I really do like this sculpture in one of the gardens of the student accommodation blocks. Unfortunately the weather was a bit grey, but you can still get some idea how student apartments have taken over and 'gentrified' the area to the north of the university. When I first arrived this area was all run down industry and ladies of easy virtue. On a side note, ask yourself, if this is a mirror ball where's the photographer?
These daffodils just above Rainow are always the last to bloom. Last Sunday when I shot the flowers at Siddington, these flowers still weren't out, but now whilst the others are slowly fading these are at their best.
I went for the usual walk at dinner time and came across one of the semi-derelict Victorian factory buildings that are scattered across the city. Originally they would have been divided into small workshops, each rented to a craftsman (called 'little masters'), whom collectively would have constituted a cutlery works. One would have a forge, one a sharpening shop, perhaps one would be a plater and finally one would have made bone or ivory handles. On this particular building most of the windows were boarded up, but this workshop had two recently smashed windows on the ground floor. I stuck my hand in amongst the broken glass and snapped this picture of the interior. I suspect the building will have gone in 12 months time.
A deceptively simple one today, inspired by the photos of Janet Thorpe from my local camera club, Sheffield Photographic Society. Take one camera, one flashgun, one black background and one incense stick (stuck into a potato to hold it up!), mix together for 30 mins and you have around 100 images to sort through! I am still not sure this is the 'best', but this was the one I liked the second I came to export the image from Adobe Lightroom, so we're stuck with it. 
Down by the new fire station is a vast area of cleared and fenced-off land earmarked for the new SevenStone shopping complex. This was of course all before the credit crunch. With a misplaced spirit of optimism someone had a graffiti artist (yes, another one!) paint slogans on the fence. This one seemed particularly inappropriate.
High above Bradfield in the evening light looking towards Agden and Dale Dike reservoirs.
I went for a drive up to Bradfield and Damflask reservoir after tea to try and catch the sun, which once again had waited until the end of the day to put in an appearance. I ended up with several pictures that could have done service for today, but in the end I went with this one because it's 'funnest' (whatever that means - probably the least contrived?). I promise not to do too many sunsets though.
This is Siddington village green. Someone has been very busy planting bulbs, that's for sure!
Set off for a bike ride down the Middlewood Way only to get a puncture after 2 miles. My own fault for not pumping up the tyres hard enough before setting off. I was pushing the bike back to Gareth's house, where there was a cup of tea and a footpump, when I came across this toad sat right in the middle of the Middlewood. It turned out to be a serendipitious meeting for us both; me because I got a portrait for today, and 'him' because I managed to shoo him off the cycle track before he got squished.
It's always nice to know that if you get down in the dumps then you can take a little stroll towards a happier you. Or at least from Castleton you can!
Thursday night is race night at Owlerton Stadium. For half the year it's dogs and for the other half of the year it's speedway. Whilst on the hill yesterday afternoon I noticed that there was a good view of the stadium, so returned tonight when the lights were on. It's amazing how noisy the motorbikes were from up here - I'd hate to be living here. 
Today has been mostly grey and attempting to rain, so it was with some trepidation I was searching through the meagre dinnertime snaps for something that would go here. However, shortly after tea the clouds melted away and the sun shone for an hour before it set. I jumped in the car and headed for the nearest hill. In the final few minutes of sunlight I took this picture looking back towards the city centre.
Not far from Sheffield United's stadium is an old, rambling brick-built factory called the Portland Works. To look at it you wouldn't believe it was in any way remarkable, but it was here that the words 'stainless steel' were first coined and it was here that the alloy was first shaped into cutlery. It is said that more people today eat with stainless steel implements than can speak English, making it one of Britain's most successful exports. Just inside the archway where horse-drawn wagons would once have arrived is this wall of mailboxes for the factory's current occupiers. The few remaining 'little masters' work cheek-by-jowl with 21st century artist and musicians.
Or, Adventures with High Dynamic Range. The above photo is a HDR composite of 5 separate exposures blended together with Photomatix Pro (highly recommended - lots faster and more tuneable than Photoshop). This lets me correctly expose for the shadows of the dark brick sets and yet just keep some detail in the sky. Oh, and btw, it's underneath the Silk Road by Water's Green in Macclesfield.
Went to a birthday celebration for my Aunt Sandra today. The Official Secrets Act forbids me from saying which birthday it was. OK, it was 26. Sorry for telling everyone Sandra.
Now I have had the chance to look closely at an OS map, this stream looks like it could be a tributary of Todd Brook and nothing at all to do with Walker Barn. The maps I have at the moment have an embarrassing gap around this area. I'll probably have to call on Amazon and rectify that. Anyway, I think the place is called Nab End, high above Rainow.
Sadly no time to get out shooting much today. Anyway, there was a lot of grey and rain (but some sunny bits, it has to be said). So again the *istDS and the 50mm macro come to the rescue. Mum's grown this amaryllis in her porch and she's quite proud of it. The close-up les offers a view you otherwise perhaps wouldn't see?
No, it's not what you think. I just dug out my first DSLR, the Pentax *istDS, and attached the old 50mm macro lens and shot the first thing that popped into view. Because it's spring I am intending using the *istDS to shoot some infra-red pics (watch this space) so thought it would be a good idea to charge it up and run some frames through well in advance. Unfortunately I now can't find the infra-red filter, arghh. Meanwhile I am just astonished how good the old macro lens is. Pin sharp at 4 inches away; you'd pay 100's of pounds for that quality nowadays.
