In which we are in Luckett

[bunn]

I meant to post about walking around Luckett earlier this week, but LJ had hiccups.   Luckett is an ex-mining village - in fact, twice an ex-mining village.  It was an ex-mining village in 1877, when the tin and arsenic mine closed.  Then in the 1940s' the price of tin went up, and the mine re-opened for a short while, until Luckett became an ex-mining village for the second time in 1952.

Philmophlegm and Brythen traverse a spoilheap, which appears to have half-eaten an earlier building.  I think the half-eaten building must be one of the nineteenth-century ones that wasn't needed in the 40's.  Brythen is on the lead because I really don't need him trying to follow a rabbit down an abandoned mineshaft, the noodlebrain.   I like the way that this photo vaguely suggests they have just popped up out of a hole.



Looking at this mine chimney enveloped in ivy and the castle-like ruin of the mine, it seems almost incredible that when the mine last re-opened, about 65 years after it closed,  that was a longer time closed than the period from 1952 to now.  The mine seems like it has been dead for centuries.

But when I came to look up the dates (which I stole from this Stoke Climsland magazine article), I stumbled across this Realplayer video about the Exciting Modern Mining Methods being deployed in cutting-edge Luckett...



I found a stream and experimented with fast and slow shutter speeds.  I don't think this 'frozen' fall would be at all convincing as a background for tiny people.


 But this one seems much more convinging - it absolutely calls out for a drama of some sort taking place before the Mighty Falls?  Note to self, if I try this, remember to remove any leaves.  That leaf in the middle would be a dead giveaway.  I might need to photoshop the moss in the middle of the fall a bit too.


Luckett seemed a cheery village, until we stumbled across this rather macabre exhibit.    I know sheep do go the Way of All Sheep with alarming regularity, but I still feel that celebrating the deaths by decking a bush with random skulls is just a bit odd.

Comments

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos! Yes, I agree there's something about the water droplets in the first falls photo which reveals its scale, which is helpfully blurred out in the second. I meant to say re your earlier photos - don't you think the blur cues reveals their scale, as in that ladybird photo of yours I used for that article? I think they might look bigger if you could get enough light to use a narrow aperture and a wide depth of field - what do you think? -Neuromancer

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The problem with a narrower aperture is that the more you can see behind the figure, the more likely it is that you get something in shot that is clearly out of scale. The lens I used for those miniature shots was not a macro lens - it was a 28mm lens with a minimum depth of field of about a foot, so in theory, you could have an actual human being with that much blur behind them. I wonder if they would look small then? I will have to try it.

I did try with the dragon shots having one with the foreground and a distant landscape looking tiny because Far Away, but not enough light, as you say. I think I need a very clear day for that sort of shot to work, because misty blue distance would be a dead giveaway.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I like the way that this photo vaguely suggests they have just popped up out of a hole...

LOL. And now I have the strangest idea of the Tamar Valley, as the sort of place where dogwalkers spend a lot of time underground, occasionally popping up unexpectedly.

The display of sheeps' skulls is... er... interesting.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

As long as we don't suddenly find ourselves underground, unable to get out again - always a worry when walking around on top of a county that is as full of holes as a Swiss Cheese...

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Clearly the altar of sheep bones is the sign that the underground mine workings are now infested by orcs and goblins. Beware of drums in the deep!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The Knockers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker_(folklore)) will eat them.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I find the second photo particularly compelling for some reason!

I have had a decomposing ram's head hanging in the wood for about two years now waiting for all the flesh to come off [so I can display his very impressive horns]. It is gruesome and gives me a jolt sometimes even though I know it's there!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Heimaey in Iceland has half a house, the other half havingbeen buried by lava in ?1971. I've got a photo of it somewhere.