Harrogate Valley Gardens 1940s Day

Lovely day out in Harrogate Valley Gardens celebrating the 1940s. The weather was overcast until around two then sun came out making for challenging photography. A great crowd of people all enjoying themselves. The singers drew the crowd and the bank in front of the bandstand forms a great amphitheatre full of people. A really proper event.

Valley Gardens is well situated. An English valley of proper park with everything a park should have: tearoom, ponds, a boating lake, an arbor, bandstand, etc. Everyone was either promenading, for which the park is perfect, or picnicing, watching the world go by.

There were Jeeps and people dressed in 1940s clothes, some uniform, some civilian. A diverse mix. Steam engines too. Vintage cars. And a discrete range of food vans.

And the Spitfire flew over and thrilled the crowd, twice, low. Its sound so recognisable drawing ooohs from the crowd. There are few sounds like it to turn the head. Instantly recognisable and beautiful for it.

I wished I could have stayed longer the light getting better each hour that passed but it was a long way and domestic duty took precedence. A good drive though through the Pennine Hills with high up villages, and Northern towns with mills and ring roads.

If you're considering going next year I would advise arrive early since every car parking place was full and we had to drive a little way around the gardens to find a place. Its such a good event that it will become more and more popular and, eventually, become a weekend event.

East Lancs Railway 1940s Weekend

East Lancs Railway's 1940s Weekend twice over the Bank Holiday weekend. On Saturday I parked at Heywood not realising that not all trains travel to Heywood. Parking was easy enough but there was a long wait at the station with little going on. It was quiet. The whole day was quiet compared to some events but then some events are over-subscribed making taking pictures difficult. I also didn't realise the train stayed so long at Bury Station before travelling on to Ramsbottom. But then its always nice to sit on a train watching the world go by out the window.

The trains ran every hour; long trains with all sorts of carriages, somewhat shabby but charming nonetheless. It may be because of restrictions at Ramsbottom Station where there is a level crossing in the very town centre. With trains every hour you're stuck for an hour when you get off and in some cases you don't want to be. And more frequent means more turnover of people to keep things moving around.

Bury Station proved, once the light improved, to be fine for picture taking. The light through the roof making for some very nice pictures of the re-enactors. Never sure if that is the right word but fancy dress is also wrong; vintage dress describes it better.

I did travel to Rawtenstall but didn't linger. Being a German station there is little there to attract me as a photographer. Neither does the re-enactment. I don't get it. And I don't want to photograph German soldiers especially not SS (not that there were any with the organisers prohibiting certain uniforms. And re-enactments are too noisy.





Ramsbottom had a nice little French theme going on, with a mime and his son. And vehicles in the town centre next to the church. All blighted, of course, by the proximity of the incessant town centre traffic. It wasn't too bad but there was little atmosphere. These things, 1940s Weekends, are best done away from 21st Century traffic, preferring green grass or vintage buildings.

The pictures came up nicely despite problems with flash and auto-focus. Always learning. I've discovered why some of my photos weren't as sharp as they should be - my misuse, or mis-understanding, of the auto-focus and AI Servo. I've also discovered why some recent flash shots were completely blown out - mis-use of High Speed Flash. But then over-exposing is so easy to correct in Lightroom. Underexposing is, of course a different matter.

The full gallery is on Facebook here and on my Twenty Trees website here.

Highlight Sharpening

I've rediscovered sharpening as part of my workflow. After making change to crop, exposure, contrast in Lightroom I use Photoshop to finish off when necessary.

I sharpen as follows:

Convert to Lab
Duplicate Layer
Select new Layer only and Lightness Channel
Filter - Unsharp Mask

I use an Amount of 40-100 and a Radius of 2-5. Preview is a good tool allowing you immediately see the effect of changes. I never use Threshold. When done I sometimes use Layer Opacity to tone down the Sharpening. I also someone apply a Layer Mask to prevent sharpening the skin, and to apply it in varying amounts to eyes and hair.

I tend to leave the image in Lab since it's required for conversion to black and white (see earlier post).

After sharpening I often flatten the image then duplicate the Layer twice more using the Soft Light and Multiply blending modes to bring he image up. 

And I usually add an Levels Adjustments Layer.

Richard III

All this talk of Richard III and his incongruous re-interment reminds me that the succession of Henry VII is the widest genealogical succession since William the Bastard some 400 or so years before, and since. Henry VII was the 'third cousin once removed' of Richard III.

The third cousin was Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort, great grand daughter of John of Gaunt, Edward III's son.

Richard III was also a great great grand child of Edward III. Richard III and Lady Margaret Beaufort are third cousins. They shared a great great grand dad, Edward III.

Once removed because Henry VII is Margaret Beaufort's son.

When Henry VII married his fourth cousin, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward VI, Richard III's brother, also then Henry VII's third cousin once removed, the royal bloodline became more concentrate.

Henry VIII's children, Mary, Elizabeth, Edward are a genealogical cul-de-sac.

It was Henry VIII's elder sister, Margaret Tudor, who continued the line; the Stuarts. James VI&I succeeded Elizabeth I, and thereafter Charles I, II, etc.

Having said all of that I note the succession of James VI&I was equivalent since he, in effect, succeeded from Henry VII, his great great grand dad, just like Henry VII succeeded from Edward III.

The story is complicated somewhat by James V of Scotland marrying Henry Stewart Darnley whose grand mother was also Margaret Tudor. James VI and I was the great great grand son of Henry VII twice over so a twice less tenuous claim than Henry VII.

Time Team

I've been re-watching Time Team recently. From its start 21 years ago in 1994. A good part of a life time. They, Tony, Mick, Phil, to name but a few. Victor, the artist, Robin, a proper historian, Ca- what was her name. Mick the Dig. And the geophysics. Wonderful invention. The last programmes, the death of Mick Aston. Very sad; nothing lasts forever.

And yet in all that time the following questions remain wholly unanswered:

What are Stonehenge, and Avebury, and Arbor Low, for? When? As in are the latest developments in Carbon Dating a significant development? The chronology is too thin? Are Silbury Hill and Avebury contemporaneous? Did the Orkney culture up sticks and move to Wiltshire? Carnac Rows? Thousands of big stones all lined up, for kilometres? Why are the Pyramids more or less built at the same time? Were the foreign stones at Stonehenge found or moved to? Why does every museum have a cafe?

Time Team was a joy. Easy evenings with a young family. Simple times. Friendly. Needs a successor.

Black and White

Converting to black and white, monochrome or, to be pedantic, no chrome, or succinct, greys ...

I change the Image Mode to Lab. This is L a b not 'Lab' if you see what I mean; three words. L means Luminance; Light. a and b mean the relative colour. Delete the a and b channels then change the Image Mode to Greyscale.

I then duplicate the background twice and change one to Multiply and the other to Soft Light. I use the latter more often than the former.

And I add a Levels Adjustments Layer to fine tuning working on Lights, Blacks, Mids in that order.

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Wartime in the Cotswolds

Cracking weekend at the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway's Wartime in the Cotswolds event. My first visit to this GWR blessed by sunny weather and a very good turnout of re-enactors. Thrilled to see working steam engines, especially the Prairie engine which I had a as model as a boy. Parked at Toddington and hopped my way to Cheltenham Racecourse and back over the course of the afternoon taking photos as I went. More photos here.