Your R System Images - May 2026

[PKM-UK]

Some images from my vaguely recent(ish) visit to Tyntesfield, North Somerset, England. (This was the morning after we attended a prog-metal concert in Bristol - featuring Between the Buried and Me, supported by IHLO and You Win Again Gravity. Karen had caught an early train back - to earn some of what we like to call ‘money’, leaving me to wander around in a tinnitus infused daze before eventually travelling home in our EV ‘Rimsy’).

(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PL E/ Viewpoint, Adobe LrC/ PS with Tony Kuyper Panels and Topaz Labs Studio).

You can find out more about Tyntesfield by clicking Here.

For anyone experiencing crushing feelings of déjà-vu we have previously posted images from this venue which can be found by clicking Here.

Phil (missing Karen)


1. Tyntesfield was the home of the Gibbs family.

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2. Their considerable wealth was derived from controlling the import of Peruvian ‘guano’ fertiliser. (This industry and trade came with various alarming social and environmental issues).

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3. Originally the ancestral home of the Tynte family, ‘Tyntes Place’ passed through several families and iterations of houses until purchased by William Gibbs and his wife Blanche in 1844.

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4. In the 1860s, they hired architect John Norton to rebuild the house in the Gothic Revival style, reflecting the family’s devout Anglican Christian faith.

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5. They also hired decorator John Gregory Crace to design the interiors, bought furniture from the finest craftspeople - including cabinet-maker James Plucknett and filled their home with art.

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6. The National Trust bought Tyntesfield in 2002, allowing visitors to explore this fascinating house, gardens and estate.

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(Source: National Trust).

 

[ACEkin]

We’re Back! 460 miles safely toured, with 46 miles cycled (4,705ft climbed), 32 miles walked (2,540 ft of ascent) and 15 places of interest visited. Some images to follow (the usual limitations will apply - Phil has 5,000 raw files to process, plus bunch of iPhone and GoPro stuff).

Thank you to all of the contributors to the thread in our absence - what haul of absolutely fabulous images! Looks like you've had a lot of fun…

Phil and Karen

(PS. 'Yes' it did rain - but only a bit!).


Karen crosses moorland towards Rhayader after climbing up from Craig Goch Dam, Elan Valley, Powys, Mid Wales. (The descent was wild!).

View attachment 45792

Oh, I feel so tired! And, mine is only from reading the bike rides and walks!! More power to you both.

 

[PKM-UK]

Oh, I feel so tired! And, mine is only from reading the bike rides and walks!! More power to you both.

Hi Cemal,

In fairness, after all that, we need a holiday…

P&K

 

[Bryan Conner]

Some images from my vaguely recent(ish) visit to Tyntesfield, North Somerset, England. (This was the morning after we attended a prog-metal concert in Bristol - featuring Between the Buried and Me, supported by IHLO and You Win Again Gravity. Karen had caught an early train back - to earn some of what we like to call ‘money’, leaving me to wander around in a tinnitus infused daze before eventually travelling home in our EV ‘Rimsy’).

(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PL E/ Viewpoint, Adobe LrC/ PS with Tony Kuyper Panels and Topaz Labs Studio).

You can find out more about Tyntesfield by clicking Here.

For anyone experiencing crushing feelings of déjà-vu we have previously posted images from this venue which can be found by clicking Here.

Phil (missing Karen)


1. Tyntesfield was the home of the Gibbs family.

View attachment 45803

2. Their considerable wealth was derived from controlling the import of Peruvian ‘guano’ fertiliser. (This industry and trade came with various alarming social and environmental issues).

View attachment 45804

3. Originally the ancestral home of the Tynte family, ‘Tyntes Place’ passed through several families and iterations of houses until purchased by William Gibbs and his wife Blanche in 1844.

View attachment 45805

4. In the 1860s, they hired architect John Norton to rebuild the house in the Gothic Revival style, reflecting the family’s devout Anglican Christian faith.

View attachment 45806

5. They also hired decorator John Gregory Crace to design the interiors, bought furniture from the finest craftspeople - including cabinet-maker James Plucknett and filled their home with art.

View attachment 45807

6. The National Trust bought Tyntesfield in 2002, allowing visitors to explore this fascinating house, gardens and estate.

View attachment 45808

(Source: National Trust).

These are all wonderful images, Phil. I really love the tonality in them...the colors....superb.

 

[Bryan Conner]

Yesterday, we visited St. Mark's Monastery and Parish Church in nearby Sießen (Bad Saulgau) here in Baden-Württemberg. It was an overcast and cold day, but we made the best of it.
The monastery and church traces its roots to the mid-13th century, when Knight Steinmar von Sießen-Strahlegg founded a Dominican nunnery in the nearby town of Saulgau before 1251. In 1259–1260, he donated his estate in Sießen along with the patronage rights of its church, and six sisters relocated there to live under the Augustinian Rule. The church of St. Markus, which came with the estate, was formally incorporated into the monastery in 1348 and became the spiritual heart of the community.

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One of the most striking aspects of St. Mark's Church is the contrast between its relatively modest exterior and the lavish baroque splendour that awaits inside — visitors often find the interior far grander than the façade would suggest. Designed by Franz Beer von Au from 1716 and completed by his son Johann Michael, the church was consecrated on 16 May 1733. In its original form, the façade was articulated with pilasters and the tower crowned with an elegant stepped spire, but both features were stripped away during 19th-century renovations and replaced with plainer elements. A careful post-war restoration reversed these changes, returning the exterior as faithfully as possible to its original baroque character.

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Built between 1726 and 1729 to designs by Dominikus Zimmermann, the interior of St. Mark's Church is organised across four bays with remarkably thin brick vaulting spanning a ground plan of 7 by 10 metres, and features a distinctive double nuns' choir — a glazed winter choir at the lower level and an open summer choir above in gallery form — reflecting the practical needs of the enclosed Dominican community. Zimmermann also executed the celebrated stucco decoration, bringing a mastery he had already refined across Bavaria and Upper Swabia, where the stucco takes on an expressive and illusionistic role far beyond mere ornament, with allegorical figures filling the vault spandrels and the work over the nuns' choir evoking the mystery of the Eucharist. His brother Johann Baptist Zimmermann painted the four large ceiling frescoes in the summer of 1729, all united under the theme of the Eucharist and illustrated through scenes from both the Old and New Testaments. The fresco at the crossing is particularly striking, depicting St. Dominic in an allegorical scene surrounded by personifications of the four continents then known — Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas — alluding to the global reach of the Dominican mission. Together, the architecture, stucco, and frescoes bind the Mass, the choir prayer, and the church's entire visual programme into a seamless spiritual unity, and Johann Baptist's ceiling paintings are today counted among the finest examples of late Baroque painting in the region.

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The celebrated stucco decoration was the work of Dominikus Zimmermann himself, who had already built a strong reputation across Bavaria and Upper Swabia before arriving in Sießen. Here he masterfully balanced the interplay of architecture, stucco, and fresco, with the stucco taking on not merely a framing or decorative role but an expressive and illusionistic one in its own right. Allegorical figures fill the vault spandrels, while the stucco work over the nuns' choir evokes the mystery of the Eucharist celebrated at the high altar. The overall effect binds the Mass, the choir prayer, and the visual programme of the church into a single spiritual unity.

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The original baroque furnishings of the church were largely dismantled after the 1803 secularisation, and a Neo-Renaissance high altar was installed during renovations between 1878 and 1883. After World War II, this was removed and replaced with two baroque side altars and a matching pulpit acquired from Altsteußlingen, alongside figures salvaged from the earlier 1763 altars. The altarpiece of the high altar — depicting the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven — was originally painted by Matthäus Zehender in 1684 for the medieval predecessor church and has been preserved throughout these changes. The pulpit and side altars, together with Zehender's painting, give the interior the layered character of a space whose furnishings have been gathered and restored over several centuries.

 

[Shotbycurtin]

Oulton Park today to catch up with a racer mate.weather was overcast and rain. Managed to snap a few cars,

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[THXGEEK]

Vroooom!

(Sorry, revisiting my muscle-car days!!

 

[ACEkin]

The tree peony is in bloom in our backyard.

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[VanDyck]

Night Sky petunias waiting to be transplanted.

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A local squirrel buddy stops to inspect our gardening efforts.

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[RedCobra]

I have been testing the RF 100-300 f/2.8 with the 2X TC. Maybe not quite as sharp as with the 1.4X TC. (I can't find any diff between the naked lens and with the 1.4x though.) This SOOC RAW then to jpeg with no NR.

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)

 

[MikeCMG]

You know spring is warming up when the Aliums and Erysimum start flowering, new goslings get on the water, and the robins start collecting bugs for their young.

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[THXGEEK]

Just for @David Berry, some more rear plumage!

My local Downy Woodpecker, bugging out from the suet feeder.

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[AOC]

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[AOC]

Towhee Talk

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[funjp]

Sanja Festival @ Asakusa - Tokyo
Omikoshi ( Portable Shrines ) parade .

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[PKM-UK]

These are all wonderful images, Phil. I really love the tonality in them...the colors....superb.

Hi Bryan,

Cheers - much appreciated!

This 'Gormenghast-esque' house is very woody interns of the materials used inside, which lends the rooms a warmth (they also keep much of it shaded).

Phil

 

[PKM-UK]

Yesterday, we visited St. Mark's Monastery and Parish Church in nearby Sießen (Bad Saulgau) here in Baden-Württemberg. It was an overcast and cold day, but we made the best of it.
The monastery and church traces its roots to the mid-13th century, when Knight Steinmar von Sießen-Strahlegg founded a Dominican nunnery in the nearby town of Saulgau before 1251. In 1259–1260, he donated his estate in Sießen along with the patronage rights of its church, and six sisters relocated there to live under the Augustinian Rule. The church of St. Markus, which came with the estate, was formally incorporated into the monastery in 1348 and became the spiritual heart of the community.


View attachment 45834
One of the most striking aspects of St. Mark's Church is the contrast between its relatively modest exterior and the lavish baroque splendour that awaits inside — visitors often find the interior far grander than the façade would suggest. Designed by Franz Beer von Au from 1716 and completed by his son Johann Michael, the church was consecrated on 16 May 1733. In its original form, the façade was articulated with pilasters and the tower crowned with an elegant stepped spire, but both features were stripped away during 19th-century renovations and replaced with plainer elements. A careful post-war restoration reversed these changes, returning the exterior as faithfully as possible to its original baroque character.

View attachment 45835

Built between 1726 and 1729 to designs by Dominikus Zimmermann, the interior of St. Mark's Church is organised across four bays with remarkably thin brick vaulting spanning a ground plan of 7 by 10 metres, and features a distinctive double nuns' choir — a glazed winter choir at the lower level and an open summer choir above in gallery form — reflecting the practical needs of the enclosed Dominican community. Zimmermann also executed the celebrated stucco decoration, bringing a mastery he had already refined across Bavaria and Upper Swabia, where the stucco takes on an expressive and illusionistic role far beyond mere ornament, with allegorical figures filling the vault spandrels and the work over the nuns' choir evoking the mystery of the Eucharist. His brother Johann Baptist Zimmermann painted the four large ceiling frescoes in the summer of 1729, all united under the theme of the Eucharist and illustrated through scenes from both the Old and New Testaments. The fresco at the crossing is particularly striking, depicting St. Dominic in an allegorical scene surrounded by personifications of the four continents then known — Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas — alluding to the global reach of the Dominican mission. Together, the architecture, stucco, and frescoes bind the Mass, the choir prayer, and the church's entire visual programme into a seamless spiritual unity, and Johann Baptist's ceiling paintings are today counted among the finest examples of late Baroque painting in the region.

View attachment 45836

View attachment 45837

The celebrated stucco decoration was the work of Dominikus Zimmermann himself, who had already built a strong reputation across Bavaria and Upper Swabia before arriving in Sießen. Here he masterfully balanced the interplay of architecture, stucco, and fresco, with the stucco taking on not merely a framing or decorative role but an expressive and illusionistic one in its own right. Allegorical figures fill the vault spandrels, while the stucco work over the nuns' choir evokes the mystery of the Eucharist celebrated at the high altar. The overall effect binds the Mass, the choir prayer, and the visual programme of the church into a single spiritual unity.

View attachment 45838

The original baroque furnishings of the church were largely dismantled after the 1803 secularisation, and a Neo-Renaissance high altar was installed during renovations between 1878 and 1883. After World War II, this was removed and replaced with two baroque side altars and a matching pulpit acquired from Altsteußlingen, alongside figures salvaged from the earlier 1763 altars. The altarpiece of the high altar — depicting the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven — was originally painted by Matthäus Zehender in 1684 for the medieval predecessor church and has been preserved throughout these changes. The pulpit and side altars, together with Zehender's painting, give the interior the layered character of a space whose furnishings have been gathered and restored over several centuries.

Hi Bryan,

Exquisite images of spellbinding buildings - a treasure of interest here to fascinate any viewer.

Well done indeed - and thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

Oulton Park today to catch up with a racer mate.weather was overcast and rain. Managed to snap a few cars,

View attachment 45846


View attachment 45847

View attachment 45848

View attachment 45849

Hi Mike,

Adrenalin fuelled images, with the perfect blend of sharp subject detail and motion blur.

Great stuff! - Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

The tree peony is in bloom in our backyard.

View attachment 45854

Hi Cemal,

What a beautiful companion to be able to enjoy.

(We particularly enjoy photographing flowers/ flora - I'll be working on a whole 'bunch' of shots today - the presence of water drops is always a bonus).

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

Night Sky petunias waiting to be transplanted.View attachment 45858

A local squirrel buddy stops to inspect our gardening efforts.
View attachment 45859

Hi Walter,

Scintillating flora and an absolute cutie - your garden is well blessed with nature's beauty.

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

I have been testing the RF 100-300 f/2.8 with the 2X TC. Maybe not quite as sharp as with the 1.4X TC. (I can't find any diff between the naked lens and with the 1.4x though.) This SOOC RAW then to jpeg with no NR.View attachment 45864)

Hi RedCobra,

Fascinating to see this tech in use - all looking very impressive from here (particularly given the lack of additional processing).

(And what an absolute cutie!).

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

You know spring is warming up when the Aliums and Erysimum start flowering, new goslings get on the water, and the robins start collecting bugs for their young.


View attachment 45866View attachment 45867View attachment 45868View attachment 45869

Hi Mike,

A terrific set of images - hopefully things are moving in the right direction here (although we just got soaked on our early morning wood walk... ).

(That robin is an absolute cutie!).

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

Just for @David Berry, some more rear plumage!

My local Downy Woodpecker, bugging out from the suet feeder.

View attachment 45888

View attachment 45889

Hi Craig,

A striking display of plumage form a wonderful, if somewhat reluctant, subject.

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

Towhee Talk

View attachment 45901

Hi Art,

The second of your brace of superb captures (and - just - our favourite!) of two beautiful creatures - wonderful colours, feather detail and eye-pop.

A joy to behold - thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

Sanja Festival @ Asakusa - Tokyo
Omikoshi ( Portable Shrines ) parade .
View attachment 45905View attachment 45906View attachment 45907

Hi funjp,

A set of fascinating images absolutely packed with interest for the viewer to explore.

Thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[SwampGrizz]

Funjp,
I joke on here sometimes that I can take a world vacation from my easy chair just by seeing all these wonderful photographs from around the world. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of your beautiful culture by posting your photos. Please post more.

 

[Bucolic Old Sir Henry]

Yesterday was all about being buzzed.

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This is an aerial top dressing plane doing a steep turn over our house. They are a cost-effective way of applying NPK fertiliser to the pastures on the rolling hills we live amongst. This plane was flying from a neighbour's airstrip, making frequent stops to refill with fertiliser - the hopper is between the pilot and the engine, and there's a spreader spout thingy underneath. They fly pretty low on GPS controlled tracks, and make some pretty steep turns and passes. A bit like being underneath a dogfight at times...

Mind you, there's quite a lot of waiting around to get shots, and this little thing decided to say hi...

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This is a pīwakawaka, or fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa), who kept me company between passes by the top-dresser, frequently getting closer than the minimum focussing distance of my 100-500. If you look closely in her eye, you can just about see me pointing the lens...

And since we seem to have a thing about bird's bums at the moment, here she is shaking a tail feather.

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[PKM-UK]

Yesterday was all about being buzzed.
View attachment 45924
This is an aerial top dressing plane doing a steep turn over our house. They are a cost-effective way of applying NPK fertiliser to the pastures on the rolling hills we live amongst. This plane was flying from a neighbour's airstrip, making frequent stops to refill with fertiliser - the hopper is between the pilot and the engine, and there's a spreader spout thingy underneath. They fly pretty low on GPS controlled tracks, and make some pretty steep turns and passes. A bit like being underneath a dogfight at times...

Mind you, there's quite a lot of waiting around to get shots, and this little thing decided to say hi...
View attachment 45926
This is a pīwakawaka, or fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa), who kept me company between passes by the top-dresser, frequently getting closer than the minimum focussing distance of my 100-500. If you look closely in her eye, you can just about see me pointing the lens...

And since we seem to have a thing about bird's bums at the moment, here she is shaking a tail feather.
View attachment 45925

Hi Gareth,

A fascinating mix of perched and in flight 'birds' - image #1 looks like an ideal way to revisit breakfast.

(#2 is our favourite - what a little cutie!).

Hopefully normality has been restored - thank you for sharing...

P&K

 

[PKM-UK]

When you start going through your files from a recent visit and find you shot the Welsh only version of an information board...

(We can just about manage to say 'good morning' in Welsh - probably quite badly - but the rest of the language is completely impenetrable).

Phil

(With apologies to any Welsh forum members, good morning is 'Bore da' - pronounced phonetically-ish = 'borrey daahh').


Right then, who's going first?...

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[AOC]

Another slightly different angle of an Eastern Towhee tweet from earlier post. I like the tail feather view on this capture

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