Sea Fever

In my neverending and futile quest to share my backlog of photos, I thought I'd take the opportunity to string together a theme for this week. So all three of today's photos have a slightly nautical theme going on. Unfortunately the identity of the third picture is Top Secret, so it's not here. (I've left my hard drive in Durham while I'm home for the weekend and the picture I want to share isn't on my laptop...typical! I'll add it in a later post.)

They're all from the last 12 months, But from different parts of the UK. First up, Tenby Harbour in Wales:

 

Tenby is somewhere I've been to quite frequently with my family; my Grandpa was born and raised there, and we've spent many (often rainy, but often gorgeous) summers there since I was young. Watching from the terrace of our holiday house, a break in the rain coincided perfectly with the return of this red boat and the vibrant rainbow overhead.

Unfortunately someone stuck a crane on the end of the harbour, which might well be a permanent fixture. You can't have everything.

I should also point out for the record: Tenby and South Wales are not permanently immersed in constant rain. Most of the time it's absolutely amazing, especially in the summer. Rain is not a prerequisite.

But, since we're in a week of heavy thunderstorms, let's have some more rain to finish off!

This is Sidmouth in Devon; by happy coincidence, my Grandpa's current home. It's an absolutely lovely town which is often bathed in glorious sunshine.

Honest.

During a little wander in the rain on the beach, this boat gave me a chance to take a picture of the seafront a little bit differently to how it's often seen. I regret to this day that I don't have a really wide angle lens that I could have used to get the same picture from the other side of that irritating little shrub. No matter where I moved, it was there. I think it might have been following me.

That's all for now; once I get back to my hard drive I'll start posting some more. Watch this space!

And you might even get to see the other sea picture if you're good. Now there's an incentive.

J

Return of the Blog!

 As you may or may not know, I've had a busy couple of years since I last posted here. They sort of mysteriously petered out around the time I started my MSc up at Durham, which, I now know, coincided with a tumour growing on my pituitary gland getting big enough to start having an impact on my memory! Don't worry, I'm absolutely fine - but it did make it a bit difficult to do anything. Including keeping up with blogging.

When they started treatment last summer, I decided to experiment with having a proper website. It was nice, but expensive, and the year is now up - and with it, I'm letting my subscription go. Which means that I'm back here! Hooray!

I'll start posting here regularly again now - hopefully at least weekly, but it does depend on timings. I'm starting a PhD at Oxford University in October, so it's likely that periods of free time will be few and far between. But never fear, I'll do my best to keep up!

In the meantime, I've got some fun images which haven't really made it to public consumption. So here's two of my favourites from about this time last year.

The image at the top of this post is my current home, Ustinov College. I've been living here for nearly two years now, and it's a fantastic and unique community. Not to mention in an absolutely gorgeous part of the world on the outskirts of Durham. I took this photo last September when I moved back in after a summer at home. It's one of my personal favourite images of Durham, mainly because I felt so happy to be back!

This is also from a place very dear to my heart, though for completely different reasons! It's a footpath on Caldey Island off the coast of Tenby, Wales. My family has very old roots in Tenby, and we find ourselves going back there again and again. Visiting Caldey Island is something that never changes - it must be 23 years or so since I first visited (OK, maybe 20 or so since I've been old enough to remember what's going on), and it seems just as I remember it the first time.

And it's gorgeous.

Anyhow, there's many more brand new photos waiting to make their way up here - why not put your email address into the box on the right and you'll get a message when I post them? Don't worry, it won't be anywhere near frequently enough to clog up your inbox, but it will mean you won't miss a post...and we wouldn't want that now that I've started again, would we?!

Thanks for sticking it through to the end,

Josh

A Taste of the North... (part 2)

I felt it in my fingers. I felt it in my toes.

The Lake District was all around us...and it was indeed Wet Wet Wet...

A Taste of the North... (part 1)

Me again, hello!

So, as you may or may not know, in October I'm going to become a temporary Northerner when I go to study at Durham University. In a desperate attempt to acclimatize myself to the incessant winds, constant blizzards and eternal twilight that comes with going further north than Birmingham, I thought I'd go to the Lake District for a few days with two of my friends, Ross and Thomas (Hi!).

Get that name dropping - not only do I have friends, I have more than 2 of them! Bet you're jealous now.

Anyhow, when we turned up the Lake District was, miraculous, not only sunny but HOT, SUNNY and even NICE WEATHER. I was pretty sure it was just a ruse. Anyhow, we used out first full day there to go for a brisk walk, up Striding Edge on a small hill called Hellvelyn.



Yup. He looks about how I felt, standing at the start of Striding edge. It's very much an edge. Badly named though, because Striding is a bit hard. It's more...well, climbing really.

Ross and Thom there, taking centre stage.Thanks guys.What you can't see is the VERY steep, deep and ... fleep ... drop that they're looking down! Here's the ridge from a different angle...

Yup. Remind me not to do that on a windy day...

Anyway, here's the view from the top. With Ross trying to work out the name of EVERY peak within sight.

That's a nice looking tarn. Not very red, which is strange if you know that it's called "Red Tarn". Here's a barefoot man on a rock, waaaaay down below.

That's right - it's Ross and his friendly reflection. I should probably rotate it so that the horizon's straight, but I've already put the picture up now so I won't. You live and learn. Finally, for now, here's the way back down - we chose Swirral edge, a much less scary (but still steep) walk:

Very nice.

Anyhow, you may have noticed the GORGEOUS weather...suspiciously gorgeous. Ominously nice. Beautiful. SURELY there couldn't be any surprises on such a short gallivant*. Surely...

TO BE CONTINUED...

*Pretty sure this counts as a real word. 

A brief Jubilee recap

Now that Jubilee fever appears to have passed safely, I can put up some photos from East Bergholt's bunting heavy diamond jubilee weekend celebrations! Although the first one is mercifully flag free: it's my mum with an umbrella!

Corking stuff. It was certainly raining enough.

Every year on the bank holiday Monday, East Bergholt hosts the annual pram race, in which teams of people dress in various outlandish costumes to run around the village in prams for charity. I love the countryside. Anyway, here's a line of bunting, and my mum again - this time on the wall outside my house, with added centurions.

Fortunately most of the bunting appears to have passed...there was DEFINITELY an excess of it though. In tribute to the bunt skills of the East Bergholt residents, here's another line of bunting, this time leading to the village sign itself. Don't say I never get you anything!

I think I might enter that one in the most hotly anticipated photographic competition of 2012: The East Bergholt Horticultural Society Photography competition. Literally several people are likely to enter, and this one passes for "an East Bergholt scene". It's certainly a representative amount of bunting.

Ta for now,

J

Sidmouth!

Hello!

I'm in Sidmouth staying with my grandparents, for a very short holiday indeed. It is, however, a short holiday with a tripod - I did some tripoddy things (technical term): here they are.

Tripoddy thing number one (above) is something I'll try and replicate next time it rains...actually I didn't have a tripod for this one, which meant I had to use a much faster shutter speed than I'd liked. I would also have liked the people to be much closer to me on the prom, but unfortunately they were going the other way...what I do like is the reflected light from the lamps on the floor, which is why I couldn't replicate the shot the next day. Here's hoping for some rain! (**5 minute break while Josh hides from the Devonic lynch mob**)

That was from Sunday night when I first arrived here...I went back again on Monday to try and replicate it, and found not only that it wasn't dark but also that it wasn't wet. Shocking. But I had my tripod, so I thought I'd do some photos anyway, because that's the way I roll. Here's a landscape taken with a telephoto lens:

Not the most groundbreaking shot ever perhaps, but I think it has a certain charm to it. Something with much more potential is image number three below:



It's far from perfect, but you can see what I was trying to do with the first photo...combine these two and you'd have what I was going for. This time the couple are just where I wanted them - nice and prominent, heading blurrily down the prom. Unfortunately, it falls down on all the other fun points. Even though I took them at the same time, the rain clouds yesterday meant it was much darker - which meant the lights were on. As well as that, the floor in the first picture is soaking wet, which gives a lovely lot of fill light and some nice pools of light against the blacker background.

My aim is to come back another night this week and achieve that - I know what I want to do, I've just got to do it!

So let's hope for some rain...

J

A Triumphant Return...?

Hello you.

Guess what...blog's back! Bring out the champers!

And yes, that is my own champagne. Consider my student loan thoroughly blown (Big discounts at Sainsbury's - thanks to HM for having been married a long time the same weekend I had my final exam). Yes, after a long exam break, I'm announcing that I hadn't forgotten about this place at all! It may be a month since I last put any pictures up, but never fear - you can subject yourself to many more of my photos over the next few months! Altogether now, Three Cheers...!

I don't hear cheering. I'll let you off.

This time.

Anyway, seeing as my exams are gone now, you may have guessed that I've finished at Southampton University - awesome place, it must be said, and many thanks to the awesome people who awesomeised my time here. Awesomely. Ta very much.

Next year brings pastures new up north int' Durham...until then, lots of photo time awaits...get in. Meanwhile, here's a tribute to Southampton, and 60 years of having done something - I really should find out what all these posters dotted around are...

 

Enjoy. More to come tomorrow from Sunny Sidmouth.

J