Bridlington Priory

Wednesday was a day of very heavy showers so we decided on a visit to the Priory. Bridlington Priory was founded in 1113 as a house of Augustinian canons. At the Reformation, the Priory was ‘dissolved’and most of its buildings destroyed. The nave was left and was the sole parish church in Bridlington from then until the 19th century. It is an impressive architectural area and has a 'untidy' homely feel with equipment for the various community activities stored everywhere. The Angelic choir on the wooden stall ends occupied my time together with the altar steps/platform which are full of carboniferous fossils. These and the font are Tornai marble from Belgium dating from 12th century so photographing these is going back in time in two steps, 900 for its arrival in England to 38 million years ago when the inhabitants were living in the seas around Belgium!! 

Cambridge Camera Club on the Beach

 A vibrant sunset tempted us onto the beach last night with the colour in the clouds reflected on the wet sand giving vibrant liquid gold hues towards the west and soft pastel shades out to sea. I decided on multiple exposures combining  movement of the camera at slow shutterspeeds with more static shots and very pleased with the results. Debs and Jim are taking opposite views while Ian is in all places at once covering every aspect of the subject as always. Otherwise it was playing with colours and shapes and movement.

Projects at RSPB Bempton

A second visit to Bempton cliffs yesterday and I decided to concentrate on a couple of projects. First, trying to show the sea birds among the cliff flowers that form their home during the breeding season. Red Campion, Hogweed, Sea Matweed and Plantain are the predominant flowers. My second project was to try ways of showing the movement of the vast numbers of sea birds in and out of the cliffs. Here time-lapse flight trails show the numbers of birds going in and out of the cliffs.

RSPB Bempton Exploratory Visit

My last visit to Bempton was 13 years ago in 2013 so there are quite a lot of changes in terms of Visitor centre, car parking and the provision of railed viewing areas. It was very busy yesterday but it did not seem crowded and I chatted to bird watchers from many different countries as we tried to spot the Puffins!!. Here just a set of introductory shots to help me plan photography for the subsequent visits though, from experience, the joy of capturing such graceful Gannets and Kittiwakes in flight will still override any other plans.

Welcome(?) to Bridlington

Grey skies, intermittent rain and not too welcoming signs met us on our evening stroll but there are some charming steps and alleyways even on the funfair front. Hopefully the rain may hold off for some of the time though the weather forecast  looks pretty grim!