Swans on the river

On one of our recent walks along what is known as the Tarka Trail near Barnstaple,  I took a few photos. It was the former railway line which closed years ago as part of the Beeching cuts (click the link to read about that, if you are interested) - it must have been a lovely trip as the rail line followed the river.

Not a good day for photos unfortunately as it was so cloudy, but never the less I thought I would share them with you

those clouds were really threatening!

(if anyone wants to use these photos for paintings then please go ahead)

Having seen the swans, when I got home I decided to do a sketch - starting with a light background first  (Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue mixed to a pale wash)...

when that layer had dried I went over with a darker mix of the same colours

Still a few touches to do here and there, but mainly this is it done.....just a sketch, but it was fun to do and reminds me of our walk.

Today I'm Linking

to

Paint Party Friday

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Happy Painting Everyone

Testing my new camera

I've just got a new camera ...yay....went for an Olympus SR 810 UZ  and so far I'm quite pleased with it.

It is advertised as having a really good zoom, so tried it out the other day over in Ilfracombe.  I went round to Capstone (it's a hill with a pathway round it overlooking the sea), but I stopped part way and looked back towards the town and took this photo

okay, quite an ordinary photograph I guess....sadly the tide was out at the time, but never mind at least there were lots of rocks.    My next test was to use the zoom function.  You see the ice cream van a third of the way in from the left - now bear in mind I didn't move my feet at all......just used the zoom.....

not bad is it.  You can even see the ice cream seller reading a book!  Incredible zooming.  Although husband said it would have been even better if you could see what book he was reading!

Then I wandered on round Capstone and get some pics from that side looking across towards the Coast Guard Cottages on the hill in the distance...in fact it's difficult to even spot the cottages, but they are about half way in the photo (painted white)

 again I didn't move my feet and took this.....

it did pick up a white haze or mist, but does that really matter...

then finally I took this photo of St. Nicholas Chapel....I had walked just a little bit further along the same path.....the Chapel is more or less in the middle of the photo...

again I didn't move my feet  and zoomed in, full zoom....

I have to say, and not surprisingly, I'm really impressed with this camera.  Of course, I wouldn't need to use the full zoom all the time, even with partial zoom I have amazing photos and on normal non zoom settings the photos seem clear and sharp (so long as I can remember which setting to use....early days).

All in all I am really pleased with this camera, but like everything, time will tell.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday