Apple day at Gressenhall

On 25 October we visited Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life in Norfolk for the annual apple day - the purpose of the event is in celebrating the many varieties of apple including the rare ones. I did take quite a few pictures, mainly in the apple identification tent, and towards the end of the day, in the Gressenhall orchards. While there I decided to join the East of England Apple and Orchards Project - which aims to help conserve local orchards and local apple varieties. According to their magazine the five fruit trees in our back garden countsa as an orchard! I've included a few photographs here. Apples make quite undemanding subjects for a photographer.

Wells-next-the-Sea

We went to Wells on the north Norfolk coast a few weeks ago late in the afternoon and walked out across the beach and past the beach huts to watch the tide come in and see the setting sun. I know from the last time I went there in the winter just what a great place it can be for photography at the end of the day, with the vast expanses of sand, broad vistas, and sense of isolation.

These images were taken in the rapidly fading light and I was quite pleased with both of them - after several tries.

Norwich medieval churches (part 2)

Continuing with the remaining four themes of the photography competition, and following on from the previous post, these are my chosen pictures:

Worship and contemplation: St Peter Mancroft - I took several pictures of the chapel sign, as I felt that from one of these I would find a suitably plain image with reasonable lighting. I considered other churches but came back to what is a fairly serious image in the end.

Art and architecture: St Peter Mancroft -

Again, this church provided great opportunities for another category. After several attempts to find an interesting angle of the carved oak figure of St Paul - with St Peter in the background - this one seemed the most satisfying.

Enjoyment and fun: St Peter Parmentergate, King Street - Here I made a couple of visits to the Tae-Kwon-Do class in the church and decided to enter a shot incorporating the martial arts Mickey Mouse and a student in the background - one of the more light hearted entries.

Innovation and change: St Lawrence, St Benedict's Street - although I made three visits with the camera and tried all sorts of possible angles and subjects ath this church (it has a fashion and textiles display two days a week) I came back to one of my first shots, with a fashion display and mirror reflecting the church window.

Al in all, an interesting project that made me think of Norwich's churches in a wholly new way - which was one of the aims of the competition.

Norwich medieval churches (part 1)

Norwich has A wealth of medieval churches in its hidtoric core. I've just recently finished my submission for a photographic competition run by Norwich Heritage and Regeneration Trust. This explores themes relating to the past and present churches and their place in today's society. Hence there were eight themes: history and tradition, people and community, inspiration and learning, restoration and conservation, worship and contemplation, art and architecture, enjoyment and fun and innovation and change.

Aftere much wandering around in and out of churches I finally came up with my chosen submission of eight pictures. I really enjoyed looking round churches I hadn't seen much of before, and have come to appreciate them not just in terms of the quality of their interiors, and the range of photographic subjects they offer, but as havens of peace and tranquility in the busy commercial centre of the historic city.

I did get more than I bargained for in one church where I ended up being invited to stay and document an importand church service and presentation of an honary award - quite a big responsibility.

Here are four photographs from my entry, one for each of the first four categories:
History and tradition: St Peter Mancroft, Haymarket, Norwich - a lovely large church in the middle of the city and opposite the Forum, it could easily have provided images for a whole range of entries...as it was, it provided three. Searching for an unusual viewpoint in this much-photographed church, I liked the very low angle and the lighting here, with the eye being led throught to the display of flowers below the organ.

People and community:St James, Whitefriars, Norwich, the Norwich PuppetrTheatre - in the foyer of this wonderful buildong in front of a photographic display tracing the history of the theatre in this converted church. Again, I took a lot of photographs in the auditorium and in the foyer, and hasdn't really considered any taken in this part of the foyer to be serious contenders at first, but in the end I rather liked the quirkiness of this, combined with the link to the people theme in the photograps on the wall.

Inspiration and learning: St Michael Coslany, Oak Street, Norwich, the Inspire Discovery Centre, teaching children about science with a range of interactive and boldly coloured exhibits. A good many interesting images available here, but my preferred option was always going to be one featuring the child and her binoculars. Just a question of which one to choose.

Restoration and conservation: extrenal repairs in progress at St Stephen, Rampart Horse St, Norwich, after a large crack was discovered and the whole structure of the building put in doubt! I struggled a bit to find enough subject matter for this one, which I hadn't expected.

I will include the other four pictures in my next post.