I could live by St.Ouen’s beach and have something new to photograph every day for the rest of my life. St.Ouen’s beach is on the West of the Island. The tower silhouetted here is La Rocco, one of the many Martello Towers in Jersey, built as defensive fortifications during the Napoleonic war.
Now we are back from our travels, I am looking forward to catching up with my favourite blogs.
Indulging my love of negative space.
On this trip I have enjoyed a few opportunities to return to my first photographic love, landscapes. There really is nothing like waiting for the light. Time slows down. Senses are heightened to notice the rhythmic wash of waves on the shore, the eerie cry of a solitary gull, the way the light touches the crests of the breakers, the curve of wet rocks at the shore’s edge, the drift of the clouds. How could I have forgotten?
This shot is from my iPhone and not exactly top quality – iPhone4’s camera is good but struggles in low light. The proper shots will have to wait until I get home. But even if none of them prove worthy, the experience was magical.
Who needs to travel to the Caribbean for unspoiled empty beaches? This is Ouaisne Bay on Jersey in the Channel Islands, photographed in the middle of the day during the school summer holidays. Straight from iPhone.
Our summer trip continues. We are now on Jersey in the Channel Islands. The day began for the family with surfing in St.Ouen’s Bay while I enjoyed a two hour photowalk along the sands. Then it was waffles and strawberries for breakfast. Perfect. These shots were taken with my iPhone.
I am blogging from my iPhone tonight with an image taken by my iPhone. I think we have seen Lyme Regis in all moods this week. Today we have endured high winds and driving rain. This image, of Lyme in gentler mood, is from last week.
Several people have recently asked me about the header image for this blog. It is Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. In August 2009, we spent a very enjoyable week in Northumberland, England’s most Northern county and its most sparsely populated. Even in the midst of the summer holiday season, it was easy to find peace and solitude.
We stayed in Seahouses, just down the coast from Bamburgh, and with spectacular views of the iconic castle. Despite Northumberland’s reputation for terrible weather, we had a week of sunny days and, every night, spectacular sunsets.
Bamburgh Castle stands on a basalt outcrop. The first written record of a fort on the site dates from 547CE but a fort had probably been there for at least a century. The Vikings destroyed the original fort in 993. At the heart of the present castle stands a Norman structure. Further building took place over the next several centuries but the castle finally fell into neglect in the 1700s.
The Victorian industrialist William Armstrong completed restoration of the castle and it is still owned by the Armstrong family. It is open to the public and has also been used as a location for several movies, including most recently the 1998 film, Elizabeth.
If you are ever in the area, Bamburgh Castle is well worth a visit, but beware: last admission is at 3.30 and the castle closes at 5 but the staff were so eager to get home that they started clearing us out at 4.30. An hour is most definitely not long enough to see the castle and admission is not especially cheap!
“The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Yesterday I posted a shot taken in August 2009. In August 2008, we were somewhere rather different. Our trip to Hawaii has to be one of the most memorable holidays we have enjoyed so far. And one of the stand-out highlights was the helicopter flight over the beautiful Garden Isle, Kauai. This view is of the Na Pali coast, which recently featured as the setting for a surprisingly good thriller, A Perfect Getaway. We didn’t meet any crazed serial killers on our trip, thankfully. The helicopter ride was thrills enough! If I am ever lucky enough to go back, I want to do the doors-off flight. Now that’s one thing I never thought I would say.
I promised no bugs today. At about this time three years ago we were enjoying a beautiful week in Seahouses on the coast of Northumberland, possibly the most beautiful, evocative, and atmospheric county I have yet visited in the UK. The island out to sea in this picture is Inner Farne.
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Focused Moments 