Category Archives: Photography

Cornish Coves and Cliffs

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Canon M6, 23 mm, ISO 200, 71 sec @ f/11

Having read about Kynance Cove and that it got incredibly busy during the day, I wanted to make sure I staked my spot, so one morning I arrived there at around 06:30 to find a couple of other people wandering around walking their dogs, another person with a camera who looked to be packing up already and a fisherman who was on his way home, apparently having caught four bass. Kynance Cove is a National Trust site that is absolutely stunning. From the car park it’s approached by walking down. steep path. I didn’t attempt that due to my choice of footwear. However, I wanted to get a high-level shot so that was fine by me. As usual the Big Stopper was brought out to play and it occurred to me that it might be worth trying a panoramic shot. The above image is made of three separate shots, stitched together in Photoshop. I wish I had thought about it a bit longer and taken a fourth as I feel the cottage on the right is too close to the edge of the image. Oh well. Once stitched together, the image had a bit of adjustment including the ever-reliable Lenswork LW Warm Tone treatment. A few days later I went back to the site but could hardly stand up thanks to Storm Ellen that was passing through, and any thoughts of setting up the tripod were instantly dismissed! Instead I retreated to the relative safety of my tent though there were times when I thought that would blow away too…

Hazy Shade of Winter

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Canon EOS M6, 22 mm, ISO 100, 1/640 sec @ f/8

Over Christmas and New Year 2018/19 we spent time touring Thailand. We visted Bangkok before flying to Koh Tao for some diving, then getting the train from Surat Thani up to Chiang Mai before driving up to Chiang Rai, then returning to Bangkok for one last night. At the centre of the trip, wedged between time spent in Koh Tao and Chiang Mai was a five night stay on an island called Koh Yao Noi. On Christmas Eve we hired a couple of scooters and spent all day driving round. Stopping for lunch in a tiny fishing village I took a walk along a long pier where a haziness meant the view was was almost fog-like, whilst the sea was a similar shade of blue to the sky and everything appeared very flat. In the distance were some fishing boats whose relative proximity provided the only items of contrast against the background.

Floody McFloodface

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Canon EOD M6, 22 mm, ISO 800, 4 sec @ f/8

Late October 2019 saw a lot more rain than usual in the UK – so much so that on Tuesday 29th October saw a number of flood warnings (flooding is expected – immediate action required)  issued by the Environment Agency, including for the River Severn near to Upton-upon-Severn. Since this is now my local area I thought I would pop along to have a look, not having see the Severn in full flow before. Due to other commitments it was almost midnight by the time I was able to get there but needlesss to say the warning was justified and had previously built flood defences not been in place the town and my feet would have been very wet indeed.

Moored alongside the jetty is a large boat called Conway Castle. Normally most of this vessel is out of view, well below foot level. Tonight however the waterline was about two feet above foot level, held back by a wall that had just another inch or so before being breached. The flow rate was scarily fast too, with lots of boiling and swirling going on. Adding to the scary part was the fact that you could only see the immediate vicinity due to the lack of light, but you knew that out there in the dark was a river dooing its best to cause michief and mayhem.

Land of Lakes

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Canon EOS M6, 22 mm, ISO 100, 165 sec @ f/16

We recently decided to do battle with midges and expensive alcohol and booked a lake-side cabin in southern Sweden at Deralycke, near Linneryd. The place was fantastic – utterly unspoilt and once we found another route to bypass a rather large tree that was blocking the road we had a splendid week of BBQs, fishing, reading and generally feeling vey isolated. Oh and I even managed to take a couple of photos. However, not having been able to take my proper tripod was a bit annoying but I did take my Manfrotto PIXI Mini tripod along with the M6 and Canon’s EF-M 22mm f/2 STM as well as my bag of filters. I ended up using a couple of chairs stacked on top of one another which wasn’t ideal due to squidgy, uneven surface and a fairly strong wind but it was better than nothing.

The fishing wasn’t much to speak of but I did at least manage to read five books over the week.

Hilbre Island

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Canon EOS M6, 136 mm, ISO 400, 120 sec @ f/11

After weeks of endless sunshine, the weather finally broke today and I popped down to the sea at West Kirby. At the Marine Lake there were loads of windsurfers whilst out on the estuary a number of kite surfers were taking advantage of the wind. I used a lens I’ve not used for a while, my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and took a few shots of the kite surfers but there was nothing to write home about so I got the old super stopper out and reverted to type with some long exposures facing Hilbre Island… This time I was able to use my new very hard 2-stop ND grad filter from LEE as well. I remembered to take an umbrella this time to shield the camera from the wind too and it seemed to do the trick. Plus it gave me some welcome shelter as well!