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With some spare time on my hands I took a short diversion on Friday to visit St Andrew’s Church in Whitestaunton, a day ahead of a concert I was due to give there. It’s a beautiful medieval building which proved to have a lovely acoustic for recorder playing, not to mention some lovely architectural details.
A little ecclesiastical comfort.
I found this regal lion carved into one of the flagstones in the side chapel.
Photos taken 24 May 2024
During my recent course at Cannington Court, near Bridgwater, I had the luxury of a couple of hours off, so I took the opportunity to go and explore the walled gardens in the site. I was in the mood for focusing on smaller subjects, so I spent some time chasing the bees and insects, fortuitously discovering that the zoom lens I’d brought to Somerset with me is remarkably good at focusing on small subjects like this!
Lots of interesting shapes and textures among the foliage too.
I found this colourful insect beetling around the flowers. I’ve no idea what species it is, but I was pleased to catch it in the sunlight to show off its wonderful iridescent shell.
A small splash of colour in the arid glasshouse.
Someone’s cast-off feather, captured on the branch of a bush.
Photos taken 22 May 2024
At the start of February my travels took me to Somerset so I made a brief foray across the border into Devon to visit a redundant church. Sadly (despite assurances to the contrary) it was locked so I followed my nose until I found somewhere else to photograph.
Unlike my original destination, All Saints’ Church, Monksilver is a working church so I enjoyed photographing some small scenes which tell a little about the building’s life.
The pew ends were carved with some quirky decorations - I wonder what the animal on the left is supposed to be?!
Shadowy patterns in the porch.
Photos taken 2 February 2024
For the last fifteen years I’ve had a the pleasure of teaching at Dillington House in Somerset. Sadly it was announced earlier this year that 49 years of history would come to an end and the house is being handed back to its owners. While I was there for my final course in May I took the opportunity to capture a few photos of this wonderful place - I shall miss it terribly.
Have you ever had one of those days when you can’t quite decide where to go? I had just that experience in Somerset earlier this month and my solution was to open up Google maps and see what jumped out at me. AS luck would have it, this led me to rediscover a pin I’d dropped in the app last year marking St Audrie’s Bay as somewhere I should visit - problem solved!
My reason for saving the location was the waterfall which tumbles off the cliffs there. I’d seen photos which had piqued my interest so I parked up at the caravan part on top of the cliffs and began picking my way down the steep path to the beach. It’s a private beach, but the owners of the caravan park don’t mind welcoming visitors and on this winter morning I pretty much had the place to myself.
The only access from above is a rocky pathway down the side of the cliffs so I was amazed to find a lot of man made structures (albeit in an extreme state of weathering) dotted along the beach. I can only assume the raw materials must have been brought in by boat many decades ago in a futile attempt to tame the sea.
The waterfall comes from a stream which runs down the hillside and simply falls over the edge to the beach below. During the summer months it often disappears entirely, but the recent rain ensured a steady flow of water, which I made the most of in my pinhole photos.
The beach was riven with streams of water, heading for the sea, so I was very pleased I’d put my wellies in the car. To get this photo I was sitting on a small man-made stone wall with my feet in a stream, while shooting in the opposite direction across a rock pool - I couldn’t have done that if I’d be wearing shoes!
I was fascinated by the rock strata breaking through the beach - a very visible glimpse into the way the earth’s crust is pushed and pulled by the forces beneath.
This may look like a deep chasm, but it’s only about 4 inches deep - the magic of getting down really low and really close with a pinhole camera!
I’d brought my large format pinhole camera along too, which gave me a different perspective on the beach’s features, both natural and manmade.
Photos taken 3 February 2023
As I pondered where to go with my camera on my second morning in Somerset I rediscovered a pin I’d previously saved in Google Maps marking St Audrie’s Bay. This is a private bay which is access by a steep path down the side of the cliff from a caravan park. Fortunately non-resident are allowed to park there so I headed down to the beach with my iPhone and two pinhole cameras.
This was the sight which greeted me - miles of sand and layered rock formations and with high tide several hours away there was no chance of be getting cut off here.
Continuing my mission to learn more about the abilities of my phone camera I snapped away at any details, small or large, which caught my eye.
My main reason for visiting St Audrie’s Bay was the waterfall which tumbles off the cliffs. A stream runs across the hills above and, judging by the incessant stream of water, there had been plenty of rain to feed it recently.
My other focus that morning was pinhole photography so I also took a few behind the scenes images to share in an Instagram story about my adventures. I’ll share the photos from my wooden pinhole cameras in a separate post.
Photos taken 3 February 2023.
I’ve recently agreed to run a photography workshop focused on shooting with a smartphone rather than a traditional camera, so when I visited Somerset earlier this month I decided to travel light and begin learning more about the camera I carry in my pocket.
I’d recently watched a video showing how handheld long exposures can be taken on an iPhone using the camera in the Lightroom app so I was eager to try this out around the harbour at Weston-super-Mare. I was frankly astonished at how good it was - the static parts of the view are pin-sharp, while the waves gain drama as they’re blurred during the course of a second long exposure.
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
Elsewhere there were a couple of scenes where I just couldn’t bring myself to remove the colour.
Photos taken 2 February 2023
One of my favourite cathedrals is Wells and I never pass up an opportunity to visit if I’m nearby. In July I had some work in Bath so I sneaked in an extra day to visit this wonderful building.
I divided my time here between digital photography and some pinhole work too, but I’ll stick to my precise digital images in this post.
Looking up at the cathedral’s organ through those magnificent scissor arches.
Photos taken 1 July 2022
