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Rob Ralley

@robralley.bsky.social

3.7K followers 874 following 6.3K posts

Historian of science and medicine. Editor for The Casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier (1596-1634), now writing about Napier, slowly. And taking photos. Views my own.

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Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23h

Piano. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery #ClassicMono 📷 #photography

A view down from above of the mechanism inside a grand piano, with pairs of strings running down the image, slightly off vertical (two strings to a note), and shiny black hammers resting above them in the top half of the picture. A long hinge runs across the top of the picture and two glossy black bars at the bottom, one of which is reflecting the strings. Between the bars is a printed number that may be a serial number.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Boat lift, Ely. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A small boat lift at the edge of a river, with a marina full of boats in the background. It is a sunny day. There is a small, rather old-looking boat to the left of the lift, and everything is reflected in the water.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rhubarb and custard scaffolding. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A view along a stretch of pavement outside a shop, where the path runs underneath some scaffolding. The scaffolding poles are covered in pink and yellow foam sleeves, and the lattice of poles casts a series of shadows across the path.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

CAFE #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A doorway into a cafe with 'CAFE' written vertically beside it and a window beside that. There is a small square table outside with a tablecloth bearing a design with oranges, strawberries and flowers, and a wooden chair pulled up to it. Inside the cafe there are people visible, the nearest someone in a blue t-shirt and jeans sitting at a table.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Winter evening at the old Bishop's Palace, Ely. #BlueskyArtShow #lights

The Gallery, a street that threads its way between the west end of Ely Cathedral on the left and the old red-brick building on the right that was once the bishop's palace. It is dusk late on a winter's afternoon, with a little light still in the sky but colouring to gold near the horizon and a heavy cloud overhead. There are lights on in the old palace and bare trees are silhouetted against the sky. There are people walking along the pavement and a car's taillights are visible as it turns the corner.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Low-tide walk. #scape 📷 #photography

A woman walking with a girl along a stretch of wet sand by the edge of the sea. The picture is in shades of blue and blue-green, with a tall rocky headland on the right reflected in the wet sand and, fainter and further off, a lower contour of land. The shot is hazy with cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Okay, I'll join in. #FireHydrantFriday 📷 #photography

A bright yellow fire hydrant sign on a black-painted lamppost, by a brown-brick building wall (painted white on the left, unpainted on the right) and a cafe window with 'BAKE' in white 3D-effect letters on it, under a narrow green-and-white-striped awning. There is strong sunlight from the left casting shadows across the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Tonight's rather unexpected sunset. 📷 #photography

A sunset of orange-coloured coarse ropes of cloud across a grey-blue sky, with suburban house roofs, a tree and a lamppost all silhouetted in the bottom of the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Doorway, Carlisle Castle. #AdoorableThursday #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A medieval red sandstone wall with cobbled pavement in front of it. In the middle of the wall is a rectangular doorway with an arch in the wall above the lintel. A green wooden door is open and there is enough light in the dark interior to see sandstone paving run inside, then stone steps leading up into darkness.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Evening sun between the clouds, Ely. 📷 #photography

The top of a terrace of modern yellow-brick houses with a heavy raincloud above, slightly less heavy cloud further off, and sunlight catching the cloud edge with a little pale grey-blue sky in the gap.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Shed window. #WindowsOnWednesday #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A square window into a wooden shed. A piece of roofing felt hangs down from the top, and there is cobwebs visible in the top left. Inside sunlight from another window is catching the wooden wall and a propped stepladder

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Trees in evening sun, Ely. 📷 #photography

Two trees side by side, one a little younger than the other and with paler bark, their canopies cut to a matching height. Low-angle sunlight is illuminating their lower leaves and the grass around them, leaving contoured bands of shade in the background and casting their shadows diagonally across the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Water under the trees, Caldbeck. #ClassicMono 📷 #photography

A dark image of a beck running over rocks, foaming white, under a crowd of overhanging trees with just a touch of sunlight from the back.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Tree, late summer. 📷 #photography

A tree growing out of a low landscaped grassy hill in a park, with shadow underneath it and light on its small leaves and on the grass further off. The sky, visible under the tree's spread, is a hazy pale blue.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

CASH for your GOLD #BlueskyArtShow #Golden 📷 #photography

A patch of white-rendered wall in which is a black-framed window, barred and with a poster across it advertising 'CASH for your GOLD' and 'BUY BACK SERVICE', either side of a glossy image of a heap of gold jewellery. To its right is a cluster of hi-tech rather fancy-looking gizmos that serve as a doorbell and digital lock. Below is the grottiest-looking blue-green metal cabinet you've ever seen, rusty, its paint peeling, and blobs of blu-tak on it from where posters have recently been removed.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Golden buoys. #BlueskyArtShow #Golden 📷 #photography

Two yellow buoys left chained on wet sand by a receding tide. Golden evening light is illuminating them from the side and catching the tops of the waves. The view is straight out to sea, the sky a disarrayed sheet of grey-blue cloud with a tiny patch of blue sky showing and just a hint of light above the horizon.

Reposted by Rob Ralley

The Aesthetic of the Ordinary @aofoto.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

AO Magazine is finally here! AO = the aesthetic of the ordinary. Yet the ordinary can be special! Access and read for free. Let us know what you think! #aofoto #ECK #CityScape #Landscape #Photography #UrbanGaze #Scape #magazine #zine #PhotographersofBluesky #PhotographersUnited #ArtYear #art

online.fliphtml5.com

AO Autumn 2026 - Issue No 1

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Finally, a chance for a walk during daylight. #scape 📷 #photography

A view past one yellow-brick modern terraced house towards another, across a junction in a small estate. There are two young trees on the left, obscuring more houses, and there is a large shadow on the road in the foreground of a further tall pitched-roof house with a satellite dish on its corner. It is a sunny day with wisps of greyish cloud in a blue sky.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A matching set of #ThursdayBins 📷 #photography

The end of a low grey-rendered pitched-roof building with two very small windows under the eaves and a featureless grey door. A small streetlamp stands beside it. There is a hazy blue sky overhead and grass in the foreground, and between the grass and the building are four very substantial bins, all deep blue with black lids.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The side of a building in Carlisle Castle for #WallsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A square, pitched-roof building in Flemish bond red brick with pale headers, with grubby stones up each corner and six walled-up (that is, fake) windows symmetrically arranged on two floors. It is a formidable, if slightly unloved-looking, building. It is a grey day.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New builds, Wigton. #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A row of nearly identical two storey pitched slate roof brick houses with solar panels on top, seen across a field of grass coming into flower, and with late afternoon sun shining in the windows on a sunny evening under a clear blue sky - but the houses are not quite the same: three are in red brick, one in yellow and one has white render on it, and the solar panels are not all quite the same size.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Lode Mill in the sun at Anglesey Abbey today. 📷 #photography

A view past and under a large tree almost silhouetted, along a green stretch of water towards a white wooden building shining in sunlight, with a rather random arrangement of shuttered windows on it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A winter view from Watchtree Nature Reserve, north Cumbria. #BlueskyArtShow #undulating 📷 #photography

A view across fields towards lowish upland, the grass illuminated by golden light from a low angle. Fences, hedges and trees run across the picture. The clouds are sunlit.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Path under the trees. #scape 📷 #photography

A narrow winding gravel footpath runs through a gently sloping lawn of short grass, under a line of trees. Beyond the trees in the right a river is just visible, and on the left a small patch of blue sky.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Caernarfon: view out through the town wall's East Gate. #UrbanGaze 📷 #photography

A large arch-topped gateway in an enormous medieval wall, with short decorative columns either side of the opening and a clock above. A single-lane road with double yellow lines on each side runs through to an urban scene in the distance, with substantial old buildings in various pale colours running up a hill, the street busy with cars, pedestrians and a couple of children on bicycles.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Lanercost Priory for #WallsOnWednesday and #WindowsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A mossy, crumbled red sandstone wall with a tall narrow arched glassless window in its centre and a stone slab (possibly a memorial) on the pavement in front. A tree is visible through the window and above the wall, right at the top of the picture, a little sky can be seen.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

View from Mynydd Tir-y-Cwmwd across Llanbedrog Beach. 📷 #photography

A view between tall, established trees (one of them a torn upright shard of wood) across the edge of a beach with a sweep of wet sand closer and dryer sand curving around the far side of the bay. In the distance a green and yellow landscape fades into low cloud. Tiny on the image, a group of people are at the water's edge.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Cropped. #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A view across a golden field towards a pole with wires running across the image, and beyond that greenish grass and trees. The crop has recently been cut, leaving a golden stubble criss-crossed with straight lines. The sky is pale blue with grey-blue streaks of cloud across it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Tower, Castell Caernarfon. 📷 #photography

A view up from the lowest level inside a castle tower that has no internal floors remaining or any roof, but has a walkway one level up running diagonally across the picture. An octagon of sky is visible in the middle of the picture, blue textured with white cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Suburban sunset. #BlueskyArtShow #minimal 📷 #photography

A view mainly of sky running from Orange at the bottom, rapidly to a greenish blue, then the top half is grey-blue. In the far distance an aeroplane is leaving a small vapour trail. The very bottom of the picture is a row of silhouetted roofs, television aerials and a bare tree.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Evening on the shore. #scape 📷 #photography

A view across a wet beach and a bay towards a dark stretch of coastline with a dark fishing village just visible. It is a sunset of grey-gold clouds against a blue sky, all reflecting darkly in the water. Along the beach, just along the line where the waves land, someone is riding a horse, almost silhouetted.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Entrance to Long Lane, Carlisle. #UrbanGaze 📷 #photography

A narrow gap between two tall old red-brick buildings. The building on the left is slightly taller and has cream-coloured stone on its front, two curious small semicircular arches on the side, the lower one with a window in it, and attached to the front of the building is a blue sign for Bookends bookshop. The building on the right is in Flemish bond brickwork with pale headers; one sash window is visible on each floor, the lower one with 'Property Conveyancing' written on it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Window, Carlisle Castle. #WindowsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A small round-topped window in a wedge-profiled opening in a substantial red sandstone castle wall. There is a small ledge below the window and light through the glass is casting a shadow there and showing up the texture of the stone.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Cloister tree, Lanercost Priory. 📷 #photography

A young tree growing in grass against the (church) wall of what was once a cloister in a ruined priory. There is an empty arched doorway in the wall behind it; the stonework is pale and cream/yellowish on the outside of the building but red sandstone is visible on the inside.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Reflection. #ClassicMono 📷 #photography

A view along a wide urban pavement with cars around in the background, other streets and shops further off, and a handful of people standing around in twos and threes. Centred in the picture is an old-fashioned-looking streetlamp, the top of which is reflected at the bottom of the picture in a puddle.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Back in the land of pale, crisp-edged stone and yellow brick. 📷 #photography

A pair of niches by the western entrance to Ely Cathedral, in pale gold stone, topped with pointed arches and with decoration round the columns that look like something you might pipe round the edge of a cake. The bright sun is casting hard shadows inside. The bottom of the niches, at comfortable sitting height, is studded with short iron spikes, perhaps to stop people from sitting down there.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Time to say goodbye to north Cumbria again. Till I return. 📷 #photography

An elderly couple, one wearing a white hat, sitting side by side on a park bench along a narrow path through grass, looking across a narrow river (which is out of sight but lined with reedy grass) to a town (Cockermouth), with pale stone and white houses with slate roofs poking out above trees, and a church steeple. There are fells in the distance, and the sky is a hazy pale blue with fluffy but indistinct clouds.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

DYE WORKS Castle Street, Carlisle. 📷 #photography

A late eighteenth-century red brick building with its bricks laid in Flemish bond pattern. There are three full storeys and an additional level with a dormer window in the slate roof. There is a grey door on the left and empty shop windows across the rest of the ground floor front, with two pairs of sash windows on each floor above, front and side. Across the front is a ghost sign reading 'STEAM', then below in larger letters 'DYE WORKS', then a large 85, and overlapping with that the word 'WALK'. There is an old-fashioned lamppost in front of the building and someone working at a workbench by its side.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Wigton. 📷 #photography

A straight-on view of a pair of fairly small white semi-detached houses with slate roofs and small pitched-roof porches. They share a central chimney. Late afternoon light is shining across their fronts. Two cars are parked on the road in front of them, and there is grass in front of that. The sky is clear blue but crossed with cables.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Lanercost Priory: external wall, south transept. 📷 #photography

A tall red sandstone wall with a crenellated top, three gothic-arched windows below that, and an inverted V midway down where the roof of the building housing a vestry, chapter house and dormitory used to be attached. The last few metres of the nave (now the parish church) is just visible to the left, and part of the ruined chancel to the right. In front is grass with the foundations of walls rubbing across it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Carlisle Castle, 2: cathedral view from the battlements. 📷 #photography

View from a high vantage point across streets towards the tower and roof of Carlisle Cathedral. In the foreground Castle Way runs across the picture, with cars going past and a tractor with a trailer. The buildings in front of the cathedral are a mix of red and brown brick, red sandstone and pale stone, mainly nineteenth or twentieth century. The sky is filled with bright cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Carlisle Castle, 1: Captain's Tower and keep. 📷 #photography

Two military-looking boxy medieval buildings in red sandstone, sunlit. On the left and nearer is a gatehouse with a pointed-arch entrance through which a person is walking; taller and behind it on the right is the keep, with tiny holes for windows and a white flagpole. There is a lawn in front and black railings around a cobbled area leading up to the gateway. It is a cloudy day.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Friar Row, Caldbeck. 📷 #photography

A narrow, rather patchy pale grey tarmac road threads its way between houses, sandy coloured stone on the left and white pebbledash on the right, within low walls in front on both sides and shrubs and flowers billowing from behind them. There are pots of flowers along the wall in the left. It is a bright cloudy day.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

House by the Cald Beck at Caldbeck. 📷 #photography

A sandy-coloured stone cottage with a slate roof and sash windows edged with very pale grey, overlooking a beck (stream) that runs over rocks between lushly overgrown banks towards the camera. The sky has a little pale blue and a lot of bright cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A Cockermouth landmark for #ThickTrunkTuesday 📷 #photography

A substantial rather knobbly ash tree between a footpath and the river Derwent. In the distance along the river are white buildings and two tall chimneys, and along the path, growing in short grass, are smaller (younger) trees.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Cockermouth Castle, view from across the river. 📷 #photography

A river bank protected by rocks which are reflected in the water, then running upwards from that a grassy slope with a curve of ruined castle wall atop it. The wall has window openings, some broken at the top, buttresses, and moss and wildflowers growing on the surfaces. There is pale blue sky and light-fringed cloud, and the grass bank just above the river is partly sunlit.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Back in Cumbria. 📷 #photography

An evening view across two fields of marshy grass separated by a low wire fence towards a low, white pitched-roof building behind a small wooden fence, and beyond it hedgerows, trees and houses. The sky is blue Abbas the scene is lit by a low sun.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

IVB! 📷 #photography

An ivy bee, roughly honey-bee shaped with yellow and black stripes on its abdomen and a fluffy ginger thorax, on a green cluster of ivy flowers with ivy leaves below.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Octagon ceiling and lantern, Ely Cathedral. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekGforGrand 📷 #photography

A view upwards towards the ceiling in the middle of a cathedral's transept, with wooden arches from around the edges joining in the middle to form a star shape painted with patterns, around an octagonal centre where a small lantern sticks up, with another painted star in its own ceiling and windows round the outside letting light in. Around the walls at the edge of the picture are visible pointed arches and the tops of stained-glass windows.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Fragment, Rievaulx Abbey. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekGforGrand #scape 📷 #photography

A view over a low mossy section of medieval stone wall across a lawn to another chunk of wall, with a blind arcade of romanesque arches along the ground floor level, then slots for floor beams, and simple gothic arches above. There is long rough grass in the foreground and the tree-covered slope of the valley's side in the background, and the atmosphere is wet and misty.