Homage to Home I: England

Back in September, Sharon and I took our son back to university in Wales - quite an ordeal in the end given the circumstances, but a great opportunity to do some photography together, particularly as I'd just bought her an Olympus E-M10 Mk IV for her birthday. Even though I've lived more than 60% of my life now in Germany, there's still an un-severable connection to the country I grew up in. I'm currently applying for (dual)German citizenship, but despite the years, despite the madness that is Brexit, I'm still British at heart.

My parents now live in Somerset, but I grew up in the chalk downs of Wiltshire, seven miles from the ancient stone circle of Avebury. Our village had its own white horse carved into the overlooking downs, though it's looking a bit worse for wear at the moment. We sandwiched a visit to Tenby in Wales (Part II of this series) between staying at my parents home and visiting friends near where I grew up.

This first part of my Homage to Home is dedicated to the south-west of England, focusing on the delightful town of Lyme Regis on the south Dorset coast and one of the fossil centres of the country, lying on the Jurassic Coast, the area around Yeovil, a trip to the wild north Somerset coast on the Bristol Channel and a visit to my old stomping ground at Avebury.

Montacute Panorama || Olympus 7-Shot Panorama 25 mm, f/8, 1/125 s, ISO 200

I'd forgotten how different the quality of light is in the UK compared to central Europe; it's a lot more diffuse and in early autumn the sun is a lot lower. It may sound trivial, but it does present a subtle challenge when photographing.

These two posts are going to be very picture-heavy and word-poor, for which I make no apologies. Feel free to leave any comments below.

Lyme Regis

Three-quarters of an hour from my parent's place, Lyme' is our go-to coastal town in the UK. With the picturesque Cobb, the painted beach huts and a wonderful town complete with fossil shops, tea shops, picture galleries and enough eclectic dress shops to keep even my wife happy, what can go wrong? There are a couple of decent pubs too at the Cobb, meaning that you can comfortably make a day of it and wait for sunset, which rarely disappoints.

Tide's Out || Olympus 100 mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO 200

Down at The Cobb || Olympus 16 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Lyme Beach Huts || Olympus 8 mm, f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

I've had the shot above in mind for a while. Whilst I'm reasonably happy with this version, I think next time I'll have to use my fish eye lens; I wanted to get the bend of huts as an element of the photo and it hasn't really worked here.

Golden Wave || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 s, ISO 200

Catching the rays of the setting sun. Although we've seen more spectacular surf at Lyme' in the winter storms, this was still a decent swell. I love the way that the wind catches the surf and the curve of the wave acts as a mirror to the sun. The water is quite brown here though, especially when you compare it to the beautiful colours we were getting on the Pembrokeshire coast, but you'll have to got to Part II for those...

Yeovil and Surroundings

Although I grew up in Wiltshire, the area west of Yeovil was familiar to me growing up as a great aunt and uncle (great as in my father's aunt and uncle) lived in a wonderful thatched cottage in West Chinnock. We came here often as children, enjoying the local surroundings as well as occasional visits to The Muddled Man, the village pub, once we got a little older. I think fondness for his aunt and uncle were a large motivator in my parents moving down here when they retired and we certainly enjoy the 'away from it all' feeling we get when we visit, though going by the amount of traffic on the A303, I suspect this might be an illusion!

Montacute || Olympus 50 mm, f/4, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Montacute Highstreet || Olympus 25 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Cream Tea and Post Box || Olympus 35 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

What could be more quintessentially English than cream teas and red post-boxes?

Path to the Light || Olympus 28 mm, f/8, 1/10 s, ISO 200

English Oaks || Olympus 41 mm, f/5, 1/400 s, ISO 200

From Ham Hill || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1/320 s, ISO 200

Porlock Weir

On our return from Tenby, we ventured up to an isolated part of the north coast of Somerset on the eastern edge of Exmoor. On paper, Porlock doesn't have an awful lot to recommend itself to the visitor, there's a tiny harbour, a very stony beach that's open to the elements. But it's a photographer's wet dream, as I hope you'll agree.

According to the Wikepedia entry, the name comes from Old English:

"Porlock means place of the port and Porlock Weir is its harbour. Weir refers to salmon stakes and traps that were situated along the shore."

Looking Back to Porlock Weir || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Porlock Cottages || Olympus 44 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 s, ISO 200

Porlock Weir || Olympus 35 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Porlock Breakwater || Olympus 24 mm, f/5, 1/500 s, ISO 200

Stones in Breakwater || Olympus 25 mm, f/4, 1/1250 s, ISO 200

Pebble || Olympus 35 mm, f/4, 1/1250 s, ISO 200

Between the Posts || Olympus 44 mm, f/4, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Pebbles || Olympus 100 mm, f/4, 1/400 s, ISO 200

Breakwaters || Olympus 50 mm, f/4, 1/500 s, ISO 200

Avebury

Our last port of call before heading back home was Avebury in Wiltshire. I think that to get the best of Avebury (photographically speaking) you have to arrive around sunrise with mist on the ground. By the time we got there, the sun was well up - and about to disappear. There was still enough time to visit the ring and walk 12 miles to West Kennet and back though.

Bramble Frost || Olympus 44 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 s, ISO 200

A Lady with Character: Mabel || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 s, ISO 640

Stones. Standing. || Olympus 41 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 s, ISO 200

Sarsen Stone Avebury || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Avebury Parish Church || Olympus 35 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 s, ISO 200

Barn and Fields || Olympus 61 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

West Kennet Longbarrow || Olympus 18 mm, f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 200

Longbarrow Inside || Olympus 18 mm, f/4, 1.6 s, ISO 200

Shed Roof, Avebury || Olympus 44 mm, f/4.5, 1/160 s, ISO 1000

Don't forget to subscribe to the blog to get notified about Part II, dedicated to our trip to Wales.

Christmas in the Heimat

Heimat is the German word for homeland or home-region and we spent Christmas with my parents in Somerset after picking the kids up en route. Although I've chosen to live in Bavaria and have lived here longer than I ever did in the UK (approx. 30:20 years), I still feel a deep connection to rural Britain. There's something in the rocks and countriside that just resonates with my soul and I find it relatively easy to find images when I'm walking around. I've discovered over the last few years that particularly the semi-managed wooded gardens of National Trust properties can provide some great pictures, depending on the season.

Surf at Sunset, Lyme Regis // f22, 1/2 s, ISO 64

Photographing on the coast is also very therapeutic, it's like watching a fire - you never have the same scene twice when you're shooting the sea. Whether you're looking at the tidal state, the clouds or the waves, every few seconds the composition changes. Again, Olympus IBIS for the win, I could easily shoot 1 s exposures free standing and didn't need to resort to a cumbersome tripod. It's so much fun. Throw a low-speed continuous capture mode into the ring and we're dancing!

Tarr Steps Google Maps

The Saturday before Christmas took us to Tarr Steps on Exmoor. There are some great images to be had here and being able to take slower exposures without the tripod was as good as a home run, except I didn't come away with an image that I was 100% happy with. Once again I made the mistake of checking the kids' Instagram feeds after we got home only to see that they'd got better compositions than I had. There's a gimme shot of the slab bridge leading up to Tarr Steps Farm (WELL worth checking out for food and drink!) but I screwed it up by taking it straight on.

In the end I opted for one black and white and one partially desaturated image of the steps:

Mixed Textures at Tarr Steps // f11, 1/2 s, ISO 200

Tarr Steps // f16, 1/2 s, ISO 200

The second image was my favourite from the set, but I should have had a lower perspective to let the bridge head into infintiy. I was particularly happy with the ON1 monochrome conversion of the first picture though. Previously I've found the ON1 black and whites too muddy, but there's a contrast and coarseness here that really fits the complex textures. Here's my son's take on the bridge and pub. I've got a similar one, but the bridge is straight on. Joshua's diagnonal makes it a much more interesting image. I was too focussed on the length of exposure, correct framing and cropping out the construction crane on top of the pub.

Lyme Regis Google Maps

Lyme Regis is our default beach when we're back in the UK. It's probably the closest bit of coast to my parents in central Somerset, it's picturesque, has a thriving art scene, a fantastic second-hand book shop that'd justify its own post and the best clotted cream teas. Given a high-ish tide and any moderate sea state and you get some great wave action on The Cobb, Lyme's tiny protected harbour.

It had just finished raining as we arrived  and it showed up beautifully against the dark clouds as we walked along the pastel beach huts - just visible on the left here.

Rainbow over Lyme Regis // f8, 1/200 s, ISO 640

The sea defences are regularly closed if the waves get too strong as they can be extremely dangerous.

These photos were taken just below the castle. The low sunlight and grey clouds gave these next two images almost a monochrome flavour without any tinkering.

f22, 1/2 s, ISO 100

f22, 1/2 s, ISO 80

By this time, the sky was developing a bit of colour and the spume was beginning to break over The Cobb so we headed back to see what we could catch. It's thrilling to see the waves crashing over the sea defences. Swapping the exposure from 1/2 s for the surf to 1/250 s to freeze the wave action was the right call and I was able to catch a series of waves crashing into The Cobb. The best of the series was this shot where the wave bouncing off The Cobb back into an incoming wave.

Backwash at The Cobb // f4.5, 1/250 s, ISO 200

We also managed to catch the last rays of the sun for the day, shining through the clouds as they departed. The golden light is real. I caught a couple with the spray shooting up the rocks, but this was my favourite with the gull just crossing the light.

Sunset on The Cobb // f8, 1/250 s, ISO 200