On top of my little world in Sutton Bridge

Last week I was offered the chance of going to the top of the church in my village. An offer I couldn't refuse.

It's like urbexing with an invite.

The church itself; St Matthews was consecrated in 1843 and according to the internet it's the only flint stone church in Lincolnshire. Is it a that a wow thing?

I went armed with a couple of lenses; 24-70, 70-200 and a tripod (and obviously a camera). I used both lenses and just had a play.

It was windy at the top (excuse no.1) and I don't do landscapes (excuse no.2) but the shots that I got have come out quite well, in my opinion.

It wouldn't be right to not get shots of Sutton Bridge's namesake and it's other most famous landmark.

So it turns out that behind the cross is a door but what's behind the door? 

Back inside I captured a few more sights that only a few will ever see.

This thing is loud when it goes off!

I do hope that I can persuade the powers that be to get a shot up here of a wedding!!! 

And finally. 

As I said above and I'm sure I've said before in previous blogs; I'm no landscape photographer. 

It's both because I'm not really into landscapes and/or because of this I don't practice and try to get better at shooting them. But when faced with the almost 360 degree view I thought I would create a panorama of what 'makes' Sutton Bridge; One image containing both the bridge and the power station.

It took 9 shots in total. And 2 attempts because of the wind that resulted in a couple of shaky shots.

I used Lightroom 1st to merge the images but I couldn't get the horizon to be straight. The merging process via Lightroom resulted in an un-level horizon; the program created a hill to the left of the power station and there is no such thing as a hill in the fens.

So Photoshop was the answer but this caused a few headaches. 

It wouldn't merge all of the images seamlessly; probably the same problem that caused Lightroom to make a non existent hill. 

Photoshop just didn't understand!!!!

So I merged the 1st 6 images together, merged another 1 to those 6 afterwards and then finally added the final 2 images that resulted in a much better composite. But theres still a slight raised area which IM SURE is not there in reality.

Click on the image to expand.

Thank you Mark for the invite.

Flying low at RAF Holbeach

Established in 1926 in the sleepy little village of Gedney Drove End, RAF Holbeach is a practice gunnery and bombing range. For those of us that live in the area close to, its a constant source of NOISE.

For sure you can see your fair share of fighter planes and gun ships but the majority of the time you just hear the jet engines and the thud thud of distant helicopters and this can go on for hours!

Drones are a bit of a novelty. A very expensive novelty too.
I like them, no doubt about it, they're cool but......

Things are no longer off limits, well apart from airports (for most people apart from those near missers), places are now in reach that were never in reach before. Views and angles previously only available to people with light aircraft are now achievable to every member of joe public.

A cold and windy Sunday in October, i loaded up my bike on the back of my car and drove to the marsh and then got my, head wind, pedal on to the waters edge.

Fly safe!

What a difference a day makes

3 places in one day.

Starting at 8am getting home at almost 9pm.

The great outdoors. Fresh air. Sunshine for the solar powered human body.

Cold, wind and a runny nose.

Photography is my thing. You know that. I have to do it. its all that seems to work for me. Nothing else is quite the same.
Its my smoking, my drug, my vice. I
 need to go out and shoot. Sitting at home slowly drives me crazy. Im a caged photography animal waiting to break free.

3 dogs.
Wow 3 dogs is hard work. 2 dogs is 1 too many but 3 dogs is ridiculous.
Thats 3 dogs that all want to walk in 3 different directions.
3 dogs to clear up after, 3 dogs too feed.
They're living creatures, they need to get out, they need to run.

8am i got in the car and took the dogs to west bank light house at the mouth of the wash.
Walking boots and dog towels at the ready.
The wind was bitter, hands were cold.

After buying the 6D recently I've been using it a lot to familiarise myself with it, which is not that difficult as its like a mini 5D. Ive been carrying it everywhere. Its not super heavy but its hardy unnoticeable especially with the battery grip attached too.
Luckily, which has kept the weight down, I've been shooting with the Helios 44-2 lens.
Its tiny compared to the average 'new' lens. New lenses have all sorts trickery involved in the glass to give you perfect results.

This old lens doesn't have any tricks up it's lens barrel (the closest it has to a sleeve, see what i did there) so its small and light. 254g to be exact and thats with a small lens hood and mount adapter included.
Compare this too, 903g, the1st lens i pulled out of the drawer, my Tamron 24-70 f/2.8.
649g is a big weight saving when carrying the lump around.

Ive been using an adapter with a focus confirmation chip, to aid in getting focus correct. It does a pretty good job too!
Keep the lens reasonably open and it will focus easily, if stopped down even to f8 focus confirmation is not so successful. Apparently this is the case with most manual focus lens/confirmation devices.

As always I've been challenging myself. This time I've been using focus differently; I've not been focusing on the usual subject instead I've focused on another area in the scene and have allowed the main subject to fall out of focus.

Why?

Why not?

Why do the same thing as everyone else?

Take this photo for example.

The East bank lighthouse.
It would serve as the subject of focus in many images.
I don't blame it, its not often the average joe sees a lighthouse in real life.
To begin, i create the composition. Follow all of the normal rules or just make the scene pleasing to my eye. After all if you don't like your own photographs then why are you taking them.
Once everythings in place, find another part of the scene to focus on.

Simple.

I want the usual main attraction to be recognisable but not sharp. Like a fond memory.



Let me tell you. Taking photographs whilst in the company of dogs is hard work.

Its much easier to take a photo of a dog.

But in the company of dogs, it can be difficult.
Right at the decisive moment, the shutter click, your almost guaranteed either the dog will walk into the frame or will jump up you or pull on the lead.

Many of times has this happened to me.
Maybe i should get the message.

On this occasion i just got dirty footprints up my jeans and jacket.

Ella usually sits quite patiently, waiting for my call to move. She deserves a photo now and then.

Focus is not great but she was anxious to move, so, never mind.

I had an appointment soon after the dog walk.
I was then free to roam the streets of Spalding again.
Not a bad 30 minutes spent walking around shooting street.

 Beer cans and alleys. A common occurrence in the Fens.

 One man and his bow.

 Where would the world be without mobile phones?

Smoking, according to one source is the 3rd most difficult addiction to cure. 

It reports that love is the most difficult.

Patiently waiting.

Light, is an amazing thing. Highlights and shadows and create images just by themselves.

Not long after getting home from Spalding i got invited to shoot landscapes with Jack.

Im no landscape shooter. They just don't do it for me.
But you should never pass up an opportunity and just because i don't like something doesn't mean i shouldn't try.

Just like Ribena, i don't like the stuff but if its the only thing available then fill me up a glass.

We drove over to Cromer in preparation for sunset.

I met a couple of other photographers who were waiting for the same light. Its nice to talk shop with new people.

Setting up on the beach i wasn't feeling it. Its not my thing.

But i had do capture something. Luckily the tide was out at this point and so the wet sand was flat and strewn with thin layered puddles that reflected their surroundings like glass.

This is what makes me an artist and not something else is that i know to look for beauty in all scenarios.
Is that a big headed thing? No. I just know there will be something in amidst the mundane.

On to the 'landscape'.
Everyones long exposure favourite; water.

Sitting here thinking about it. I guess the feel good thing about this image, or the story about this image, is the standing around and waiting for the exposure time to be up. So you can see what you've got. Like shooting on film with imaginary fingers crossed hoping that it works out.

Thats my two pence on it, feel free to disagree.

A busy day.

Keep shooting.

On top of the bridge.

Recently I was lucky to be invited to go up to the control room of the Crosskeys Bridge in my home town (or is it village?) of Sutton Bridge. 

Now, im sure everyone would automatically think landscape, landscape, landscape;
1) The fens in my opinion doesn't have a lot to offer in the way of spectacular views unless you want to see flat farmland.
2) There wasn't much going on in the sky either as the sun was high and bright which is not what a landscape photographer desires.
3) Im not much of fan of Landscapes anyway.

Instead, some may say, as per usual I focused on the things that others may pass by like the controls etc.

Ok scrap all of the above.

I did like watching the cars come and go down the long straight stretch of the A17 Towards kings Lynn.

I took a couple of shots trying to get a car in the right place to make the most of the distortion on my Wide angle lens.

I suppose the other thing Sutton Bridge is famous for other than the bridge, the clue is in the name after all, is the 337 million pounds power station.

Inside was quite cool, if you like levers, buttons and spinny type wheel things, Oh and don't forget the kettle!

Im not sure ill ever get the chance to go up again but im proud to think or say that ive been up there.
Now id like to go underneath it and see or mechanical parts at work.

A different look at the bridge

Today it snowed and so the sky has been a mixture of blue sky and black storm clouds all leading to a very dramatic sunset over Sunny Bridge.

I had my Fuji X Pro 1 in the car, so I put it to use, most days im really itching for photography so the sky was a good reason too.

What's a picture of the sky worth without a subject in the foreground, the most obvious foreground subject in my village is the bridge itself. To make the sky look as dramatic as it did in real life and possibly that little bit more special and to test out the camera I exposed for the sky to retain highlight detail and Ive bought detail out in the shadows in Lightroom.

The shadows are a little grainy I agree but for a grab shot it has the desired effect; just look at that sky.

Im always drawn to the red phone box next to the bridge, Id love to be able to get both the phone box and the bridge in one shot but unfortunately there's a load of other crap in between them that just ruins the shot. However up until now I had never thought of shooting the bridge from inside the phone box.