Category: Railway

A nice day out.

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.

A nice day out
Beacon Hill, near Leicester
A nice day out
Craggy outcrop – Beacon Hill

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.

London St Pancras
St Pancras at night

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

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

Images of the Kent seaside

By cpadmin

Images of the Kent seaside

On one of the hottest days of the year I captured some great images of the Kent seaside. The sun shone without a break as I travelled from Cape le Ferne in the east to Dungeness.

Capel le Ferne is white cliffs of Dover country. It has a great café on the top of the cliffs. The Lees at Folkestone looked almost tropical in the images captured from there. Sandygate roasted in the sun. Behind Waitrose at Hythe I found some welcome shade along the calmness of the Royal Military Canal. Dymchurch was busy and it was extremely hot driving the steam engines at the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway so I was told!).

The beach at Greatstone had lots of people on it and pebbles reflected in the sunlight. Dungeness looked as special as it always does, perhaps more so in the sun. A yacht passed by near to the shore and provided a nice opportunity to photograph it in the blue sea against the yellow pebbles.

View more of the images from this day by going to the Compass Photography Website

  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Sailing by at the tip of Dungeness
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Patterns in the sand – Folkstone
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Dungeness – The boardwalk looking back to the road
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Welcome shade – Royal Military Canal at Hythe
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Pulling out at RHDR

Flying past!

By cpadmin

Flying past!

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Its flying past! This night-time image shows the 1849 train from Wickford to Southminster arriving at the empty South Woodham Ferrers station.

The strong yellow diagonal line represents the word “Southminster” flying past at speed on the destination board. You can just see this by magnifying the image. The white and blue lines represent forward lights on the electric multiple unit as it whizzes past. These lines start on the right of the image and show where the 13 second exposure started. Through the body of the coaches it is possible to see track and lineside equipment on the other side of the tracks.

t’s a dark and cold night in March 2018. The sodium lights of the station gave the picture an overall “orange” feel. White balance on the camera is set to “tungsten” to compensate for the orange glow created by the sodium lights. To get a shot I was happy with, I went back and forwards to home to check what each one looked like.

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

Settings: F14 13.0 ISO 100