July 15, 2014

Yellow bicycle hunt

Gilly Places color, colour, York 1 Comment

I’m back, after a much longer absence than I ever planned. In fact, I didn’t plan to be absent at all, or at least not for more than a week or two, but I got distracted by our house move and perhaps because of that lost all interest in photography for a while.  It’s happened to me before but never for so long, and this time I seriously wondered if I’d ever pick up a camera again.  Slowly, slowly, my motivation has crept back and now I feel ready to move forward again.

When you’ve been out of the loop for a while it takes time to get your hand in again, so today’s offering isn’t the most exciting set of photos I’ve ever posted, but they are a reminder of a lovely day.  I’ve made quite a few friends online, but have only met a small number of them, so it’s always a special day when I get to come face to face with someone I’ve ‘known’ for a while but have never met in person.  Last week I went to York for the day to meet up with Dave – who is just as lovely a person in reality as he’s always seemed online – and we had an enjoyable walk along York’s beautiful River Ouse, some great conversation, a satisfyingly large lunch, and then we finished up with a yellow bicycle hunt.

As we wandered round York, I’d noticed a yellow painted bicycle hanging on the city wall.  I’m afraid I’m utterly and shamefully ignorant when it comes to sporting events, so it took Dave to inform me that York had been part of the Tour de France route and that all the yellow bicycles liberally sprinkled round the city were there to mark the occasion.  Of course, you have to photograph something like that, and the yellow bicycles became the photographic theme for the day.  Neither of us was familiar with the city, so our walking route became dictated by any sighting of a yellow bicycle – ‘Look! -there’s one there! – OK, let’s go that way then.’  And so we walked, doubling back on ourselves, going round in circles, but always following the yellow bicycles.  That kept us happy for quite a while, and here are the results.

Note: the only lens I had with me was my Lensbaby, so these have all been taken with that.  It’s actually quite a good choice for this, as it helps focus attention on the bicycles and softens and blurs the surrounding environment.  It’s been a long time since I took the Lensbaby out for a walk so some of my focussing isn’t quite where I wish it had been.  It’s also a shame the light was so flat that day – although it was exceedingly warm, it was one of those overcast days with a lot of cloud so I feel the results also look a little flat.  Everything emerged from the camera with rather a cold blue cast to it, so I’ve had to warm it all up a little.