John Sheldon's photos

Portsmouth & Southsea, 2010. The loneliness, isolation and exhaustion of a soldier returning home has been captured well by this sculptor. I resisted the temptation to subdue the tones of the base plinth: I think that its intrusiveness reflects the sense of aloneness. "Decades of easy peace may go their way, And Tide and Time may drift us far apart, But you who shared our Savage Yesterday Will hold the highest places in our heart."

November 2009. Lens: SMC PENTAX-DA 50-200mm F4-5.6ED WR zoom, at its longest and weakest setting.

September 2009 - one of my first adventures in DSLR and DNG photography. Used the Pentax 'kit' 18-55mm WR zoom lens, at its longest (and weakest) setting - I consider the lack of aggressive sharpness to be an asset here. In processing this JPEG, I have tried to keep the reds under control and to keep some modelling in the petals. The title? The 'older' flower seems to be watching the young buds in a parental fashion, as they venture out into the world!

Finding things to do during lockdown. There are no 'white light' or 'flashing light' problems involved in solving jigsaw puzzles - they bring people together and away from their little 'personal device' worlds - and they are easily available using on-line auctions! Ironically, this picture is of a holiday train - in the days when holidays were possible. Pentax A prime lens, 50mm f1.7 on Pentax K5 DSLR.

From December 2010 archive.

Name: Yashica Rank: Mat Number: MT 2030216 That is, the 216th Yashica-Mat camera to be manufactured in March of 1962. The model had been introduced by the Yashica company in 1957, the 'Mat' signifying autoMATic shutter cocking. (This meant, turn the film winder away from you to wind on the frames, then reverse it to cock the shutter.) The original Yashima company formed the camera name by merging YASHIma and CAmera to become Yashica. (Picture from 2011 archive.)

The undulating hills at Poynton, Cheshire, England (reclaimed coal mines, slag heaps, etc). Late afternoon, January 2021. Pentax A prime lens, 50mm f1.7 on Pentax K5.

I photographed scenes with this tree several times in 2020. This is my first picture of it in 2021. Totentanz (Dance of Death) is the name of a more-or-less grotesque piece of music by Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) which seems to reflect the obsession with the Dark Side that was part of the 19th century Romantic movement in Europe. Although Liszt's music prompted the name I have given to the tree, I don't think of it as macabre at all. It is not really dead until the last ripples from its existence have disappeared.

October 2011. SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.7 lens on Pentax K10D DSLR camera.