Norfolk Holiday pt4 Thurne

This morning we are at Thurne , and at last the wind is low enough for a drone flight. But the forecast is not good with high winds and heavy rain most of the day and all night also, the storm has arrived.   In fact we have decided to cut the holiday short and head home two days early

But its dry at the moment so out for a walk along the river , Unfortunately the windpump still has scaffolding up after renovation so its no good for taking images.  luckily there are two mills here .

I have set up on a pontoon and have quickly set up and into the air,  the light is rubbish but at least I can shoot a couple of images.

                                    A nine image panorama with black and white conversion.

                                                          Topdown over the mill.

                                      Multi image Vertorama, again with B&W conversion.

The wind has increased now and I have had to land,   we are walking around to the marina and back through to the village,   the rain is clearly visible in the distance and approaching fast.

           A last image as its started raining and getting quite heavy so its quickly back to the van.

It has been heavy rain all afternoon and overnight the wind was gale force , with torrential rain.  We have decided to head home early stopping off in Derbyshire as the weather appears to be clearing up there tomorrow.
But first I have gone back to shoot a few long exposure images .   the cloud is looking ominous but great for long exposure images.

                                                  5dsr, 17-40L     15 seconds f18

 I have been trying to get a boat passing through, and after many attempts I have managed this image.

                                                    25 seconds with Lee little stopper f18

Time to leave now, we are heading towards Crich , the is a Tramway museum which looks very interesting and a special event on Sunday.

How Hill Sunset 10th june 2015

Time to go down to How Hill to shoot the Windpumps at sunset , the weather is looking ok so far but not really enough cloud for a good one.
After parking up i go down to the river and walk to the right first as its still ages until sunset time.

                                                        A phone pano of the boat house

 While walking towards Boardmans skeleton mill, i stop and watch two Marsh Harriers hunting over the fields opposite :)     wonderful to see and then as i turn back a Barn Owl flies straight past me with a vole or mouse in its claws!   Amazing!

                                 Turf Fen mill in evening sunlight . shot with 100-400 mm lens.

      As the sun sets the wind has dropped to give mirror reflections , pity there is not much cloud :(

Moving to the end of the staith to shoot this 3 frame hdr merged image.  just after shooting this,  i hear a loud crashing in the reads in front of me,  must be an otter hunting  :)

                       Back to the main subject , this is about as strong a colour that i got unfortunately.

                                                            A Panorama image to finish

                         Walking back to the Skeleton mill for a quick shot before leaving.......

Norfolk pt2 Windpumps and Hummers 6/7 th june 2015

Its Saturday and time for a morning walk around How Hill , this is a skeleton mill called Boardmans Mill , built in 1897 .  this one has now been renovated since we where last here :)

                                                              Looks fabulous in the sunshine :)

Walking upstream ,  i am looking back to Boardmans in this image as we head towards another windpump.   

Here is  Turf Fen Windpump , its a great location for sunset images so will be back one evening this week.....

                A view of the beautiful thatched house on the How Hill estate near the car park :)

Time to go to Strumpshaw fen now to see if i can find any Swallowtails in the early afternoon sunshine , its blowing a gale so i doubt any will be flying.

             My first Dragon shot this year :)   a male Hairy dragonfly, taken along the railway line that borders the Fen,   after ages walking around , no sign of a Swallowtail, but as i get back to the car one flys overhead   Arghhhh  

 I give up , not going to find any so back to the van for dinner and the an evening swim for the Mutts!

       Back to the beach now , its really warm  and the Terrible twosome need a cooling off   lol

                                                            Come on  Hurry up ..........

                   its a beautiful evening on the beach , still warm sunny and they are happy :)

                                      Lovely early evening sun , great to be on the beach :)

Its early afternoon Sunday  , as we came over the dunes this morning from walking the dogs  i noticed loads of Painted Ladies that have just come over from Europe helped by the strong winds, they are feeding on the red valerian on the sheltered side of the dunes.
i love the yellow tree lupins , they are everywhere but have only noticed bumble bees feeding on the bright yellow flowers.

I have put on my long 100-400mm lens with an added 12mm extension tube to allow closer focusing. there is a fence preventing me getting close to the flowers, so will have to shoot from 4ft minimum.

                                                                   Take off..............

While shooting this Painted Lady a Hummingbird Hawk moth buzzes in to feed  Yay!       as i look around , another 3 or 4 are flying fast in between the flowers feeding sporadically.
      I rarely see these back home , so spend ages watching and trying to shoot them while hovering .

They are staying at least 4- 5 ft away , so i have to crop a fair bit for these pics ...  all are shot with manual focus on canon 5d mk2 with 100-400mm L +12mm extension tube.

There are quite a few Wall brown butterflies flitting around but not settling unfortunately , so i will concentrate on the Hummers :)

                                                             A nicely lit Painted Lady

Eventually i have noticed one coming to feed on a clump near the fence, so manage to shoot  filling more of the frame :)  

We have had a day of rest in the sun,   but enjoyable non the less , and i had a wonderful couple hours watching the Hummingbird hawk moths and butterflies .

How Hill sunset Sept 14 th 2013 Norfolk Holiday

After a busy afternoon on the beach at Great Yarmouth driving back to the caravan park i noticed the sky looking fairly promising for a sunset , i have wanted to shoot a windpump sunset silhouette and tonight i might get that chance.  its going to be a bit tight getting to How Hill in time, so this time we take the back road instead of the sat navs round about way of getting there so should just about make it in time!


We have managed to get here in time, just as we are walking along the riverside path to find a clear spot to shoot through all the moored boats  , Jan takes this image on her I-PHONE!  i am still trying to set up my tripod and have missed these wonderful illuminated clouds!!!!!!  Arghhhhhhh   i will never live this down, or hear the last of this!   

                                       Yes I'm a bit miffed :(              its a superb image

                         Here i am after eventually setting up and starting to take a few shots.

Well   here is my image, the clouds have passed the windpump and i cant get the space i needed on the right side of the pump so it looks unbalanced.                    beaten by a phone pic :(

 moving quickly down the path to get the composition i originally wanted but i have lost the cloud now , still it makes a nice image but without the impact of Jans image.

 The sky is completely clear of clouds now , and not much colour in the setting sun either!  pity we hadn't found this location earlier in the week when there were good sunsets for 3 evenings.

my last image, its quite dark now and just a small area of after glow , and a couple of clouds but no sunlight to illuminate them .

                               a lesson learned , shoot faster and be ready   Ooops   lol

                                             or get to the location with plenty of time


tomorrow is our last day in Norfolk , forecast is for rain but we are going to a nature reserve that is quite close to where we are staying.   Dragon hunting is a possibility :)

Norfolk Holiday 2013 sep 8th Horsey windpump & Seals

Sunday morning and a glorious blue sky awaits us as we emerge from the caravan , Horsey wind pump ( windmill) is our destination, its not too far away on the edge of Horsey mere.
arriving at the car park its fairly busy already and i can see the small garden next to the car park where Swallowtail butterfly's are seen earlier in the year , pity we are just a bit late to see them.
walking past the small office/cafe/gift shop a ranger says good morning and mentions the Horsey seal viewing trips he takes, but says its an easy, but long walk over to the coast and the beach , no roads!   we will go later early afternoon we decide.

 we climb up to the top of the tower, where Jan takes this image ,why didn't i think of this?

                                             Great view over to Horsey mere from up here.

                      taking the short walk around to the mere taking images as we go...........

We are now walking across the fields to the coast far in the distance, quite remote so that's probably why the seal population is safe there without too much disturbance.   looking back at the wind pump there is alot of white cloud bubbling up .....

                Arriving at the beach, its superb and great cloud formation adds to the image :)

the dogs go straight in & up pop the seals :)    they are very inquisitive, walk away from the surf edge they disappear!

i can see at least 5 seals , and they are coming quite close to the edge of beach, watching the dogs presumably!

                                 Chester's thinking," hurry up throw the ball in again! "

               look how close the seals are now.   watch out dogs you might get eaten!    lol

Some very dark black clouds have come from behind us, the light is going to be awesome in a few minutes. it has gone very dark overhead but the sun is lighting up the sand :)

here i am shooting the following images.........             no colour adjustments have been made

         cant believe this light now, and i managed somehow to get the ball in the image also :)

                                                    Mollster is covered in sand now   hehe

Time to go now , and it looks like rain approaching in the distance behind the wind pump.  we must get a move on!

                                                                       that is a rain storm! 

we have made it back to the car park and moments after i shoot this image its torrential rain for about 10 minutes

then ........................  moments later            amazing difference in a few seconds

                                        the end of a fantastic day in Norfolk,  or is it???

       the sunset this evening turned out like this, and i went out shooting    continued in next blog

          images shot with canon 5dmk2, 14-40L , 70-300 IS , i-phone & htc1 mobiles