autofantasia's photos with the keyword: County

For all my friends on ipernity that understand such things, HFF to one and all, to everyone else I wish you a pleasant and enjoyable weekend. Apparently, the IMA are poised to publish an update ... let's hope that what they have to say is positive and that it encourages people to step back from the edge and stick with ipernity, at least for a little while longer until we can see more clearly what the future holds for this great site. Oh, and in case you're wondering this little fellow and his mates guard the upper level of Darlington's multi-storey car park ... to stop anyone from trying to jump! UPDATE 1: IMA NEWSFLASH Sept. 8, 2017 UPDATE 2: IMA NEWSFLASH Sept.15th, 2017 And also here: IMA NEWSFLASH Sept.15th, 2017: Team Ipernity Blog

For this week's Sunday Challenge which had the theme of green landscapes . As I've not been able to get out much with the camera this week I took a dip into the archives and came up with this shot, which was taken at Beamish Open Air Museum earlier in the year. The church you see here is, or at least was, St. Helen's the old Parish church of Eston, Middlesbrough, and it dates back to the 12th Century. However, by 1998, with the church having been disused for around 15 years and it having been partially demolished by local vandals it was in a very sorry state. So, despite it being a Grade II listed building, permission was granted for its demolition and it appeared then that its fate was sealed ... that was until Beamish stepped in at the last moment to rescue the church for preservation. They carefully deconstructed it stone by stone so that it could be rebuilt on the Museum site in County Durham next to Pockerley Old Hall, which can be seen behind the church high up on the hill. Some of the bricks still have numbers written on them, which I can only assume have been left to illustrate how the Beamish team were able to reconstruct the church exactly as it had been when it stood in Eston, albeit now fully refurbished and fitted out with replacement fittings including some beautiful Georgian pews. Please view on black for best effect. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-21108837/church-moved-and-rebuilt-at-beamish-museum www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3315277/Vandalised-medieval-church-rebuilt-brick-brick-40-miles-away.html

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the subject was straight lines . This piece of public art which reputedly cost around £760,000 was created by artist David Mach to celebrate the rich railway heritage of Darlington and is officially named "TRAIN", but it's more often than not referred to by locals as the brick train . Commissioned by Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC and Darlington Borough Council supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England it can be found on the outskirts of the town adjacent to the A66 where it has stood since the summer of 1997. It's modelled as many of you will have spotted on Mallard , which in 1938 set the world speed record for steam locomotives at an astonishing 126 mph (203 km/h). A total of 185,000 bricks were used to create this amazing sculpture along with 170 cubic meters of concrete. The train weighs 15,000 tonnes; covers an area of 600sq meters; is of hollow construction; measures 23ft high by 130ft long; and took a team of 34 brick layers, labourers and apprentices 21 weeks to build. In addition, there are even 20 special ‘bat’ bricks built in at various places to encourage the nocturnal creatures to use it as their home, which might explain the whitish deposits that now cover much of the structure. It is now regarded by local officials as a much-loved local landmark despite concerns initially about its cost and is certainly an impressive sight. However, I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed by the surrounding area as it felt somewhat neglected and forgotten, which is a shame given that it has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. The planting around the site felt somewhat overgrown, signs were missing or damaged and the gravel path up to the supposed viewing platform was riven and rutted by rain meaning I doubt it would be easy to navigate with a pram or wheelchair. That said it's still worth a visit if you're ever in the area if only to marvel at how the artist has managed to recreate a speeding train complete with billowing clouds of steam from ordinary straight-lined rectangular house bricks. You might need to view this on black for best effect though to fully appreciate all those hundreds of straight lines.

Another 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to create a Tilt-Shift image. Not sure if I'm getting any better at this, but I like it regardless of whether it works as a miniature. There's another 4 attempts to be found in the Notes, all taken on the same day.

A 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to create a Tilt-Shift image. Perhaps best viewed large - no pun intended!

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to create a Tilt-Shift image, something I'd only tried a couple of times before. Essentially, it involves taking a photograph of a real-world scene and then editing it to make it look like a miniature scene, such as you might find in a model railway. As I found out there are several ways to achieve the effect and there's even a website that allows you to tilt-shift your own image. In the end though having looked at several online tutorials I opted to do mine in Photoshop which has a built in tilt-shift effect within the Blur Gallery, albeit I gave the original images a few tweaks before hand to increase the colour saturation and smooth things out. Once I'd decided which route to take and made a few notes to keep me right I quite enjoyed the process and actually ended up with several possible entries for this week's challenge, but I kept returning to this one. Oh, and in case you are wondering this was taken from Level 5 of a multi-storey car park in Darlington. Thankfully, it was completely deserted, but I did get a few strange looks from the office workers in an adjacent building as I leaned over to get my shots! tiltshiftmaker.com

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to go back to basics : Either use a non-zoom or set your lens to 35 or 50mm only, camera to ISO100, and lets see something SOOC, no crop, no post pro, just like in the old days of film, or even use ISO100 film, mono or colour. The only post processing allowed will be your watermark-signature. To meet the challenge I used the 18-105mm kit lens that came with my Nikon D90 set to 50mm. I couldn't select ISO 100 as such because the D90 only goes down to ISO 200, so I had to select Lo 1.0 , which apparently equates to ISO 100. For my subject I decided to go with this thought provoking and imposing piece of art called Eleven 'O' One (11:01) which can be found near the Terrace Green cenotaph in Seaham, Country Durham. Known locally as 'Tommy' the statue was built using special CorTen steel, an alloy material originally produced by United States Steel. This corrosion resistant steel when left uncoated develops an outer layer patina that protects the steel from additional corrosion and gives the statue its distinct appearance. Standing 9ft 5ins tall, it weighs 1.2 tonnes and was created to mark the centenary of the start of the Great War by artist Ray Lonsdale. Looking decidedly war-weary 'he' sits thoughtfully, head bowed, rifle in hand, as he reflects upon the sheer horror of World War One during the first minute after peace was declared in 1918, which is where the official name comes from. Apparently, the sculpture is also intended to represent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which many of the returning soldiers endured even though at that time the condition was little understood and was simply referred to back then as "shell shock" as it was attributed to concussions caused by the impact of exploding shells. Shell shock was characterized by "the dazed, disoriented state many soldiers experienced during combat or shortly thereafter". And when soldiers who were not exposed to exploding shells were found to be experiencing similar symptoms it was assumed that these soldiers were cowardly and weak. Treatment was brief, consisting only of a few days of comfort, with the "firm expectation that the soldier return to duty" and because 65% of shell-shocked soldiers ultimately returned to the front lines, treatment was considered a success. Anyone who wants to know more about the installation and the artist behind it might like to read the following article, which was published in the local press shortly after the statue was put in place: www.thejournal.co.uk/news/news-opinion/sculptor-ray-lonsdale-reveals-story-7374302 A tricky challenge I found as I missed the flexibility that being able to change the SO can give you and it also made me realise how much I rely on post-processing to tweak my shots and supposedly bring out the best in them even down to the fine border that I always add, but which I've managed to resist doing here ... even if how the photo merges into the white background really, really annoys me!

Well, it appears that the wait is over as Christophe Ruelle, the President and CEO of Ipernity SA, has finally accepted the IMA proposals as announced in a brief update posted by William Sutherland. The next few days should see further announcements being made on both sides once they have finalised the logistics of the transfer. Got to be honest I'd almost given up hope that a deal could be struck and even today there's still a little voice inside my head saying "I'll believe it when it happens", but this isn't really a day to be negative ... it's a day to celebrate and to try and be as optimistic as we can be about the future. It's also a day to say a big thank you to those involved within the 'inner circle' of the IMA, and not just William although I suspect his part has been significant, for all they've done to get us to this stage. Thanks also to Christophe who it appears has finally showed us all that he does indeed still care about this great platform his team created all those years ago and the community that come to call it home.

Paid my very first ever visit recently to Beamish and I'm already looking forward to going back again soon. This now world famous open air museum, tells the story of life in North East England during the 1820s, 1900s & 1940s. There are so many fascinating areas and displays that there really is too much to take in during one single visit. Luckily they offer visitors the option to purchase a Beamish Unlimited Pass, which allows you to come back as many times as you like for a whole year. Better value still is probably to become join the Friends of Beamish and then you not only get unlimited visits for the following 12 months, but also the guide book, quarterly magazine, exclusive offers and 10% discount on anything you buy on site and that includes food. Anyway, back to the photograph. This was shot from the upper deck of one of the many trams they have operating on site. I liked the abstract nature of the curved tracks and cobbled stones. It also seemed an apt image to post given what is happening with ipernity. We've climbed aboard and those of us that want to go along for the ride are ready to depart, but we're not sure what's around the corner never mind where we will eventually end up. Best advice then is to sit back, relax and enjoy the trip while it lasts!

One from the archives that was a 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of what's left . A pile of autumnal leaves I spotted in Darlington last year. Hit z and view large ... if you dare!

Here's another one of the shots I took of The Northern Echo Arena, which is home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and situated on the outskirts of the town, a few months back. I was going to use it for The Sunday Challenge when the theme was grey . This time I've done some post-processing on it, just for a bit of fun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

This is one of several shots I took around The Northern Echo Arena, which is home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and situated on the outskirts of the town. It was intended, but not actually used for a Sunday Challenge earlier this year, which had the theme of grey and considered twice since, but again not used for TSC when the themes were metallic and numbers . It's actually just one of the roller shutters that are located around the outside of the stadium taken up close at an acute angle to try and give it more interest.

Here's another of several shots I took of The Northern Echo Arena, again intended, but not actually used, for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey . For those that don't know this is the home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and it is situated on the outskirts of the town close to the A66.

Well okay, not quite. This is actually one of several shots I took of The Northern Echo Arena, which is home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and situated on the outskirts of the town. So not a space station, but I did think some of the shots I took of the structure had that feel to them. It was intended, but not actually used, for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey .

I took this shot in Darlington last week after I'd dropped my wife off at the railway station. I was going to use it for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey , but in the end opted for one of the shots I took at Lovesome Hill. This bit of urban art was at the entrance to a locked area across from the railway station and is obviously based on one of the characters from Pac-Man . Pac-Man is an arcade game that was developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, it is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. The player controls Pac-Man through a blue maze, eating pac-dots (also called pellets) and fruit. When all pac-dots are eaten, Pac-Man is taken to the next stage. However, four enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man