Norfolk in summer

31st August 202131st August 2021 By cpadmin

Norfolk in the summer brings lots of photographic opportunities. Our visit was in July 2021, with facemasks, distancing and limits of the number of people allowed in shops.

Weeting

Summer in Norfolk — The row at Weeting, built before 1777

Weeting was one of the first places we stopped. It is an old village with the remains of a castle nearby. “The Row” on the village green is a row of thatched cottages build before 1777. No one is sure exactly when, the records have been lost! The compass photography website has a page with 14 images of Norfolk in the summer including Thetford Priory and Wells-next-the-sea, which is a great base for travelling around the county.

Gooderstone Water Gardens

Norfolk in summer — Weeping Willows overhang one of the ponds at Gooderstone Water Gardens, Norfolk

The image above is of the still waters at Gooderstone Watergardens. Here the willows weep over the water and the empty rowing boat. They reflect in the water making a gentle, very English scene.

Norfolk has some wonderful village names. The page includes images of Great Snoring and secondly Little Snoring. Both villages have remarkable village signs. Great Snoring’s sign is shown, reflecting agriculture and the village’s position in the Stiffkey valley, whereas Little Snoring’s sign is dilapidated.

The image from Little Snoring shows its church with the separate round tower. One opportunity not to be missed, was capturing images from the top of Blakeney Church. Despite of the long climb up the tower the view was marvellous. Here an image of the windmill at Cley-next-the-sea is shown along with the sea in the background.

Beeston Bump is a hill just east of Sheringham. The views from the top undoubtedly make the climb worthwhile. Besides the sea views you can see Sheringham to the west and Cromer to the east.

Competition success last weekend

24th May 202124th May 2021 By cpadmin

I had a success last weekend in a photography competition. This competition called for an interpretation of the word “open”. The exact brief from the judge was:

“I want to see your photographic interpretations of ‘open’. The dictionary definition is ‘not closed or blocked’ which means this is a wide-open subject so you should have no difficulty in finding something physically open or a metaphor for something open. In my judging I will be openly looking for unique and out-of-the-ordinary entries.”

The competition was judged in two ways. The people who entered the 1439 images voted for their favourites. In addition the person who created the competition judged the ones he thought best. I chose four images. The first was of Tower Bridge open and a Thames Barge passing through it. Secondly there was an image of an “open” barn door. Additionally a number of sheaves were visible within the barn. Thirdly, I entered a striking image of a fully “open” purple Allium. Finally I entered an image of two friends cutting the tape to “open” the Schoolroom café in Woodham Ferrers.

The results

My interpretation of the word “open” using the Tower Bridge in London came 132nd (top 9%) in the crowd judging. The the creator of the competition judged the image of Judith and Barbara opening the tea room as 7th in the whole competition! So I am well chuffed with the competition success last weekend! The two images and the judge’s feedback is shown below.

Photographic Angle 1st Prize in competition — Cutting the tape. Barbara and Judith open the Schoolroom

Competition success last weekend — Cutting the tape. Barbara and Judith open the Schoolroom

The stars of your completely different take are the two old ladies enjoying themselves cutting a ribbon to open a local community church café. In the best tradition of street photography you successfully took your one chance to capture the moment at precisely the right time. Your zoom lens has caught the action from the perfect standpoint in front of the pensioners. I love the reaction of the celebratory crowd behind the scissor wielding lady but I can’t help wondering what the photograph looked like taken by the lady in the centre of your composition – especially as it would have included you taking your top ten judged picture.

To look at other competition successes go to the main menu on our website

Summer will be here soon

21st May 202121st May 2021 By cpadmin

We all hope summer will be here soon and this wretched wind will blow away. The image below shows the field just over the road from Papermill Lock in between Danbury and Boreham in Essex. Papermill Lock is on the River Chelmer and it forms part of the Chelmer and Blackwater navigation. It connects Maldon and Chelmsford. Additionally, a great attraction here is the teashop, called Papermill Lock Tearooms. As well as that you can walk along the towpath and look at the boats, even feed the ducks and swans. Finally, of course you can sit and have tea and cake and watch the world go by.

On the day of my visit the field opposite Papermill Lock was full of buttercups. The yellow dots of the flowers went as far as the eye could see. Tall rye grass is also poking up in the front of the image. The sky was blue, with hardly a cloud to be seen. Summer will be here soon and I am sure we will get days like this one from 2019. To reach the Lock you go from Danbury down the Ridge and North Hill. From Boreham you travel along Mowden Hall Lane and North Hill.

To view more images of Essex click on this link and see the Great Places to go in Essex

Waterfront at Godmanchester

29th April 202129th April 2021 By cpadmin

The waterfront at Godmanchester from the water meadows. Unlike the original image, this panoramic has been created by removing proportions of the sky and the water. Consequently, this allows a focus on the ribbon of old houses on the road by the waterfront and their reflections. The age of the properties varies. Some are Georgian, whereas others may be even earlier. You reach the water meadows by crossing the Chinese bridge. It is then possible to walk to the river Great Ouse. More images of the waterfront at Godmanchester are shown on our website. Click on this link

Godmanchester is in Cambridgeshire, next to Huntingdon. It is on the site of the Roman town of Durovigutum. In addition, there is archaeological evidence of Celtic habitation prior to the establishment of a Roman town and a Mansio (Inn). people have lived here continuously for more than 2,000 years.

The website of the local paper indicates that “telling people that you come from Godmanchester” elicits a look of confusion! We visited on a bright spring day and fed the ducks. Then we wandered round the water meadows and past the boat houses. A couple of narrow boats were plying the Great Ouse and people were using magnets to fish in the water. They brought a a pistol!

See more of our images at – Compass Photography Group

Bright colours at Hyde Hall

16th April 202116th April 2021 By cpadmin

On todays visit there were bright colours at Hyde Hall. I visited on a sunny morning in mid April 2021 and wandered around the grounds. I came away with 95 images. Of these I saved 34 and discarded the rest. This post has three of the images. Firstly, and without doubt my favourite image of the day is image of Bergenia Schneekoenigin. This lovely chain of small pink flowers goes up and down across the image. It was not until I subsequently looked over the images that I was aware of the chain effect!

April at RHS Hyde Hall — Bergenia Schneekoenigin

The next image is a close up of the bright yellow Mahonia Aquifolium is next in the sequence. Bergenia cordifolia Purpurea has strong pink and purple flowers. I am sure it would stand out in the dark!

The Magnolias are out or alternatively coming out at this time of year. The pinky white raspberry ripple flowers are strongly in bud, whereas the white Magnolia cylindrica flowers are out. These last ones have undoubtedly suffered from the frost, as the brown petals show!

A new page on the website shows ten of the images I captured during this visit to Hyde Hall. Click here to go to that page

There are lots of bright colours at Hyde Hall. Its well worth a wander round. Check out their website

Low tide Sunset

16th March 202116th March 2021 By cpadmin

Low tide sunset is one of a collection of image capture on the river crouch at the Hullbridge Crossing, South Woodham Ferrers side. The setting sun was a strong orange globe and offered possibilities. The brown mud tempered by enthusiasm. High tide would have offered much more photogenic opportunities, nevertheless we were where we were! This image shows the sun reflected in the pink finger of water which is extending to the shore from the centre of the river. While the sun is setting people are walking on the river bank. Their reflections also appear in the water. The chocolate coloured mud is also turning golden under the setting sun.

Following other attempts, the position of the camera has moved to capture the globe reflected in the water. This shows the challenge of capturing images of a sunset at low tide. The position at high tide is different. Reflections are frequently offered from different positions. It is undoubtedly worth noting that a wet suit would be required to get an image from this position at high tide! So perhaps not! This image does show the pink water, which like a finger is lengthening as the water returns.

Six more images captured at this time can be seen on the Compass Photography website. Use this link to see them

Pond in the snow

8th February 20218th February 2021 By cpadmin

Here we see the pond in the snow. This image captures the same pond from the same vantage point as the post of a few days ago. Snow, that local rarity, fell as the image is captured. It made the image less sharp and a little blurry in parts, however reflections of the tree are still visible in the water. Getting to the vantage point was a little more tricky though. Under foot the ground was muddy and slippery. Still you have to suffer for your art! This image was captured in the late morning yesterday, however the pond was frozen over this morning. The resulting image is much darker and not as attractive this one of the pond in the snow. The clouds are heavy and create a sense of foreboding.

There is a complete covering of snow on the ground today and it is so recent that there are no footprints in it. There is a covering of snow on the arms of the large tree today.

This image has a gentle sprinkling of snow on the bare bushes and snow in the air too. The falling snowflakes can best be picked off against the brown area on the trunk. Its such a rarity to have snow that I am going to go around and about to capture more images of snow later. Have a look for these over the next few days at Latest Images – Compass Photography Group

Reflections in the Pond

1st February 20211st February 2021 By cpadmin

Water in the pond — After all of the rain the pond is full of water

There are reflections in the pond! You may be scratching your head thinking why is this remarkable. Bear with me. This pond is very near to our house. Unsubstantiated legend has it that the pond was created in the dim and distant past when builders dug the Essex clay to make bricks. No one really knows if that is true. A neighbour who was present in the 1980s when the present houses were built said that the pond always used to be full. He said that “things” were dumped in the pond during the building process. When they were finishing off the builders pumped the pond dry and took the stuff away.

The pond is normally dry now days. When we get a lot of rain the water will accumulate. Recently, there has been enough rain to please Noah, so the level of water is high. There is more than two feet of water in the centre. One day last week the sun was out and I managed to capture an image of the water and the reflection of the tree in the water. There is just enough space to capture the spreading arms of the bare tree in the area of the water.

Last year a pair of ducks came quite regularly to take residence and its hoped that they will visit again this year.

This image is in the “latest images” section of the Compass Photography Website. Click here to take a look at them

Clements Green Creek SWF

26th January 202126th January 2021 By cpadmin

Clements Green Creek SWF is in South Woodham Ferrers in the County of Essex. The tidal River Crouch fills and empties from the Creek twice a day. At high or low tide there is either a wide expanse of water of a wide expanse of mud. When the water is high and calm like a mill pond it is possible to see reflections from the clouds. One of the images below shows that.

A gentle breeze leads the clouds across the face of the water. High water and wind can make for some turbulence Low tide brings a huge expanse of dark brown chocolate coloured mud into view. It brings lots of bird to peck in the mud for food and as they do this they make whistling noises. The mud looks like a pancake rolled out by a rolling pin. At low tide a trickle of water progresses round the narrow channel and down the estuary to the sea. The second image shows the chocolate brown mud at low tide.

More images captured recently at Clements Green Creek SWF are shown in the “latest images” gallery on our Compass Photography website. Clements Green Creek – Compass Photography Group

Clements Green Creek - Low tide — Mud looking banks with a brown chocolate pancake texture

Bright day at Hadleigh Castle

21st January 202121st January 2021 By cpadmin

Bright day at Hadleigh Castle. Hadleigh Castle in Essex is an English Heritage property near Southend. English Heritage’s website describes it as “The romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes”. Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War, becoming a favourite residence of the ageing king John. See more on the English Heritage website

Falling over — The falling tower at Hadleigh Castle

My visit to Hadleigh Castle in Essex took place in the week before Christmas 2020. It was a week day and there were not too many people about. A selfish thought but it was good for capturing images. The website also tells us that In 1215 King John gave this area of land, known as the manor of Hadleigh, along with many other gifts, to Hubert de Burgh, his chief minister. The castle is a ruin. Two towers are still visible, one of them leaning precariously. The other one is upright and it is possible to go inside it.

The bright day at Hadleigh Castle provided some magnificent views from the castle and its surroundings. Looking up the Thames the Great Cranes at Tilbury are visible. Looking down the Thames, the pier at Southend is visible. A bracing walk along the grass offers lots of opportunities to capture interesting images.

This post shows two of the many images captured. Go to the Compass Photography Website www.compassphotography.co.uk to see more images captured that day

Compass Photography Group

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Category: Landscape