autofantasia's photos with the keyword: grazing

Whilst we were out looking for a suitable subject for a recent Sunday Challenge I spotted this old donkey out grazing in a field by the side of the road on the outskirts of Topcliffe. It looked so sad and lonely that I thought I'd stop and offer it some company. Sadly it wouldn't come to me, but I did manage to get a few distant shots of it and this is a reworking of one of the better ones. I was happy enough with the original shot, which you can find in the Notes, but I thought he/she deserved some TLC so I've tried to do provide that with some 'painterly' editing. Probably best viewed large on black ... here's hoping you guys like the end result?

Since visiting the water tower located at Lovesome Hill for a recent shoot, I've discovered that it actually features in a track by Rebekah Findlay: a singer songwriter based in North Yorkshire. The song, not surprisinly, is entitled "Lovesome Hill" and appears on her second album "Improvising Around The Sun". It's a rather sinister tale, which apparently takes its inspiration from a rumour that a murderer did actually live at Lovesome Hill for many years before being caught. I don't know how true this is, but he was apparently known as 'The Mechanic' and it's also claimed his ghost can often be seen stood by or even atop the tower. Not sure I'll go back up there again! Now, if I've not scared you off with that tale and you want to know more ... This creation was produced for The Sunday Challenge and published on 26 October to try and satisfy the theme of Spooky/Halloween . www.ipernity.com/group/305069 Apparently, when Rebekah was recording her first album she would pass this place every time on the way to the studio. The actual song "Lovesome Hill" was written behind the steering wheel developing over a few months of journeys back and forth. www.rebekahfindlay.co.uk The main image of the tower as seen in the shot was taken by me. However, I deleted the grey sky, which surrounded it that day as I wanted something a little more dramatic. I also flipped the tower horizontally and repositioned it somewhat to give me a little more space above. Here's the original image pretty much as it came out the camera. The only changes being that I've resized it and added my watermark and a fine line border. www.ipernity.com/doc/autofantasia/35625607 The lightning background I've used to gve the scene a sense of drama was taken by Mathias Krumbholz. Entitled "Thunderstorm near Pritzerbe (Germany)" it needs to be attributed as: "Lightning Pritzerbe 01 (MK)" by Mathias Krumbholz - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lightning_Pritzerbe_01_(MK).jpg#mediaviewer/File:Lightning_Pritzerbe_01_(MK).jpg You can see more of his work by following the link below: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photos_by_Leviathan1983 Finally, the rain texture was developed by me from an image I found online entitled "misc rain element png by dbszabo1". Check it out here ... dbszabo1.deviantart.com/art/misc-rain-element-png-309954950 I took his original work and produced a new image using several copies of it merged together, but smaller in size and with another layer produced going in the other direction to give the effect of a blustery night. And there you go, that's how it was done. What's that you say, what about 'The Mechanic' ... well all I can say is he wasn't on the shot when I uploaded it!

Here's another shot of the strange looking water tower located at Lovesome Hill on the outskirts of Northallerton. This was taken for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey , but in the end I opted for a different shot.

This week's Sunday Challenge was the colour grey/gray. I took it that it was okay to have some colour in the shot as long as either the subject was grey or the overall look of the image as a whole was grey, hence the fact that there's some green in the foreground of the shot I decided to use. This tower is somewhat of a mystery, to me at least. It stands in a field just a few hundred yards away from the A167 between Northallerton and Darlington, but I have no idea what it is. I've often passed it whilst driving, but from the road you can only see the top third or so of it and it is quite difficult to judge the scale of it. However, as you can see from this shot it is rather large and the fact that there's a door on the far side and windows on the central structure would suggest that access to the top is possible, most likely via a spiral staircase. And it appears to be made from almost entirely concrete, hence the predominantly grey tones, but as I say I've absolutely no idea what its purpose is. EDIT: Now identified as the Lovesome Hill water tower ... thanks Ann!