A Day out at Pump Cottage Weatheroak

Yesterday, my wife and I visited one of the gardens open to the public on the NGS scheme, Pump Cottage at Weatheroak. The first time that we have been there although it is very near to where we live. I was absolutely gobsmacked.

The owners have taken a one acre plot and made it into a wonderland. The use of the space to contain so many small areas joined by meandering paths is amazing. So many different areas, including follys, bog garden, streams, a boating lake ( not sure if that is within the one acre boundary?), formal beds and wild flower areas. It is almost possible to get lost and once you are past the first part of the garden, the cottage is almost iinvisible, you could be miles from anywhere. Definitely one to visit if you like gardens you can explore. I took more photogrpahs than I think I have ever done before at one of these open days.

A small selection of my photos follows:-

I loved the rustic nature of this old outbuilding and the texture on the door where the paint was peeling.

What a wonderful backyard! I could imagine many lazy days out on the pool in this boat.

My wife has some funny ideas of what constitutes a good picture, this is one of the many secluded seating areas around the garden.

A lovely rose, I liked the way that the numerous petals seemed to hide to the stamens, how do the insects find them to pollinate the flower?

Also lots of statuary, mostly small stuff but I do love it as you will know if you have read mnay of my previous posts.

My grateful thanks to the owners for a wonderful afternoon out. And the home-made cakes were delicious.

My new Zazzle store and blog

I have started selling products on Zazzle using photographs I have taken. Zazzle is a Print-on demand site, ie they make a product when it is ordered by the customer, they do not hold stocks. So I can design hundreds of products using my photographic images and hopefully sell a few. For example:-

camellia by artyfax
More Red Mugs

lilies by artyfax
color postcard printing by zazzle.com

Let's Rock and Roll by artyfax
Browse other Guitar Mousepads

You are also welcome at my new blog describing my experiences on Zazzle, hope I will see you there.

A short break at the Red Lion, Addebury

After my recent knee operation, a total knee replacement surgery (TKR) my wife and I were in need of a little rest and relaxation. We chose a hotel which was quite close to home so that I did not have to suffer any problems with travelling as the amount of movement in my knee was still very limited, and this was a hotel which was part of a chain we had used quite extensively, so we thought we knew what to expect.

The hotel was the Red Lion at Addebury, an old coaching inn on the main road right on the village green. A delightful spot just a little spoilt by the volume of traffic although we did not suffer any noise with the windows closed despite looking out over the green. We enjoyed a wonderful 3 day break and spent a very relaxing time there. The hotel as you would expect was a little "olde worlde" with uneven floors and winding corridors and the stairs, well something else.

 

This was the stairway from our floor to the bar and restaurant, quite an issue for me at that time. There was an alternative but I managed by taking it very carefully and slowly. The alternative route took us on a tour through the hotel's first floor and again the age of the building was very apparent. This next image was of a decoration behind a now disused fireplace, I quite literally fell in love with it. The building could make money by opening as a tourist attraction.

I have just noticed the fire extinguisher. Something that I could have claimed as a deliberate mistake to use as an example of how not to compose a photograph, but I will own up to it. After all, I am only taking photographs for fun, LOL.

We spent a little time touring the local shoppong centres ( for my wife!) and bought a load of bargains in the nearby Banbury town centre. It seemed as if everywhere was having sales with massive reductions, something I guess is attributable to the economic situation. Although, other shopping centres in the Cotswolds seemed to be doing much better with the tourist trade, which seemed to be doing quite well.

I took a few photographs but this one of a music shop window is one that I liked, because of the colours and I have to say the subject matter. The widow display seemed to me to have been well composed, no pun intended. I have actually used the photo in an article that I have posted on Squidoo, "How To Write Memorable Song Lyrics"

Thanks for getting this far and allowing me to get this off my chest, back with more "fun" images soon.

If you feel like visiting the cotswolds ( a favourite haunt of mine) then you might like to consider a tourist guide book such as this from Amazon.

A couple of fun photos taken in a garden open to the public near Bromyard, UK. The name of the garden is The Bannut, named after a walnut tree which is in the area near to the house. It used to be a commercial nursery but the owners retired and opened the garden to the public. Well worth a visit.

This is a very amusing garden sculpture which I loved. I couldn't resist a quick snap.

Another amusing little area of the garden, this one was mainly hidden by a fence and trees but if you followed a path to its conclusion you found this preposterous scene. The gardener obviously has a sense of humour.

Have you seen my article on Squidoo, Is all photography art? This obviously isn't - but it is great fun.

alternative images

This is a quick post to try and explain extraction and layers to alter an original photo, which can be seen on this lens on Squidoo.

The original photo spoilt for me by the leaves on the left

A very rough and ready extraction to clear the background

The original is blurred and the extracted image is overlaid to create a new image.

The photomanipulation was done in Photoplus, free version. It was a very rough and ready extraction to show the idea behind the final image, it is not a problem with the software.

A pot-pourri of images

I seem to still be having problems with getting posts up, but I do have an excuse, I have just had a knee replcement op so have not been taking pictures - except of my scars and I don't think that would interest you. Anyway, do you love tombstone statuary. Here is an angel I shot recently but can't remember where. In fact I am wondering wether it is my shot at all or wether I found it and have saved it for  my art work. But I do love it, so I am including it as an example of this gendre:

The next is a flower photo, a day lily  -sorry I don't know the latin name without looking it up. We visited a number of gardens in Birmingham, Selly Park and they alll had wonderful day lilies out in glorious colours. This is one of them.

the last is on the same trip, in this garden the owner had made a point of installing as points of interest groups of items and hanging things ( paste jewellry and similar glittery stuff) from the trees My wife really loved the idea and I can see next year ...........................well, if it works I will be back with more photos

Don't foget my Squidoo Lens, Is all photography art. I would love to see some more comments which add value to the discussion in the guest book Thanks for getting this far, and hopefully appreciating my photos.

Is all photography art?

A question that I tried to answer recently in a Squidoo lens that I wote. As I have intimated previously I take lots of photos but would not call them art by any stretch of the imagination. I think my conclusion was that it does not depend on the equipment or upon any post processing trickery but rather on being able to give the viewer an emotional response to the photograph.

For example, I love this little photo of a dandelion seed-head, it is cropped rather drastically,

I think it is a great picture but art? I played with some manipulation software and managed to come up with a couple of abstract images which I liked:

But although this seems somehow satisfying, I am not sure that I would call it art. I paint abstracts and am happy to consider them as art without any problem, however this seems to be a different issue. perhaps no skill required? But then again I make collages which could be said to be the same. Of course it is in the use of artistic principles that the collage becomes art, so why cannot an image abstracted from a photo be considered art. Not a question that I have resolved to my satisfaction.

To see my arguments and several responses read, Is All Photography Art?