On Exmoor

Fozzybear · 06-07-2007, 8:39 PM

I've just today returned from a week at Lynmouth in north Devon and am starting to look at the 800+ photographs I took while I was there. I think I may have already found the best one of the trip though - this was taken somewhere on Exmoor (to the north east North Moulton I think) and was our first view of the real north Devon countryside. I think I've fallen in love with the place - it was a real wrench to come home to Essex today!

I altered the camera configuration for the trip, setting contrast low and colour saturation high. It seems to be beneficial from this shot. Nikon D50 & 70-300VR.

Fozzybear · 07-07-2007, 6:24 AM

A couple more I've worked on taken in the same area:

Stitched in Autostitch from 7 images, processed/resized in Nikon Capture NX.

As usual, photos are clickyable if you want to see bigger versions.

Holowlegs · 07-07-2007, 7:09 AM

Hi Fozzybear

Went to North Devon back in April for easter. I stayed in Torrington, but did drive one day to Lynmouth. All I can say is this is a beauiful part off the country.

By the way very nice pictures, you done well with the autostitch one

Cheers Holo

Liquid101 · 07-07-2007, 10:22 AM

Ahhhh the rolling hills of my homeland. Well, almost - I come from the Somerset side of Exmoor

Really like the first shot - a very nice layered effect.

only get back about 3 times a year now.

Fozzybear · 07-07-2007, 5:46 PM

Thanks guys. It's going to take quite some time to work through all these! Another couple for you, Lynmouth harbour late evening:

and the harbour channel marking poles:

Liquid101 · 07-07-2007, 5:52 PM

Really like that last one - great mood, and I liek the use of grain too. Very nice shot.

mwncidur · 07-07-2007, 8:52 PM

I too like the last one, great stormy, happening sort of shot. I like the harbour shot aswell.

The country side shots are great, and if they weren't in a thread about exmoor I would have guessed that they had been taken in Wales

Curious Yellow · 07-07-2007, 9:23 PM

Really like the panorama shot. You can feel how expansive the view is out there.

Fozzybear · 08-07-2007, 11:23 AM

Thanks guys. The countryside probably does look like Wales, it's only across the Bristol channel so the underlying geology is probably fairly similar.

This one is from one of the images I used to make the big panoramic:

and these two are from further north in the moors, somewhere to the south of Lynmouth:

the weather was pretty atrocious when I took those last two, but it really helped the mood of the shots! The white dots in the middle shot are sheep. There are some on the left field of the first shot too. Big landscape!

Fozzybear · 10-07-2007, 4:47 PM

Any more for any more?

Our first view of Lynmouth:

and a rough photo of the shrew that I had a close encounter with at County Gate:

photographed with the Nikkor 18-70mm and on-board flash and cropped severely!

Liquid101 · 10-07-2007, 6:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fozzybear

I know this road very well, some very interesting corners. Did you go as far as Porlock Hill?

Fozzybear · 10-07-2007, 7:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquid101

I know this road very well, some very interesting corners. Did you go as far as Porlock Hill?

We did - that's one STEEP hill! We drove from Lynmouth to Minehead along the A39 and it wasn't enjoyable going down it but coming back it looked like a wall!

Fozzybear · 14-07-2007, 7:13 PM

Still working my way through those raw files:

Looking east from a footpath near County Gate.

Bossington beach at Porlock. A rather difficult raw file to work on as this had very low contrast and a bit of an odd colour cast from the rain and mist. One I'll probably end revisiting again and again to try and get a result I'm happy with.

A young grey wagtail on the wall near our apartment in Lynmouth. A heavy crop at ISO800 and f/5.6 on my 70-300VR meant that this needed quite a bit of tweaking to get a usable shot from it!

On the steam train at Minehead

I'll probably revisit some of the ones I've done already as I know they can be improved, but I'm trying to avoid redoing lots of them or I'll never get through all the shots I took. I'm only on the second day and I've been back a week!

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 14-07-2007, 7:45 PM

That grainy overcast seascape is nice. I went to Devon last summer to see clients, lovely part of the world.

Gordon

Liquid101 · 14-07-2007, 7:52 PM

Really nice to see these images. I was raised in Minehead and my best mate was in Porlock. I spent many hours exploring on the coastline from Bossington to County gate - rolling in the pebbles running them through my hands

Fozzybear · 14-07-2007, 7:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

That grainy overcast seascape is nice. I went to Devon last summer to see clients, lovely part of the world.

Gordon

The mono one? Or one of the other overcast seascapes?

Liquid - about the only shot I got from Minehead:

The last day we were there we went out along the beach at Lynmouth digging around in the rocks and looking for interesting pebbles. Found some huge blocks on the beach (7ft+ high) covered in mussels and barnacles. Then went in the pub on the way back and sat on the veranda with a cold coke watching the swallows swooping about. Very relaxing!

Fozzybear · 17-07-2007, 4:43 PM

Well I've finished my initial run through the first card I shot, although I'll be going back and reworking a number of the photos I've done so far as I know colours etc could be better.

The East Lyn river about 9pm, photographed from the bridge where the river meets the Glen Lyn Gorge.

A rough, bad angle shot of a Dipper. Taken from the same bridge another morning.

Sunshine quickly changes to a torrential shower at Lynmouth harbour.

Later in the morning the weather is fine and hot again. Looking up from the beach at the harbour, the cliff railway and the hotels up on the cliff.

stevegreen · 17-07-2007, 4:53 PM

That 3rd one of the last set is lovely, very atmospheric!

I used to be down that way every summer as we had a static caravan based at Blue Anchor Bay...........memories of years gone by!!

Fozzybear · 17-07-2007, 9:13 PM

It was amazing how dramatic the light was then. The rain came so quickly I was glad that the rhenish tower was right by me as I dove for cover to protect my d50 from the rain!

Only processed a couple this evening, a panorama from the beach and this view of the harbour:

that needed a lot of work in Capture NX as the harbour and boats were pretty under-exposed to retain the cloud highlights and the boats in the shade had a strong blue cast. Lots of u-points went into sorting that out. I think I'll probably take a few stabs at this one though, I can see some problems with my processing.

Liquid101 · 17-07-2007, 9:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevegreen

I used to be down that way every summer as we had a static caravan based at Blue Anchor Bay...........memories of years gone by!!

Small world - the GF comes from Washford - just a down the road from Blue Anchor. We regularly visited the Driftwood Cafe on a Sunday morning to read the papers and fight off the hangover with a full English.

I worked in Minehead on the Crazy Golf/Lesuire Park on Minehead sefront all through my childhood from 1984 onwards. Now I think about it - I recognise you now! I'm sure I kecked you out of the Ball Pool for throwing the balls.

Fozzy - more nice shots. Really makes me want to go down for another visit. Really like the stormy harbour shot.

Holowlegs · 17-07-2007, 9:38 PM

Hi Fozzy

You must off had a go in the cliff railway. The day I was there the tide was out.Lovely part of the world.

Do like the boat one.

Cheers Holo

Fozzybear · 18-07-2007, 4:41 AM

Thanks guys. I did ride the cliff railway a few times but I also walked the cliff path a fair bit too. Was a real killer when I did it the first time, but when we walked up on the last day it wasn't too bad as I'd acclimatised to walking on hills a little by then. Walking down was worse though, going up was just effort, on the downwards walk the steep slope really was really hard on the knees!

Fozzybear · 21-07-2007, 6:34 AM

I started looking at my shots from the Valley of the Rocks last night, an amazing place just west of Lynton (literally a short walk from the shops!) and the north cliff coastal path runs at the top of a 300ft+ steep drop to the sea, which makes an interesting walk for a person with vertigo - especially when it is windy. I have bad vertigo and it was really blowing hard that day!

Castle Rock and the coastal path

looking west from an outcrop on the path.

I know the colour from these two don't match, I'll probably reprocess the first one - I did them when I was half-asleep. Well... that's my excuse anyway.

Fozzybear · 30-07-2007, 8:49 PM

I've really slowed down processing these, but still doing odd ones. On the beach at sunset:

Holowlegs · 30-07-2007, 9:37 PM

Hi ya

Very nice shot.

I know what you mean about the processing, I went in April and have only started them now.

Cheers Holo

stevegreen · 30-07-2007, 9:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquid101

I worked in Minehead on the Crazy Golf/Lesuire Park on Minehead sefront all through my childhood from 1984 onwards. Now I think about it - I recognise you now! I'm sure I kecked you out of the Ball Pool for throwing the balls.

aahhhhh, I remember it well. How many 10p pieces did I put in the Pole Position video game in that arcade!!

...................

That last one is something special

Fozzybear · 31-07-2007, 11:57 AM

Thanks guys. Getting a little closer to the end but then I'll be going back and working through some of the other shots and probably redoing a lot of the ones I've already posted.