At the end of my time in Cornwall and Devon this summer, I drove to a place called Sandymouth, a few miles north of Bude in north east Cornwall. The beach is a photographer’s Mecca, with rocks, sand, cliffs and westerly facing, so fantastic for end of day shots.
The tide was very high the day I visited and I would like to return when it has receded further, exposing more rocks and some sand.
Once back on the mainland in Ullapool in Scotland and I decided to visit the local light house I had spotted on the way out and back from the Outer Hebrides. I found a good location overlooking Rhue Lighthouse but I was being heavily buffeted by the wind, which was far stronger than the waves in the image show. However, after about half an hour of opalescent skies, the clouds parted and the shaft of light caught the beach in the foreground and struck the light house perfectly beyond it.
I ended up having to drive pretty hard to make up for the time I spend fiddling around to get this shot, to make my flight that evening in Glasgow. however, it was definitely worth it.
My view from Kowloon of a tug boat gliding away into the setting sun as it dropped behind downtown Hong Kong. I love Hong Kong. The geography, both natural and manmade are both arresting.
From the same session as the shot for yesterday at Bentham beach in Devon, this one was taken as the sun dipped into the cloud on the horizon. The fiery sky looked stunning. Made me feel as though I was back on the equator again, just without the incessant heat to manage.
Next time I am in Devon I hope to head to Thurlestone. There is a natural stone arch, which could make for an interesting near to mid point of interest.
An early morning slow sunrise over the channel in east Devon. There was very little movement in the water and yet the clouds moved at a quickened pace above me.
This shots was taken about 30 minutes after dawn had broken, just as the sun finally cleared the bank of cloud hugging the horizon.
Recently, after many failed attempts, I was fortunate enough to go on a balloon flight over Berkshire. The evening weather as perfect as the breeze pushed us eastwards, towards Henley. On the way, we flew over a verdant forest, where a horse and rider momentarily materialised from between the trees as they crossed the bisecting path beneath us.
Hard to imagine that you are only 25 miles from London at moments like this.
Following on from my last shot of the day on August 10th, this shot was take a few hours earlier at Ayrmer Cove, just as the sun was setting behind the peninsula. The magic of the moment was having this entire beautiful scene to myself, something that rarely happens at sunset.
This morning was a beautiful one to wake up to. Sunny and bright, not words we would have associated with Iceland so far. The road out of Blonduos was calm and tranquil and we covered about 35-40kms without seeing any traffic. However, this was clearly too good to be true. As we turned a corner we could see a rising valley ahead of us. Shit! came to mind. It is difficult to put this into words but we could see tiny cars up ahead of us climbing very very slowly. This did not bode well for us lowly cyclists.
We climbed 500 metres higher and higher up the hill. It was grueling and exceptionally tough. As we reached a plateau at the top of the mountain it was still fairly sunny and warm and the scenery was awesome.
As we began to head down towards Varmahlio (a small town housing 120 residents) we could see the massive drop ahead of us and it was a long long long ride down. The weather was beautiful and really warm. We safely reached the bottom and after an amazing lunch thought ‘life is great’.
Over lunch we looked at the map and saw that we could get 45 km towards our next destination. Unfortunately our luck was out and the stand on Julien’s bike broke. No stand on a touring bike fully loaded is frankly a pain in the arse as you can’t just stop for a drink. You have to find something to lean it on. This put Julien in a grumpy mood. Then the weather clouded over and it got cold. Our non-stop uphill climbing of only 15km took us a whole 4 hours! We were so high up that we got to the point where there was snow all around us. We were yet again battling strong head winds and we were freezing cold. Finally we reached the path at the top. We had drunk a lot of water and were very thirsty. The wind chill made it below zero. Julien had full weather gear but Angelique’s full weather kit had one missing in transit so we hailed her a lift down the mountain. Julien camped alone at the top of the mountain and experienced -2 degrees in the tent. That said it was a beautiful evening with clear skies and the now familiar light nights.
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