I photographed a tree today in PS motion control mode but it isn’t better than another without PS, although the same subject in winter came out really sharp using PS. I found it works best with completely static subjects like building interiors and stones.

Good shot by the way loadsoftripe!

Two years ago after my eye test at a private optician I ended up with a really expensive pair of specs I have never been able to wear. Supposed to be for driving and I can read a number plate half a mile away but I cannot easily read the dashboard with them and uncomfortable to boot, so I went back to my old Specsavers and that is where I will go next time.

Well you did ask for it!

I have a small Leica which gets used occasionally and the most frustrating thing is anonymous programmable buttons which I forget what they do, it’s the one thing that puts me off splashing out on a more expensive model. Even pressing them doesn’t always give a clue, just something happens which I don’t know about until later. For a brand supposedly designed for “proper” photographers it can be a victim of style over substance but the point I suppose is that if I used it exclusively then it would be ok. I love that on the Pentax you can see what everything does and move seamlessly from one model to another.

Oooh that’s a good one, I must go see sometime. Thanks for the comments, I have realised that the stained glass one shows the protective mesh so I would like to change it to an interior shot when I get the chance. There is a green man inside a church nearby (Southam) but like many others it is closed for the time being which is frustrating. So far I am just using archive shots plus a few outside details but would like to plan a couple of trips as soon as possible.

This thread is getting a bit sparse without Gwyn. This morning I asked the family if there was anything they needed from Amazon as I was 2p short of free delivery - Mrs RobL says Liz Earle face cleanser. That’s fifteen quid! Says I. Oh don’t be such a mean git was the reply. No wonder Mr Bezos is the world’s richest.

Thanks Lenny. I have been reading about the role trees played in Anglo-Saxon England (well it beats wall to wall football), starting with pre-Christian sacred trees and groves. Early Christian missionaries cut down these trees and erected wooden churches and crosses fashioned from that same wood, aware or not that the locals believed the spirits lived on in the timber afterwards. Here is where Steve the archaeologist will scoff but in a moment of insight I realised that the design of churches probably derived from those early sacred groves - bear with me here. In place of the grove with its sacrificial altar you have the centre of the church with an altar for symbolic sacrifice re-enacted every Sunday; leading up to this altar is a nave, a corridor of columns in place of a processional route originally in timber but replaced later by stone. The Roman arch and vault completed the transformation into stone but as designs became more elaborate the vaults more closely resembled a tree canopy until the fan vault completed the process, reaching higher and higher skywards. There is even a subterranean vault, the undercroft, a gateway to the underworld.

In support of my theory you only have to look at the strange creatures and patterns like the green man carved into the churches; thousands of years of superstition don’t get wiped away overnight so I wonder whether the masons, generally being of rural stock, were drawing on those traditional motifs for their ideas, hedging their bets, or even subversively introducing pagan images as an act of rebellion against the Christian religion being forced on them.

However Christianity is on the wane, it no longer enjoys its former power and influence for better or worse. People are realising that mankind is not some special creation for whom the world of plants and animals were provided but an integral part of the natural world. We now recognise the essential role trees play in keeping the natural order in balance and efforts are being made to reinstate them. It all started with the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden and now we are going full circle.

Am I talking rubbish here or does it ring true? Whatever, it gives me an excuse to take more photos and play around in Photoshop.

Thanks Steve, actually a stone figure from the local church, it's amazing how many strange creatures can be found by looking. Here are a couple more, this is fun!

I am in the first stages of a new project illustrating the enduring beliefs in the supernatural power of trees handed down since the iron age. Early Christianity tried suppressing such pagan beliefs but instead absorbed them far more deeply than at first apparent. Here is my first test piece:

Jak, there is a reason pros commissioned for poster-sized ads use 100mp+ Hasselblads or Phase One bodies but this lesser mortal must get by with what he has.