A nice day out.

12th December 201912th December 2019 By cpadmin

Travelled to Leicester on Wednesday for a nice day out. My hosts took me to Beacon Hill outside the city where the views of the Trent plain are quite remarkable. I’m pleased with the images I managed to capture on my new camera from the top of the hill. It was a really bright day, though cold. On top of the hill there is a very attractive craggy feature pushing out of the landscape. This made a nice panoramic.

I passed through London St Pancras as I was travelling by train to and from Essex. Captured a few nice nighttime images of the Christmas lights. People playing the pianos create a nice atmosphere in the station. There is however no Christmas tree at the station this year. Last year the tree was awful. This year there is a pink Eiffel Town monstrosity. Why can we not have a traditional tree in this showplace. I have not included a picture of it here, however if you use this link you can see it. All in all it was a nice day out. Two good journeys and lots to do in the middle.

See more of our images at WWW.Compassphotography.co.uk

A Bright Winter’s day

1st December 20191st December 2019 By cpadmin

Today was a bright winter’s day in Maldon Essex. I took the opportunity of a brisk stroll around the promenade to capture some images. It was the first outing for my new camera! Really pleased with the results.

Hythe Quay was the home of a cluster of Thames barges. They make a colourful display. Maldon is the home of the Steam Tug Brent Trust. They are repairing two tug boats. Click here to have a look at the Steam Tug Brent Trust website

The tide was half out. This gave lovely textured patterns in the mud, as well as a visually pleasing sweep round the river

Have a look at the other image galleries on our website WWW.compassphotography.co.uk

Guest Photographer

19th November 201919th November 2019 By cpadmin

Our website has a guest photographer until the end of January 2020.

Guest Photographer Terry Joyce enjoys using a light aircraft to fly over the Essex Countryside. He captures images of the features of the landscape during the fights. This collection of images are selected from over 50 images of South Woodham Ferrers captured at different times. Have a close look at the images. See if you can see your home, school or workplace in our town.

Twelve aerial images of South Woodham Ferrers are currently on display at South Woodham Ferrers library. The library will also host a PowerPoint presentation of over 40 of Terry’s images. This will be on Saturdays the 23rd and 30th November 2019 from 1000 till 1200. Visit the library and view the images. The image below is one of the ones on display. Click here to visit the page on our website to see Terry’s images (www.compassphotography.co.uk)

Terry’s other passion is Rayleigh Town Museum where he tirelessly volunteers to enhance the exhibits and promote the museum. If you have not been to the museum it’s well worth a look. Click here to go to Rayleigh Town Museum’s website

Suffolk in Autumn

14th November 201914th November 2019 By cpadmin

Suffolk in Autumn comprises four images from an overnight trip this week. The catalyst for the trip was the concert being held by “The Hot Club of Cowtown” in Bury St Edmunds. I chose to take the scenic route to Bury, up through Clare and via Ickworth.

The main street in Clare was full of fallen leaves and this gave a great opportunity to create a really leafy Suffolk in Autumn image.

Ickworth is a national trust property – see their website I went there to photograph the huge Rotunda. Alas, scaffolding covered the Rotunda! At the bottom of the Italian formal gardens is a path which curves round. The wall and the shadows of the wall lead your eye nicely round to a tree with golden leaves. Classic leading lines!

Leading lines at Ickworth — Leading lines in the grounds of Ickworth

Moving on the Bury St Edmunds I spent time in the Abbey Gardens. One ruin amongst others! Firstly, I came across golden trees and then ruins of the Benedictine Monastery. I progressed down to the stream and found many opportunities for autumnal colours.

In short, there was lots to see in Suffolk in Autumn! The autumn colours seem brighter this year

Pictures from the Park

10th November 201910th November 2019 By cpadmin

A series of images from Knighton Park in Leicester forms “Pictures from the park”. The title could add the words “in the rain” as it started raining just after we arrived. There are some lovely golden leaves falling from the trees. Others have fallen and lie on the ground. The park in question is Knighton Park in Leicester. Click on this link to go to the Park’s website

Falling leaves in Knighton Park – 1
Knighton Park – 2
Pictures from Knighton Park – 3

Two things might have improved the shots. Firstly, being there a week earlier. Secondly using a tripod. As it was a family walk there was not time to fuss with a tripod. Have a look at our other galleries of images from gardens using this link. View our website www.compassphotography.co.uk

Farleigh Hospice Exhibition

5th November 20195th November 2019 By cpadmin

Farleigh Hospice Exhibition. Over twenty of Mike’s images are now on display at Farleigh Hospice in Chelmsford. Turning left at reception there is a long corridor. The images are hung down both sides of the corridor down to another junction.

Find out more about Farleigh Hospice by visiting their website

Farleigh Hospice
Mike’s images on show at Farleigh
Panoramas at Farleigh exhibition
Farleigh exhibition A4 images
A4 images
Farleigh exhibition corner
Mike’s square images on show at Farleigh

See more of our images on our website

Autumn colours in Colchester

28th October 201928th October 2019 By cpadmin

There were lovely autumn colours in Colchester yesterday. I spent an hour in Castle Park walking along the side of the River Colne capturing some lovely images. Image 236 is just above the weir where the river bends. Reflecting in the water are the golden leaves still clinging to the branches. Image 263 is again by the river. It reveals a bend with the bank on an angle and a rusty field of fallen leaves. The Willow in image 297 droops to the water and on the other side of the Colne more golden leaves reflect in the water.

Away from the water, image 337 shows that one tree has turned golden by the footpath. Bare branches of multi-stemmed trees that have already dropped their leaves reflect in the pool further down the Colne in image 346. A flock of seagulls that was sitting on the lake was disturbed. They took off as I was capturing another image of the pool. I managed one or two shots of them (363).

River Colne (236)
Autumn colours in Colchester (263)
Going gold (337)
Weeping willow (297)
Autumn reflections (346)
Birds on the wing (363)

Find out more about Castle Park by visiting their website. Use this link to do that

Madeira magic three recent images

23rd October 201923rd October 2019 By cpadmin

Madeira magic, three images from last week’s visit to Madeira. Two images are at sunrise, which in October is mercifully late! One image shows the mirror like hotel pool with reflections of the palm trees and rails. Leading lines to the palm trees come from the rails.

Funchal Sunrise
Sunrise along the coast
Funchal from Pico dos barcelos

The second sunrise image was captured from the promenade below the hotel. The white building and the palm trees are silhouettes against the cloud and rising sun. The bonus in this image is the Cunard liner Queen Victoria creeping into Funchal harbour. I did not see the ship until I was looking at the images in the hotel room after breakfast.

The third image shows Funchal from one of the viewing points high above the town. You can get to Pico dos barcelos on a long and tortuous bus ride that has lots of nice views along the way. Images can be captured from the viewing point here around 360°. There its a lot to see here. Madeira magic, three images from last week’s visit to Madeira.

Use this link to see more about Madeira

Use this link to see images from our previous visit to Madeira

Won prizes with these images

7th October 20197th October 2019 By cpadmin

Won prizes with these images. The Schoolroom at the chapel in Woodham Ferrers ran a Michaelmas Photography competition. The competition attracted over 100 entries. In addition it should be noted that it raised money for Mission Romania. Firstly, Mission Romania is a Salvation Army charity which delivers shoeboxes direct to children in Romania and Moldova. As well as providing shoeboxes, the charity is active in providing other support to these communities. So its worth supporting. Search for Mission Romania on Facebook and look at the great work that they do. Click this link

Five of my images won prizes and they are appended to the text here. Three images were in the “Best of Essex” category, whereas one was in “Flowers”, while the final one was in the “Sunrise/sunset” category. When entering images for a competition, you never know which ones the judges will select for prizes. Following previous times when I have agonised over the images I did a quick pick this time just before the entries closed. It seems to have worked!

Tucepi sunset
The main house
Flowers – Purple Allium
Steam roundabout at Barleylands
Calm waters of the Mersea

There are lots more images on the Compass Photography Website. Click here

Lord Lieutenant of Essex at Rayleigh

7th October 20197th October 2019 By cpadmin

The Lord Lieutenant of Essex visited Rayleigh Museum recently. The museum asked me to be the photographer for them that afternoon. The Lord Lieutenant is a role that goes back to the 1500’s. Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst is Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Essex and the first woman to hold the role. The museum tour lasted about two hours during which tea and cakes were served with the trustees.

Rayleigh museum is on the High Street in Rayleigh. It is above Pizza Express. The museum packs a large number of interesting exhibits into a small space. Much can be learned about the history of the town. There is a new exhibit about the railways and there are lots of things for children to do too. Click here to visit the museum’s website

The Lord Lieutenant posed for some formal photographs and unveiled a plaque recalling her visit

It was quite an experience trying to capture informal shots in that environment. The museum has uneven floors and a variety of lighting challenges. People were moving around at it was a challenge to get good images of the people present without being obtrusive.

The Lord Lieutenant reviews the exhibits
The Lord Lieutenant takes tea with Rayleigh Museum Trustees

Click here to view our other images by visiting our website

Compass Photography Group

Passionate about Photography

Author: cpadmin