Framedlight

Over the course the August Bank Holiday, while staying near Holt in Norfolk we made a couple of trips to Burnham Overy Staithe with the kayak. The sky often threatened rain which never came but gave good lighting conditions. Burnham was busy but we took the kayak down to where the inlet met the open sea and the waves were breaking. The first three pictures are of Langham Dome, built in 1942/3 to train pilots for fighting in the second world war. Moving images were projected on the interior wall of the dome and the trainees tried to 'shoot' them down. The airfield at Langham has gone - Bernard Matthews found the tarmac a good base for turkey sheds. The dome was decommissioned in the fifties and went into disrepair but was saved by an enthusiastic team of volunteers and opened to the public this year. I could not resist a multiple exposure of the building. The last three pictures are from my phone of the edge of the sandbank where it meets the sea, the rest are taken with a DSL...

We launched the kayak from Porthgain, hoping to get as far as Abereiddy, although in the end we only made it to Traethlyfyn. It was a good trip - we saw a seal swimming not far from us which roused the dog from her normal stupor into a frenzy of barking. Needless to say the seal did not hang around. We paddled between the pair of islands and the headland (see photo in previous blog). This was a bit scary as there was a big tidal current between the two pieces of land and we had to paddle like mad to get anywhere. Coming back we realised that we would be carried along in the turbulence and so chose to go through the very narrow space between the islands, which Alan decided would be safer. The concern was that, as we had the dog, we had had to remove the spray deck from the kayak which meant it could easily fill up with water. We made it back to Porthgain in one piece. Again I used the Fuji XE1 for the water shots and kept it in a plastic freezer bag when I wasn't using it. The ...

We were still staying near Stackpole, so the Monday morning saw us again at Stackpole National Trust car park. We parked at the far end by the picnic grass so we could pump the inflatable kayak up. It is not a light object and we had a good 500 yards to carry it down to the water's edge. It was to be Hettie's first excursion in it and she got herself thoroughly wet in the sea before settling on my legs in the craft. We had to take the spray deck off of the kayak to accommodate her, so we were slightly concerned that the sea might get up. I took the Fuji XE1 in a plastic bag, set on a fairly high ISO to combat the movement of the kayak. The limestone cliffs and caves in this area were really worth taking. I have 'grunged up' a number of the pictures to add to atmosphere. The first ones are selfies before we get to the more interesting bit. You can see how comfy Hettie is. Getting the kayak, heavy with water back to the car proved difficult, but we were helped by a ch...

After a good night we loaded up the van and drove across the mountain road to Aberystwyth.On the way we passed an abandoned mine under the mountain which was extremely photogenic. I processed the pictures using Arkham, one of the grunge presets in Perfect Photo Suite 7 Effects. Once in Aberystwyth we had a look around the town then went across to the harbour for the maiden voyage of the new kayak which I have christened Abba, after the town and the group which Alan detests. (Also with a passing nod to Young Frankenstein where the stolen brain is from a pot marked AB Normal). The pier has also been processed using Perfect Photo. We stayed the night in a little site away from the town called Pantamawr Farm. On the jetty Aberystwyth Lunch on the headland Paddle surfer offshore