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Visit to UK: 2019 – Part 4

13 January, 2020 / By alextdel / In Family, Photos / Leave Comment

A few more photos of Bude’s main beach (Summerleaze).

Beach huts overlooking Summerleaze Beach at Bude.

Barrel Rock from the base of the Ocean Pool

Another angle of Barrel Rock from the rocks at the base of the Bude Ocean Pool.

A rock, Bude Breakwater and Compass Point in the distance

Ebbingford Manor, my accomodation during my stay.

This is Upper Tamar Lake, I used to do fly-fishing for trout at the lake when I was a teenager. On the first weekend at Bude, I did the Tamar Lake Park Run – it was freezing and windy.

Visit to UK: 2019 – Part 3

13 January, 2020 / By alextdel / In Family, Miscellaneous, Photos / Leave Comment

During my trip I took a few landscape photos around Bude. The next couple of posts will contain a few of my attempts.

Near Bude’s breakwater is Whale Rock, named for obvious reasons.

Taking photos around the beaches and headlands was a trial with strong gusty winds causing significant vibration. The lighting was also difficult with cloud cover taking a lot of colour from the scenes.

This is where the river and mouth of the Bude Canal meet. Photo taken at low tide.

This was taken from above the previous photo. This is the arm for the last canal lock.

Crab and lobster fishing are active industries for the area.

Barrel Rock at the end of Bude’s breakwater. See the seat for scale.

The Compass Point building looking out to Lundy Island.

Another view of Compass Point and Lundy in the distance.

On the day I took these photos, I walked from Bude along the downs toward Widemouth Bay. I didn’t get far though as the strong wind was bringing a few significant squalls and the light was fading. After a few hundred metres I turned around and returned to Bude. I didn’t escape getting soaked, but only on one side due to the wind.

Visit to UK: 2019 – Part 1

2 January, 2020 / By alextdel / In Family, Miscellaneous, Photos / Leave Comment

In December I visited the UK particularly to see my mum but also to catch up with some of my brothers, my sister and their families.

It was great to go on a couple of trips with my brother Matthew, it reminded me of when we were kids and Matthew and I used to walk or bicycle to local fishing spots.

The following are a few photos of my trip – they are in the order I processed them and not necessarily the order I took them.

I got to catch up with my sister and her family.

Sylvia and Mike in their new house with our Mum and the kids.

It rained a lot in Cornwall during my stay but some days had a bit of sun. On one of these sunnier days Matthew, Mum and I went for a drive to Crackington Haven. We stopped for a photo of Widemouth Bay. Here is Matthew attempting, in a raging wind (which was freezing), to take a photo.

Matthew taking photos and Mum (very sensibly) in the car.

This was what we were seeing.

It was blowing a gale and here is my very sensible mum snug in the car – the reflection is me getting jostled and pushed by the wind.

Earlier in the week, first full day in Bude (the nearest town to my mum’s house), I went for a walk. I re-familiarised myself with Summerleaze Beach, the Breakwater, Ocean Pool and the Canal.

A photo taken on a windy December day across the Bude beach, river mouth toward the Ocean Pool and Crooklets Beach in the distance. Photo taken from the headland above the Breakwater and Barrel Rock (on left with steps and pole).

More to follow as I develop my photos.

First edit in Darktable

7 January, 2017 / By alextdel / In Photos / Leave Comment

New Year’s Day Sunrise

Just for kicks, I decided to upgrade my computer so it can boot into Windows and Linux (Ubuntu). I use Adobe Lightroom for processing my photos under Windows, I wanted to try Darktable which is only available for Mac and Linux. This is my first Darktable edit. It isn’t brilliant but it still looks like the scene I pointed my camera at!

The picture is of the first sunrise of the year.

In Darktable I used parametric masking – which Lightroom doesn’t do in any great way – to adjust saturation, exposure and contrast. I also used colour reconstruction which is quite good, it allows you to put back colour in areas that are ‘blown out’, for example the disk of the sun.