autofantasia's photos with the keyword: Royal

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to take a photograph of a place you love . I was torn between RHS Harlow Carr and Fountains Abbey for this particular challenge, but in the end decided to take a shot of the latter if only because we had a trip to there already planned. This is the view as you walk down towards the ruins from the main Visitor Centre and I like it because I think it encapsulates what the place has to offer in addition to the abbey: peace, tranquillity, beautiful scenery, wildlife and a feeling of wellbeing. And in case anyone is wondering if the sheep and the solo bird were added or cloned in I can honestly say they were not, I was just lucky I guess when it came to getting my shot. Please view on black for best effect.

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which the theme was metal . This is one of two metal 'bikes' attached onto the fence that surrounds the car park for The Royal George in Morton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire, which is a small village a few miles from Northallerton. I'm guessing they were put up to show support for the Tour de Yorkshire. Not real bikes, although from a distance you might think they were!

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which the theme was anywhere you can receive or send mail . Royal Mail painted more than 100 of its iconic and much-loved red post boxes gold to celebrate each and every gold medal won during the London 2012 Olympic Games and subsequent Paralympic Games. The post boxes are to remain permanently gold to mark the achievements of the athletes and the historic Games. There's even a dedicated website which shows where the Gold Postboxes are to be found across the UK. This particular one located in Ingleby Barwick was painted to celebrate Katherine Copeland winning gold in the women's lightweight double sculls. Kat Copeland, as she's more commonly known, had only been in the senior GB Rowing Team squad for two seasons when she and Sophie Hosking won their historical medal, the first Olympic title ever for the GB lightweight women’s squad. The look of wide-eyed disbelief on Kat’s face at the end of the race has become one of the most memorable images of London 2012. And although after the Games Sophie Hosking retired and Kat herself took a break away from the sport she soon returned to competition and went on to win several major events with new partner Charlotte Taylor. Sadly though they did not do well at the recent Rio Games where they were knocked out at the repechage stage. However, the look of sheer joy and disbelief on her face after winning gold in 2012 has forever earned her a place in the heart of the nation. If you didn't see the race, or simply want to watch and enjoy Kat's reaction once again simply click here . As for Kat's gold post box I've included an overall shot of it in the Notes for those who may never have seen one of them before. Also, belatedly for Sight and Sound , what else but Spandau Ballet and Gold ... youtu.be/ntG50eXbBtc youtu.be/gSq8ZBdSxNU youtu.be/VQ4qrcHyYj4

A late entry for this week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of half-light is this shot taken recently at Fountains Abbey. Hopefully, despite being taken during the day it still qualifies as it was pretty much half-light and half-shadow in that passageway when I took the photo. If the powers that be disagree with my interpretation feel free to delete.

Okay, here's the last of the 'nearly ran' entries for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was simply May 7th . It's another of my first real attempts at taking panoramas and once again features Fountains Abbey . This one is produced from 6 shots taken on the day and then stitched together in Photoshop. In some way this is my favourite, but again I forgot to shoot it in portrait as opposed to landscape mode. There's a lot crammed into this one so it's perhaps best viewed large on black for best effect. Thanks once again to Graham Chance for all the advice and encouragement he has given me regarding tackling panoramas, both before and since this shoot. I hope I can learn from the experience and go on to produce more effective images of this type in the future.

Another 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was simply May 7th . It's another of my first real attempts at taking panoramas and once again features Fountains Abbey , but this time we're on the opposite side of the ruins. This one is produced from 6 shots taken on the day and then stitched together in Photoshop. I like this one, but feel it could have been better and I know I didn't help myself by absentmindedly shooting it in landscape as opposed to portrait mode. Some of the vertical lines are also way off and the highlights in the sky in certain areas are blown ... as the kids might say #stilllearning .

A 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was simply May 7th . It's another of my first real attempts at taking panoramas and once again features Fountains Abbey , but this time we're much closer to the ruins. This one was produced from 9 shots taken on the day and then once again stitched together in Photoshop. Please view on black for best effect if you have a minute to spare.

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was simply May 7th ... either something you did on that day (i.e. yesterday) or something related to that day perhaps in history. At first I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. I looked online for something that had happened in the past on that day that sparked an idea of an image, but that didn't really produce any inspiration. Then I looked to see if I had any unpublished archive shots that had perhaps been taken on that day in previous years, but again came up with nothing ... oh how I wish I'd undertaken a 365 challenge! However, a meet up with our good friend Gillian for earlier in the week at Fountains Abbey had to be rescheduled and so I decided to use that as an opportunity to take some photos I could perhaps use for the challenge. In addition to taking shots of individual subjects I also had a notion of trying some panorama shots. This is a technique I've long admired, but never tackled before this week. However, Graham Chance was kind enough to offer me some advice and encouraged by what he said I felt I was at least able to give it a go, which is just what I did. I did one through the week of the borders in our back garden just to get a feel for what is involved and I might post it in time if only to show my very first attempt. This particular one is the result of 10 separate images shot at Fountains Abbey yesterday (each one taken in portrait mode) and then stitched together in Photoshop. I was amazed at how easy it was to actually do as Photoshop does most of the initial work for you and the automatically merged image was fairly pleasing, although I did go on to tweak the perspective and do some basic editing. I have another 3 panorama shots from the day so I might also post them in due course. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy seeing this one. It isn't perfect by any stretch, but I feel for my first attempt out in the real world it's not too bad. As for Fountains Abbey itself, it is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It's owned by the National Trust, located approximately 3 miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, and was founded in 1132. One-of-a-kind, this special place is now recognised as a World Heritage Site. Please hit 'z' on your keyboard to view large on black for best effect.

For this week's Sunday Challenge , which has the theme of windows . This was an optician's window display that I spotted in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. I liked the surreal nature of it with heads stuck on poles and thought that it would make an interesting image, especially with some post processing to help isolate the background clutter. The more observant among you might also note that there are some other windows caught in reflection, which I think give it a real world connection, but without making it initially too obvious what's actually going on. This is also somewhat of a departure for me in that I rarely ever use portrait orientation for my images preferring to go landscape 99.9% of the time. Anyway, I hope you like it?

What can I say ... First Class!

Loved how these two complemented each other.