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.

Summer Garden delights

13th June 202113th June 2021 By cpadmin

Summer Garden delights shows two images of startling flowers captured in the garden today. The first image shows an an Osteospermum, possibly the Sunshine Beauty variety. This flower is also known as African daisy and I believe it originates from South Africa. I love the shades of the flower petals as they turn from white to yellow to brown in the summer sun

The second image shows eight of the eleven large red poppies in the back border. Three are yet to burst bud. The sun shines through the petals in this mid day capture. It gives the feel of having a light bulb behind them. These poppies have large bright red bowls formed by their flower petals and they have large black centres. A close up of these centres can appear as if they are large spiders!. The RHS website has more information on poppies.

It really is a joy to sit out in the garden in this lovely warm weather and see the summer garden delights. The Compass Photography website has a page of eight images of the startling flowers, all captured today. Follow the link

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

Arundel Castle’s tulips

15th May 202115th May 2021 By cpadmin

BBC Breakfast TV featured Arundel Castle’s tulips. Carol the BBC weather forecaster gave us a tour one morning and definitely showed the nation how nice it was. Last weekend we drove down there to look for ourselves. While some of the tulips had started to ‘go over’ and the daffodils were well past their best it was a truly magnificent display.

Pots and pots had been filled with bulbs in addition to those planted in the grass. One group of pots surrounded a tree that was just coming into leaf. Orange, different pinks and yellow tulips clustered around the otherwise uninteresting tree in a blaze of colour. Subsequently, we came across a gazebo around which were many more colourful pots.

By now Arundel Castle’s tulips will have ‘gone over’ however you can see more images of the time we spent there by using this link or visiting the website of Arundel Castle itself.

Arundel Castle’s website has the following text. “There are nearly 1,000 years of history at this great castle, situated in magnificent grounds overlooking the River Arun in West Sussex and built at the end of the 11th century by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel.

Great view of Maldon

14th May 202114th May 2021 By cpadmin

You get a great view of Maldon from over the water on the Heybridge side of the Blackwater. Its a long walk round from the carpark, especially on a hot summers day. It was going to be 30 degrees centigrade on the last day of July in 2020 and so I was in position here before 10am to catch the high tide. This image shows the Hythe Quay, with a line of Thames barges moored alongside. There is a row of old buildings at the back of the quay including the Maldon little ships club. This recalls the “little ships” which went to Dunkirk in 1940 to collect the troops from the beaches. Sitting majestically atop the image is the church and its which steeple. The water tower also pokes its head above the trees, however we are not high enough to catch site of the Moot Hall.

A surprise?

It was a surprise to me that there was a grassy bank between the Heybridge side of the River Blackwater and the Hythe Quay. When you stand on the Hythe Quay side you are not aware of the bank and the further water after it. It must be visible from higher up though. Perhaps if you know where to look you can make out the bank in the middle of the water?

Still when all is said and one it is a great view of Maldon! More images from this shoot can be seen on the Compass Website. You can find out more about Hythe Quay here

Both ends of the rainbow

5th May 20215th May 2021 By cpadmin

Both ends of the rainbow is an image captured at Clare Castle in Suffolk.

Clare castle and Clare are interesting places to wander around and the castle has things for children to do.

The images on the web page include ones captured at Bures and Bures St. Mary, separated by the River Stour. Two images of the river are shown. Both are from near the bridge over the river. Firstly, an image has nice reflections of a multi-stemmed tree whereas the second image has deep blue coloured water coming down the straight, canal like part of the river. Imagine being able to sit on the deckchairs by the river in the summer! use the link above to see them all.

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

Bouquet of flowers

20th March 202120th March 2021 By cpadmin

This bouquet of flowers is the one that my children bought their mum for mothers day. I have set it down on the carpet and you may note that we have a black and white dog. The yellow gerbera especially set the display off and without a doubt when you put the display on the plum coloured carpet the yellow takes on a starring role. The white rose forms and off centre centre piece. The purple allium globemaster flowers complement the effect too. I have cut the image of this bouquet of flowers to a square format to enable the flowers to completely fill the picture.

This image certainly falls into the category of a lockdown image differing from two years ago. The I would have been have been buzzing around. I would not have and had or made the time to take this photograph!

The Compass Photography Website contains more images. Use the link to see them

Compass Photography Group

Passionate about Photography

Category: photography