Chatham Details

Some detail shots taken during the trip to Chatham Dockyards.

Chatham Docks Salute To The '40s

Last Saturday saw a coach load of CCC members head to Chatham Dockyard for their 'Salute to the '40s' event. 

Tall Ships Festival

On Sunday I joined some other CCC members in London for a visit to the Tall Ships Festival.  We started at Woolwich Arsenal, but events there seemed rather subdued, so we quickly moved onto Greenwich.  The ships were complemented with living history reenactors, various kids entertainers and all the usual food and drink stalls.  I spent some time getting shots of the reenactors, before following the Thames path down as far as the Millennium Dome.  The day was flat calm, so the few ships moving up and down the river had to do so on their engines alone.  Those sails that were up were purely for show.  I was particularly taken by the juxtaposition of the ancient tall ships against the modern and even taller buildings of Canary Wharf.

Round Bales - Colour vs Mono

Last weekend, with the harvest in full swing and the sky looking interesting, I found a couple of fields of bales to take some shots.  I played around with composition and exposure length, intending to turn all the images into monos.  As it turned out, I can decide if I prefer them in mono or colour.  So here are both versions of each shot.

 

150 Secs In The City

Hat tip to my friend Vic for coming up with the title to this post.  He visited me last weekend for our annual pilgrimage to the Great British Beer Festival.  The next day we went back into London to take some photos.  Vic hadn't seen that much of Town over the years, other that the route to Olympia and back, so I took him on a photographers grand tour.  We started in Shoreditch, walked through the City, crossed the river and finished on the South Bank.  The light was good with plenty of moving cloud, so we spent quite some time in the City, shooting 10-stop images at jaunty angles.  Despite our big cameras and bigger tripods, we were, surprisingly, not bothered by security guards with Napoleon complexes shouting about potential terrorist threats and building copyright.  Maybe it is the increased tourist attention that the headline buildings are drawing.  Or, the ubiquity of 'togs with 10-stop glass.  We weren't the only people sporting Mr Lee's finest  that day - although the two guys with OM-D's and gorilla-pods were a little more discreet.  Whatever the reason, it seems that the City's peaked cap and earpiece set have become a little more relaxed.  If only the same could be said of Canary Wharfe.

Rothern Bridge

A last trio from Devon, before I move on to other things.  Rothern Bridge lies just outside my home town of Torrington.  A Grade 2 listed structure, it dates from the 14th century and was the original River Torridge crossing for the road from Bideford and Winkleigh.  Long since replaced by the Rolle Bridge next to it, it's now a very quiet spot on the river.  As a child I spent many hours fishing there with my cousin, never catching anything.

Instow and Appledore

Instow and Appledore sit across the Torridge estuary from each other.  I visited each on successive days.  At Instow it was a virtually cloudless day, so I concentrated on Lensbaby shots of boats as the tide receded and a few detail shots of their anchor chains.  The next day at Appledore there was more cloud, giving an opportunity for some long exposures.