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.

Norfolk Holiday pt3 Horsey and Happisburgh

This morning we are going to Horsey to see the Windpump and hopefully the seals on the beach, which is a lovely walk across the fields.     The sails are back on after a full restoration that has taken years !

It is blowing a gale!  I guess the approaching storm is getting closer to Norfolk than we had hoped.
Great to see the sails back on, last time we where here they had just been removed.

                           Now to walk across the fields to the shore, its a good half hour walk.

Plenty of Common Darter dragonflies sheltering from the wind all along the path, the drainage ditches must hold thousands of them in mid summer.

On the beach, and the sand is blowing sideways in the strong wind,  it feels like being sandblasted and its stinging on my face.   There is a little bit of shelter behind these boulders, but not much.

There are good numbers of seals, and talking to the warden both harbour and grey seals here, about 200 today but last week double that number.     We had to keep well away, and I didn't bring my long lens  Ooops

                                  Jan got a bit too close and got this shot on her phone.

    Chester has sand blown into his eyes , he is trying to shelter from the wind near the top of beach.

It is actually too painful to stay on the beach any longer , and getting back over the flood defences is causing Jan a bit of trouble   haha

Time to drive down along the coast to Happisburgh now, at least the Terrible Twosome will be able to run on the beach there.     Unfortunately I don't think I will get to fly the drone again today and I think the sunset is unlikely also.

The sea erosion on this beach is amazing, and they have to re build this path down onto the beach every spring after winter storms wash it away.

The cliffs are just washing away constantly, all the buildings along this stretch have long gone into the sea,  it looks very unstable.

                                    This cloud is not looking good for a sunset tonight, Again!
                 And Chester has got covered in sand and mud, he looks like a chicken nugget   haha

                 Luckily our van has an outside shower attachment, so a warm shower for Chester, don't want all that mud in the van after all.

Now time for me to shoot the Lighthouse, it is in the middle of a field right on the cliffs so it is very windy, even hanging my camera bag on the tripod hook I am still struggling to get sharp long exposure images with the Lee big stopper 10 stop nd filter.  Reducing aperture to f8 has reduced exposure enough as a compromise.

The field was recently cut and the stubble remaining actually gives good lead in lines towards the lighthouse.   I don't normally centralise the subject, but this is one of those occasions where it works.

                                                                      5dsr , 17-40 L
                                                                      30 seconds  f8

The end of another great day in Norfolk...………  we are going to Thurne tomorrow for a couple of days.

Norfolk Holiday pt2 Felbrigg Hall and Cromer Sept 18 th

This morning we are going to visit Felbrigg Hall, a national trust property only a couple of miles away from where we are staying.  Weather is looking great still, but the Storm is approaching the south west area I believe .

A five minute drive and we are at Felbrigg ,  leaving the dogs in the van we are going around the gardens first.

                                              Jan hiding!      smelling the flowers actually.

                                                                          The Hall.

                                                HAHAHAHA …………….   say no more .

      After a quick walk around the hall we take the Terrible Twosome for a good walk around the grounds before heading of to Cromer for the evening and hopefully a good sunset.

                                     The wind has really got up now!  look at Chesters lead  

Arriving at Cromer, We have parked up on the top carpark high over the beach , and are  walking down past the pier on to the beach past the fishing boats where the dogs are allowed.

I have gone down onto the beach to take a look for a composition for later at sunset.   Chester is watching me………..

They are having a good run, with nice light across raking across the beach .  its looking good for a sunset,  but way too windy to fly the drone tonight unfortunately.

            I have set up the camera on a tripod for a family selfi in front of the multi coloured huts.

                                  Jan has taken the dogs back to the van while I shoot the sunset.

         I have Set up with a Lee little stopper and a 0.9 soft nd grad to do some long exposure images.

                                                 Its 10 past seven , the sky is colouring nicely

                                                    5dsr , 17-40L    25 seconds  f14  iso 100


 

Unfortunately the cloud has departed before it could colour up properly, but still got a couple images I'm happy with.
                                                                            70 seconds  f14

              And meanwhile , Jan has shot this on her phone …………..

                             The best colour was out of my view down by the pier      Doh!

Time to pick up dinner at the chippy by the pier on my way back,   a great view of the remaining sunset before we go back to the campsite.

Norfolk Holiday Sept 2018 pt 1 Brancaster and Wells

We are going on holiday for a week in the van,  were supposed to be going up to Scotland but the weather forecast was not looking good,  It appeared a storm was on its way and the Norfolk coast looked like the best option.      With the van we can just go in the best direction and move around easily.
Firstly on Saturday evening it is the Arley Hall firework champions event , so after I got home from work we drove down to watch the displays.  Here are a few images from the evening.
All canon 5dsr and 17 - 40L        shutter speeds between 1 and 3 seconds f8 - f10.

Sunday morning and we are leaving for Norfolk,  our first destination is going to be Brancaster , stopping at Deepdale Backpackers campsite for the night.   After a trouble free journey we are set up in the campsite.

Its early evening and we have walked down to the shore, a quick shot of this old barge on the marsh before we walk along to Brancaster Staithe .It looked a good subject but the light is just no good.

Having not managed to shoot a decent image at the previous location on the camera,  Brancaster is a much more interesting place, old and newish boats moored up and with the tide out interesting mud flats,  unfortunately its too windy to fly the drone but some long exposures on the 5dsr and Lee big stopper should produce something.

5dsr, 17-40 L   90 seconds, f14 

I cant find a decent location for sunset, as it is setting inland and I don't think it will be a good one.
                                    Back at the van half hour later and I was wrong!   Oopps

The following morning we have packed up and driven a couple miles down the road to Burnham Overy Staithe.    There is a Windmill only about ten minutes walk so we are going to take a look first.  Walking along the Staithe past these boats the weather is not looking good so far, but is supposed to be blue sky and sun!!

There is the Windmill ,  Tower Windmill its called, but the light is rubbish so not worth walking any further to get closer.   a selfi then ……..

And a long shot with 400mm lens, a b&w conversion still doesn't make it much better.   never mind!

                        Having walked back to the Staithe the sun has started breaking through .

                                 A nice walk along the marshes with the Terrible Twosome.

                                     The forecast was correct ,  warm sunny blue sky now .

            Back at the van , wine time for Jan ……………….

We have now driven down the coast to Wells-next-the-sea ,  time to give the Terrible Twosome a good run and swim .
                                                             They are Straight into the sea!

                                          Look at the size of this beach!   and huge Norfolk skies .

After a good run and swim, Chester is knackered, he doesn't like the heat and is sheltering in the shade of these beautiful beach huts.  I cannot believe how warm it is today!

                                    A couple of dslr images of these wonderful beach huts

Leaving Wells its a short drive to our campsite for the next 2 evenings near Sheringham.

and another great sunset missed !   Doh!