Category: Great places to go in Essex

Sunny day before storm Ciara

By cpadmin

Sunny day before storm Ciara

Today was a sunny day before storm Ciara arrives tomorrow. I was able to capture images at Hanningfield Reservoir and Compass Gardens in South Woodham Ferrers. The reservoir at Hanningfield held more water than I have seen it is for a long time. The sun and the clear sky allowed me to create marvellous images of the large expanse of water. Use this link to take a look at Hanningfield’s website

Sunny day before storm Ciara
Glorious views at Hanningfield reservoir

In Compass Gardens the crocuses and catkins were out. I played with a few images of the crocuses and in the end got down to ground level. Literally the camera on the grass and my mobile phone employed to keep the camera level. It’s a great result. It shows the grass being taller than the crocus. The trees look massive in the background. The storm is coming tomorrow and I suppose it will not be possible to get such nice photographs.

Sunny day before storm Ciara
Yellow crocuses from ground level

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

Winter warmer!

By cpadmin

Winter warmer!

Winter warmer
Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’

The dull, grey and cold days of the New Year need a winter warmer! Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ is just that. This colourful-barked dogwood are typically grown for winter colour, when their colourful, leafless stems shine like beacons in the bare winter garden. Cornus sanguinea has red stems, and looks fantastic when planted with evergreen shrubs, and among spring flowers.

The image below was captured at RHS Hyde Hall recently and as you can see the colours are vibrant. A large space is required to get the best effect though. Most of us don’t have a garden big enough to allow this plant to show itself off to best advantage. We can still look forward to summer warmth!

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

A Bright Winter’s day

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.

  • Thames barges
  • a bright winter's day
  • a bright winter's day
A bright winter’s day

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

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

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

A job well done!

By cpadmin
A job well done!
Events on the stage – Thurrock Carnival

A job well done! Last week Compass Photography was asked to be the event photographer at Thurrock Carnival the following Sunday. Short notice as someone else couldn’t make it! Spend most of the day there and captured some nice images. Most of them involve people and so I’m not publishing them here. It was nice to get the following mail from the person organising the event.

Mike,

We just want to thank you so much for being our event photographer on Sunday, and how you were able to help out at such late notice. The photos are great, and we really appreciate your great work! We look forward to having you on our next event!

Many Thanks George Hughes, HugeStar Productions & Events

See more of our images on www.compassphotograpy.co.uk

Cornucopia of colour

By cpadmin
  • Cornucopia of colour
    Purple alliums in front of daisies
  • Cornucopia of colour
    Aster alpinus goliath in the dry garden

There is a cornucopia of colour in a new collection of images captured at Hyde Hall in late May 2019. It was a slightly breezy sunny afternoon. I walked round the garden in a different sequence.

Normally, I arrive at the garden when it opens in the morning to capture images without other folk in the way. This visit was in the afternoon. As a result, it meant that the sun had moved round to a different angle and gave different opportunities.

Two images from the new gallery are shown above. One of the images shows Purple alliums set in front of a pastiche of out of focus bank of daisies. The second image show the compact purple and yellow aster on a bed of pebbles.

 Click on this link to see the whole cornucopia of colour gallery.

The whole  slide show includes more purple alliums, yellow roses in the rose garden, Californian poppies, a white Iris shaped like a polo mint and two restful images captured from a bench below the small pond.

This link will take you to our other Hyde Hall galleries

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings for alliums: F6.3 1/640 ISO 100

Settings for aster: F5.6 1/1000 ISO 100

Visit our website www.compassphotography.co.uk