Compare and contrast

Right. So I went to some castle ruins in Baconsthorpe. It's a nice little quiet village on the way to Cromer. Down a (long) quiet little (very narrow) road, are some ruins of an old fortified manor house. It's erroneously called Baconsthorpe Castle. But I guess that has a ring to it.

Anyhow.

There isn't really much to see there, but it's a pretty nice place to sit down and pontificate to the nothingness.

I'm not so confident with colour photos, so I was trying some things with depth. The one above, I crawled half way down into the moat and shot upwards to get the grass in the foreground. The one below is kind of interesting with the varying degrees of light.

I'm glad I went out the day I did. The clear sky made the colour shots come out pretty nicely. I only took about 8 in colour though.

Using the film that I am, I was told I would get a quite a stark difference between the lights and darks. Even on a clear day the black and white pictures came out rather well.

Similar to the photo above. This one below is much better I think.

Obviously I can't hold a camera straight...

I really like the following ones.

I wasn't entirely sure how these would come out. I emphasise a substantial amount of trial and errors made, ended with these photos.

This one's nice. Shame about the fence though.

I take better photos in black and white

It's a strange thing to say. But I really do think photos look better in black and white. You can add a mood to them in pretty unexpected ways. I find myself saying I take better photos in black and white.

These are all from Sandringham House (the house itself is the last photo), where the Queen spends her Christmases. They are all plant life pictures that would make more sense being in colour. But I like the way they turned out.

This one below would probably work better in colour. But it's a cool looking flower. And as it's got a pure white look about it against the varying greys makes it stand out better than expected.

There is a lot of open space around Sandringham. This is just long grass but there are no people. And it's quite nice unspoiled.

There is this nice bank of trees that line up quite nicely. I have clearly stolen all my ideas here.

In contrast to the single flower that came out white, above, the near black look of these is quite a nice juxtaposition.

And this is what Sandringham looks like...

...and a last bit of colour from Peckover House

I used a whole role of film from these gardens. I could put the majority of them up. But I will settle for 12 altogether.

They line the plants up in pretty cool ways, so you can look down the rows and get varying amounts of colour. I think there is too much green in the background and I could have been at a lower angle. But screw it.

Returning to the theme of solitary plants...

(One is the loneliest number...)

I don't know why this was there. But a wheelbarrow full of soil and plants would make a different kind of garden fixture.

I like the look of these things. I never would have thought I would take an objective interest in the shapes and forms of plants.

Here's a half decent example of the varying flora and fauna...

...as is this. It really is a great place to see. It's also shielded off nicely from Wisbech, even though it's in the centre of it. A good place to get away, quietly.

A little more colour

Carrying on with the colour theme, these are all from Peckover House and Gardens in Wisbech. The house has a pretty interesting history. It's an old Georgian house built buy the Peckover family who were Quakers, and had made their money in Banking. The house itself is nice to look around. It's not entirely open so you can't see it all, and it's been mocked up to look how it would have done more than 150 years ago. It's a pretty small place though, and they don't get a lot of money for the upkeep apparently. The funding for National Trust places have to battle it out with each other, the story goes.

The gardens really are the main attraction. I never thought I would take much interest in gardens in a photographic sense. At the same time, it's also pretty nice to sit down and relax. They do excellent cakes too.

If I were to line up two of the best (or at least favourite) photos I've taken, two of them are here below. The first is the one immediately below here. If I was interested in making them look a little better, I would probably crop the top of this a little. But it works.


This next one is pretty neat. It was just a solitary red flower amongst others. The high contrast film probably helps. I like how deep the red is.


This one is definitely one of my favourites. It's white on more white.


The next couple are just two that I like a lot. Whilst not consciously aware of it when I take photos, there is something about solitariness that I think makes for interesting scenes. You can kind of see that in most shots that I have taken. I like focusing on one thing amongst many, that stands out. Or even focusing on something unremarkable and making it stand out. It's not a unique idea, but it works for me in a big way.


Feel free to tell me what any of these flowers are. I'd be quite curious.

A little bit of colour

I prefer taking photos in black and white. I don't know why. I think I can picture the result much better with black and white. And yes, I know it's counter intuitive. I have deferred to black and white film more often than not when choosing from the rolls that I have before me.

Anyway. I live near some pretty interesting National Trust places. They have some nice gardens and what not. I know near enough nothing about plants and horticulture in general. But I have managed to take some decent shots of some colourful gardens.

The following few (six) are all from Oxburgh Hall. You can tell I was trying to be a bit of a poncy artiste in a couple of them.

I just like the orange in the one above. I have been using 400ASA film exclusively up until now. Not sure why, but apparently you get good contrasts. I think this is a good example of that.

Here is my attempt at using a high shutter speed. It was a fairly windy day, and you can kind of see the grass blowing. But I liked that solitary flower in the middle.

There were quite a few different parts of the gardens to take photos of. They mixed all the different colours really well. Good to take a photo of really.

When you walk in to Oxburgh Hall, past the ticket entrance, you get a really nice view of the building with a little garden patch out the front (sort of, it has a moat between the house and gardens). But here (above) you can see the house in the background (again, sort of).

Out of all of them, I tried the hardest on this. It didn't come out how I wanted it to. But it kind of has the right idea. You can see the different rows of colours which I liked.

Much the same as the yellow flower above, the wind was blowing harder in this one and pushed the flower further down when I took the picture. But I'm glad it didn't take it out of focus.

Hell is other people...

...Apparently. It's a Satre quote that is generally taken out of context. But sod the context. It's as near a truism you'll ever get.

But people can be quite interesting to take photos of. It can be kind of awkward if you get squeemish about it. Which I do. So I try when people aren't looking. It also makes it hard if the person you want to take a photo of isn't keen on the idea. Either way. I haven't really got the skill of subtly taking photos of random people. But there have been occasions I have got a gem or two.

This is Sam. She doesn't like having her photo taken. But this is probably one of my favourite photos. We were messing about on the beach. The water was pretty cold apparently. If there is one thing that bothers me, it's that the horizon isn't straight. But whilst it is very noticeable, I still really like this shot. It's one with a good memory too, so it's a little more unique than a lot of the others.

A day on the beach in Jersey. These two kids were doing what kids do at the beach. I would have preferred to have had colour film at the time for a shot like this. But I think it came out ok. Maybe zooming in a little would have helped.

This girl was walking back and forth past me outside King's Cross Station in London. She had a dog with her as well. But it wouldn't stay in the frame annoyingly. This is actually from my first film in colour, and second role ever. There aren't many shots from this role that I actually like but I do like this.

I know you can't really see it clearly but there is a shoe on a foot sort of behind the bush here. From where I was sitting I had a clear view of it. But I had to move closer to get it clearer. I didn't have a decent zoom lens to do this and so not as good as I would have hoped. But it's from a day out at Sandringham, and the woman was there by herself reading a book. I didn't want to be too intrusive, so I moved backward and just went for this.

These next two (above and below) are pretty lazy shots. I was lying on the grass and was messing around. I was pretty high up, so you can't see what the woman could be pointing at. But it's out to sea. But it's a relaxed scene. I like how I managed to frame it pretty centrally though.

This is just kind of amusing. Four people on a bench. Seemingly looking at a tree.

This old boy was on his day out at Sandringham. I like his hat.

What is a summer without a barbeque?

This is the table from the previous post. But complete with what you would expect. I really like how the chilli sauce stands out.

A Pretty Common Activity

Smoking. Lots of people do it. It's something you see every day, and probably don't think twice about. Smoking, and it's associated mess is isn't pretty. But it is pretty simple to understand.

The picture below was taken at the end of an afternoon barbeque I was at. The table was filled with crockery, cutlery, and other such things. But at the end of it all, this is all that's left. A phone, sunglasses, and a pack of cigarettes.

I like this one. It's so simple. And again, such a common sight.

And a smoker.

A Bicycle And Bit More (Or The Other Way Around)

I spent some time in Shanghai, China a few months ago. It's actually where I picked up my OM-1. I spent a day out in the markets, and taking in the first sunny day of my time there. These were all taken with a digital camera.


Believe it or not, this is a boulevard in Shanghai. It's in the old French Concession.


China is pretty famous for it's bicycles. This row of scooters and bikes is pretty common all over the place.

I saw this guy sitting on the step of this shop just minding his own business. Asia has an abundance of 'plastic bucket shops'. They are like mini DIY stores. There always stacks of buckets. These ones are full of something I think.

Shanghai has changed a lot over the years. I haven't had the privilege of witnessing it first hand, but it is evident in parts of the city that have yet to give way to high rises. This is down an alley of a market. It's a much more bourgeois market than those of 10 odd years ago. You can sit down and get an Italian coffee here and there. But the buildings give the whole thing a bit of character. Modernity is ever present.

I was lucky (an ongoing theme) to get this shot. I was actually sitting in a taxi and happened to have a camera in my hands. I can't explain why I like this photo. But I just think of China when I see it. Though it could be anywhere, I suppose