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Black and white image taken on the beach at Overstrand on the north Norfolk coast showing the incoming tide swirling around the old sea defences.
A stormy day at Ness Point in Lowestoft...the most easterly point of mainland UK. The long exposure was tricky given that I needed to hang on to the tripod to stop it blowing over.
This shows a former unused vineyard next to a new one which is waiting for the new sapling vines to be planted. No doubt at some point the vines in the old vineyard will be uprooted, the ground ploughed and new vines planted in a similar fashion to the one bottom left. The photo looked to me like marauding invaders being stopped by the defences of the vertical metal poles and the horizontal wires.
Another day (our last on the west coast of Hokkaido), another tetrapod sea defence. I don't do so many dramatic, high-contrast black and white images anymore, but this scene seemed to call for it.
From the archives: Hokkaido, Japan, 2019.
I wrote a blog post if you'd like to know more about the trip to Hokkaido. As well, if you'd like, take a look at all my images from two trips to Japan.
Morecambe, which was once one of England's most important seaside towns, only really dates from the middle of the 19th century when the railway arrived and a harbour was built. This stone jetty with its adjacent lighthouse was built in 1853 to act as a railway terminus for trains serving the ferries between Morecambe, Scotland and Ireland.
When the nearby port of Heysham was built in 1904 trade declined and Morecambe ceased to be an important port. It still developed as a popular seaside resort, especially in the 1950s. But fashions change and both the original station and the harbour have now gone, together with the town's two seaside piers. The terminus building immediately behind the old lighthouse has been converted into a cafe and tea-room. The Stone Jetty was rebuilt and extended during 1994/95 as part of the coastal defence work.
Details of the facilities at Morecambe, which we enjoy visiting, can be found at exploremorecambebay.org.uk/places-to-visit/morecambe.
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Dipping into the archives again, I found this image of a sea defence along the coast.
Fukui province, Japan.
A narrow road beside the rocks and fence link the La Have Islands to the mainland. The the South Shore of Nova Scotia.
Barnard Castle and the River Tees, Northumberland UK.
A stone castle was built on the site of an earlier defended position from around 1095 to 1125 by Guy de Balliol. Between 1125 and 1185 his nephew Bernard de Balliol and his son Bernard II extended the building.
The castle itself has been a ruin since the end of English Civil war, having been bombarded by the Parliamentarian forces of Cromwell.
A shot from a recent trip to Hopton on Sea on the Norfolk coast UK, This location is best known for its curved rock sea defences which look great as a long exposure especially at sunrise. This particular subject though i've passed many times but the tide wasn't quite right those days. This time however it was a high tide and it just seemed to work better with the overall composition. I love the textures and it's whole battered worn out look against the pastel colours of sunrise. Not sure what the bits of metal are at the end of the groyne bit it reminded me of an old radio antenna.
Another from my night at Cramond.
Thought the tide would just be dropping at sunset but it wasn't quite ready yet so had to make do with a shot from above but maybe a slightly different take to the normal viewpoint.
Apologies to the couple that I set up next to who were enjoying a moment to themselves.
Two exposures taken with the B&W ten stop and blended together in Photoshop. I have left quite a lot of the cast in here as the B&W can add quite a nice colour when not so much is happenning.
I last photographed the Thames Barrier a little over a year ago, but became inspired to revisit the location after coming across an article about the 1953 North Sea Flood, which overwhelmed British sea defences in the Thames Estuary and led to the deaths of more than 300 people across several counties. It was remarkable to read that the gates protect not only the immediate East London borough against tidal surges, but also the infratructure, underground network and power supplies stretching beyond the O2 Arena, the Docklands and Tower Bridge and all the way to Westminster. In addition to this, the barrier now also needs to contend with the impact of climate change and rising sea levels.
With all of this in mind, my aim with this image was a darker, moodier and altogether more sinister alternative to my last take on the location, capturing the formidable size and scale of the barrier's piers at dusk, but also contrasting the peaceful flow of the Thames and the reassuring glow of the piers' evening lights with the foreboding tones of the evening sky.
The final image is a blend of a dozen exposures captured over two hours, starting with a 90-second exposure as the sun was setting and continuing into the evening, at which point the shutter speed had extended to 12 minutes. My intention all along had been to weight the emphasis on the later exposures, but I knew I would also be using the earlier and brighter exposures to enhance the lighting across the roof of the piers and the tones along the Thames. Having created Pen Tool selections in Photoshop for the barrier's piers, the sky and the river, I blended in portions of each of these exposures using a combination of Soft Light, Lighten, Luminosity, Linear Dodge, Colour Dodge and Screen blend modes. The goal at this stage was to bring out the reflective finish and dimensionality along the tip of the piers, to emphasise the glow of the lights inside the barrier, to produce a clean finish in the concrete at the base of each pier, and to brighten the water and darken the sky. After blending the exposures,
I applied a gentle radial blur to the sky and used Silver Efex Pro to lower its midtone structure and soften its texture, creating a subtle contrast between the piers and their surroundings. I then used Colour Efex Pro to add some minor tonal contrast adjustments, with a gentle Detail Extractor to bring out the gritty nuance in the piers. The final touches were a combination of a Gradient Map to emphasise the chilly evening tones and a Colour Lookup set to Bleach Bypass to desaturate the tip of the piers, which helped to bring out their metallic texture and to add some definition to their background.
The end result involved more planning and attention to detail at both the shooting and editing stages than my previous take, but it hopefully brings out the immense feat of engineering behind the barrier's design, as well as the rock-steady industrial strength of the barrier against a sometimes menacing force of nature, which was the aspect that inspired me to revisit the location in the first place.
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Conwy Castle, North Wales
A second image from my trip at the weekend. I probably should have uploaded this one first as it's taken half an hour earlier and is the first image using my new Lee filters. I know I tried the 0.6 medium ND grad first so this is probably one of those. Note to self... make a note next time!
I've gone for the desaturated look just to make it different from my previous upload and it's a fair reflection on my general condition - late night film coupled with early set-off time - not the best of preparations!
Honfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy en.normandie-tourisme.fr/normandy-tourism-109-2.html in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais. It is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France. The first written record of Honfleur is a reference by Richard III, Duke of Normandy, in 1027. By the middle of the 12th century, the city represented a significant transit point for goods from Rouen to England. Located on the estuary of one of the principal rivers of France with a safe harbour and relatively rich hinterland, Honfleur profited from its strategic position from the start of the Hundred Years' War. The town's defences were strengthened by Charles V in order to protect the estuary of the Seine from attacks from the English. This was supported by the nearby port of Harfleur. However, Honfleur was taken and occupied by the English in 1357 and from 1419 to 1450. When under French control, raiding parties often set out from the port to ransack the English coasts, including partially destroying the town of Sandwich, in Kent, England, in the 1450s. At the end of the Hundred Years' War, Honfleur benefited from the boom in maritime trade until the end of the 18th century. Trade was disturbed during the wars of religion in the 16th century. The port saw the departure of a number of explorers, in particular in 1503 of Binot Paulmierde Gonneville to the coasts of Brazil. In 1506, local man Jean Denis departed for Newfoundland island and the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. An expedition in 1608, organised by Samuel de Champlain, founded the city of Quebec in modern day Canada. After 1608, Honfleur thrived on trade with Canada, the West Indies, the African coasts and the Azores. As a result, the town became one of the five principal ports for the slave trade in France. During this time the rapid growth of the town saw the demolition of its fortifications on the orders of Colbert. The wars of the French revolution and the First Empire, and in particular the continental blockade, caused the ruin of Honfleur. It only partially recovered during the 19th century with the trading of wood from northern Europe. Trade was however limited by the silting up of the entrance to the port and development of the modern port at Le Havre. The port however still functions today. On August 25, 1944, Honfleur was liberated together by the British army - 19th Platoon of the 12th Devon's, 6th Air Landing Brigade, the Belgian army (Brigade Piron) on 25 August 1944.[1] and the Canadian army without any combat. en.normandie-tourisme.fr/articles/honfleur-278-2.html