St. David's

After looking back through my posts, I find that I left out a day.  And it was a beautiful day at a wonderful venue.

On Monday, we checked out of our accommodations in Saundersfoot, Wales and we drove to the town of St. David's to see one of the oldest churches in the UK, St. David's Cathedral.

This building has over 1000 years of history.  Just imagine what can happen in 1000 years.  How many generations have come and gone, each having their turn to be stewards of the church or to turn their backs on the church.

When we arrived in the town of St. David's we followed a sign for parking, which took us down a street that was wide enough for one car but was not one-way!  And then we found that the parking lot was full.  We circled it twice and found that it was still full!  So we drove back up into town and followed signs to a parking lot a little farther away and finally found, and paid for, parking.

The town was a little like a coastal vacation town in that it had many restaurants and souvenir shops all crowded together in the most popular area, which, of course, was the street leading to the cathedral.

The weather was very changeable the day that we were there.  When we were entering the cathedral, it was raining and dark.  When we came out we found that the sun was making an appearance!

On the way into the Cathedral
the sky was cloudy and
the day was wet.

On the way out of the Cathedral
The skies were clearing
The sun was shining

A dramatic difference from the first image
And after only two hours!

As we entered the cathedral, we were privileged to hear a part of a concert given by a young lady with a beautiful voice accompanied by a young man on the piano.  Just beautiful!

I grew up in churches with just the sanctuary and some Sunday School classrooms.  But this cathedral had so many rooms.  I could only guess at their purposes.  One room was called the "quire", which, if spoken, sounds just like "choir".  I wonder if that is a coincidence?

There was so much beauty in the architecture and the "decor" (for lack of a better word).  

The ceilings were works of art!  It is hard to imagine how they could make those designs in those times and up so high!  The next two pictures show some of this beauty and intricacy.

At first I though this was tapestry.
Upon closer examination I found them to be painted on the wood ceiling panels.

This intricate ceiling is in the main tower that you can see in the exterior images.

This next image is of the Lady Chapel.  I have no idea why they call it that.  The interesting thing to me is the plastering.  Many of these old stone buildings have fairly rough, uneven stones in the walls, but by all of the windows and doors they have smoother stones, such as you can see around this window.  I assume that this view is what they looked like when they were new.

The Lady Chapel at St. David's Cathedral

Most times when Annette and I are out shooting, I finish first and stand around waiting for her to finish.  (However, she is getting quicker with her camera work.)  On this day, the cathedral really spoke to me.  I had such a sense of awe and wonder as I walked around.  This day I was the last one to finish and Annette was outside waiting for me.

So with that in the back of my mind, I was hurrying through the remainder of the cathedral and I made this image of the organ's pipes.  I have looked through my files and there is only one image.  The image before this one was of a different subject and the image after was of a different subject.  This was a quick grab-shot.  But it turned out to be one of my favorite images of the trip!

I love the newness of the organ juxtapositioned with the oldness of the building.
I love the composition.
I love the lighting and how it highlights the new organ and puts the old components in shadow.
I love the arched window on the left and the way the light fills its alcove.
I wish I would have included the point at the bottom of the picture.

What do you think?  Is it OK or should I throw it on the trash heap?

Well, that's our trip.  It was wonderful, interesting and stressful and I'm glad for the opportunity.

Norfolk, UK

After finishing up at work, Annette and I still had Friday, Saturday and Sunday to explore more of the UK.  We decided to go to the King's Lynn area in Norfolk.  So bright and early on Friday we were on the road.

We had heard that there were some interesting multi-colored cliffs along the coast, so we took A149 past King's Lynn up to Hunstanton.

We drove in to Hunstanton to get the lay of the land, but, as you may have gathered by now, I hated driving in the tiny streets of the towns, not knowing if I had the right of way or if I was supposed to be a courteous driver and let the other guy go first!  So one of the first things I looked for was a parking lot!  It seems there is no, I repeat, no free parking in all of England!  So I paid for parking in a large parking lot.

This was around lunchtime so we went into a Fish and Chips stand and ordered some...

wait for it...

Fish and chips!

They gave us a big paper plate of French Fries, which they call chips, and then they plopped a big piece of deep fried fish on top of the fries.  If you wanted a "take away" fork, they wanted 10 pence.  If you wanted a packet of Tartar Sauce,  they wanted 10 pence.   We didn't know what to do with the fish, so we just ate it with our fingers.  But, it was fresh out of the fryer and it was hot!  I hope no one was looking!  If they were, they probably thought, "Look at those uncouth Americans!"

As we walked around Hunstanton, we made our way to the beach.  At one end of the beach we could see the beginning of the cliffs.  But we didn't have our cameras with us.  What were we thinking!?!

So we went back to the car and left that parking lot to go to another parking lot on the other side of the cliffs.  And paid for some more parking!

Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the cliffs.

The first two show the difference an hour or two makes.  As we walked up the beach, the sky was dark and stormy.  As we walked back the beach, the sky had all but cleared.

I liked the stormy sky, the sunlight on the cliff and the patterns in the sand.
All of these accentuated by the direction of the sunlight.

Notice the difference in the sky and in the light on the cliff.

Any time there is a sea or ocean with a rocky shoreline, there will eventually be shipwrecks.  I felt we were very fortunate to find these remains of a ship.  I have heard that the tide and storms can cover up the remains of ships for years until another storm comes along and uncovers them!  The skeleton of the ship was steel, so I guess this was not Leaf, the Lucky's wooden sail boat!

After photographing the cliffs until there was no more sunlight, we hurried back to King's Lynn to find our hotel.  The front part of the hotel was a beautiful older building with a lot of character.  However, they had added to the hotel in an ultra-modern style.  Seemed like an interesting contrast.  Maybe they thought, "If you can't match them, try something different."

Saturday, we got up and wandered around King's Lynn.  When we started out walking, there were no people about, just the shop keepers opening up.  By the time we were ready to go back to the hotel, the sidewalks were getting full.

Notice anything familiar?

Have you ever been anywhere where you needed your tripod, but you didn't have it with you?  I have. That tripod is heavy and cumbersome and will draw strange looks from people!

But that's the situation in which I found myself for this next picture.  I wanted most of the picture in focus, which meant that I needed a small aperture, which meant a long shutter speed, especially early in the morning with a strongly overcast sky.

So what's a photographer to do?  Well, the ground is steady.  So I set my camera down on the curb and took a picture of the Customs House.  It wasn't quite straight so I tucked my camera strap under the one edge of the camera and got it straight.  I liked the way it turned out with the cobblestone in the foreground.

The Customs House

Keep Clear
I still haven't figured out the double yellow lines.

 King's Lynn had its own cathedral; a large stone building that was over 700 years old.  The front door was open so I went in.  Churches are places of worship and I always try to respect that.  In addition, I heard a couple of voices deep in the church and I did not want to disturb them, so I just took a couple of quick pictures and left.

For this picture, I used the same technique as the Customs House.  I put the camera on the floor to steady it for the picture.

We have all been involved with organizations that have been at a place where they had less money than  ideal.  

We have all been involved in organizations where one subset of the people want to do one thing and another group wants to do another.  

So the leaders of the organization have had to make choices.  Compromises have to be made.  Decisions have to be made.

This next image is an illustration of those situations.  At the beginning, the designer of the church specified a beautiful arched window.  But a lot of decisions are made over the course of 700 years.  Someone decided to cover up the window, well, most of it.  Then someone else, at another time, had to decide to replace some of the blocks.  Look at the result of these decisions.

King's Lynn Cathedral Window after 700 years

Even though the flight was at noon, we wanted to stay near the airport the night before the flight.  So we decided to drive up A149 along the coast on Saturday and then make our way to London.

One of my favorite images from this drive is the one below with the windmill and the ominous sky.

And so there you have it.  A wonderful trip to the United Kingdom.  And the best part is...We survived driving on the left without damage or injury.

Talk to you soon.

At work in England

At the end of the last Blog, Annette and I had made it to Kilworth house.  What a beautiful place!  Check it out.  Google "Kilworth House".

This is an old, stately country home that has been renovated and turned into a conference center and hotel.

Tonight we walked through the second floor just to see the artwork and the beauty of the actual building.  All of the artwork on the walls is great.  Some big pieces.  Some small pieces.  And every now and then some quotes from Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Wadsworth, etc.

The building was restored very well.  I was looking at the carvings in the woodwork.  It looks like it is new.  This is a great place to see what a house like this looked like in its heyday.

There is a greenhouse attached to the building, which is called the Orangery.  Maybe they grew orange trees in there in the early days of the house?  But the Orangery is the main restaurant for the hotel.  It is fine dining.  The presentation of the food is beautiful, but sometimes the food is overcooked.  I don't think this is the "fault" of the chef.  I think the English like it that way.

Another interesting food thing they do is that they bring you a little rack of toast.  They cut the toast in half from corner to corner and then stand up 6-8 toast triangles in this rack.  By the time it gets to you the toast is cold.  The butter won't melt on it.  Again, I don't think anyone is doing a bad job, that's just the way the English have come to expect it.

Well, as several of you have noted, there hasn't been much about work.  But I actually did go to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The cubicles, if you can call them that, were almost non-existent.   Imagine an X of walls.  A person had an indentation/corner in the X.  But the cubical walls were just a meter high or so.  There is absolutely no privacy.  Normally cubical walls stop some of the noise, but not here.  You can hear what is going on several desks away.  And how do they concentrate with all that noise!???

Anyway, I was presenting some training to several groups.  That went pretty well.  My boss actually texted me and said that he had heard that it was going well.

The JLG facility is on a large property with an airplane landing strip, which was actually a US Air Force base during WWII.  

The person who currently owns it is using it to make money anyway that he can.  He leases space out to companies like JLG.  He leases the runway and taxiways out to car manufacturers and motorcycle manufacturers for testing.  He flies old planes (Huge airliners) in and takes them apart and sells the parts. He rents space for people to store their junk.

One other very interesting thing that goes on there is the Manheim Auto Auctions.  Evidently, all of the rental companies and leasing companies send their used cars through here.  They have auctions two days a week.  There are detailing bays that clean up the cars.

The auction is held in a huge hangar.  One night after work they had staged about 500 cars in front of the hangar with another couple hundred off to the side.  In the morning, they were all gone.  Just imagine the staff they needed to move all of those cars in the time allotted!

Well, enough about that place.

After work on Tuesday evening, a group of the guys were going to a pub.  They were taking out Marcel from Belgium, Charlie (my training partner) and me.  I brought Annette along.  We went to a pub.

Pubs are drinking houses, but they are also a very popular and common restaurants.

Anyway, the pub that we went to was having a Carvery on Tuesday night.  This is sorta like a buffet, but there is a cook slicing off chunks of meet for you and then you can get your vegetables out of large trays, much like you would at a buffet back home.  You only were entitled to one serving of meat, but the vegetables were all-you-could-eat.  The food was OK.  

It was awkward at first for Annette, but then she turned on her smile (and Laugh) and started making conversation with Jeremy and Bruno and the evening turned out OK.

Wednesday night was a great experience.  We noticed that the Kilworth House has an outdoor theater, so we signed up for the pre-theater dinner and the show.  (Quite expensive)  

The dinner was in the Orangery.  The food was beautifully presented and overall was pretty good.  Then we walked down to the theater.  One of the guys at work said that he had been to a show there.  He said that he expected it to be rather amateurish, but it turned out to be very professionally done.  And that is the way this evening was.  My expectations were kept in check, but the performances were very professional.  The play was "Anything Goes".  It's an American play.  There were some references to old-time American pop culture and I wondered if they were lost on the English.

On Wednesday, at lunchtime, we went to a pub called The Joiners Arms.  The food was the best that I have had in the UK!  It was so good that tonight I took Annette and we went back.

Charlie paid the bill at our lunchtime at the Joiners Arms and I don't know if he didn't leave a big enough tip or what, but the main guy in charge seemed to not like us.  Maybe he doesn't like Americans.  

They opened at 6:30.  We got there at 10 to 7:00 and there was nobody in the place.  He asked if we had reserved a table and when we said no, he said that he only had one table left, a small table right near the entrance.  It was one of the obviously less desirable tables.  Then it was all we could do to get him to pay attention to us.  By the time that we left, about an hour later, only four or five of the other tables had filled up!  Yeah, right!  He only had one table left! Hah!

Anyway, we ordered the Supreme of Chicken with Mediterranean Vegetables and Chorizo.  The chicken was nicely cooked.  The vegetables were cooked but were not cooked to the "mush" stage.  The Chorizo was a few slices of sausage.  There was a glaze/sauce on the whole thing that was nicely sweet.  Annette and I both really enjoyed it.

After dinner, Annette and I took a short, quick walk around the back of the Kilworth House.  This place is just beautiful!

So here we are.  Up to date.  Annette and I are in one of the sitting rooms by Reception.  Annette's working on pictures and typing up notes about her days and experiences.

Tomorrow, we check out of the Kilworth House and head up to King's Lyn in Norfolk.  If you are looking for this on the map, look at the part of England that juts out to the east.  King's Lyn is near the top of that.

Sorry.  No time for pictures on these days.

Until next time...

Pembroke, Wales

Hello, again!

It's day two in Wales.

At the end of my last blog, we were waiting to go down to Breakfast.   It was hearty.  Their bacon was like a slice of ham with some fat left on.  I had yogurt with Muesli and nuts that I mixed in.

After breakfast, we drove to Pembroke to see the Pembroke Castle.  It was great.  It was exactly what we were looking for.  It was largely intact so that we could wander around looking for great shots.  Yet, there were displays that help you understand what it was like to live back a thousand years ago.

I felt conspicuous with my camera.  Normal people don't walk around with something that heavy around their necks!  

I had one guy ask me  how to get up in one of the towers.  When he heard me speak, he asked me where I was from.  I told him Pennsylvania.  He asked where in the US was PA.  He said he gets it mixed up with Transylvania!  I told him we live four hours from NYC.  That he understood.

But that's nothing! Annette was her normal, cheerful, friendly self.  She estimates that she talked to 15 people today (besides me and my friend, Sybil).  She got some awesome pictures of one of the re-enactors eating a meal of bread, cheese and apples.  He was in front of a window and there was beautiful light!  The basket and wooden plate pictured here were in the same room as Annette's "studio".

We were at the castle from about noon until six.  Annette could have stayed longer, but the place was closing down and she wanted to check out the gift shop.  We got a magnet for our collection.

The Keep
The last line of defense should the perimeter be breached.

A narrow passage around the keep

View of Pembroke from the castle wall

A passageway within the wall

Spiral Stairs
Is it true they all spiral the same direction?

Re-enactors

Notice the smooth stones around the openings

Notice the lack of smooth stones around the openings.
They must have been valuable to someone!

Then we wandered up through town.  We went in to the King's Arms Hotel to see about dinner.  That was a treat.  We were seated in the Pub and there was a group of 5-6 guys and one woman who were well on their way.  They were occasionally loud.  Oh, Well.

Since we were not in the restaurant portion of the establishment, service was slow.  

At the end of the meal, some of the other patrons started talking to us.  One woman was from Canada and had married a Welshman.

One woman was from London and had married a Welsh man, but they were divorced.  She was there with their two kids.  She taught English as a second language to refuges.  Could be interesting.  Should definitely be rewarding

On the way home, the GPS said to keep right on Whatever Street.  I almost kept right into the front of another car!  AAAAh!

We drove through Tenby on the way home.  Very pretty.  Right on the shore.  But kind of touristy.  We decided not to back to Tenby the next day.

We drove through another one lane road today!  That keeps you on your toes!

Actually, driving on the left is a good way to keep your mind active.   You really need to think about every turn.  And roundabouts!  Oh, man!

We'll "talk" again soon!

We are off to the UK! (But we are already back)

Good Morning!

It is the morning of August 4, 2013.  We made it to Wales!

Annette was stressed trying to get all of her work done.  The internet went down so she was faxing information to her coworkers to cover her assignments for the next week.

I didn't know how to make the best of our time to get sleep.  But I was tired so I napped on the way to the airport.

They put us in a TSA Pre-Check line for security.  That was nice.  You didn't have to take off your belt or your shoes!  The laptops did not have to come out of the bags.  Much quicker!

The flight was uneventful.  I forgot my headphones in my camera bag that was in an overhead bin.  So I couldn't watch a movie.  But that was probably for the best.  I was so bored that all there was to do was sleep.

The plane was so cold!  And the air was flowing right onto me.  I actually used that little blanket that the airlines provided!

Anyway, after dinner, I covered up and closed my eyes.  I know that I slept, but I don't know how long.  But it helped.

When we got to London Heathrow, we must have walked for a mile!  First through the terminal, then to immigration and then to get our bags.

The car rental company asked if we had many bags.  We said no but that our bags were kinda big.  She gave us an Audi A4!  Very nice car with leather seats.  But too big!  The roads in the UK are very narrow, especially out in the country.

We have trouble when we rent cars in foreign countries.  We can't figure out how to get them started.  It happened to us in Germany and it happened to us here.

The Audi has a key fob that you insert into a hole in the dash.  But it doesn't turn.  I pushed it in further, but nothing happened.  I had to go back and ask one of the rental guys.  It seems that you have to put your foot on the brake when you are pushing the key in!  You also have to put your foot on the brake and push the key again to turn the car off. 

Then when I was in line waiting to pull out of the rental lot, the car shut off!  Now what!?!?!?  It seems that to save fuel or to reduce emissions the car automatically turns off when you come to a stop for several seconds.  Then when you let off the brake the car automatically starts!  It worked well, but what will it work like when the car has over 100,000 miles on it?

No problems driving on the left on the highway.  I figured that out OK.

Roundabouts are where you have to pay attention.  The good thing is that they have the routes painted in the lane where you need to be.

They had a couple of roundabouts on the highway!  That was strange.  It backed up two lanes of traffic for 2-3 miles!  I thought roundabouts were for intersections not interchanges!  I guess I was wrong!

We took a nap at a service plaza.  When we woke up we found that there was a local, grass strip, airport right in front of where we parked!  To top that off, there was a yellow bi-plane flying with a guy sitting up on top of the top wing!  They were flying back and forth in front of the service plaza!  Annette got out her camera and long lens and started snapping as fast as she could!

When we got to Saundersfoot, Wales, we turned left when we should have turned right.  We followed a country lane that was fascinating!  It seems that they cut down into the ground to make the road.  That meant that there was a six foot high border to the road on both sides and the road was barely wide enough for two cars!  Driving on the left side of the narrow windy road, watching for oncoming cars was very stressful!  We almost wished they had given us a smaller car.  Almost.

We asked for directions and found our way to the Cwmwennol Country House.  No, that is not misspelled.  We checked in, which consisted of a brief conversation with the owner.  We didn't sign anything.  She didn't check for ID.  She just handed the key to us.  Just pay on the way out, she said.

The place is old, like everything in Wales.  The room is small.  The bathroom is very small.  And the shower is very, very small.  It's so small, you have to go out side to change your mind!

We went back to Saundersfoot and pulled in to the parking lot.  Wow are the spaces small!  I had trouble pulling into a parking space so Annette got out and helped to direct me.  An Englishman, who was there on holiday, came over to help.  He was very friendly.  I think he just wanted to hear us talk!  He told us how to pay for parking.  He actually gave us a pound (that's money, you know) because we were a pound short!  

We ate at a fish and chips place and sat outside.  The fish was very good.  Annette remarked on it.

We wandered around downtown Saundersfoot.  Then the lighting changed and we got out our cameras.  Then we spent the next two hours photographing the boats and the harbor.  I thought the tide was out because a couple of the boats were sitting on the ground.  But the longer we were there, the more boats sat on the ground.  Some of them sat on two keels and the rudder for a triangular base.

 

 

Our Audi A4

I started a new photography project.  I started taking pictures of the car manufacturers' emblems.  Then I added the license plates.  

While we were walking around a lady came up to me and asked why I was taking pictures of license plates.  I told here that we were from Pennsylvania and that there were a lot of cars here that we did not have at home and also the license plates were also different.  She accepted that but you never know how people think about their privacy.

Vauxhall

Not a brand, but a model like a minivan

Peugot

Renault

Annette met another couple and started talking to them.  They were also here on holiday.  They gave us a lot of information, the most interesting of which was 1. Pembroke castle is the best and 2. St. David's Cathedral was beautiful.  So we have added them to our list of destinations.

We came back to the room.  I slept like a baby!

We got up at 5:30.  There was light in the sky, so we hurried back to the harbor with our cameras.  Unfortunately, the sunrise was a bust.  Too may clouds.  We took pictures of the boats until it started to rain.

Now, we are waiting for 8:30 to come so that we can go down for breakfast (8:30 to 9:30).

Hope you enjoyed this.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Asticou Azalea Garden in Acadia NP

Sometimes someone wants to show you something and as you are approaching it, you are underwhelmed.  OK, you tell yourself, I'll be polite and make the best of it.  And sometimes, just some times, it turns out to be time well-spent.

That's what happened to me at the Asticou Azalea Garden in Acadia National Park in Maine.

Annette was taking a photography workshop up there and the instructors invited me along on the garden photo shoot.

When we were pulling in to the parking lot there was only a little, 2' by 2' sign that indicated that anything was there.  If it weren't for the instructors, Annette and I would have never stopped in here.

The parking lot could hold less than a dozen cars.

Even the sign at the foot entrance to the garden was understated.

So I listen to the instructor.

• "Look for the fiddle head ferns."  
• "Try to shoot from the shadow side of the  flowers.  It will make them glow like they were lit with a light from within."  
• "If a large overall scene doe not work for you, look for the details."  
• "Simplify and isolate."

OK.  I'll give it  try.

I was very pleasantly surprised!  So surprised that after the workshop, Annette and I came back to the garden to get more images!

Fiddle Head Ferns

Simplified and Isolated

Look at the sun shining through the petals!

The instructor allowed me to borrow a close up filter to get really close!

Isolated Stepping Stones

Sand Garden Detail 

Birch Bark Details

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Wave Action

Some of the most fun I had during our recent trip to Maine was taking long-exposure (multiple seconds) pictures of waves.

While Annette was participating in the Photography Workshop, I went out near Thunder Hole with the wife of another workshop participant.  No sense in sitting in the room!!!

I went out on the rocks to the left of the Thunder Hole observation area and searched for a composition that I liked.  It wasn't hard!

I had envisioned swirling waves on the rocks.  I was not looking to freeze the sprays of water that happen when the waves crash into the rocks.  Therefore, I had to get the length of the shutter opening up to several seconds so that the waves were not frozen in place.

Unfortunately, it was still in the afternoon and, although it was foggy, the sun was still above the horizon.

So I started with ISO and turned it down to the lowest ISO possible in my camera (100 ISO).  Then I chose the smallest aperture available (F22).  Being on Aperture priority mode, the camera chose the shutter speed.  But at that time of day, it was still less than a second.  Too short for my purposes!

So I put on a 4-stop neutral density filter.  Now we were getting close, but I still wanted a longer shutter speed.  So, I put on the circular polarizer and adjusted it until the scene looked the darkest.

Finally, I had a shutter opening of several seconds!

I took a couple of pictures and checked the back of the camera.  Oh, wow!  I think I might get something here!

I shot a lot of pictures because you can never predict how the waves will look in the image.  Every one is different.

I would probably stayed there until dark, but my companion was not a photographer and after a short time, wanted to move on.

See what you think of these images.  I would love to see your comments!

Annette was intrigued by these images and had to have some of her own.  So after the workshop, she and I went out to the same place and took some more pictures.  However, the tide was much further out when we arrived there.  So the rocks that were catching the waves when I was there earlier, were completely exposed and nearly dry!

So...Take the picture when you see it.  You never know if it will be there when you get back!