Human Collection), 103 (Plants Collection) .. 159 (Landscape Collection), 160.. etc. The trouble with this was that now a human has no idea that image 159 comes after image 100 and rapidly caused considerable confusion.  Sunset #6 So it was decided to allocate 1000 values to the left of the decimal and 9999 to the right to each collection type, as a reference. Potentially allowing 19999 images per collection!! This should more than cover future needs. Having worked out a reference system that was fit for purpose as the saying goes. The aim was to add this to the system. Rather than having it in a data base, it was decided to use an XML data file, as it is lightweight and easy to store and handle data. Each web page reads the small XML data file and extracts all the relevant data required about that specific image, or image collection, or tag, location, date taken etc. In fact anything relevant can be stored against the reference in the XML file and read by the web page so long as it knows what it is looking for.  Scottish Flag in the Sky Whilst doing this at the same time I was committed to having a certain number of pages up and running by a specific date. This lead to a dilemma as it was quicker to put up the simple pages that did not need all the XML data, for example the tag and location data. So in the end around 140 pages went up without the complete XML data. Having met the deadline, all the new pages from then on have full XML data and I am now going back and adding the extra data for the pages that went up without it.  Sycamore Gap Hadrians Wall Now as around a third of the images have a full data compliment added we have made live the page where they can be selected by tag
Of course this now raises a further dilemma as I need to go back and add the extra data for all the images that did not get the full deal first time round, and offset that against adding new images, like these latest images, which is a far more enjoyable activity. I have set myself a task of doing so many each week, with the aim of trying to be complete by the end of the year. We shall see if I make it. (Also this could well mean that my sunset names change, but we will have to wait and see until I get to them) I love freebies, especially useful ones. As such we offer a monthly series of freebies that are hopefully useful and inspire. These are a series of wallpapers for the laptop, phone and desktop. This is the story behind this months wallpaper.  October 2012 Wallpaper The other day I was driving along the road leading to Greenhaugh in Northumberland National Park. As this is not a road I often drive along I was on the look out for anything worth snapping. This old gate caught my eye. There is almost more string holding it together than anything else. The state of the field that it was meant to be an entrance to was not much better than the gate. We thought it would make a good wallpaper this month.  October 2012 Wallpaper - without calendar We are offering two versions of this - one with a months calendar on it and one without, in varying different sizes. More details can be found on the fullersfolio freebie page and we hope you like them.  Each year swallows from around the area join up before making their journey south as their annual migration. We have a series of power and phone lines that seem to offer a good resting place, before setting off.  Swallows waiting to migrate This year was no exception even though the weather was terrible. I have often wondered how they manage to identify our specific post and power lines from all the others around but they evidently do. The other morning we woke up to several hundred birds sitting on the lines waiting for the off. They were shivering in the pouring rain but they still allowed me around an hour to get the camera out and try and take some snaps.  Swallow in the rain As you can see by the rain drops captured in the images the rain was quite heavy. As such it was so dark that only the odd shot was any good due to the low light levels.  Swallows waiting in the rain Sadly the images of the departure were too out of focus, but it was very impressive. The whole group just setting off. There did not seem to be any distinctive leader, but their must have been as the flight was so coordinated. There was a couple of false starts – maybe waiting for stragglers. Then they were off for another year. Probably thinking good riddance of all this cold and wet, off to the nice warm sun.
We look forward to seeing you next year..  The Millennium Stone at Greenhaugh When I go wandering round a place with my camera, people often come out of their houses to see what I am taking pictures of. They normally look at me for a bit and then go back inside. Sometimes they come and talk to me gently asking what I am doing and sometimes they tell me a story about what I am looking at. A couple of months ago I was in going through Greenhaugh in Northumberland National Park and at the end of the village towards the school noticed an upright stone and some old farm equipment by the side of the road. As it wasn't actually raining I thought it might make a good picture so stopped the car and started to take a picture. Someone came out of one of the houses and asked what I was doing, so I told them and they said did I know the story of the stone. I said no. This is what they told me – I don't know how true this is but it makes a good story. So I will recount it here.  Old farm machinery They alleged that some time before the millennium one evening in the pub it was decided that something should done to celebrate the occasion for the village. Someone came up with the idea of putting up a standing stone. A grant was applied for, which was approved and it was all go.
They then alleged that there had been much discussion in the pub as to where to get the stone and someone suggested that it could come from the local river bed. Bets were made as to the outcome of this – if it would be successful or not. It was then said that rope chains, buoyancy bags and a tractor had been used to get the stone up out of the river bed to the village. It was then put into position using a few bags of cement. It was then alleged that this had been very profitable, as the cost of the stone had been only a few tens of pounds and time taken. As I said at the start I don't know if this is true or not but it does make quite an interesting photo, with the old farm machinery next to it.  White Cliffs of Dover A few weeks ago we were fortunate enough to be walking along the top of the White Cliffs of Dover in the sunshine  Speed Boat going by The air was clear and bright and we were able to watch the boats going by as can be seen here.  We were walking from Dover along the National Trust path to the South Foreland Light House Having enjoyed looking round there we walked back on a slightly different route.  September Wallpaper The wheat was a fantastic golden colour having ripened in the sun. It waved in the wind. We thought it would make a good September wallpaper reminding us of what we have been missing with all the recent rain.  September Wallpaper with Calendar We are offering two versions of this - one with a months calendar on it and one without, in varying different sizes. More details can be found on the fullersfolio freebie page and we hope you like them.
 Road through the forest I live in an area that is surrounded by forests full of trees. Every few miles there is a sign at the side of the road saying that one is passing a different bit of woodland. As the forests are managed there is a continuous process of cutting down and timber removal.  Piles of logs up side of hillside The timber is cut and removed very quickly and is often hard to catch but the other month I was fortunate to catch this timer extraction vehicle in action. The timber cutter fells the trees then cuts them into standard lengths and leaves them in rough linear piles running up the hill side.e to edit.  Log collector starting to climb the hill Then it is the roll of the log collector to pick up the cut lengths, and take them to the stacking point, where they are stacked into piles.  Log collector at top of hill The collector slowly climbs to the top of the hill along a track at an almost impossible angle, wading through thick mud anything up to half a metre in depth.  Pile of collected logs at bottom of hill These images of the log collector and piles of logs it was collecting were taken with the 500mm telephoto lens in mild April drizzle. The collector was around a quarter of a mile away across a valley near to Hell's Hole which is in Hyndlee Forest - part of Forests of the Scottish Borders. I hope with me that you think they are worth recording.
 Mountain Goat Over the last few months we have been walking across the moors and have come across some amazing mountain goats. I suppose in the past there were large wild herds roaming around, and these ones we found are few and far between.  One herd was found on the southern tip of the Isle of Islay, where the land was probably just used for hunting and shooting. It had been a couple of hours walking past old abandoned villages and hamlets to get to the point on the sea cliff. Then we came across the herd. The other herd was in the Galloway forest park.  Goat Resting The lovely thing with the goats is that they seemed totally fearless, in fact we were probably more worried about their horns than they were about us. Especially the ones with the baby kids.  Goat Patrol The good thing was that we were able to take these shots when the weather was not too bad. A circumstance that has been few and far between so far this year. As you can see we left baby goat on patrol
 Sun and shade Recently we were walking in Galloway, on one of the few days when it has not been raining, and the sky cleared up and the sun came out. It seemed so very bright, maybe because we have not been used to the sunshine due to all the rain and grey skies, or maybe due to the extensive tree cover over our path. This meant that initially we could not make out what was beyond the table. It seemed to be forming a junction between the dark and the light. Our eyes just like the camera having problems coping with the contrast, as you can see in the image  Rigg Bay in the sunshine As we got nearer the beautiful sandy bay was revealed, glistening in the sunshine. This enabled us to sit at the table, take in the view and enjoy the rays, as the table was at the junction between the shade and the sun. (The fact that the people on the beach were wearing thick warm clothes does really say it all for mid July, when the image was taken).  August 2012 Free Wallpapers Sitting in the sun enjoying the view really cheered us and we thought that this would make a good image as our August wallpaper at fullersfolio.
We are offering two versions of this - one with a months calendar on it and one without, in varying different sizes. More details can be found on the fullersfolio freebie page and we hope you like them.  Long Straight Northumberland Road Northumberland is blessed with roads that run along the lines of old Roman roads, and Drover tracks that tend to cut straight across the landscape. They seem to go on and on into the distance as can be seen here. Normally it is quite hard to get an image of a road like this without another car in it, during normal hours but the recent bad weather has put a stop to the majority of non essential traffic.  The straight roads then tend to end in some form of bend complex and the all too often warning for motorcyclists. These images were taken recently on a day when it was not too wet but still the grey skies dominate the images.  Wind farm Construction My main reason for going down the road was to get some pictures of the wind farm construction that is going on near Sweethope Loughs Fortunately I was able to get a few shots with the zoom lens. The two yellow dots just infront of the smaller crane (above the 'm' of Tim) are people – which shows the size of these things.  Constructed Wind Turbine When constructed they seem to lurk above the trees like some giant bird of prey.
I am sure we will get used to them in a few months time, but they certainly make a major statement on the landscape. |
Tim Fuller
Dyslexic doodles on photography, food (growing, cooking & of course eating), faith and other fascinating things. This is a personal blog expressing my views. Archives
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