Category: England

Won prizes with these images

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!

  • won prizes with these images
    Tucepi sunset
  • Best of Essex - Hyde Hall
    The main house
  • Allium at Hyde Hall
    Flowers – Purple Allium
  • won prizes with these images
    Steam roundabout at Barleylands
  • Best of Essex - Mersea
    Calm waters of the Mersea

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

Lord Lieutenant of Essex at Rayleigh

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

Click here to view our other images by visiting our website

Battle of Britain Airshow

By cpadmin

Battle of Britain Airshow

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford hosted the Battle of Britain Airshow on Saturday and Sunday 21st/22nd September. On Saturday thousands of people attended. The sky was clear and bright, the weather was hot and the views were really good. The displays of WW1 and WW2 planes were really interesting. See the three photographs. See more photographs from the event on our website. https://www.compassphotography.co.uk/battle-of-britain-airshow-2019/

  • Spitfire diving
    Spitfire diving to pounce
  • Battle of Britain Airshow
    Some of the 16 Spitfires
  • Checking them over
    Crew check the aircraft over

Rochford Arts Festival

By cpadmin

Mike’s images are on display as part of Rochford Arts Festival. An Art trail has been created around Rochford and there are guided tours to meet the artists. St Mary’s charity shop, 7 North Street, Rochford is where the images are on display for 12 days. St Mary’s run a Horse Sanctuary. If you like looking at art have a wander round the centre of Rochford in the next few days and look at what is on display.

Mike’s display for Rochford Arts Festival

These three images were captured with my phone just after the installation. They are not brilliant picture because of the reflections and the fact I did not want to get run over.

  • Rochford Arts Festival
    Display at St Mary’s shop
  • Rochford Arts Festival
    Mike’s images at St Mary’s shop
  • Rochford Arts Festival
    Mike’s display at St Mary’s shop
  • A shot from the launch of Rochford Arts Festival
    A light installation at the launch event
  • Rochford Arts Festival
    People listening to the mayor
  • Rochford Arts Festival
    Busy organisers

Launch event

Images are also shown of the launch event last night. Use this link to look at the Arts festival website and follow in on Facebook

See more of our images by visiting our website using this link

Passion flower, sunflower and a birds nest

By cpadmin

It was delightful to see the sunflower, passion flower and spot the birds nest hidden in the undergrowth.

Sunflower
Sunflower with a bee

Out in the garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon the sunflower and the passionfruit flower attracted me. The sunflower is about four feet tall, it should have been higher, but I didn’t encourage it to grow enough. Still, it is a lovely gold colour in the teatime sun.

Passion flower and a birds nest
Passion flower, passion fruit and a birds nest

Over by the fence the passion flowers are still growing and opening up. Behind them is the orange fruit of the plant and just visible is a birds nest too.

Look at more of the garden images in our garden galleries

An interesting Assignment

By cpadmin

An interesting assignment

Had an interesting assignment last week. The museum at Rayleigh asked me to join them on location at the Rayleigh Council Chamber. Together with the town council, they wanted a record the council chamber and the photographs that it contains. Created 250 images, which will need processing. Here are two of them.

Click this link to go to Rayleigh Town Museum

interesting assignment
Order please
Interesting Assignment
Rayleigh town council
2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

By cpadmin
  • 2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar
    Buttercup field at Papermill Lock

The 2020 Essex Landscapes calendar from Compass Photography is now available. Attached to this post is a copy of the front page of the calendar. Below the main image for each month is an appointments matrix . Normally, this matrix would have blank squares. This calendar has placed more images in those blank squares in each month’s appointments grid.

To have a look at the images included in the calendar access the Compass Photography website by using this link. Our website includes a slideshow of the pages.

Calendars cost £7.00 each. Postage and packing within the UK costs £1.50 each. Postage beyond the UK is charged at cost. You can pay by PayPal or bank transfer, cash or cheque (UK only)

Please contact Mike by email (compassmike@btinternet.com) or phone on 07973-294820 to get your copy of the 2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

Golden sunflowers

By cpadmin

Golden sunflowers, purple petunias and flaming red impatiens. Delightful summer gardens. “Little Dorrit” is the variety of the dwarf sunflowers, grown from seed and placed in pots. What is unique with one of the sunflowers is the additional flowers growing through the centre of the head!

Both the petunias and impatiens (busy lizzies) were bought as tiny “plug” plants from a local nursery and grown on in flower pouches. The impatiens have done better than the petunias this year.

See more of our images at www.compassphotography.co.uk

  • Purple petunias
    Flower pouches with impatiens and petunias
  • Golden Dunflowers
    Variety Little Dorrit
  • Golden sunflowers
    Little Dorrit

That darned cat!

By cpadmin

That darned cat!

That darned cat!
Ernie on his perch!

That darned cat! Ernie where he shouldn’t really be sitting, on the newel post half way up the stairs. Setting up properly for this shot was not an option! The tripod and one or two test shots would have got it right, however by then you know what would have happened. That darned cat would have leapt down to the stairs or up to the windowsill! They say, “Never work with children and animals”.

The only chance I had, when summoned by Gale’s shout of alarm, was to point and shoot three quick bursts and avoid shooting into the light coming through the window. No chance to fiddle with the settings. Maybe it didn’t turn out so bad though. For years I have been wanting to capture one of the cats as they stick their head through the banister. Usually though, by the time I have fetched my camera they have moved.

Ernie is just over a year old and he thinks he is immortal. He goes up the tree chasing pigeons who nest there and he brings back and plays with feathers! The painting is, by the way, all my own work!

Have a look at more of our images on www.compassphotography.co.uk

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm – settings F4.5 1/40 ISO100

That darned cat!
Ernie where he shouldn’t be

Visit our exhibitions at Rayleigh

By cpadmin

Visit our exhibitions at Rayleigh

Visit our exhibitions at Rayleigh. Mike is currently exhibiting photographs in both the Mill Hall (The Mill Arts and Event Centre Rayleigh) and Rayleigh Windmill. The two venues are next to each other and there is car parking.

The Mill Hall exhibition continues from now until the 16th August 2019. A photograph of the images is shown below, however click here to look at all the images on display on our website. The Mill Hall is open most days and it is possible to view these images at any time.

The Rayleigh Windmill Exhibition continues from now until the 25th August. A photograph of the images is shown below, however click here to look at all the images on display on our website. The Windmill is only open on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The page on our website shows the exact opening dates and times. Click here to link to the Mill Hall and Rayleigh Windmill.

    • Visit our exhibitions at Rayleigh
      Images at the Windmill
    • Visit our exhibitions at Rayleigh
      Images at the Mill Hall