Framedlight

The photographs were taken on a very wet day in May this year. Great fun though

Another day, another video. this one is rather different and set on London's South Bank. The pictures were taken in April this year.

Alan and I had a trip to the Humber Estuary in July this year. here are a few pictures of the Humber Bridge from Barton-upon-Humber compiled into a video.

Kilnsea sits on the Humber estuary and has been used in the past as a place of fortification, to guard against invaders. In 1915 Fort Godwin was constructed of concrete. An artillery battery with two big guns, it was pressed into service again during the Second World War but was decommissioned afterwards. Since then it has gradually been broken and claimed by the sea. Not much remains now, the cliffs have eroded right back and the concrete hulk of the gun emplacement lies isolated.                              On the cliffs, high above the beach you can still see a concrete sound mirror used for detecting ships before radar was invented. I am including this picture as it is not on the video

Back in May we joined a number of relatives in Winchester for my son's wedding. Before the big day we had an outing to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey, close by to Winchester. The gardens are a treat, with formal and less formal areas, places to eat and have a coffee and even 2 pet pigs. They were established by the plantsman Harold Hillier in 1953 and given to the sole care of Hampshire County Council in 1977. In mid May the rhododendrums were putting out a tremendous show. I took the photographs using a Holga lens. A cheap plastic lens that distorts and vignettes, especially on a full frame camera. I wanted to achieve a more dreamy look and used the lack of complete focus to do this. I have placed the photos on an Adobe Spark video which allows a slideshow and the addition of music to make it more of an experience.                        

We spent another night in Loa and then Anne and I drove back to Las Vegas. We went by some of the more interesting byways before we got onto I-15 and the big roll into the city. Unfortunately there was not time or opportunity to stop and take pictures. Even though there was the memorable experience of a road runner running down the road, naturally. Our plane left in the early evening for the journey back to Florida, a 4½ hour flight. This takes you over Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, and then after about 20 minutes, the Grand Canyon. I had a window seat and was able to take some pictures.  It got dark about 7.00pm and then we seemed to fly over vast tracts of nothing with the occasional oasis of light from a small town. Eventually we crossed the Gulf of Mexico and shortly after landed at Orlando Airport. The next day, before I took my flight home to the UK, Ron, Anne's husband took me for a tour to see the hurricane damage. We also saw, from their driveway, a rocket launch fro...

We left Scenic Drive as the sun was starting to go down and hurried to a parking place just off Highway-24, so that we could walk to Panorama Point to see the sun set. There was a beautiful tree which deserved to get the centre of attention. The sunset was not over dramatic but gave some warm soft light which accentuated the red tones of the cliffs. Capitol Reef has some of the darkest skies in the US, so after we had had our evening meal we went back to the edge of the Park to look at the Milky Way.  Mule deer grazing by in Fruita

There is one small side road from Scenic Drive and this takes you to the start of the Grand Wash Trail. Anne and I had done a part of this walk, but had started from the other end on Highway-24, so it was nice to see where we would have ended up if we had finished it. The trail starts in an open area which has a little hut, for the use of visitors, perched under some rather nicely colour matched cliffs. Anne and I had a wander around the area. Some of the rock formations were a little bizarre.  Butch Cassidy was rumoured to have hidden out here, but I think most places in Utah have a claim on that. Back on Scenic Drive The Moenkopi Formation sandstone seen here can form these towers

Scenic Drive in Capitol Reef National Park is a one way road that follows the original track forged by  Mormon pioneers in 1884. The road now comes to an end after 10.7 miles but once continued through Capitol Gorge to the eastern side of the  Waterpocket Fold, the road created by Elijah Cutler Benunin in 1896. You can still do this section in a 4x4, but the road was shut in 1962 once Highway-24 became operational. Anne and I drove down from Fruita, stopping frequently to look at the western escarpment of Capitol Reef. We did a little bit of scrambling up the side of the cliff to look at the rocks and get a better view. A cap of white Navajo sandstone The end of the road, you can see the path that once was the old road continuing on