A trip on the Vale of Rheidol Railway.

When I worked in Aberystwyth, walking to my car on a late summer afternoon, I often saw the last train of the day running into Aberystwyth. The Vale of Rheidol Railway is a preserved narrow gauge railway that now caters for tourists, taking them from Aberystwyth (which is on the coast) to Devil's Bridge about 12 miles inland.

I have often wanted to go on the railway, but never got around to it until this week. I had hoped to see the bluebells in the woods that the train passes through, but they were well past their best - the season was a few weeks earlier this year. However, the ride was too rough and the light too dull to enable me to take decent photographs of them.

The photograph above was taken at the terminus at Devil's Bridge. It shows the locomotive moving forward to couple up to the carriages - the train runs around the carriages for the return trip to Aberystwyth.

The second photograph shows the view of the Rheidol Valley. This was taken from the train on its return journey. In the hillside to the left of the valley you can just see the railway cutting.



One thing I noticed when I watched the train was that the engine run like 'a well oiled sewing machine'. So, whilst the train was waiting at the end of the line, I took some close-ups of the running gear. From the clean condition of it, it appears to be a well maintained engine.



More photographs can be seen in the 'Wales Gallery' at http://www.pmstudios.co.uk/Wales/Rheidol-Railway/Wales.html

Some photographic notes:
Camera: EOS 350D + 17-85mm IS lens.
Sensitivity: This started at ISO200, but ended at ISO1600 to try and get a shake-free shot.
Lighting: A bright but overcast day with high cloud giving extreme contrast to the ground. Very dull in the woodland.
Other: The carriages were shaking around a lot making it very difficult to get blur-free photographs - even at ISO1600 with an Image Stabilisation lens.

Hawthorn blossom time

The hawthorn blossom has been out for over a week now. It has been difficult to get much in the way of photos as the there has been a lot of rain. I have managed to get some good close-ups though by taking short cuttings from our hedgerows indoors and taking photographs in my 'studio' (a cardboard box!).

The picture above is one of my favourites and is an extreme close up of the centre of a blossom. You can see that the anthers (the tip of the stamens) are pink. This seems to indicate a fresh blossom - as they get older they go brown. I do not know if this is due to the pollination process or if it just is the way that they age. I find I am noticing things like this more since I have been taking my photography more seriously.


The picture below shows the blossom just opening up.




Below is an outdoor photograph showing a small group of fresh blossom flowers - some opened, some opening and some in the young stage of small balls.



I have added many more photographs of hawthorn blossom, and in blossom, to the hedgerow section of the Environment Gallery

Tutorial - Photos by Moonlight

I have finally got around to sorting and cataloging the collection of photographs taken by moonlight. Not only that, I have finished a long outstanding project of writing a tutorial or how-to guide giving advice to non-photographers on how to take photos by moonlight.

All the selected photos are now in the 'Miscellaneous Picture Gallery', split into 2 albums. Those taken with a basic digital compact, and fewer taken with a digital SLR. The reason most are taken with a digital compact camera is that the tutorial is aimed at non-photographers who are more likely to own a basic camera rather than a more advanced DSLR.

The photograph shown above was taken early in the morning before dawn. The sky was black and the moon was shining from the south west (behind and to the right in the photograph). What the camera has shown, which was not visible at the time, was a faint red glow caused by the pre-dawn light.

The picture below is of our farmhouse on a clear August evening. Although there is a lot of 'noise' in the image, you can just see some white specks - these are the stars.




The third photo was taken on a different night using my digital SLR. Although the image is darker, the quality is better - it is sharper with less noise.



I have re-opened the forum, so please feel free to go there to post comments, questions etc.

Last day for the Welsh Cob horses

We have permitted a nearby farmer to keep two of his young Welsh Cob horses (or should that be ponies?) on our smallholding to graze over winter. Our land consists of both rough grazing and fields that have been sown with 'meadow mix' grass seed. These fields have a variety of wild herbs and flowers that help enrich the diet of grazing animals.

Although I have taken a few photographs of these horses, I had never spent some time taking a full range of photographs. So, as the weather was fine (but a bit hazy as you can see), I took quite a few pictures of these fine looking animals. It was a good job I did as they were due to leave the following day, but the owner collected them later that afternoon.

The first picture above shows the both horses trotting along near the stream that forms the boundary of our smallholding. The trees in the background follow the stream and the fields beyond belong to another farm.

The second photo shows them in the context of the landscape. I should have taken them on a clearer day, but you can see the beautiful Welsh countryside of the Teifi valley and the Cambrian Mountains.



This third photograph shows them against a background of trees, with a fine oak tree just coming into leaf - one of two on this part of the property.



The full selection of photographs can be seen in the Smallholding Gallery.