Forge

Apologies for the 'architecture' category. It is the closest I could

find.

 

This was taken at a foundry in Devon, UK, which up till the 1960's

still used its 19th century water-powered bellows and trip hammers

for commercial work. It is now preserved to show us how lucky we are

(well - mostly).

 

All comments welcome!

Nice, cozy feel to this - makes you feel like you are right there. Good control of the lighting, Colin. Sharp and detailed.

Colin's back! :-) This is wonderful - and very YOU. I love the gloves sitting on the anvil ... the blacksmith will be back to his work very soon. Well seen!

Colin, I look forward to when you will be posting again more regularly. Nice little historical scene here.

Thanks Kim, Lou Ann and Amar.

 

I liked the gloves too though I wasn't sure about the green colour. The blacksmith was standing a couple of feet out of shot demonstrating the way everything was used.

Colin, really missed you, glad to see you posting again. I like that busy scene with all the tools around, and especially the green gloves they are the highlight of it, I like working scenes, I hope to see one with the man at work.;-)). I hope you stay...

The green doesn't bother me. There's lots of good color in this shot (not what I'd imagine in a blacksmith's shop), but it's not too saturated, so it works well.

 

Did you fly at all in your travels? How is that going?

Pnina, thanks. I'm glad you liked the green - I am growing to like it myself. I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks but am now back and hope to upload some of my recent shots like this one soon. I am looking forward to visiting all my friends pages and see their latest images.

 

Lou Ann, no flying at the moment - we tend to do that in the spring when things aren't so busy. My sister-in-law just flew to Boaton on Sunday without too much delay so hopefully things will ease a bit soon. I have just spent a fortnight in Devon and Cornwall which is the SW end of UK. A beautiful coastline facing west so lots of sunsets. I hope you don't suffer from Sunset Allergy which seems to be quite widespread on PN!

No allergies here! :-) I just like your photos.

 

I forget..... how long is a fortnight? (Dumb Yankee.....)

Don't you have 'fortnight' in US? (fortnight = fourteen nights = two weeks). What did Oscar Wilde say? something about two nations divided by a common language!

Colin, last summer when I was in France, London and Denmark ... I had a much more difficult time understanding the English spoken in England than I did the English spoken by the French and the Danish people who knew the language. It was weird ... the idioms (like "fortnight", thank you for your explanation) and the pronunciations really threw me for a loop!! ;-)

Very well done. Perhaps I would have put the anvil in its entirety. Very well lighted up and exposed. The texture of every object is perfectly given. Can it go into the "documentary" category ?...

Most Danes and the French pick up a lot of US colloquialisms from movies & TV, they're also taught 'international english' which is pretty much what us Brits would call the 'Queens English' ie. lacking in our much beloved local idiom.

 

On prior trips to the states I have been asked if I am Irish, Welsh, Scottish, German, Kiwi, Australian, but strangely, never English - I have a Yorkshire accent, but it's not shockingly strong - the US media can be attributed some of the blame for this, particularly light entertainment, where all 'Brits' are required to speak with a Jeeves'esque accent (see Jeeves & Wooster on Google). The one exception was Daphne in Frasier who had a reasonable attempt at a Mancunian accent. Anyhow, I'm waffling.

 

Nice photo Col, but those gloves look about as out of place as a pair of marigolds - IMHO.

It's good to see you posting again, Colin. I like this shot. The gloves and the fire make the photo, IMO; the composition and DOF are perfect for portraying a "work station" shot. Nice work.

Thanks everyone!

 

Henri, 'documentary' was an option but I was not sure I could really document what is essentially a museum piece.

 

Ben, Richard, I originally didn't like the gloves as looking too modern but I have grown to quite like them as the indication of the blacksmith's presence.

 

Ben, Lou Ann and I seemed to be able to understand each other reasonably well when she visited London last year. But I'm not sure I would be able to understand you 'ooddersfield folks! :-) When I was 10 my family mved from London to Glasgow and I reckon it took me about 6 months to tune in to the accent.

It was easy enough to understand you and Gyl last summer ... but there were people I'd encounter in the city whose accents were SO thick that I couldn't follow them at all ... and, by the way, I thought that "reckon" used like that was a term from the Southeast U.S..... :-D

Good to hear that we were intelligible! Reckon is an old English word meaning to count up, to add up, to weigh. It involves ideas of numbers and careful measuring. Hence the 'day of reckoning' - the Day of Judgement.

 

At the 1593 inquest into the death of Christopher Marlowe, who was a playwright and friend of William Shakespeare, it was said that he was stabbed in a pub brawl over 'the reckoning' - the bar bill. As Marlowe's three companions were all Queen Elizabeths secret agents no one believed that and Shakespeare neatly combines two meanings of the word in his chilling line 'a great reckoning in a little room'. Marlowe was always 'reckless' - didn't weigh up the consequences - and died as a result. (A cheery thought for you there!:-))

Whoa!! That's a fabulous bit of etymology there, Colin! Thanks for explaining that to me! :-)

Hi Colin, this is a classic, love the image. There are so many things to see that I just sit and stare at it. The gloves and anvil are a great beginning to lead the curious eye into the image. Wonderful capture.

Thanks Sondra. I liked all the detail too.

Good & interesting industrial image. The setup seems to be waiting for someone to come back to work, with the gloves lying there, the warm fire burning, & other tools all ready to be worked anytime.

What a good photograph i see again.Intense light and contrast.Those modest tools a big impact put together so thoughtful,A strong intense composition. The gloves,just like boots from van gogh,expressing their needs.

 

Thank you colin you came to my pictures, as i was gone.

Very well composed, DOF with focus on gloves and bench vice helps to enter the scene. Lots of interesting details to discover.

Thanks Cherlyn, Alexandra and Carsten, I apperciate your thoughts.

 

Alix there is something about the foreshortening of the gloves that reminds me of van Gogh, now you come to mention it.