Pepperpot Sunset
Looks peaceful and serene eh !!.. Yeah RIGHT !!..
This is St Catherine’s Oratory, better known as the “Pepperpot”. It’s a medieval lighthouse first lit way back in 1328.
As for the serene part though, this was most definitely NOT. To reach said lighthouse was probably only about a mile from the car park, but the car park was at the bottom of the downs, and the pepperpot at the top of the downs. The climb must have easily been 45° !!, or at least that’s what my knees were telling me.. If that wasn’t bad enough though, this particular evening was a tad bit breezy… Breezy enough that I had to physically hang on to my tripod to prevent it blowing away whilst taking the shots.. I kid you not, and no more than a few miles from here they recorded 82mph gusts later that night.. It was so strong that my youngest WAS actually blown clean over.. Not that I laughed at all… Strangely enough though, she wasn’t too keen on my holding on the the cords of her jacket, and flying her down the hill like a kite !!.. No pleasing some kids !!.. I thought they all loved kite flying !!..
Midnight Meanderings
It’s fair to say that I DO love a spot of night photography… All I wish is that night time wasn’t so darn late at night, when it’s all dark and stuff !!.. If nights weren’t so late, and mornings weren’t so early, I’d be a happy bunny mefinks..
This is Appley Tower on the Isle of Wight. The tower itself wasn’t lit unfortunately, so the shot itself had to be a 2 minute exposure to make best use of a few scattered street lights along the promenade behind me. Way off on the horizon you can also see another landmark from a previous vacation, which is the Spinnaker Tower with the ever so slightly impressive but disconcerting view..
Brrrrrrr..illiant Skies
Have to confess to not having taken many pictures recently, cos… well… not to put too fine a point on it… IT’S TOO COLD !!!… and if it’s not too cold, then it’s too… well… Ok ok, maybe it’s not actually TOO cold, but it’s as good an excuse as any to just stay snug and warm in front of the fire at this time of year… lol.. Actually I tell a lie, as I have been out, and have plenty of shots from some recent urbex explorations, but figured that maybe I should dig back through some as yet unused pics from our summer holiday, if for no other reason than they LOOK a bit warmer than my recent urbex pics… This was a beautiful day, plus, who doesn’t love a sky like this… :)
Feeling Reflective
Spent rather a pleasant afternoon strolling along the river with a good friend, and her new Canon 5D Mk II (no fair… lol)… Spent most of the time with one eye open for any potential photo opportunities, and the other eye on her… waiting for her to fall in, so that I could do the decent thing that any friend would do… and grab her camera before it got wet… Well, if she were washed away, I’m sure she’d be only too happy knowing that her camera was going to be looked after !!… Right ??… :D
Pony Pandemonium
More from our recent holiday in the New Forest… oh, and a touch more about the ever so friendly wildlife too…
So you may recall that I mentioned the free roaming New Forest Ponies and Donkeys in my “And We’re Back” post, and how they are even free to roam in to your cottage if you leave the door open… Well as a bonus, here’s a shot of said Pony… The big one that is, and not the smaller one you see in the background… (more…)
The Sweet You Can Eat..
… Between Meals… or is that just in the UK ??…
Anyway, here’s a shot I captured whilst on holiday in The New Forest, of the original Milky Way.. and not the chocolate based snack that apparently doesn’t ruin your appetite…
80 sec / f4 / 10mm / ISO 1,000
Funny story behind this particular little series of shots, as you’d probably expect there to be when I’m involved… Seldom does one of my photomagraphicalistic outings go uneventfully… (more…)
Karma’s August Rainbow Challenge
Well here are my entries for the Rainbow Challenge… Fortunately due to a fairly pleasant summer most of the shots are all entirely new and “kinda” summery… but I had to throw a couple of old favourites in there too..
Red – and I have to confess to struggling to find any decent red shots, so you’ll have to make do with a nice little red Ferrari Dino 246 from our summer hols… Not mine unfortunately, but it was in Beaulieu Motor Museum that we visited during our summer hols, so it counts… Oh, and one of those red things from the garden too (not my garden though)…
And We’re Back…
…with shots a-plenty, and a few stories to boot… Well, when I say shots-a-plenty, what I actually mean is I took plenty of shots, have discarded most of them as they’re not “quite” good enough (or I’m bored with them already), and I have now narrowed the list of some +700 shots down to just “a” postable shot… or maybe two… lol… Yeah OK, maybe I have a few more than that, but what I don’t post over the next few weeks may very well end up in the back of my digital closet… ;)
We’ve spent some quality time recently in The New Forest, which is a beautiful 220 sq mile tract of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest, where wild New Forest Ponies and donkeys and cows (and sometimes pigs) are free to roam wherever they please… ummmm, even in to your cottage, if you accidentally leave the door open… which will be one of the stories… ;)
Quiet Contemplation
Well, as quiet as it can be when you’ve got your 11 year old daughter bugging you to take her picture too… She learnt her first lesson in photography this evening though, as we both headed out with our respective cameras… and that is to “check your battery”… lol…
First shot she see’s and turns the camera on, and then said “Oh !!.. Battery Exhausted ??… What does that mean Dad ??”…
I said, “That means that next time you’ll remember to check you’ve got a charged battery with you, just in case”… lol… Just as well I checked mine… Yeah I know I know…. I should have checked for her before we left home, but it was an ultra last minute kinda “Oooh look, that sunset looks nice… quick, grab your camera and lets go” kinda moment.. ;)
Btw, have a little photo gathering trip planned, so I might not be around for a week or so, so apologies in advance… :)
Let’s All Streak…
Firstly, a quick apology for being utterly blog absent for the past almost couple of weeks, but I’ve been suffering from broadband speeds reminiscent of syrup rolling uphill… and my patience in waiting 6 weeks for every single page to load very quickly wore almost as thin as my hair…
I’d like to say it gave me plenty of time to edit images, but unfortunately not, as I have developed the usual disinterest in shots that are more than a week old… lol… I’m sure I have plenty old shots to air, and maybe I’ll get round to them sooner or later… Speaking of which, here’s one that has been gathering dust for a while now… I’m hoping to get a few more star shots soon, as I’ve a nice little trip planned to a real picturesque area… weather and darkness permitting… ;)
As for the broadband issues… Well fingers crossed they’re resolved now, but I’m only crossing fingers, as holding my breath may result in some discolouration… It has been pretty frustrating though, as the so called “tech experts” available at the end of the phone were very quickly established to be JUST a call centre in some far away land, who’s only qualification seemed to be the ability to read the exact same list of questions from the screen in front of them… “Have you re-started your router / Have you re-started your computer / Have you unplugged your phone / Have you had this exact same conversation 10 times before / Have you realised I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about / Have you got ANY patience left at all”….. You get the idea…. The WORST thing though, was that THEIR online speedtester told me that THEY had restricted the IP profile speed on my line, hence my speed problems… and despite informing them of this particular key result, they were unable to assist, as this wasn’t on their list of “Have you turned it off and on again” questions !!!… Every time I spoke to them, the only solution seemed to be “I’ve re-set everything, and it’ll all be fine in the morning”…. Ummmm…. NO !!!… lol… Finally they sent an engineer out, and his FIRST response to my rant was “Well yes indeed… They’ve restricted the IP profile speed on your line… That’s why your broadband is cr*p !!, why didn’t they just remove the restriction !?!?”….
Hmmmmm…. Now why didn’t I think of that !!!….
Rant complete… Normal service will be resumed shortly… Hopefully… :)
Birds of a Feather
and all that stuff… A few weekends ago I took my daughter to a very local RSPB nature reserve, home to thousands of wading birds both native and migrant, and some quite rare breeding birds of prey too, such as Marsh Harriers and Hen Harriers and Hobbies… Far too many species to mention here…
My daughter loved it, armed with her binoculars and bird book, and note book too to make note of all the different species she identified… She managed to list somewhere in the region of +25 different species, which included a pair of Marsh Harriers and a Hobby, and a bus load of Avocets…
I naturally went armed with a long lens and trusty DSLR… and here’s a few of the days fluffier highlights…
Sedge Warbler
Swallow - Ready For Take Off
Yellow Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Meadow Pipit
Btw… I have been messing about with an idea for a shot, that didn’t exactly turn out as planned, and during editing took on a rather macabre twist, unlike anything I’ve posted in the past… so I’m taking votes on if I should post it ??… Do you wish to see something decidedly less fluffy ??… ;)
Celestial Sunset
Just another quick sunset from the frantic 10 minutes spent looking for a shot before the colour disappeared… It was a nightmare though waiting for the clouds to clear the moon before the light went… I LOVE Sunsets… lol…
Shoreline Scrap…
I really really really need to plan these things better… Last nights sunset was simply amazing, but I’d spent the day on a self-induced alcohol recovery shopping trip… Had to go shopping in order to get the medicinal cure-all full english fried breakfast… lol… Anyways, after a day spent traipsing round shops I was too beat to go catch the sunset, so I figured that tonight I’d get out if there was even the slightest hint of colour developing…
Well it did develop, but all too late… and at the last minute I decided to go… but had literally minutes to find a location, so I apologise for the rather uninspiring location, but hopefully the clouds and sunset offset that a tiny bit…
Next time I promise I’ll leave earlier and find somewhere more picturesque…
Another Keeper
A Castle Keep that is… As I said in my last post, I have not had what I consider much success getting many good shots of our local castle… but I did come across an old set of shots that I’d completely forgotten about, and found a few more that I was reasonably happy with…
I did also mention that we have quite the selection of castles within an hour or so of where I live… Well tonight I did some more investigating…. and can confirm that we have the following… all in varying states of disrepair… Sorry… Lol…
Castles = 29
Castle Ruins = 7
Privately Owned Castles = 5
Forts = 19
And you can see more about all of them here…
Summers Here
Even if it is a bit late, and only for the weekend.. lol.. Well, it’s been quite the nice weekend at least.. And what better way to spend it than to wander around the odd castle.. Surprisingly though, even though I live within 30mins of this castle, and have visited many times.. I’ve never really captured a nice shot of the place.. Today turned out to be one of the better ones though I hope.. And in addition to the castle, I also managed to find a family of baby peacocks.. Could they be any cuter ??..
Hare Today…
So after a long long time of thinking, and looking, and saving, and more looking, and more thinking… and some playing followed by a bit more saving, and them some thinking… I finally decided (with the aid of some friendly persuasion.. lol) to expand my photographic potential by adding to my equipment … and bought a nice shiny new lens I’ve had my eye on for quite some time… A 100-400mm zoom… :)
Unfortunately since said purchase took place, I’ve not really had the opportunity to make best use of it what with work and weather, apart from a nice evening stroll with my daughter… but nice as the warm evening light was, it wasn’t best suited to making the most of a long lens…
I did manage a few shots though, and was real pleased to capture a shy and elusive bunny Hare… or jackrabbit as some of the more foreign people call them… lol… Did you know that the European Brown Hare can run at 45mph !!!… and they’re the size of a small elephant, and you can ride them too… lol…
Cow’s aren’t quite so fast, but some of them have got mean stares… It’s lucky methinks that I was 3 miles away from this beasty… lol.. ;)
Hay-Ho…
Not had much opportunity recently to get out at all with the camera, so have been rooting through some shots from a month or two back when the weather was real nice… Hopefully I’ll get an opportunity this weekend to get out…
Do have some interesting news though… Well interesting for me at least… In all the years I’ve been interested in photography I think it’s fair to say I’ve never encountered any real interest in my shots (apart from other like minded photo hobbyists)… I’ve never sold any images… Never been published… But then again I’ve never really pushed myself or tried to achieve any of these things, so no surprise really… I’ve always been content in just taking and processing images I like…for me…
In the last two weeks though I have been approached on two separate occasions, by two different well known camera magazines… actually asking ME if I would mind if they could feature one of my shots in their magazines… So from nothing for years, I will soon have two different shots in two different magazines… and one of them will even be a double page spread too… Could I be more pleased… Probably not… lol… I’ll no doubt be posting a shot of both magazines some time in the next few months so I’ll apologise in advance for the own trumpet blowing… ;)
Stranded
Another view of one of my favourite trees… Yeah I know I’m weird… but not as weird as a tree that lives in a pond… ;)
Hope you’ve all had a great weekend…
Walk This Way
I do love my sunsets…. Can’t really add much more than that…. lol… We’ve had some gorgeous (if not a touch too humid) weather over here recently…
HayDaze…
It’s been far too long since I’ve been out of an evening to capture one of my favoured subjects… the perfect sunset…. and unfortunately mostly I only have myself to blame for that, as sunset is late, and by that time of day I’m normally settled after getting the kids to bed etc…. so the thought of getting ready to go out again is one that’s all too easy to convince myself “maybe tomorrow”….
Well last night was almost another “maybe tomorrow” yet again… and I uuum’d and ahhhh’d until it was virtually too late…. The other problem being that I can’t just step in to the backyard to capture anything…. as my backyard is none too interesting… so I have to drive somewhere…
Well I left it sooooo late before deciding that I WAS going out, that my location options were severely limited, but this particular field is only 5 mins drive away and I’ve not shot here before… so that’s where I ended up… and I ONLY just made it too, and this was the very first shot I took…. Did manage to get another 20 mins shooting in before the colour drained away completely, so all in all it was definitely worth dragging myself out…. That is all except for the mosquito’s…. I really could have done without their interest in me last night… itch itch itch…. ;)
‘Nuff Stuff…
So for now at least that’s enough of the Urbex stuff… Still plenty more shots to edit and post from that visit, but for now I thought it was time for something slightly more pleasant looking… We’ve had some beautiful weather here just lately… Nice and warm and sunny… Maybe not as warm as some of you are used to, but we’re talking in the 80’s which is very nice for us on this tiny little Island….
Oooh, now there’s something I guess you never knew… I do indeed live on an Island… A proper island, just off the coast of the bigger island that is the UK…. Ok Ok… I’ll admit, it’s only a few hundred yards off the mainland, but it’s still an island completely surrounded by water… and connected by a road bridge…
Here’s some Wikipedia stuff
“The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some 38 miles (61 km) to the east of central London. It has an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. Sheppey is derived from the ancient Saxon “Sceapige”, meaning isle of sheep, and even today the extensive marshes which make up a considerable proportion of the island provide grazing for large flocks of sheep. The island, like much of North Kent, comprises London Clay and is a plentiful source of fossils.
The land mass referred to as Sheppey comprises three main islands: Sheppey, the Isle of Harty and the Isle of Elmley (it was once known as the Isles of Sheppey before the channels separating them silted up), but the marshy nature of the land to the south of the island means that it is so crossed by channels and drains as to consist of a multitude of islands. The ground is mainly low-lying, but at Minster rises to about 240 ft (73 m).
Some Sheppey inhabitants like to call themselves Swampies, a term that began as, and for some people remains, an insult; for others it has become a term of endearment or a phrase for reinforcing identity. The family names “Shippee” and “Shippey,” found predominantly in New England, derives from those whose ancestors were from the Isle of Sheppey.”
And as is sometimes the case, I was going to opt for the 
black and white option, but I know most people tend to prefer full colour…. but I processed in black and white too, so rather than waste it, here’s that option too…
Rockin’ It…
Now this is what I call a rock pool… lol… I’m assuming it used to be more of an outdoor seaside swimming pool, but it’s very much given over to all sorts of sea-life now…
Still on a bit of a black and white kick here, but for those who prefer your kicks in glorious technicolour, then here’s an extra splash or two…
And I’m not mean or anything, but I was SOOOO willing my daughter to fall in head first… What a shot that would have made… lol… Even me shouting BOO !!! didn’t have the desired effect though… ;)
Summer Skies
Yup, even those classic British Summer clouds can’t ruin a nice day at the beach… Who needs sunshine to build a sandcastle… :)
Original Colour Version
Mind you, I have always been a bit of a cloud freak… lol…
FS Photography 
