autofantasia's photos

For this week's Sunday Challenge which had the very interesting theme of repeating patterns or items . When it came to getting some suitable shots I decided to go to Sam Turner's in Northallerton and have a wander around their yard to look for likely subjects. Sammy's, as it's fondly referred to by locals, offers a wide range of clothing, footwear, garden products, equestrian and farm supplies to both farmers and the general public alike. And as I suspected there were lots of interesting things to photograph, so much so that I spent about an hour wandering around and best of all not once did someone come up and say "what are you doing" - lol! Anyway, the shot I've decided to go with shows sections of ready made rounded timber Palisade fencing, often referred to as picket fencing, which was piled up ready for sale. Also for another of the best groups on ipernity, Sight and Sound ... it just had to be Amii Stewart with "Knock On Wood" - enjoy: Official Video Live Midnight Special 1979 French TV And just in case anyone is wondering if the lady still has it, check out this live performance from just a couple of years ago: Live in Ragusa 2015

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

This was a 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was, as some of you might remember, metal . This was one of the shots I took from outside the fence at Allerton Steel, of Northallerton, which led to me being asked by staff what exactly I was up to.

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was metal . This was taken in the yard of Allerton Steel of Northallerton, who are specialists in structural and mechanical fabrication and was a shot I didn't think I would get given that the yard has a high fence all around it. However, my efforts at getting some shots through the fence led to two men coming out to ask what I was doing ... oh how I wish I had a pound for every time I've been asked that! Anyway, once I explained they seemed convinced I was harmless and agreed to me getting inside the yard to take some more photos for the challenge. Also for Sight and Sound . And with today's news that Walter Becker, co-founder and guitarist for the US band Steely Dan, has died aged 67, how about said band with "Reelin' in the Years" from 1973 - enjoy: youtu.be/wntRrR1TnOE youtu.be/ea3Bofkmwlc

A late entry due to the Bank Holiday for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was inversion . This is a shot I took of some golden Japanese forest grass we have growing in our back garden. I then created an inverted layer from it, which I set to Hue (Legacy) before merging the two together. Next I copied this new layer and set the top copy to Multiply with the opacity on the lower one set to 40%. Once again I merged the two before oil painting this new final version to smooth it out and give it a more artistic feel. Normally I'd have added a copy of the original image into the Notes, but I can't currently do this as my Club membership has expired. However, for those that don't know the plant it's an elegant deciduous grass with arching stems, bearing narrow variegated leaves that have creamy-white, green and yellow stripes. I also wanted to add this to Sight and Sound , but was struggling to come up with anything until I came across a bluegrass barn dance cover of a song called "Blurred Lines" performed by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. It seems the original song and video by Robin Thicke proved to be quite controversial depending on how you interpreted his lyrics, but hopefully this bluegrass cover version will prove less so: youtu.be/Nz-OMn1o22Y youtu.be/aJnUP8uguh8 Incidentally, if you've not come across Postmodern Jukebox before it's well worth checking them out on YouTube or by following the link below to their website. They claim to provide "gramophone music in a smartphone world" by reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz: postmodernjukebox.com

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the subject was polka dots . This particular challenge sounded pretty easy at least until I tried to find something that I could shoot which actually had polka dots on it. For a while it looked as if I might need to 'broaden' the definition to include something that say had spots on it like a set of dice or the spots on a ladybird poppy. However, at the last minute my wife dug this old blouse out from the back of the wardrobe and so I was able (for once) to stay within the terms of the actual brief. No doubt now that the challenge is over I'll find loads of suitable photo opportunities that feature polka dots ... such is the life of a "Sunday Challenger" ... groan! Also for Sight and Sound ... how about The Andrews Sisters (before my time - lol) with "Strip Polka" - enjoy: youtu.be/OyILRoOhvyQ youtu.be/U8ew-WY23mM BTW, my Club subscription expired today, which is why most of my images are no longer visible. I've already renewed once at Christophe's increased rates and had hoped by the time that 3 months was up the IMA would be in charge, but alas no. I'm very reluctant to do so again so will probably leave things as they are and keep my fingers crossed that the deal does eventually go through.

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the subject was walls . This is a section of the outside wall on St. Andrew's in Starbeck, Harrogate, which had been decorated with hundreds, if not thousands, of these little crocheted flowers as part of this year's Starbeck In Bloom competition. Although I went relatively close so as to also capture the lovely old stonework there were as I've said many, many more of these flowers attached to large areas of the church exterior. And there were similar displays and beautifully crafted flowers attached to several other buildings along the town's High Street as well as to fences and railings. Starbeck in Bloom was formed 19 years ago after a spate of vandalism had reduced morale within the community and a small group of people and businesses got together determined to make improvements in the town. They decided initially to brighten the shopping environment by putting some flowering tubs along the High Street and then they entered the Yorkshire in Bloom gardening competition competing in the Urban Category. Within a couple of years of entering this regional competition they were starting to win awards for their efforts and that success has continued to grow as has support for the initiative. So much so that this year, after many years of winning Gold awards in Yorkshire in Bloom , they were asked to represent Yorkshire by competing within Britain in Bloom , the much respected community gardening competition organised by the Royal Horticultural Society. In addition to the efforts to brighten up the main shopping areas there are a wide range of events held throughout the town and the flowers you see here were created as part of the Starbeck is Special community art project which involved making flowers out of trash to decorate the High Street. www.starbeckinbloom.co.uk www.rhs.org.uk/communities/campaigns/britain-in-bloom Also for Sight and Sound ... how about Peter Gabriel and "Wallflower" - enjoy: youtu.be/D04KqzH8480 youtu.be/wOHBjpjDsio

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

It would appear that The Hatter is having a party and we're all invited, but nobody seems to know exactly when or where it's taking place. It could be here or it could be over there. It might be today or it could be tomorrow, but one thing everyone in Wonderland seems certain of is that it will be soon ... which is strange when nobody can agree on what exactly soon means. And then, even if we find out when and where the party will be held there are the questions, lots and lots of questions: the ones that have already been asked, but which not everyone heard; the ones you're not supposed to ask; the unanswered ones of which there are many it seems; the ones nobody has quite thought of yet; and of course the ones nobody wants to be the first to ask. You see, nothing is ever simple when it comes to The 'Mad' Hatter and his tea party. Nothing is ever quite as it seems, just when you think you've got it sussed everything changes and all the crockery is tossed into the air once again along with the invitation list. And let's not forget his riddles. I mean everyone knows that The Hatter likes his riddles especially when they cannot be answered. Remember him infamously taking poor Alice aside and asking why is a raven like a writing desk ... yes, why indeed? Of course there was no answer to that particular riddle because it was simply unanswerable and The Hatter knew that even if Alice did not. Thankfully, this isn't Wonderland so hopefully there will be no more unanswerable riddles when The 'Mad' Hatter's tea party finally does take place. However, there will as I've already said still be questions and lots of them. Let's just hope that for asking them or perhaps for not being able to answer them we don't all end up losing our heads!

Just another escapee from the 'processing room' although not as outlandish as the last one. In fact, a simple exercise in mirroring, which at first glance I wouldn't have thought worthy of posting, but then I noticed it moving. Please, someone tell me it isn't my imagination ... view it large on black, look at it for a couple of minutes and then tell me you don't see it starting to move!

Just another bit of fun created by me in the 'processing room' and which forms part of my ongoing, and somewhat tongue in cheek, Artist At Work series of images. I can't remember what I did to create this one or even for that matter which of my photos I based it upon, but I like how it turned out! Please view on black for best effect.

A 'nearly ran' if you like for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the subject was straight lines . It's the Darlington Mowden Park Rugby Club stadium, which regular visitors to my photostream will perhaps remember has featured before. However, in the end I decided the 'brick train' was a more interesting subject and one which I thought people might enjoy seeing if they'd not come across it before. There's another shot of the stadium in the Notes of which there's 2 different versions. The first with the grey sky and then the second showing my somewhat feeble attempts to replace it with something more colourful. Sadly, my processing skills let me down somewhat ... more practice required!

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

Following on from the shots I took for this week's Sunday Challenge I thought some of you might enjoy seeing this panorama of the first walled garden at Thornton Hall. Created from 11 individual images and stitched together in Photoshop it gives a good idea of what this great place is like to visit. Please view large for best effect or better still go to See All Sizes where you can select from various options. The original file was absolutely massive as is the case with these creations, so I created a smaller JPEG version for uploading, but even that is fairly big at 18,527 x 4,520 and is over 57 MB in size. So you may well need to zoom out on your browser a little bit to find a happy medium of detail and viewability. www.thorntonhallgardens.co.uk

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which the subject was rain , which to be honest we've not had an awful lot of this summer. Thankfully, on the day my wife and I had planned to visit Thornton Hall Gardens on the outskirts of Darlington it was somewhat overcast and we did indeed get some rain. Nothing that heavy mind you, more drizzle than anything else, but sufficient to add some moisture to the plants. The garden in question was open for charity, something they do several times a year, and it is well worth visiting. So much so that we actually went twice this week as we found there was so much to see that the initial half-day we'd allocated wasn't sufficient to get around and do everything justice. In addition to the gardens they have a small tea room and sell a limited number of plants, many of which they themselves have grown. So, if you like your gardens, are ever in the area and fancy supporting a few good causes at the same time I can thoroughly recommend a visit. You will find a few more of the images that I took for this challenge in the Notes should you care to check them out and if you want to learn more about Thornton Hall Gardens please follow the link below: www.thorntonhallgardens.co.uk Please view on black for best effect.