A symphony of woods (windmill content)

[m1ke_a]

Late last year I did some photos inside Jill windmill on the South Downs near Brighton

I'm not even going to pretend to understand the various workings or identify the different woods in her construction so here's a few snaps for you


Interior of Jill Windmill, Sussex by Mike Anton, on Flickr


Interior of Jill Windmill, Sussex by Mike Anton, on Flickr


Interior of Jill Windmill, Sussex by Mike Anton, on Flickr

I was particularly impressed with the quality of these chutes, which one of the volunteers made 8)

More pics here - https://flic.kr/s/aHskpiLp69 and detail of the mill here - http://www.jillwindmill.org.uk

 

[blackrodd]

Absolutely brilliant! Some really good shots there, the various timbers could vary a bit from area to area, but was usually elm for the wheel paddles, and softwood for the chutes, then a mix of oak, elm and ash.
I did work on an old set of paddles years ago, still there evidently!
I have only worked on 1 water mill inside, had to cut some sprockets from some apple that I'd had to cut down due to age, Then convert the inside for habitation, a very enjoyable job.
Thanks for the pics, any more?
Regards Rodders

 

[m1ke_a]

Absolutely brilliant!

Thanks for the pics, any more?
Regards Rodders

Thanks Rodders

I was there for over two hours faffing about so only managed a few which are on that flickr link - https://flic.kr/s/aHskpiLp69 I need to go back and shoot some 360's

I've also done stuff with the Bluebell railway, in particular the carriage works where it seems that more often than not end up rebuilding carriages from scratch!

This particular coach is nearly finished now - https://flic.kr/p/DM1gkd and I've linked out to the pics from Dave Clarke, one of the volunteers there.

'Labour of love' doesn't begin to describe work they and I guess all industrial heritage sites do.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

They just take your breath away windmills don't they. We (the family) used to stay at a B&B converted mill near Honiton that was a working trout farm. The bedrooms emptied directly onto the first floor flour storage area with trap doors everywhere. I used to spend hours pottering about examining the phenomenal variety of wood work on the one hand, then outside for the trout as I'm an avid fisherman too...I was basically in heaven

 

[Racers]

Nice photos Mike.

Pete

 

[blackrodd]

Thanks for the additional pics, of the mill, very enjoyable.
I see the cogs appeared newer than the rest of the wheels, I'm fairly sure that apple was the favourite for the cogs.
It was strange as I'd been putting off cutting down the last of the orchard trees then within a short time later my friend 'Phoned and said we'd got this water mill conversion to do and could I look out for some apple wood to replace 20, or so cogs, as this was stipulated among a host of other requirements.
There are some jobs you enjoy, and some you REALLY enjoy

A lot of work has gone into that coach rebuild I see, Hats off to the restoration team, it does help keep the older trades from disappearing altogether, Painters, upholstery and iron workers/engineers.
Regards Rodders

 

[AndyT]

Really beautiful, thanks for those.

 

[Wizard9999]

Quality pictures, thanks for posting.

Terry.

 

[m1ke_a]

Thanks for the additional pics, of the mill, very enjoyable.
I see the cogs appeared newer than the rest of the wheels, I'm fairly sure that apple was the favourite for the cogs.
It was strange as I'd been putting off cutting down the last of the orchard trees then within a short time later my friend 'Phoned and said we'd got this water mill conversion to do and could I look out for some apple wood to replace 20, or so cogs, as this was stipulated among a host of other requirements.
There are some jobs you enjoy, and some you REALLY enjoy

A lot of work has gone into that coach rebuild I see, Hats off to the restoration team, it does help keep the older trades from disappearing altogether, Painters, upholstery and iron workers/engineers.
Regards Rodders

Thanks very much everyone for the kind comments

We had an apple tree in our garden but it unfortunately died about 18 mths ago and needs to be cut down. I'll start another thread on what the best options are for it.

Just remembered I have some old 360's from the Bluebell that I've not yet moved.

http://www.mikeanton.com/360panos/Bluebellrailway/carriageworks2011a.htm is a wide view of the works from Jan 2011 and that carriage is up by the black fencing. They can handle 4 or 5 coaches in the shop at any one time.

http://www.mikeanton.com/360panos/Bluebellrailway/Coach5768.htm again is from 2011 and shows the toilet and entrance lobby of a Southern Railway Bulleid composite coach.

You can get an idea on how much work went into old coaches and how much 'non standard' parts were part of the construction. Faintly alarming with the amount of wood in the body and how it's separate from the underframe. I imagine modern coaches are now much more crash resistant. History of the coach here - http://www.bulleidsociety.org/Coach_5768/5768_History.html and there's been quite a lot of progress on her since I shot that - http://www.bulleidsociety.org/News/Old_News/2015_News.html

 

[dickm]

That is a fantastic lighting job! Be interested to know you you got it so even.

 

[heimlaga]

Beautiful pictures!
I have never seen a windmill that big.

I am involved in the maintainance of the only surviving windmill in the village. It is entirely log built in the 1750-ies. There is some very advanced woodwork involved.
We must rebuild it structurally within a few years to keep it from collapsing. Last time it got a structural overhaul was in the 1820-ies and the need is getting more urgent for every year.

 

[m1ke_a]

That is a fantastic lighting job! Be interested to know you you got it so even.

Thanks ****

It's called HDR - High Dynamic Range. You basically photograph a scene using a bracketed set of exposures to cover the shadows - mid tones - highlights. The human eye is much better at automatically processing the light levels of a scene than cameras so you have to 'cheat' a little bit.

For this shot


I used a shift lens to take three horizontal shots, each of 5 different exposures, I blended the different exposures together to create three 'masters' and then stitched those together. In this case the final stitched master file is 197Mb in size.

Creating such a high quality file is arguably unnecessary for displaying a small web image but it keeps me quiet! It's probably akin to using dovetails to joint a box when screws will do the same job. Creating the better quality version is much more enjoyable .

This pic


shows the 5 different exposures I took to get this final version

 

[bugbear]

That is a fantastic lighting job! Be interested to know you you got it so even.

Thanks ****

It's called HDR - High Dynamic Range.

Well, that takes all the sport out of it - I was going to ask if you'd used HDR, or merely
carried 4 dozen flood lights with you...

EDIT; your mill photos make an interesting case for HDR that I've not seen made
before; they're arguably a bit flat (from an artistic POV), but they retain
and present a very great deal of information. This might be important
for e.g. industrial archaeology "photographs of record"

Any reason for preferring a shift lens over a pano head?

BugBear

 

[m1ke_a]

Well, that takes all the sport out of it - I was going to ask if you'd used HDR, or merely
carried 4 dozen flood lights with you...

EDIT; your mill photos make an interesting case for HDR that I've not seen made
before; they're arguably a bit flat (from an artistic POV), but they retain
and present a very great deal of information. This might be important
for e.g. industrial archaeology "photographs of record"

Any reason for preferring a shift lens over a pano head?

BugBear

Artistically a bit flat?

How very dare you :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm not a fan of Gas mark 11 HDR processing and generally try to keep it as natural as possible. Church interiors can be a real challenge with light levels, as was this mill as the sun was streaming in on the E window.

My canon shift lens is optically the dogs doo dahs and with the parallax tripod mount I have for it, means I can avoid 'fisheye' distortion and keep excellent image quality to the edges (wide angle lenses tend to go mushy at the corners).

I've got a selection of pano heads but as soon as you start rotating the assembly you introduce distortion. My biggest photo is this 1.6Gp image of the Ouse Valley viaduct.


Ouse Valley viaduct gigapixel pano by Mike Anton, on Flickr

On the original you can zoom in to individual bricks (all 11m of them!) but it still bugs me that I couldn't create a distortion free equirectilinear projection :| #wannabe #perfectionist

 

[Racers]

I've got a selection of pano heads but as soon as you start rotating the assembly you introduce distortion. My biggest photo is this 1.6Gp image of the Ouse Valley viaduct.


Ouse Valley viaduct gigapixel pano by Mike Anton, on Flickr

On the original you can zoom in to individual bricks (all 11m of them!) but it still bugs me that I couldn't create a distortion free equirectilinear projection :| #wannabe #perfectionist

Even the bricks on the other side?

:wink:

Pete

 

[dickm]

That viaduct is another WOW. I had problems getting a decent shot of one of the arches there a decade or so back!

Have read about HDR, and think my X20 can do it automatically, but am still only on about page 40 of the 120 page manual

 

[m1ke_a]

Even the bricks on the other side?
:wink:
Pete

Perhaps not, but I can do you a different view which is a tad closer - https://www.360cities.net/image/ouse-va ... be-viaduct :lol:

****

Yep according to https://www.fujifilm.eu/uk/products/dig ... model/x20/ your camera will auto bracket. Make sure you shoot in RAW to get the most out of the camera 8)