Westcountry wanderings » Autumn

Wandering west of Rame Head

nigel — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:51:08 +0000

A week or so back we took advantage of what looked like a good weather forecast to head over the border into Cornwall for three nights. Because we wanted to make the most of the time we decided not to drive far and so headed towards Looe which is only a short distance west from Plymouth. While I stayed in that area a while ago I hadn’t walked much of the coastline between Looe and Plymouth as I’ve tended to go further into Cornwall usually. The above image is taken at Downderry and looks east to Rame Head.

A little to the west of Downderry is Seaton. You can walk to this small village along the beach unless the tide is particularly high. The coast path continues west going up quite a steep hill and the above image is the view back over Seaton beach.

We walked the stretch between Downderry and Looe over two days as we had to head a little inland to our accommodation on foot in the evenings. As can be seen the day we walked into Looe was not as pleasant as the previous two days had been. The view above is looking from West Looe back towards East Looe.

I’d not seen this seal sculpture before but apparently a seal was seen regular in the area of Looe for some years and the lovely bronze sculpture was put there when the seal died. Looe is still a fairly active fishing port with a working dock on the east side of the River Looe.

Not everything along the coast path is a scenic as maybe most of the images I offer on here. This particular building is at Millendreath just to the east of Looe. It looks like it was a holiday complex maybe dating from the 1960s or 1970s but it is now deteriorating and closed down. Much of Millendreath looks rather similar now sadly.

On a more positive note there was a thriving beach cafe at Seaton and we went back there towards the end of the day when the light generally looked lovely. The island in the distance on the right hand image is Looe Island and is just off the coast at West Looe (Hannafore Point).

Wandering back towards of accommodation gave is some lovely views and I particularly liked the stand of trees shown on the left. The image on the right is dawn one morning – cold but beautiful. Cornwall is a favourite county – hopefully I’ll get down there for longer next year.

Around Start Point

nigel — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:40:09 +0000

I’ve blogged this area before however with photography along the coast it is almost impossible to get the “same” image as you got before – I know I’ve tried – so these are from a recent break there. The weather was supposed to be improving over a three day period however it didn’t change all that much. It did varied enough to get some shots that I found quite interesting though so I thought I would share them.

Start Point itself is quite an iconic setting for this part of the South West Coast Path and nearby Slapton Sands with its fresh water pool and pebble bank is also quite well known. The whole area was used in the Second World War as a training ground for the D Day landings. Walking towards Start Point recently the day was mostly rather grey. However, as in the shot above, when grey becomes silver it is a little more interesting.

From time to time the cloud base would come down and then it would rise again. The above image looks towards Start Point from just above Beesands village.

Passing the old village of Hallsands, much of which was swept into the sea in the first half of last century, we cut off to the south west just before we got to Start Point. We headed back towards Start going around Peartree Point to approach Start from the south. The above show the contrast in weather either side of the Start Point that day. To the south it is a fairly clear and quite pleasant day. To the north there was quite thick mist.

As we walked back along the coast the mist became thicker and we could hear the sound of the fog horn from the lighthouse. Stopping for a break at Beesands I caught an image of the lighthouse at Start Point lit due to the bad weather. I have seen that before but not managed to get a shot of it.

Although that day was not the best weather wise (though the walk was great) we did see some good weather and there was some great light on the sea at times as can be seen above.

Along the Dorset coast

nigel — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:41:16 +0000

Now back from a break after the recent exhibition, this is the first blog from the trip and is based on images from along the Dorset (Jurassic) coast. At the start of the break the weather was ok but not particularly sunny. However the weather did make for some stunning sunsets. The above was taken close to Bridport on the coast just west of West Bay.

The days were also interesting for photography initially too with mixed weather giving some interesting subjects. The setting for both of the above images is close to Eype & West Bay. The left hand one looks west towards the setting sun and the cloud while the right hand image taken early one day looks towards Portland Bill, not quite visible in the distance, through the early morning haze.

I always enjoy walking the coast for the changing scenery and the light however sometimes you catch something different. These days paragliders are not that rare but when they drift by they still tend to take you by surprise. I have paraglided myself in the past and loved it but I’m not sure how happy I’d be to be out over the sea.

Among other places on the Dorset coast we visited Swanage and spent some time walking in that area too. This was taken on the seafront at Swanage – the colour and lines appealed I guess. It is a pleasant town and well placed for exploring the south eastern end of the South West Coast Path.

We walked from Swanage out to Old Harry’s Rocks which are close to the start of the South West Coast Path (or finish depending on your choice of direction!). I’ve passed the rocks from the seaward side a number of times but have never walked that particular part of the coast before. They were a great sight and the area of white cliffs around there were very impressive. Because they are relatively easy to get to it does seem that there are likely to be quite a few people around the area but a short distance to the west we saw very few people.

Coastal areas are prone to rather different climatic conditions and this was the scene that faced us after walking in to Swanage for a meal one night. The atmosphere with the coastal fog rolling in was quite eerie. I took quite a few walking back and was quite pleased with the effect.

Finally – another sunset from early on on the coastal section of the break – we saw quite a few good ones but I restricted myself to offering just two here! Another blog will follow soon about the next part of the trip.

A stroll around two tors

nigel — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:11:43 +0000

Once again testing my ankle I decided to try something a little more challenging that would take me across some rougher moorland. I set out from Dunnabridge and headed to Laughter tor. The tor itself is not a large one (it can be seen in the distance) however there is a nice menhir close to it. It is a little under three metres high and originally marked the end of an ancient stone row.

From Laughter Bellever tor can be seen. It has quite a lot of forestry around it as can be seen. This forestry is not natural but was planted by the Forestry Commission many years ago. I left Laughter tor heading east into the forestry. While such woodland is not very appealing to me there is quite a lot of bird life and, wandering along quietly on my own, I saw quite a lot of birds including both green woodpecker and great spotted woodpecker.

Coming back out of the forested area again I headed up the path to Bellever tor. Looking back gave a good view looking north east over the moors. Further forestry can be seen in the distance above Fernworthy reservoir.

At the top of Bellever a couple of powered paragliders came into sight.

They flew off towards some dramatic clouds with some light catching them. I was lucky with the shot although maybe a second or two later might have been even better.

As I got closer to the road again I looked back on Bellever tor. It is a lovely setting and the light and autumn colours enhanced it.

Back on the moors at last

nigel — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:00:40 +0000

Having not had a proper walk for almost two months now I decided to test out the ankle on a very sunny autumn afternoon to see how it went. I walked up to Top tor first and, not having used the wide angle lens on the moors, tried some shots with that on. This one looks from Top tor to Rippon and I felt the granite in the foreground was highly appropriate as the moors are mostly composed of granite.

Having walked over to Pil tor I walked back and headed to Saddle tor. I took this one from there looking towards the iconic shape of Hey tor in the distance with part of Saddle to the right foreground. Again this is taken with the wide angle lens (& manages to include an element of self portrait is the shadow!).

Almost by just turning 180 degrees I took this one looking roughly west towards the Widecombe area. In the centre of the image is Top tor with Pil tor to the left of it. In the foreground is part of Saddle tor. Given that it is taken almost looking into the sun it is not a perfect image however the shadows were very strong and the trees in the valley were interesting.

Wandering back again I passed the foot of Rippon. By now the light was getting lower and a little warmer and the colours of the dead grasses were lovely – the path up Rippon added interest.

Finally, heading back, the light and colour towards Top and Pil tors was irresistible. Both can be seen in this and the trees in the foreground added some structure to the picture. One advantage of shooting on Dartmoor in low light is that it makes visible aspects that cannot normally be easily seen. In this picture elements of the ancient field structure between Top & Pil and just below the ridge can be seen quite easily. The ankle behaved ok so hopefully I’ll be getting out again soon.

A different take on dawn

nigel — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:00:34 +0000

Looking for some “good dawn” images I headed into the Bay for 6:30 am with dawn being at 7:15 am. By the time I looked into the Bay I could see that I was not going to get a “clear” sunrise of any sort; the lights in the distance are Brixham. So the question was whether I went back home or stuck around to see what would happen. I stuck around!

As with my last posting looking for just good weather images is a habit I must get out of I think. The effect of the light behind the clouds was worthwhile.

The blue of the sea, sky and clouds was very vivid really I have actually reduced the colour slighly on some of these images as it was “unbelievably” vivid.

While there was no sun in the Bay it was clear that the sun was coming through in places and the effect of “first light” on the clouds was very good.

I headed back inland but just before I left I took this one as the glassy look of the sea caught my eye.

Light on water

nigel — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:47:37 +0000

Having caught up with the backlog of the holiday snaps I started working on the relatively small number I’ve taken since I’ve been back and wondering about my next post. These are not all taken on the same day but I realised that on a number of days I’d taken photos that were effectively on a theme – light on water. The above looks from Paignton towards Berry Head.

I guess it is partly the time of year with a lower angle of the sun and less good weather however I do love the coast and the play of light on the water. The one above is taken from Preston and shows a windsurfer spotlighted on a stormy autumn day.

Shooting into the light has its problems. All too often a shot will be out of sensor range. A camera sensor can only get the exposure (roughly) right over a fixed range of light. Outside this range there will either be black with no actual content or white similarly. This may or may not be considered “wrong” by some people however I do like to catch what I see and so I have no real issue with this if most of the image has valid content and portrays what I want it to. The above – shot from Goodrington looking towards Berry Head – is a good example. It is not a “perfect” image with some parts of the image over or under exposed. The limitations of the camera also mean that the quality is not as perfect as I would wish but it conveys the scene I saw in the way that seems correct to me (& I like it!).

These shots were taken over a number of days and while mostly they are taken in Torbay the one above was taken on Slapton sands looking towards the lighthouse at Start Point. The light on the water really had a sparkle to it.

I find I do tend to look for “good weather” images but the one above is a reminder to me of how wrong that approach can be. Taken from Preston Sands with Berry Head just visible the rain that is coming in can be seen (& it rained shortly after I took the picture). The contrast between the better weather and the rain is quite striking.

And finally – I’d watched this person flying their kite for a while. I was looking for a good shot of them and got one or two with the kite in the air and in sunlight. However this one seemed to catch the mood of the weather (which kept changing) at the time. This was taken from Preston Sands.

Returning via Limousin

nigel — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:42:09 +0000

After around 3000 miles of fairly trouble free motoring the car had a warning light on and was not running at all well and we were wondering if we would make it back up to the ferry without help. We also had some of the worst weather we had in France and the temperatures fell. The rain, the light and my ankle made getting much in the way of good images quite difficult here. However there was a real bright spot because we stayed for a couple of nights at a lovely B&B close to Bellac. Casually informal with good hearty regional cuisine Myriam was a great host and was knowledgeable about the area and happy to chat about far wider topics too. There was a lot more to see in that area of Haute-Vienne and I hope we return there.

The very old market building in Mortemart was a lovely structure built mostly of wood. The village and a number of others nearby are scenic with many old (Roman era) buildings/churches. There are also a number of dolmens and other ancient stones around the area.

The town of Bellac itself was very nice. Again there is much of historical significance close to the town. The bridge over the Vincou probably dates from the 13th century.
This tannery building on the Vincou dates from 15th century and the industry has been there since at least the 13th century.

The colours along the Vincou were appealing and autumnal changes were starting to appear. A return there rather later in a year should produce some good images. From here Roscoff and the ferry were the next destination. We made it without breaking down and will look forward to our next trip to France. It is a country of great differences especially from a landscape perspective however we have always found the people very welcoming.

Pyrénées-Orientales – heading east

nigel — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 09:00:47 +0000

From Beaucens we headed east to Prades in the Pyrénées-Orientales and Catalan area of France. Intentionally we took a very minor road in the end which was very narrow, with very big bends in. We met a “traffic jam”!

From the window of our apartment we could could see one of the larger peaks in the area – Canigou. The picture above shows it quite well. Sadly we didn’t have enough time to get far up it but it is very big. We also had hoped to go on the “Train Jaune” however sadly it stopped running the day after we arrived there.

A short way down the valley from Prades was Ille-sur-Têt. The Orgues resulting from the erosion of the rocks over thousands of years was a truly remarkable site.

Both the site itself and the area was very interesting and we spent some time there.

We decided to visit the Mediterranean coast on one of our days there and headed for St Cyprien and the beach. En route we passed through many areas of vineyards and the misty light on the vines was lovely.

By the time we got to the beach the mist was rolling away a little. I guess in July and August this beach would be packed but on a warm mid September day it made a very pleasant place for a stroll and a coffee.

Later on we went to Étang de Canet-Saint-Nazaire. This is a bird reserve with pink flamingos on (& we saw an osprey on passage) and is also used for fishing at times of year when the bird life will not be disturbed. The area as a whole was certainly appealing at this time of year. Sadly I injured my ankle while we were at Prades which curtailed my walking for quite a while and to some degree for the rest of the holiday.

Autumn colours at Dartington Hall

nigel — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:14:04 +0000

I’d been looking at getting out to try and catch some real Autumn colours for a while. I was wondering about Westonbirt Arboretum. I have been there before but it is quite a trek for me. Equally it was apparent from comments on the photography course that, at times, the photographers there outnumbered the trees is not the leaves .

Given that Dartington is very close and I’ve taken pictures there before it seemed an obvious spot. I was just a little later in the day than I would have liked but there was still enough sun to bring out the truly lovely autumn colours. I shot around 100 images and was quite happy with maybe 20% of them – quite a high proportion for me. I’ll probably go back if the weather is good to see what it is like in a week or so but for now it looks good.