View From The Roadside

Durdle Door, originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

I took a day off from work last Wednesday, I needed to use up some time before the end of the month, and Wednesday was forecast to be sunny. For once, the forecast was right. I had decided to go and visit the Dorset coast around Portland Bill, somewhere I hadn’t been to before. I had a magazine that listed the “25 best places to photograph in Dorset”, most of which were on the coast, to guide me.

I was surprised by how busy the place was. I had assumed a Wednesday afternoon in March would be quiet, but I actually got stuck in a huge jam near Swanage. I decided I didn’t need that, so turned around and headed to Portland Bill instead.

Portland Bill was nice enough. The lighthouse, with it’s red and white colour scheme is about as classic a lighthouse as I’ve seen, which ironically, is unusual. Perhaps I should have made more of the coast and rocks there, but nothing was jumping out at me at the time, probably as it wasn’t near enough to sunset and the “good” light yet.

My next stop was at Durdle Door, to get to which you need to drive through a caravan park. I knew the afternoon sun wasn’t going to be ideal, so I was more looking for somewhere to come back to than anything else. When I got to the car park though, I discovered the £2.50 minimum parking charge. I wasn’t going to pay that for a scouting mission! I searched the magazine for a better location, and thats when I noticed their mention of toll roads and pay-and-display car parks.

I decided instead to use the light for what it’s good for, and went to Corfe Castle. That had a free car-park (yeah!) and looked amazing with the bright sun lighting it up. I was in two minds about actually wandering around the castle. The entry fee was a little off-putting, mainly due to a lack of cash which I would need for the car parks later, and also by the fact I would need to be back on the coast before sunset, so I didn’t actually go in. Maybe next time.

The magazine shot of Durdle Door made it look too tempting, but I decided to check out the nearby Lulworth Cove first. It turns out both are part of the same estate, with the same parking machines and the same prices. The good news was the one ticket would be valid at both places. So after a look around Lulworth, making it clear there would be no real sunset there, I went back to Durdle Door.

I met another photographer on the path down, and it was just the two of us on the beach, the school kids there on a school trip having just left. We set up at different bits of the beach as the sun began to set. I tried a few shots, this being one of them, before the sun caught be by surprise and dipped beneath the bank of clouds near the horizon and in what seemed a flash, the nice light seen here was gone. I wasn’t that bothered though, it was just nice to sit there on my own, listening to the waves on the beach, taking in the sunset

Showing the pictures to Steve later, we came to the conclusion the shot I really should have taken would have been a panorama with the shot above and another of the sea next to it. Next time…

Canopy
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

After a delay of a week due to bad weather, the club had it’s second “2hr Challenge” on the 11th of March, and yes, I’m a little late in writing about it. Given the rather large and open nature of the location, we were basically given the rest of the day, rather than limiting it to 2 hours. This would also avoid any problems with the timing of the sunset. Unlike in Winchester, where we crossed paths with each other quite a bit, out in the New Forest, I hardly saw anyone else. This was a little disappointing, I rather liked meeting the other competitors and seeing what they were up to.

We did well not having the event the week before, when bad weather meant there wasn’t very much to photograph (I know, I went down anyway!) On the day the weather was lovely, which made the whole thing more enjoyable, and also made for better pictures. One of the tricks with this challenge was always going to be knowing where to go at the right time. Beaulieu itself, my first stop, didn’t present any real pictures for me, lovely though it is. I made myself take some of a shop, more to get into a photography mode than anything else. After that, and while listening to England do Ireland a huge favour in the rugby against France on the radio in the car, I toured the area looking for, well, anything.

Graffiti and Tree
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

This was surprisingly hard. You’d imagine there would be a never-ending supply of great images, but I wasn’t alone in struggling to find them. Perhaps given such a large area it’s hard to see the smaller things that could really work, I don’t know. What I do know is I don’t “see” anything in the ponies. I know they are a huge part of “The New Forest” and maybe it’s because I like driving too much, but I just don’t see any pictures in them.

Branch in the Water
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

I perhaps left it too late to get to the patch of forest beyond Hatchet Pond. by the back of the old airfield. The trees were blocking any direct sunlight by the time I arrived. I knew the wall was there, and when I saw the tree and the graffiti I knew there was a picture there. I set up the tripod (I love this new tripod) and took the picture. Looking back at it later, I’m not happy with it. The composition is a little off, the top of the wall is the middle of the picture, but a cropping of the bottom fixes that. I think the main problem is just the flat light. The picture doesn’t pop. I tried playing with all sorts of things in PP, but it can’t change what isn’t there. Right place, wrong time. I did find some nice trees for the “Canopy” shot above though.

Driving back to Hatchet Pond as the sun was setting, I noticed how it looked great over the water. By the time I’d turned the car around, parked in the car-park, got my stuff out and walked down, it had lost a little, but was still nice. I didn’t know the branch was there until I walked past it, but as soon as I saw it I saw the picture. My old tripod would have made this a right pain, it never did like portrait shots. The new ball-head, a Manfrotto 488, is a joy to use in comparison and made taking this shot so much easier.

It’s a lovely scene. Maybe some cropping could work, but it takes something away too, so I haven’t cropped it. Seems the rest of them liked it too, as it collected the most votes. 2 challenges, 2 “wins”.

Evening Clouds, originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

We were supposed to have our next 2hr Challenge last weekend, but called it off as the weather was forecast to be pretty horrible for the Sunday. For once the forecast was right. There was some suggestion of doing it on the Saturday instead, but it was decided in the end that it was too short notice. James Hodgson and myself decided to go anyway.
As it happens, while Saturday was generally nicer than Sunday, there was still more than enough heavy rain (and hailstones at one point) around the area of the challenge that it would not have been fun had it gone ahead. Between the rain and the ugly grey clouds, there wasn’t much to photograph. We eventually gave up and headed through the forest back home.
We did spot a nice strong rainbow on our way back, and stopped to take some pictures, that didn’t really work out. I took some pictures of the clouds caught in the sunlight at the same time.
A first look at the few pictures from the day didn’t exactly thrill me, but once I took the time to process the RAW file from this picture, it started to look more interesting. A little crop off the top of the frame and I arrived at this picture.
Funnily enough, the RSC challenge this month is “sky”…