Here goes another set of pictures I took some time ago, also in the summer of 2015. The weather was nice enough to do some visits to coastal places in Norfolk, a region here in England I like lots. This time was in Cley Next the Sea. I went there with a friend, and we walked a lot. I even felt I burnt my skin, a thing that rarely happens here in UK. We visited the marshes, the town, an old abandoned church. I’m not a believer myself, but I do enjoy taking pictures inside churches and similar places. The atmosphere, light, sense of peace and tranquility… I don’t need to believe in anything to actually feel… something. I don’t need either to invent strange reasons or imaginary friends to explain these feelings. Of course, we ended in a pub, having a nice meal and some beers. Simple pleasures are the best ones… 🙂
+ high-res version
I think I’m going to start a black and white period of pictures. I love colour ones, but I feel like black and white is better suited these days. Black and white is less distracting, helping ease composition issues as pictures can become more abstract and schematic. Also perhaps it fits better with my current mood. Or the British weather, I don’t know…
Over a year ago, I wrote a post where I said that I was doing alright. It’s amazing how things can change so fast. A person that was like my anchor to this place, or so I thought, decided suddenly to search for greener pastures in another (more sunny) country. Also, the company where I was working closed its doors, suddenly too, for unknown reasons. So there I was again, feeling alone, in a place I really didn’t like. A place haunted by memories. After that, I moved to London, I found a job in another studio here, and everything seems to be back on track, almost. London, for all its charm and (photo) opportunities, is proving its fame of being one of the most unfriendly cities of the world. It seems very difficult to connect with people here. That’s what feels to me, so far.
2016 ended (thanks, it was time already…), and for this 2017, I have no idea what to expect. I’m scared of expecting anything. If last year new year’s resolutions were full of plans and ideas for the future, this one will be just about licking my wounds, as they say here. Yeah, I know, it’s a very dramatic way to put it, there are far more serious problems out there, but… Someone I used to know (and love) always said to me that everything happens for a reason. The same person that escaped to the sunny country, ironically. To be honest, I never believed in all that “the universe conspires to make me happy (or unhappy)” nonsense. It is, in my opinion, an irrational way of thinking. And a bit selfish too. An easy way out from (the sometimes hard to deal) reality. I’m sure the universe is busy with more important stuff, like burning helium in stars and throwing dust and gas into black holes. I am a more down to earth person, I guess. I’ll just keep taking pictures, reading, learning new things, doing my job the best I can, travelling with my daughter (my real anchor here, not an imaginary one) to places, etc… and see how it all goes. No plans ahead.
By the way, the picture for this post, completely unrelated to this rambling, was taken two weeks or so ago in London. In black and white looks more interesting to me. The colors for this 2017…
Here are the remaining pictures from my day trip to Orford Ness. That day started cloudy, and when it was time to leave, the sun appeared. For a moment I though, what if I stay here to see how it looks at night? Actually, you can book a photography tour to do exactly that. Something to look for the future.
Last Saturday I spent the day visiting an interesting place. I had heard about it a while ago, just by chance while browsing the National Trust website. Its called Orford Ness, in Suffolk. There is a pretty little village there, with a castle, various pubs and tea rooms. And then, across a short distance, this island that was used during various periods of time as a test base for weapon and other military gadgets development, some of them as important as the radar which gave England a huge advantage over Germany during the Second World War.
They also built some intriguing structures, called the pagodas, used for testing atomic weapons. Apparently, not nuclear explosions involved. They did that in Australia. But some vibration tests and launching bombs from planes, was the usual stuff there for quite a lot of time. As I was walking around the place, it came to my mind, in this idyllic and peaceful place, how was felt that some miles away, big explosives were been detonated regularly, German planes destroyed (on floor tests) or atomic weapons (without their nuclear charge, apparently) where shaken for the sake of science (and military advantage, of course). Quite possibly only a few people in the village knew at that time what was really happening.
I found this place completely fascinating. A mix between a desert and a forbidden zone, like the one described in Stalker. Abandoned buildings and structures. Weird landscape. Cloudy weather, as usual. That’s what I need to get out home and try to shoot some pictures. Not all the areas are open to the public.There are colour coded routes. Last Saturday I had to follow the red one. The pagodas are not accessible unless you book a guided tour in advance. One of the labs is open and is a creepy example of a derelict structure taken by nature. Because that is all what remains of this place, once so important and at the same time so mysterious. Now its just a natural reserve, and a place for tourists to spend a Saturday. Here is an old documentary from the BBC, split in some parts. Image quality is not very good, but is interesting nonetheless.
Apparently, there are also UFO sightings. It doesn’t surprise me at all. 😛
Here is my picture for this weekly photo challenge. It’s not the first time I post some old door pictures here. There is something about them that makes you wonder: When was the last time it was opened? This one is in Anglesey Abbey gardens, an old house close to Cambridge. It belongs to the National Trust so it is a quite popular place to visit. The road to the place can even get traffic jams sometimes. It is not the first time I take some pictures there. We quite enjoy visiting this place from time to time, myself always with a camera.
PS. This blog is one year old! Thanks to all my followers and visitors! 🙂
I didn’t want to go to this place when I was a child. This place was scary, at night you could hear noises.
They are rats, my grandparents said to my brothers and me. But also, I heard that at some point, decades ago, maybe during the Spanish civil war, a priest came to make some prayers for I don’t know what, and since then, those noises ended. Much later, we came here to play and try to scare our friends and cousins. And we had to be really careful, just because the wood on the floor was quite broken in places, and you could fall to the room just downstairs. I visited this place during my summer holidays, and somehow, I felt really old.
As I mentioned earlier, I had an entire weekend for visiting some National Trust places in the UK.
This one was taken here. Apart from visiting the house and the gardens, there are walks all around the place with interesting views and things. These ruins are part of a fake ruined castle built in 1770 for decorative reasons. It looks great in those hills. Given that trees don’t seem to be aware of the spring this year, the shadows of the branches are well visible, and used that to direct a bit the viewer’s attention. I tried a black and white processing, but looked to me very dramatic. A blue sky here shouldn’t be wasted!
These metallic shapes with rust, sea anemones and barnacles are what is left of the Steam Ship Falcon, that caught fire in 1926 and ended wrecked in Dover coast, in front of the Langdon search lights, precisely.
Little remains of that ship but its steel frame is still there. The pass of time has created its own biological ecosystem in the old structure. Rocks and stones have engulfed the steel, integrating this man-made object in the stone floor. This structures are only visible with low tides. There is even a film from the event. Silent and in black and white, of course:
And this is how the remains look from the edge of the cliff. It is amazing how these shipwrecks look when enough time passes.
I took this one in In my visit to Dover. It is an abandoned search light battery used in World War Two, situated in Langdon Bay just to the east of Dover Harbour.
This place was used to light possible enemy ships coming by night. The Langdon battery, on the top of the cliff, could shoot these ships. In this map you can see these strategic placements:
The Langdon battery doesn’t exists any more. A Coastguard station was built in its place. The remains of this search light batteries are still in quite good condition. To visit them, you have to climb down a zigzag stair carved on the vertical wall of the cliff. Worth the effort, I think. Initially there were three, but a cliff fall destroyed the one closest to the harbour. Those cliff falls are very dangerous, and it is advisable not to get very close to the edge, something I did a few times.
