embracing the peace

casting aside the distraction

and

concentrating on me.

Should I even be writing this to tell you….I’m not sure, I’m not important, I’m just in need of change and time and as mentioned earlier…PEACE.

My inititial idea is to be off sm until at least the end of 2027, it would be great if I could make it and even if I do, would I return to one or two sm platforms? who knows?

I would like to sincerely thank you for following my photographic work and reading my none too regular words. It is a pity, I like this platform but I have just run out of steam to write and that is so dearly what I wanted to do on here but alas I have fallen into the trap of just posting notes and I’m kind of annoyed with myself for going that way but perhaps within that is a sign that I need a break/change.

Despite me giving up the running of photo tours I will always be photographing and I truly believe I need to shake things up in that department, that will be good for me.

Hopefully you’ll see those results further down the line somewhere.

Until then.

Take care of yourselves

J x

Here are my ‘observations’ from ground level and from the windpump, both the interior and views from the windpump.

I hope you like them.

Alas, it wasn’t to be, but the simple pleasure of watching the clouds form and interact was distraction enough.

There was a beautiful softness to the light while the clouds were present, a joy compared with the intense glare that a return to blue sky would bring.

Here’s my images from standing in the yard cloudwatching……

simple pleasures……….

It is a nature reserve, a mooring for those navigating the River Ant, there is even a little bit of height so you can actually overlook the river and marshes which is a rarity in the Broads. Above all it is a place of peace.

Sometimes leaving a good length of time between visiting local locations is good as one hopes to re-visit with a fresh eye with the hope that subjects present themselves that maybe didn’t on previous visits.

It was a cold April evening and it wasn’t long before I had regretted not packing my light jacket in my bag, dammit I feel the cold these days!!!!!!!

The light was lovely, there was a blue sky which is not always ideal in Norfolk but my idea for this evening was to shoot the marshes and trees in low late light which would be guaranteed as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

After a long and grey winter the photographic eye needed waking up so this was one of my first local photographic sessions after a long hiatus due to the poor weather.

The eye wasn’t quite in but here’s some shots from my couple of hours of wanderings around this beautiful place.

Thanks for having a look

J

I am sure I was not alone in thinking that it was nice to get out in relatively bright weather after a good few days of grey. Just a little bit of brightness is good for you, I often wonder how I’d cope in the Scandinavian countries in the times of the year when they get barely a few hours of daylight. Perhaps I would write a black metal styled album or write a scandi noir novel with a brilliant but desperately flawed detective hunting down a serial killer. In all honesty I’d be quite happy doing either of those.

Over the last couple of days I have hit the old (recurring) feelings of ‘why bother posting?’ that come into the old photography conscience from time to time. It is now that I want to say things and have a mini rant but I won’t, I genuinely cannot be bothered to.

Instead I offer you a few images and my thoughts behind the images from a lovely visit to Pigney’s Wood near North Walsham in Norfolk with thanks to JD and Rick for their company on location and at Watsons Cafe, Bacton after the shoot for a lovely Bacon sarnie. Yum!!!!!

Hope you like the images………

It took a while to see something. We had all noticed an area of mist in land beside the canal, it was a little further on from where we had gathered to chat and and we hoped it would stick around and maybe more mist would form. I was in a ‘get started and others will follow’ type of mood so I looked for shapes beside the canal and was atracted to these dried out reeds, their silvery tones combined well with the blue of the water water.

The mist was subtle, to put it mildly, but nonetheless it was most welcome. It was definitely a time when I needed a longer reach but I have to make do with my limit at 135mm at present, though as JD reminds us, you are shooting on a 48 megapixel camera, crop the blooody image, and he’s right. I’d still like a Nikon z 100-400 though, though with my economic situation I have more chance of writing the aforementioned black metal album! This image is not particularly good but it does highlight some of the wonderful subtle tones on show this morning.

The first ‘regular’ image of the morning I was happy with. A little frame at the bottom with the out of focus foreground, a layer of reeds and then the subtle colours of the various trees. No focus stacking here, I’m happy to let things go in and out of focus. There would also be a succesful crop in this instance, by cropping in the area of the dark reed heads for a more panoramic feel to the image.

Just to prove JD right, this is approximately 30 % of a file from the d850.

I loved the chaos of these reeds. I really like this image though I have either got a bit of cloning to do….. or accept it as is. There’s a reed towards the bottom right of the image which is out of focus but is still quite apparent, it was undoubtadly quite close to the lens. Unfortunately this does happen when I take shallow focus type images. You cannot always make out how all the elements will appear and this must have just ‘blended in’when I was looking through the viewfinder, it’s hardly a disaster but it niggles me a little. Concentrate Gibbo!!!!!!!!

A chaos of subtle tones. Would make a smashing jigsaw puzzle. Another easily cloned out element in this one. I’m sure you can spot it?

I love this area of the woods. Capillaries? Nerves? I just choose a large aperture and focus on the branches at the front. This creates a nice softness. Choosing a larger aperture would create too many areas in focus and too confusing an image.

I shot the album cover for my black metal opus in the same area as the previous image. A vignette was added in lightroom, I had to googler how to do it. A bit of Gibbo self satire there, I know what I need to know in lightroom, I’m certainly no expert, I always call myself old school digital!

I was drawn to these incredibly vibrant red and orange tones in the bark of this tree. This one is just a little unbalanced but I’ve remembered where the tree is for the next visit! Normally this is the type of image where I may focus stack but I chose not too on this occasion because I am a lazy sod.

I mentioned on a previous image about an element that was in the image that could be called distracting which I hadn’t seen at the time. On this occasion this image was about the chaos, looking into the chaos of the woodland as light penetrates and illuminates a small part of the woodland. I love the subtle orange tones in the woodland floor on this one. This is one of my favourite images of the morning.

This one is all about the colour combination for me. The orange and the minty green tones. Take away the water droplets from this and it wouldn’t be so pleasing. The reeds at the base of the image do a good job as a subtle framing device.

Somewhere along the way I have to shoot a more exeprimental image. Shot into the sun it could also be mistaken for a shot of a reflection and lightplay on water.

There was just enough ‘wispiness’ (technical term) in the sky to enable the colours to show through subtly rather than harshly. It really is a wee gem of a woodland. So much variation in a small area.

Beautifully entwined in a chaotic area. This area of the woods is fascinating and a real challenge to photograph succesfully. I think I have done well here, there was some direct light on this composition too but I prefer this subtle version.

Another great jigsaw puzzle. I love all the subtle tones. Possibly needs a crop in from the right as the branches in the top right hand corner are a little dominant.

Last one of the morning. Trying to ensure the orange leaves stood out in the background. Rather happy with this one. A nice way to finish off the morning shoot.

Thanks to these two for their company.

Thanks for reading this

Take care

J x

Damn the consequences of a slightly out of focus or badly composed image, it’s not about that, it’s just about having fun. This recent injury (tennis elbow) has made me have to adopt a non tripod way of working and it does make me think about my approach. I’m reasonably fit but I do get pissed off with lugging about a tripod at times but there are instances when I genuinely need it eg for long exposures or when I really have to concentrate on focus as I do constantly challenge my ancient eyes with images that only have a small area of focus in them.

The joy of working handheld is the freedom, the ability to move quickly and easily and I must admit it, I do enjoy working like this. Maybe in future, a little like my designated single lens days, I shall have designated non-tripod days, we shall see!!!!

Anyway, enough of that……..me and Jas went for a lovely walk from Great Yarmouth to Caister on Sea, Caister is a village a couple of miles north of GY. These two places are the only places that I have lived in so they are a big part of me and in this time of my life I appreciate them a lot more.

We walked the beach and the shoreline, as per usual, looking for treasure. Tiny bits of driftwood, pebbles and seaglass were pocketed, simple pleasures. The camera didn’t come out until we got to Caister.

Here’s some of the pics I took below with a few words about them and perhaps a little local history.

Dune mountain range. Taken after we popped into the lifeboat station (more about that later) for a coffee. I loved the fact that these areas of sand (moved to ensure the lifeboat can get out easily) formed these wonderful sculptured shapes that reminded me of the mountain ranges of Norfolk . ;)

With coffee in hand my companion in trundling can still spot a pretty stone/pebble at some distance!!

There’s been some big tides recently and I like the way the beach is messy at the moment. Lots of small worlds to observe. Further north up the coast at Scratby the beach is literally littered with all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, there’s some pretty nasty stuff there, planks with nails in, plastic piping, industrial detritus, it’s all very unsightly unfortunately. For now Caister and GY beaches are fairly clean from this type of waste.

Beach twiglets.

Chaos in spades. Love it. This is a messy comp and I simply embrace it for what it is, chaos. Some of the driftwood has an almost arachnid look to it.

Caister Men Never Turn Back. This is the pub sign for the ‘Never Turn Back’, a pub built in art deco style, designed by A.W. Ecclestone who also designed the now, thankfully, saved ‘Iron Duke’ pub which was near to the start of our walk in GY.

The saying ‘Caister Men Never Turn Back’ refers to the Caister Lifeboat disaster of 1901 where nine crew members lost their lives attempting a rescue on the stormy night of 13th November.

Nice warm light as we start to head back. Winter light at its finest.

Raised stones on platforms of sand as the North sea tide starts to turn. We watched cascades of water flow over banks of sand by the shoreline. We tried to take pictures of the cascades but when you are waiting for that certain wave it never comes, put the camera away and you can be sure that wave will arrive!!!

Edges.

The lifeboat shed. Stop here for a nice coffee if you are in the area and maybe visit the museum and the shop and support Caister Lifeboat, which is a completely independent operation.

When I saw this backlighting on the grasses I had to go and take a look. In post processing I often reduce the clarity as grasses sometimes have a brittle look with a digital file.

Fading light. Maybe this is a black and white image??

Just about the last sunlight of day. Marram grass, a fascination that will never go away!!!

We moved off the beach and walked along the dunes and pathway near the caravans. Here this lovely area of grasses caught my eye. Normally I would take this at a much smaller aperture than the f4 I was forced to use because of my choice of lens for the walk. I added a little vignette in post processing, it works quite nicely on images such as this.

Geese. An end of day spectacular. Not the best formation I’ve seen from them though! Usually it’s an impressive Flying V, perhaps they were a little undecided where they were going or there was a little dissention in the ranks. Nonetheless this is always lovely to witness, it takes me back to my days photographing Holkham in winter waiting for the pinkfoot geese to fly overhead at the end of the day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this simple piece.

Thanks for having a look at this, it is really appreciated.

take care

J x

Out of 8-10 ‘good mornings’ I got 3 replies.

I looked for sea glass for Jas.

I took a portrait of a lady by the shore with her iphone and mistakenly took a selfie of myself as well!!!

I fussed over just one doggo.

9442 steps.

Here’s a few of the pics with a few words about each one……….

Lovely subtle light over the North Sea. Would have been perfect for skimmy stones today but the skimming arm is out of action!!

Britannia Pier. Always lots of rust and weathered wood to shoot here.

I have approximately 2 million images of these supports in my iphone folders!!

Marina Centre and Oasis Tower. My first job was in the old Marina Centre. Summer 1984 collecting dishes in the restaurant whilst learning the Brother Lees stageshow. I was ready to fill in if any of the ‘brothers ‘ ever got sick. Things could have been so different……

Of course I took images of stones and seaweed on the sand!!! Look at all that negative space………..EDGY!!

The Wheel and some rather nicely positioned clouds.

The old supports for Wellington Pier, great subject for long exposures.

GY sign. You can just see a little bit of Jurassic World behind the sign. Mercifully rather clean beach

It will always be the Scenic Railway but at least they are painting the seaward side (or I think they are). At one time this marvellous attraction was covered in alpine scenes and sculpted mountains!!

That bloody HYPER, he’s a scamp, he gets everywhere!

No words for this one.

Indeed!!!!!

The ladies in the distance told their partners they weren’t walking any further so they turned around!!!

The barbed wire to keep you in the model village.

Bring Smack!!!!! Played a gig there in 1987…I had hair then!

Just a little post, hope you enjoyed the images.

Take care

J x

Having been downtrodden by some kind of horrible flu thing for a few days where my knees became more achey than the Craggy Island over 75s footie team (iykyk) I needed to get out and see something, breathe the air etc etc. And so did my Jasmine.

So off we went to a place I hadn’t been to for years, Fritton Woods, which is just a few miles from home. Like many photographers, sometimes some local gems do get forgotten about, now I’m not saying Fritton Woods is a landscape photography gem but I will need to return more and see it change over the seasons as there is a lot of potential there.

Talking of seasons, how nice to ‘feel’ a recent spell of winter weather, you know….actual, take your breath away cold. In all honesty I don’t deal with it as well as I used to but it is welcome nonetheless.

Amongst my many ailments, at present I have a trapped nerve problem in my elbow which is making carrying a tripod and adjusting it very difficult and bloody painful so I decided to just go hand held for this trundle with Jas.

One of the problems with this is that I do tend to shoot a lot of images with a very narrow area of focus so you have to be accurate, and usually that accuracy comes with the help of the trusty tripod. Being in pain wasn’t an option so hand holding was my only option and it was a real joy and I surprised myself with how well I did without the use of the tripod.

Maybe I can treat myself in the future to more days shooting without the tripod to give me that littler bit more freedom……. we shall see.

I’ve got to try and get my Jasmine a lovely compact camera that she can use. She’s the talented one and she has a good eye and I would dearly love to see her produce more imagery in the future. For now she uses her trusty ancient iphone but I’d like her to get used to using a camera and at the very least learn the very basics.

We trundled through the woodland paths and observed the trees and clouds and made images and I tried to recall walking here with my family many years ago. Only some of it was recalled by my ancient brain but many trees had disappeared since then and new trees were growing in their place. The one constant for me was the power lines, funnily enough in this location they are not particularly intrusive.

The woodland floor was as intriguing as ever, beautiful rusty tones, my tripod less freedom gave my poor knees a workout as I crouched down to look for compositions!!!!

We came upon a stunning area of birches and ferns, what a combination, especially in late afternoon light. I could have photograsphed this area for ages but I would only end up repeating myself so I allowed myself a few minutes to observe and I will return.

It’s amazing how some shoots just fire you up and light that spark that dwindles. This was ine of those shoots, none of the images I made were anything special and in truth many are too similar to recent images I have made but the exploration with my Jasmine was simply a lovely couple of hours.

With much love and thanks to my partner in trundling :)

Thanks for reading this, may I wish you and yours a happy and healthy 2026

J x

Not too cold but wintry out there and there were small areas of frost.

If this years (and next years) winter turns into the usual grey sludgefest then I shall probably go insane.

I want to feel four seasons.

I want to shout inwardly ‘shit, I’m freezing but this is exhilarating’ as the wind blows me about some dune backed beach and the North sea rages like a ragey thing!

So anyway, to the Norfolk Broads, and an area introduced to me by my good friend Rick.

Decided to have a single lens visit, a good practice, I’m used the 85mm 1.8 very kindly given to me by my friend Mark.

The other day my rather expensive (to replace) Lee polariser developed a crack and I just didn’t want to buy a new one, BUT, on going through my filter box I found that I’d kept the old style of Lee polariser!!!! Bonus, I’m never usually that lucky, I’d completely forgot I had it, polarisers are essential in woodland.

First few shots, bloody awful and badly focussed.

Using the d850 is getting tough for me, the old eyes are not bad but they could be better and I appreciate the playback in the viewfinder facility of the z7.

I should have used the z7 with the adapter and the 85mm…..next time.

As mentioned earlier, a nice frost, remnants of autumn colour and nice light.

I got my ‘eye in’ eventually.

3 hours of shooting, two dogs fussed over and an aching back and coffee cravings.

I’d done enough and was happy with the images.

Here’s a few, I hope you like them……………………..

Thanks for reading and looking at the pics,

J

It’s been a weird summer, the time has moved fast and the temperatures have remained mostly hot, too hot for this milk bottle skinned englishman.

Heat drags me down, it makes me lazy, grumpy, depressed and I wish time away, longing for when the air is cooler. The last thing I should be doing is wishing time away, as at my age it is the most precious of commodities.

It is no surprise that Winterton was my chosen destination for this second summer shoot. The heather looks rather nice this year. I find carpets of heather a little difficult to shoot but at Winterton there are lovely patches of heather amongst the grasses and mosses so there’s no giant blobs of purple in the foreground of my shot. Correction, there are giants blobs of purple but they are amongst yellows and oranges, much more pleasing in my opinion.

I was really glad I had packed a hoodie in my bag as the temperature was rather cool. Having sat watching the North Sea do it’s thing for half an hour I thought it was time to get started and so I began looking for shapes and forms amongst the clouds and grasses, that was after taking the standard long exposure at the shore, see below. It would still be too harsh to shoot the heather, I wanted to leave that for the last hour so the light was more pleasing.

Aforementioned standard long (ish) exposure of the sea

I was seeing these initial shots in black and white. It’s all about looking at an area and seeing where the contours and shadows lie whilst keeping an eye on how the wind affects certain areas of the grasses. It is true to say I have shot thousands of images like the ones below but they are still important to me.

This image is ok but I think the foreground needed more darker areas. I see no point in burning in darker areas in post processing. There also may be a crop here somewhere.

Trying to compose so the path in the dunes mimicked the shape and angle of an area of the clouds - or vice versa. This would have been better shot in lower light so the shadows were darker and there was more contrast.

That’s more like it Gibbo.

After an hour or so of watching light on grasses I climbed on top of ‘big dune’ and surveyed the coastal scenes before me. The later hour meant there was some nice light picking out the dunes as you look back towards the village. Time to switch to colour.

Happy with this. Some lovely side lighting coming in. Note the patches of heather, not just one big carpet of purple!!!

And a brief switch back to black and white to take advantage of the punchy clouds.

Maybe a squarer crop would work a little better and I would have liked to introduce a little more movement to the grasses. I could have reached for another stopper filter but I’m a lazy sod!

Late light, well, not that late but a good half an hour before sundown and I’m in the 'bloody hell, great light, find compositions, focus properly, remember how to work your camera mode’ but all went well. The images aren’t perfect but for someone who hasn’t been shooting regularly they will do nicely.

Here’s a few before the sun went away

Trying to keep that layered effect. This area of Winterton is one of my favourite places to photograph. Possibly a bit too complicated..

‘Big Dune’. A nice layered comp with lots going on but not too complicated. Gorgeous patches of light.

Keep an eye on those clouds.

Pano crop as the clouds were thinning out a little at a higher level. I really like this. Maybe I could crop in a little from the left.

Time to head back to the car. My heel was playing up and I needed to eat some very bad for you food at a very bad time to eat very bad for you food!!

I thought the sun was done for the evening but it put in a little appearance again so I managed to get a couple of shots.

Damn I finds the colour in shots like this so hard to process at times. There’s something about the shapes in the grasses that I loved but I don’t think it has translated to an image successfully.

Last shot of the evening. Nothing special. Could have done with a little light on the immediate foreground to balance out that lovely part of light on the dunes in the background.

Thanks for reading this.

The title? I was listening to Rush and I’m a lazy sod and couldn’t be bothered to think of a title.

Look after yourselves

J

x

Plants!!! Gardens!!!

But hey, I’m getting old, things change ;)

Last week we had a trundle out to the lovely National Trust property at Felbrigg Hall near Cromer. It was a lovely day out.

During the summer season at my job at Horsey NT we get lots of visitors who have been to the other trust properties in the area and they sing the praises of the gardens.

And they are right, the gardens are beautifully kept, I especially like the walled garden at Felbrigg, it is a gem and so beautifully kept, also at this time of year it is a riot of colour!

So armed with my Nikon d850 and Sigma 135 art around my neck (weight comparison - imagine carrying a small child!!!) we had a nice visit to the walled garden at the start of our visit to Felbrigg.

A scone session plagued by wasp attacks would come later!!!

Admittedly I am not an expert on flowers or flower photography but I like the colours and shapes. I do not need everything in focus, I like the shallow depth of field that the 135 gives me and I pray that my hands can keep the camera steady, not because of the risk of shutter blur, but because the slithers of focus I aim for can be lost with just the slightest movement. Add that to the fact that I am working in bright light which makes viewing the images on the back screen hard to judge (none of this z series checking through the eyepiece malarkey!!!) and it’s actually quite difficult shooting this type of imagery, well, it is for me.

Working with a tripod would be the answer but that would be impossible in this situation.

One of the other problems with shooting flowers in sunshine in the middle of the day is the need to try and preserve highlights, and there are lots of highlights! Underexposure is the key so you end up with lots of dark images but with the wonders of modern tech you can ‘resurrect’ the images. We are spoilt nowadays with the abilities of the little black boxes and the software we use.

Great fun!!!! I absolutely love picking out the shapes and colours. I remember back to one of my first shoots of this type of imagery at the Eden Project on one of my visits down to see my pal Marc in Cornwall. I still love some of those images to this day and I’m rather pleased with some of these I took at Felbrigg though I would have probably enjoyed shooting more on a day with cloud cover. I have probably gained yet more crows feet with all the squinting!!!

Anyway, here’s a few more of the images from the garden and the woods at Felbrigg. If you can guess my favourite image from the collection you don’t win a prize!

cheers for now

J

Hope you are well. It’s been weird, I hate heat, too much heat is too much for me and too many days of endless heat is a disaster. The heat slowly grinds me down and leaves me physically and mentally exhausted and makes me lazy and I hate that, but I accept it in the same way as I accept a period of poor mental health, it will pass, there will be escape from it but this current period has been too long………

Whatever my state of mind, the old brainbox is still churning over with the world of my photography. I have barely picked up the camera recently, not through apathy but through a kind of ‘what difference is this going to make?’, ‘I’ve done this, why repeat yourself?’ mindset which is rather sad but again I put that down to the heat and the fact that I just didn’t want to go out which is not like me as I need to have a change of scenery regularly.

As the narrator on Mr Benn (I’m so old!!!) would have said:

‘As if by magic!!!’

The feelings subsided. The temperatures have slightly cooled You wake up and all the feelings mentioned above have passed. Suddenly the energy and positivity, or should I say at least a little more positivity is back. Let’s not get carried away Jon, you have a lot of thinking to do about all this but my mind is in a better place.

So that’s good…..thank f for that!

CLOUDS!!!!

If only there was more of them about during this crazy summer, I’d have avoided all the above.

We’ve all been there, as kids and adults, studying the shapes and contours of the clouds, looking for faces, animals etc, what a lovely innocent thing to do. So, in our backyard the other evening I was transfixed watching the last hour or so of light, and for once the clouds mostly stayed around until the end of the day. The d850 and z7 sat beside me on the bench and I picked them up as and when and explored the shapes and lightplay. I was like a pig in the proverbial. Simple pleasures and small signs that will hopefully push me to get out and about if the extreme heat stays away.

some of the views of the sky from our yard are interrupted by telephone wires but the line caught some nice light!!!

Ok, the nostalgia bit!!

The other night I plugged in an old hard drive with a view to getting images ready for future instagram posts. Though I hate that platform (actually I hate most sm platforms) I feel I have to be present there to try and encourage people to book on tours or 121s. Man, it’s been a tough year!!!!!!!

That perusing of images was a shot in the arm. Fuck it!!!! ‘I’m a bloody good photographer’. There you go, I said it. No I don’t have any photographic fame and by god that would make my life a little easier but I love and have pride in what I do and sometimes that pride gets erased and I let negativity take over. One of the things that I constantly battle with is the feeling that I need to have to keep proving myself as a photographer, after many years of making images, that does hurt. But of course, that is life, some get the breaks, some don’t. I’m happy to keep trying………..for now

Cheers for reading my random words. Ignore the grammar and the occasional swear word.

take care

J

On that evening I hadn’t fully connected photography wise, wider landscape images just weren’t coming to me but I sought out detail and ‘slither of focus’ type images amongst the grasses and wildflowers that are predominant in the area at summer time.

That kind of sums me up at the moment, I’ve done many many wider shots in the area and sometimes I have to admit I’m rather bored with taking those types of images unless the conditions are something special. When I get the time to review the images at home I’ll often go to the unusual / more experimental images first. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the death knell for me shooting wider images as I did shoot wider images later on on this particular evening but I need to keep photography interesting and absorbing and I like to push myself. Simply because I need to….

The last paragraph was inspired by a conversation that I had with my dear friend Rick as we sat outside the Woolpack in Norwich having a ‘couple’ of beers, watching the world go by and trying to put the world to rights (you’d need to be on a week long session to do that). The topic of keeping things interesting in photography always comes up and I can see changes in myself and Rick’s work and we need to have those changes. Whether it is producing more urban work, experimental work or just trying to force ourselves not to take the standard image from any particular location, it is essential…..for any photographer

Ok, so this is how the shoot progressed……..

It was a humid evening ( this heat is driving me mad by the way ) but the clouds were already looking amazing as I walked from my usual parking place to the huge expanse of dunes and grasses and trees, damn this place is a dream of a location!

There already seemed to be subtle heather colour developing and it was lovely to see so many wildflowers whose lovely colour broke up the bleached and dry monotony of the grasses and mosses. This part of the world needed rain back then and it still does now, what a bizarre year!!!

For all my talk of wider landscapes earlier I did miss a beautiful slither of light on the dunes as I walked further in, this would have been a nice wider image but the window of light was tiny. Lesson learned, the camera could have been round my neck, there was heavy cloud cover but any gaps for light to get through would be fleeting so I should have been ready for those possibilities. I’m out of practice!!!!!!!

The number of wildflowers increased and I thought this should be my first image opportunity. LCD screen flipped up and get down low ( my knees!!!!) and shoot with a large aperture and focus on one flower. Quite happy with a couple of these. All shot hand held at f1.8.

My next area to explore was the dunes near the sea wall that look down on to the beach. The area in the pic below was where I sat and wrote the words for my last post. Some light on the dunes in the pic would have been great, a brilliant contrast against the moody sky, it wasn’t to be and there wasn’t anymore breaks of light until just before sunrise.

So I sat here and wrote my post and then decided I’d head down onto the beach whilst resisting to take more images of my favourite fence which is on the beach to prevent seals from getting further inland, it doesn’t always work, in terms of me resisting shooting it and for the seals!!!

Passing the fence I got to the edge of the grasses, just before it becomes all sand. A lovely area and one that has expanded a lot in recent years. The grasses are beautiful here, at this time of the year the grass is quite a minty type of green, admittedly i prefer it when the green is a little warmer in tone but nonetheless this type of green looked great against the moody blue sky.

The image above is nice enough but like so may I took here I neglected to give the images any flow. If I’m on better form I’d normally find a way to link the front to the back of the image but here I just blocked flow at the front of the image. A pity.

I rather like this one with a bit of movement (by using a ten stopper) but again I’ve blocked it at the front. Jon, you are a prat and should know better!!!

Finally, a nice bit of layering, the grasses at the front are like a frame, then there’s the sand and then more grasses and then the sky, much more pleasing, to me at least. I also like how the sky is brighter in the middle and darker either side, that was not done on computer I can assure you.

Moving on I walked to the shoreline and only had a lone fisherman for company on the beach. There were some nice waves breaking and it looked there would be, at the very least, some nice colour in the sky for the end of day even though there wouldn’t be any direct light on the scene before me.

Beautiful layers in the sky. Two boats!!!! Going against the photo laws here!!!

Just a general scene looking down the beach. This is the kind of shot someone on a facebook county page would go wow, amazing. As Midge Ure would say ‘this means nothing to me’, I’m not sure what I could of done here to make the most of those beautiful colours. I preferred to point the camera downwards….

I loved the reflection of the light in the waves and many of these types of images were taken and deleted before I got a wave pattern I was happy with. I rather like this.

For a while I just watched the incoming waves and tried to take a wider image but for me these just didn’t work, this is probably the best of an ok bunch.

Saying goodbye to the lone fisherman I headed for the car, not before taking a last image of the dunes and sea with the fisherman at the shoreline in the distance.

Thanks for reading this

J

Written as I sit on the dunes staring towards the North Sea………

The grasses are dry

Wildflowers add much needed luminence to the monotone carpet

The sky is awash with grey and blue tones

I want to see a storm out to sea

Two fishermen hope to catch

The camera has left the bag

Abstracts of colour, flowers and grass

Can I still see anymore?

Do I want to see anymore?

This place is under my skin

A dragonfly passes by

‘Hope you’re resting well’ , if it is you

No light will come through tonight

It doesn’t matter

I’m reconnecting

It started at the weekend

I’ve been in limbo

I’ve not made that decision yet

I’m happy whichever way it goes

It is so warm

There’s orange hues towards the horizon

Grasses are sharp in my back

The thought of leaving seems a waste

But I’m at peace

Here amongst the grasses

As the first rain drops fall

Recently I had a lovely day out visiting my friend Dana who lives in the Breckland area of Norfolk. It was an overcast day which in all honesty was a welcome change from the endless days of blue skies we have had.

That isn’t me being grumpy, it’s just that for me, endless days of blue are as unwelcome as endless days of rain, after a while they become rather annoying and I’m not a huge fan of heat so a little relief from the heat was welcome.

On looking back at the images in lightroom it was fairly apparent that the images were going to be processed as black and white. This wasn’t my intention out in the field, I had a colour mindset, if I had had a black and white mindset I would have switched the camera to record in black and white. I often do this to see the varying tones or shapes and forms in an image even if the processed image will end up being in colour.

The images had a softness to them and the subtle shades of green didn’t work for me but turning the images to black and white gave the images a kind of subdued infra-red look.

The one thing about shoots with friends is that any pressure seems to melt away. Not that I feel the pressure to get images when I’m out out on my own nowadays but there seems to be an added sense of freedom and this shoot with Dana was certainly the case.

Though there was no a lot of direct light there was a lovely ambiennce and this was especially apparent shooting near the areas of water. The reflections such as in the image above were amazing and I could have easily shot far too many images such as these.

I’ll give a shout out here to and her lovely studies of water. Please do give her a follow on here. Is it follow on here?, subscribe?, anyway, Michela’s images and words are lovely.

Now, I’m not one one for gimmicky stuff in the photo world, I’m a pretty much straight down the line photographer who likes seeing the world as it is. BUT, Dana lent me her mist filter to use and it gave me a good break from regular views/light and I had a whale of a time trying to do some creative stuff, I failed miserably but it was fun trying, though I kind of like the following images.

Thanks ever so much for having a look at this entry.

Thanks so much to Dana for a lovely day.

take care

J.

Me and Rick had a couple of hours to kill and we had a lovely wander around the town which we both really enjoyed. There’s lots of potential for photography and to use the old Jon and Rick classic ‘ It would look great in fog!!!’. Not on this visit though, it was bright and crisp with the occasional spectacular cloud, beautiful weather.

I don’t think this will be the last time I walk around the town with camera in hand.

One of the areas that really fascinated me was the bridges over the River Tweed, the Royal Border Bridge is a stunning example of railway architecture and the Royal Tweed bridge is , shall we say, a little more brutal but nonetheless fascinating to shoot. Unfortunately Berwick Bridge is being worked on at present so there is scaffolding all over it so we couldn’t complete a hat trick of bridge photography.

It’s a lovely spot down by the river. We first walked to the Royal Border bridge and shot it’s wonderful aging contours. As we were shooting there was an occasional smell of weed in the air!!! We never did work out where it was coming from, it was like walking in the town centre back home in Great Yarmouth!!!!!!

What a stunning monument to victorian engineering the bridge is!!! I didn’t do it justice in the very few images I took but it was simply fascinating to stand and admire it from up close.

Bizarrely, the Royal Tweed Bridge was the bridge that got the most photographic attention! The lamps on it, though modern, are a wonderful shape and beneath the roadway are wonderful arches that are perfect for graphic images. It was definitely going to be a black and white subject

I think we were both really entertained by the scene before us and we were soon looking for pedestrians crossing the bridge with a view to include them in the images.

I don’t do this type of photography enough!!!

Really pleased with this one!!!!!

This couple knew we were photographing them!!! They were looking for wildlife along the river and as we walked through town later we couldn’t help keep bumping into them. Bless them, hope they had a great day.

It only took my approximately twenty attempts to get this little devil in focus. Good job he didn’t have much to do that morning!

Brutality and beauty? Nah, not really. The Royal Tweed bridge is just a little less beautiful. Pleased with the capture of the train on this one.

To quote Rush:

Curves and lines,

of grand designs

Posing pigeons, this could have done with a person crossing, preferably in a crazy hat. Next time……….

Hope you liked the images.

What a lovely morning!

If you’re ever in Berwick Upon Tweed I heartily recommend:

The Northern Edge Cafe - top coffee, cake and sausage rolls.

The Curfew Taproom - superb little taproom with a great selection of beer and lovely atmosphere.

Take care

J

But then again, do I want to read via a screen at present? I’m not sure I do.

As for You Tube, I have a couple of videos upcoming, I just need some peace to do some voiceover work. YT for all its faults is a platform I enjoy creating for, a simple Norfolk boy sharing his photographic trips, no more, no less.

The reason for my SM switchoff, quite simply……. I need peace and I need to think and I need to read rather than scroll but most of all I need to think, plot and plan. Personally, it’s been a tough few weeks and the removal of these pointless ‘addictions’ will be good for me, it’s safe to say I was in a frame of mind where the whole state of the world was unsettling me, never mind my own demons!!!

Recently I have had two great photographic experiences, a Northumberland trip with my pal Rick and running a photo tour in an unseasonably warm Assynt with a lovely group with the added bonus of my pal JD coming along for a few days.

Incidentally both Rick and JD are now on substack so please do give them a follow:

Great trips, great memories. Have I taken an image since…………no

But then again I have started back at Horsey Windpump National Trust for the season and Easter was manic!! More unseasonably warm weather. It is such a lovely place to work and the great british public have been mostly good ;)

It takes me a while to adjust to working again and fitting in other things such as photography and that brings me on to another point, I need to get myself fit again as it is so good for me to regularly exercise. Since I have had a few knee problems and a groin strain the exercise has taken a back seat. The trouble is at my age it takes a good while to get that level of fitness back. I’ll see if I can get my 10000 steps in at least today, It’s beautiful out there but first there’s the flat car battery to deal with!!!!

A constant photographic frustration throughout the years for me has been spring, I never seem to capture the essence of it but then again I have no desire these days to put pressure on myself to produce images.

‘You must get a set of spring portfolio images Jon’.

If it happens it happens though I must admit, it is looking lovely out there at the moment.

The next few months will bring lots of work at Horsey and hopefully plenty of photography and above all, lovely time with my family.

would dearly love to do something more with the music side of things too!!!

I’ll write a piece solely about photography next, that one will need a bit of thinking about so I word it correctly.

Look after yourselves, see you soon

J

Below are some recent images, hope you like them….

Like most of the uk, Scotland was hit with a spell of very warm and blue weather, not the ideal conditions for the landscape photographer BUT you have to adapt and embrace all conditions and do your best. I had a great time with a lovely and very easy going group. Unusually for me, Janet, Phil, Ruairaidh and JD were shooting handheld 90% of the time, that was nice to see for a change, I adopted that style for most of the time too.

Having a new computer which can successfully run noise reduction has given me the impetus to try more handheld work. The iso can go up and any noise can be dealt with easily, though I’ll be honest I am still a committed tripod user for most of my landscape work, but the advancing years means that tripod is getting a bit of a pain (literally) to carry around! Anyone want to apply for a job as my photo caddy?, don’t bother, I couldn’t afford to pay you anyway!!!!

Anyway, back to Scotland…….

Unfortunately the area had a couple of wildfires a couple of days after I returned home, it was sad to see the fires in the area around Stac Pollaidh. It was probably no real surprise , it was strange to see the land looking so dry at this time of year, the grasses crunched under your feet when walking around when normally you would be trying to avoid getting soaking wet feet. I sincerely hope the area gets a good soaking or two in the coming days to really bring on spring. Above all I hope there are no idiots out there lighting fires in areas so dry that any small spark could start a large fire. Unfortunately it seems that idiots are everywhere nowadays. Myself and Ruairidh witnessed a man of an age ‘who should know better’ throw a plastic bottle out onto the top of a cliff at Clashnessie, he got a very loud ‘OI’ but just looked in our direction and carried on. I hate to see something like that.

On a day before the official tour started we visited Clachtoll and the campsite was empty, on our return a couple of days later the campsite was full of campervans. Inwardly I couldn’t help thinking about how much Skye has changed over the last few years, will it happen in Assynt? , who knows, the roads don’t make it easy to get around some areas and hopefully many places will stay relatively unspoilt but I admit it was rather shocking to see the size of the new Stac Pollaidh car park. Only time will tell I suppose, I can only hope that visitors will respect nature, respect the locals, spend their money in local shops, cafes etc and spend some time in the area, not treat it like an NC500 ticklist, ‘ok, seen this, on to the next place!!!’.

Let’s put aside my worries for this place and just touch on a few pointers from the trip in a form of a kind of stream of consciousness………

PEOPLE

Maggie and doggos Finn and Millie.

Lovely elderly lady from Harris in Culag woods.

Gentleman staying in Bill Smith’s (look him up - Bill Smith - Clachtoll) house in Clachtoll, the gentleman was a former pupil of Mr Smiths.

Lady at Flossie’s Beach Store in Clachtoll (is she Flossie?) and her doggo (Mia?), fine coffee, brownies and bird island wine.

Young lady who owns the new Lochinver Bookshop. Hope that goes well for her.

Happy waves from locals if you stop at passing places for them.

The apologising lady on the Clachtoll road.

PLACES AND EXPERIENCES

A new found appreciation for Loch Glencoul and the Stac of Glencoul.

Scary bit under Kylesku Bridge. What’s behind the door?

Achnahaird Bay - will I ever get a shot that really sums up this beautiful place, I’ll happily keep trying.

Stoer beach - slowly becoming a huge favourite.

White Shore, Culag Woods - the best pebbly shore in the world.

The wee mad road - the bit with the wall!!!!! Always a fun experience!

Lochinver Larder - gorgeous pies as always. Chorizo and Manchego sadly missing :( . 3 pies in total on this visit.

Sadness at the Wailing Widow Falls, all getting a bit messy!

Beers - Dark Island from Orkney and Skye Black.

Nightime visits from Badgers and Pine Martens.

Aurora over Loch Culag.

Clouds rolling like a waterfall over Cranstackie and Beinn Spionnaidh.

Finally visited House of Bruar!!! Top Mocha but bought a far too rich cheesecake, there’s three quarters of it in a bin near the Pentland Hills if you fancy it!

Ceannabeinne - could photograph that place forever.

ANNOYANCES

Lay bys.

People not acknowledging stopping at passing places for them!!!

Road users unaware of traffic behind them.

Too rich cheesecakes!!

Here’ s a few handheld shots from the trip….

Until next time.

J

I walk aimlessly, the direction is of no importance, I’m hungry to experience, savour and be entertained by the visuals, sounds and even smells around me and to be entertained by my own interpretation of those stimuli.

This sums up my relationship with Edinburgh, a city I have lots of affection for, though I have walked barely a fraction of its’ streets.

The connection comes from my beautiful daughters, Ione was in the city studying for four years and Jasmine is currently doing her masters there.

From my point of view the city gives me the same kind of feel as when I watch the wind blow through the dunes at Winterton or Achnahaird Bay, watch light play overlooking Holkham Bay or Budle Bay or getting hit by waves at Happisburgh or Elgol.

I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly but that kind of feeling is definitely there when I explore the city. As mentioned earlier, I walk, that is what I used to do, and still do, on my visits to the city. Pubs seduce me, alleyways seduce me, buildings and people ‘cry out’ to be photographed by me and I so want to explore all the possibilities and savour the experiences , especially in the pubs!!!!!

Anyway, I’m going to wrap this up here with a few more of my first street photography images from Edinburgh. Hopefully I will get a few more opportunities to do this.

I hope you enjoy the images

J