Orford Ness - The inevitable lighthouse shots

You can't visit Orford Ness without taking pictures of the lighthouse. Nothing exciting or original with these shots, but I had to take them anyway.

Orford Ness - Under a big sky

Saturday was my first visit to Orford Ness. Now a National Trust site, at one time it was used by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment for 'environmental testing' of the trigger mechanisms of nuclear weapons. Another part had been used by the US military for an experimental over-the-horizon radar system known as 'Cobra Mist', and is now a BBC World Service transmitting station.

Many of the old research buildings remain as points of interest in the otherwise huge flat expanse of shingle. For some reason the big sky and blisteringly hot day made me think of the film Paris Texas. I had Ry Cooder's slide blues theme tune running through my head all day. It was definitely a place that suited a wide-angle lens.

Photographers do the oddest things.

On Saturday I met up with others from the camera club at Orford Ness. I am still sorting through the images taken that day. But to be going on with, here a few candids of other club members. Normally I leave this sort of thing to Ian or Sue, but this time I couldn't resist.

Damselflies at Brampton Wood

A pair of common blue damselflies, with the female in the foreground.

Maximum Macro

I have been playing around, trying to use a set of extension tubes with my 105mm macro lens, to make very small subjects as big as I can. The trouble is that the tubes cut the depth of field dramatically. I spent 2 weekends in Brampton wood trying to get a sharp image of a small insect on Speedwell. This was the best I could do.

Sardana

Whilst wandering the streets of Barcelona on a sunny(ish) Saturday afternoon, I happened into the square outside the Cathedral, as a small band were giving a concert. A scene that can be seen in parks and squares all over the world. The difference was that this square was full of people who had formed circles, holding hands at arms length and were dancing. The circles were both big and small and the people were of all ages. The dancing consisted of very precise and quite subtle steps with little upper body movement (sometimes the arms went up and sometimes down, but that was about it).

I have since found out (thanks to Google) that this was Sardana. This is a traditional Catalan dance and a potent symbol of their identity (Franco banned it along with the language).

I found the sight of all these people dancing together fascinating and truly lovely. I spent a couple of hours and a couple of hundred frames trying to photograph it. It was not easy.

I was particularly taken with trying to frame dancers through the arms of others in the rings. This was my best effort.



























The hardest thing of all was trying to convey the sight of the square full of dance circles. There were just too many spectators milling around to make a successful image.



Sardana is accompanied by a small group of musicians called a ‘cobla’. This consists of a selection of brass and woodwind instruments, together with a double bass. It is lead by the ‘flaviol’ (a type of flute similar to a picalo), normally played by the left hand while the player uses the right hand to beat a small drum, called a 'tamborí, attached to the left elbow.

Ghosts in the Water

There is absolutely no Photoshop trickery involved in this picture. It is a faithful recording of what was seen at the time. Care to guess how I did it?