Sunday 4 December 2011

Gargoyles and Gulls

Litchfield Cathedral is, like all ancient church buildings, in constant repair.  Recently there have been a number of replacements of decaying gargoyles.  These ancient and decorative rainwater spouts have been replaced in the same style as the originals.
This fiendish beast captured my attention, carved in the original sandstone and looking spanking brand new.  Applying this concept to the whole cathedral - it must have been a magnificent and dominating building when it was first finished. The fangs and eyes are painted white, and the original may have had painted claws as well.  The carving is quite striking against a clear blue sky.
The monochrome image is also quite crisp and dynamic.  I am impressed by the skill of the stone mason in restoring the design so effectively.
Back to the natural world and I spotted this chaffinch whilst having a picnic lunch.  The air temperature was reading 9 degrees Celsius on the car thermometer and the bird had its feathers fluffed up against the cold.
Just for fun I snapped a series of pictures of fast flying gulls.  Some pics caught the action quite well.  Half of the images were deleted as I do not want to keep pictures of wingtips or tales in isolation!
These are black headed gulls.  They are loosing their summer colours and have white heads for the winter months.
They still retain the outer black trim to the trailing edge of the wing.

5 comments:

Rustic Vintage Country said...

Wow, that gargoyle is amazing, I must pop down there and check it out soon. Your pictures are very good, what sort of camera/lens do you use?

Pterosaur said...

My photographs are taken with whichever camera I have to hand. These were taken with a Nikon 5000 and either a Nikor 28/55 AF or more likely a Nikkor 55/200 AF. I also have a Nikkor 55-300 and a 1.4x converter to go with this set of lenses. Some of the Photographs will be taken with a Nikon L100 and some with a Kodak Z580. Other pics use spectacal diopters to obtain a macro image with standard lens. and I also use filters, the most useful being an AV, a soft sunset and a sky diffuser ND. Happy snapping.

Rustic Vintage Country said...

Thank you for that information, I do appreciate it. Hubby has a Nikon 5000 and I have the Nikon 3000 and I'm still learning, so tips like this are so helpful.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I had seen your photo of the gargoyle and loved it. I was looking for photos I could use to make a shop banner on a pet site I play. It's a personal shop where I make custom pets, and this will be like a welcome sign for the shop and be used to title the different sections. So its a none commercial use, just something to make the shop look nicer. I was wondering if this is okay, and if you would I could show you each sign as I get them done, and I will credit you on the first post of the shop for the photo as well.

Pterosaur said...

Hi Anon...
If you click on my profile and go to my web page, you can send me an E-mail so that I can post the original gargoyle picture to you. I would like to see the results of your shop banner. You may use the picture but I need to know your name or the website name for copyright purposes.