August 30th 2024 – Birling Gap
This is the photo I went for. Its a long journey, over 2hrs each way but worth it in the end.
At this time I only had the 16-50mm lens, so this is a tight crop which is not ideal.
I think I’ll return next year with my 70-300mm and get closer.
My favourite image of the day. The green of the sea weed really comes over well, and has the nice shapes in the sandy foreground.
The cliffs really are enourmous, no wonder they are visible from so far out in the English Channel.
I wanted to take this as as long exposure but failed miserably… perhaps I should have turned off the IBIS. Lesson learned, so this will have to do.
Some other images…
August 29th 2024 – Waverley Abbey
Its a nice walk down the far side of the lake.
Not often that you see a snake swimming in the UK. It is a grass snake.
Not the sharpest shot, shutter speed was only 1/500. A tight crop too.
August 25th 2024 – Hayling Island
I only took a few shots before betting a call to go back home….
This was a slow shutter speed using ND filters to try and do something creative.
August 25th 2024 – Imperial War Museum Duxford
I’ve seen my fair share of air displays and I have to say these aircraft were filthy. Most of the older static display aircraft were in real need of a good clean. In that respect it was a little disappointing.
See if you can recognize the F4 Phantom, SR71 Blackbird, Lancaster (not as big as I expected), B52 (not as big as I expected), English Electric Lightning (the original not the modern F35 variant), Harrier, Comet, Wessex, F15 Tomcat and my favourite aircraft of all time the Avro Vulcan bomber.
In service these were always very clean, but this had a thick coating of dust on it. The SR71 should be jet black, not so covered in so much dust its turned grey. How hard can it be to give them a clean once every 5 years ! You may also notice the TSR2, which if the labour government had not cancelled it would have been the best of its type in the world! You can see the shine on the wessex, well that was how the RAF kept the Vulcans when in service. I know this because until I left home at 18, I lived 1 mile from RAF Waddington which was where many of the RAF’s Vulcans were based during the cold war and I went to see then close up at the airshow every year. As a child I was frequently woken up by them in the night either warming their engines when they were on standby or taking off, which was very very noisey.
UPDATE: If you google the XJ824 registration number of the Vulcan you can find photographs of it from 1962 where it is painted white. Up until the Russians shot down a U2 flown by Gary Powers in May 1960, the intention had been for the Vulcan to be a high level bomber, and thus painted white. It was only after the U2 was shot down that they switched to low level bombing and painted in grey camoflage. Duxford have plans to restore the Vulcan at some point and give it a new coat of paint.
I somehow managed to take every photograph with white balance manually set to 5500K. Thats fine for outdoors but completely wrong indoors and required correction in post. Lesson learnt, I’ll stick with auto white balance from now on, especially since I’m shooting exclusively in RAW these days.
August 23rd 2024 – Waverley Abbey
August 22nd 2024 – Hayling Island
Don’t forget you can click on any image to get a larger view
The big lesson today was that I should check the weather forecast before leaving home. On the upside though is the added drama it can add to an image. The image above is a 17 second exposure at ISO 125, f10 and 50mm. The long exposure turns the waves into a mist.
and the really were some significant waves…
These conditions lend themselves to Black and White.
A wet through fisherman. He didn’t seem catch anything and just stood staring into the distance…..
Other images….
August 21st 2024 – Ceasers Camp
I spent a couple of hours wandering around Ceasers Camp, but only found tress and cows.
August 16th 2024 – Farnham
August 10th 2024 – Lincoln
I do like this abstract reflections of ‘Wagama’ in the water.
August 9th – Farnham
August 7th 2024 – Farnham
I wonder how old some of these doorways are in Farnham town centre.
August 4th 2024 – Alice Holt Forest
It can be nice to walk around the forest in summer. In winter it feels dark and damp, but a good place to be in summer.
The natural parts of the forest is better IMO. I have mixed feelings about these parts where lines of spruce tree block out so much light that the forest floor is bereft of life.
August 3rd 2024 – Farnham
There is a genre of photography known as ICM, Intention Camera Movement. There are some incredible images produced, but in my case it was entirely accidental and pretty lame in comparison.
Worth looking into though.
August 2nd 2024 – Farnham
Just another walk about town with my camera. This image reminds me of houses in the south France, despite not having shutters.
