I’ve got three beach scenes to publish today. All taken at Bridlington.
The weather at the time was calm and there was a layer of high thin cloud as well as a fine sea-mist that threw the horizon into a dim line. There’s a sense of calmness to some of the shots, I think.
Curiously, some of the figures on the beach have an oddly faded look to them, like they are not fully there. I’m not sure of the cause, but wonder if the orange filter I was using might be the culprit?
Following on from yesterday’s pictures of the Bridlington lifeguard station, here’s one of their paddleboards on the beach, ready for them to take action should someone be in distress.
The sand was wet from the receding tide and so cast nice reflections. The four people walking into shot made the picture. It breaks the “rule of odds” (not that I take such rules all that seriously), but the flag kinda makes five, I think.
Another day, another day out – this time to the Great British Food Festival with my wife. The event was hels at Hardwick Hall, an English Heritage managed property, although the festival itself is taking place in the fields at the rear of the property, so I didn’t get to explore the house.
I was going to take my Bronica ETRSi with me, partly because I still have a partly used roll of film in one of the backs, and also because I took position of a 150mm lens for the camera yesterday (sadly too late for my trip to Skegness) and wanted to try it out.
In the end, as this was a day out with my better half, not a photography trip, I opted to take something lighter and chucked my Nikon F80 in a bag along with a roll of Kodak Gold. I didn’t take that many photos – around ten – and will probably put them all together in a post here when I’ve finished the rest of the roll.
In the meantime, here are some more pictures from the Bridlington trip back in June. These continue an irregular set of images I’ve taken of lifeguard huts on various trips to the seaside (I photographed another one at Skegness yesterday – maybe there’s a zine in this somewhere…).
I took a trip to the seaside today – Skegness in Lincolnshire. I’m extremely tired after mooching around taking pictures plus driving the 160 mile round trip and so this will be a short post.
By complete coincindence, today marks the start of a series of pictures from my first seaside trip of the year back in June, when I visited Bridlingtom with my wife.
I visited Rufford Abbey back at the end of May. It’s the ruin of a cistercian abbey dating back to the 11th century and then later incorporated into a mansion house in the 17th century.
The monastery was closed by Henry VIII when England broke away from the catholic church in 1530. Henry appointed commissioners to find evidence that would allow him to close the abbey. Apparently, one of the “disgraceful offences” that permitted this to happen was an allegation that the abbot, Thomas of Doncaster, had broken his vows of chastity with several single and married women. Following this, the abbey and lands were granted to George Talbot, one of the wealthiest people in the land at that time, and construction of the new house began.
In the 15th century, the estate passed to Sir George Savile. Savile supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, and his support for the royal family allowed for prosperity in the years following the restoration of the monarchy.
During World War II, the estate was requisitioned and used by the Leicestershire Yeomanry, 6th Cavalry Brigade. By the end of the war the estate was in poor state and Nottinghamshire County Council bought the estate to preserve it. This included demolition of some parts of the structure.
In 1969, the estate was officially designated a Country Park.
It’s not possible to enter the ruin itself, but the whole thing is surrounded by Rufford Abbey Country Park, incorporating gardens, woodland, a reservoir and various cafes and other entertainments. The park itself is free to enter, but there is a parking charge if you arrive by car.
It was a pretty hot day when I visited and there were a lot of visitors (although I’ve almost completely managed to keep them out of these pictures!). There is a large adventure playground making it ideal for familes, plus acres of open grassland, formal gardens, and woodland trails that are nice to experence and explore.
A couple of images taken within a stone’s throw of one another, both in the village of Whitwell in Derbyshire. Whitwell appears to be quite a nice place, but it’s somewhere I rarely pass through – mostly because you have to leave the main road deliberately to get there, and it’s otherwise easily bypassed. One day I think I’ll park the car and go for a proper wander around the place as I’m sure there are plenty of interesting things to photograph.
This is a church I’ve photographed on a few occasions. While Cuckney hasn’t been a particular destination, it’s a place that I drive through occasionally and the church stands out. It’s a Grade I listed building dating to the 12th Century, although it has been restored a number of times since then. I think it has a pleasingly angular shape. It is also largely unobscured by anything blocking it’s view – many churches tending to be stood amongst trees that can make photographing the entire structure more difficult.
I drove past this place on my way home aftert a day out and turned the car around to stop and get a picture. It would have been good to get closer, but there was a sign warning about trespassing which I didn’t feel like disobeying.
After yesterday’s post where I spoke about missing the focus slightly on a 4×5 large format photo, despite not rushing, here is a picture where I did exxactly the same thing, although this time I was rushing.
When I say rushing, that’s relative. You can’t really rush a picture with a field camera in the same way you can with 35mm or medium format (or, I guess, large format press cameras to an extent). There is still a lot of setting up to do before you get to the nitty gritty of finessing the focus etc.
At the time I took this picture there was no-one in the frame and my intent was to photograph the building, with the canoes and the front of tha canal boat. However, I was concious that there was a sizeable group of young people along with an instructor who was prepping them for going in the canoes. As I was setting up the shot, I heard him say something along the lines of “Right, follow me.” and the group headed towards my field of view.
I didn’t really want a big crowd of kids in the shot, so took this picture quickly when just two people were in the frame (one obscured by the other) and, because I was rushing, I didn’t check focus properly. The centre of the frame (horizontally) is fine, but the sharpness drop steadily towards the top of the building. Again, had this been reversed so that the lower part of the frame was softer, it wouldn’t have mattered because that’s just water and distorted reflections.
To make matters worse, the group of people then proceeded to walk right through the frame, exiting to the right, meaning I could have waited and got a better shot anyway!
Steel City Snapper photography 