2017 Project 52 - 1st Quarter by Geoff F

[Geoff F]

Thanks Binnur, I started by trying some some shots of the #2 scene but the moon was just a bit too high so I then experimented with several slight variations of a wider scene to put the overall area in to some form of context.

Eventually returned to the portrait ratio to shoot what I originally had in mind.

Week 05. Starting with another tricky scene and I only had my Fuji X20 'pocket camera' with me. Once again I tried several different shooting options and landscape/portrait ratios. Followed by more experimentation with crop alternatives. Finally settled for this one, which became the only keeper.



1/150 F6.4 Iso 200

Also, one day I went to try a different wildlife area but without any real results so ended up at a small village at the other end of the site where I actually found plenty of bird life alongside the road. On the seaward side some extensive sea wall construction was in progress. I have tried to show something of the overall scene rather than concentrating on just the diggers.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/640 F11 Iso 400. I wanted to keep the shutter speed high to cope with machinery movement and the waves. I started shooting by attempting to lean over the wall but it is about 4 ft high and I wasn't quite getting my desired angles. So I went up some steps which takes a footpath over a cliff to get a better angle. But by the time I got to a suitable position there was patchy cloud obscuring the sun which gave dark and light bands across the scene. Eventually the cloud became more extensive so I settled for a cloudy day effect. This has produced a bit of 'noise' in the far distance areas. Perhaps I will try a bit of selective noise reduction.

Once again, I tried many shots with different angles and size ratios before getting anything which came close to what I wanted. There was foliage in front of me which limited my view.

Just before going to this scene, in much better conditions, I tried a few shots of something different from many slightly different angles; with a lot of instant rejects as I searched for an acceptable result. This is the best of my attempts.



1/500 F11 Iso 200.

[bnnrcn]

#2 is the best of the series for me Geoff .That wall is very high, is it for preventing waves from crashing the road and the houses ?

[Cantab]

Geoff, the road in the second photo does not look much above sea level. There's a somewhat similar situation here with a road that can have waves breaking over it if there's a big storm, wind from the right (actually wrong ) direction and a high tide.

Is this a spit of land? I've just noticed water behind some of the more distant houses.

[Geoff F]

Here is another angle which shows the road to Dartmouth that runs along this strip of land.



On the left is a freshwater lake and the sea on the other side.

A few years ago those houses were nearly swept away by a gale with a couple of them being substantially damaged.

Back in 1944 this beach was used to train American Forces before the D Day landings.

This scene shows the entrance to Dartmouth Harbour in the distance.



These images should have a GPS link embedded.

[Craigie]

A real nice set Geoff. #3 and #5 are my fav.

[joebranko]

Nice series. Love the shot of the sea-wall construction showing the overall site.

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Gary and Joe.

Week 06 and a bit on the windy side although some patchy hazy sunshine; so I had a look at the cove near where I live. Due to the risk of getting a spray soaking I took the older equipment; but managed to keep dry except for a little spray on the lens filter.



7D Mk I with Canon 24-105 lens 1/1250 F8 Iso 800. In an attempt to keep the surf looking sharp I risked increasing Iso to give a faster shutter speed. No ideal angles for the light and several shadow areas on the far side but from this position I managed to keep the light on my right (seaward) side.

A bit closer.



1/3200 F8 Iso 800. With this shot I could have got away with reducing the Iso but the shutter speed kept varying between shots so I stayed with the higher setting rather than risk getting some shots with too slow a shutter.

Looking into the waves, towards the light, produced problems and most shots from this direction were rejects.



1/1250 F8 Iso 800

All are a merge of 2 or 3 conversions from a single Raw image.

[bnnrcn]

Those are great Geoff, I can feel the storm

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Binnur.

Today I have been scanning and editing images for the local history society, a big ongoing job with over 400 done so far and about another 100 still waiting; and that is merely the current batch!

However, among today's effort I found an old postcard which shows the same area as my Torcross Beach Defences images but probably taken around 1920's.



Rather poor quality even after spending 15 minutes on touch up work. Loads of spotting and scratches which needed attention. There is a limit on how much time I'm prepared to spend on one image. Recently I took over an hour on one tricky subject, then a month later an almost perfect copy of the same scene was discovered.

There was another older postcard which showed the horse drawn mail coach driving along the road which in those days ran in front of those houses. However, that image was badly deteriorated so all I could do was to crop out part of the scene and do what little I could with it.

[Cantab]

Thanks, Binnur.

Today I have been scanning and editing images for the local history society, a big ongoing job with over 400 done so far and about another 100 still waiting; and that is merely the current batch!

However, among today's effort I found an old postcard which shows the same area as my Torcross Beach Defences images but probably taken around 1920's.



Rather poor quality even after spending 15 minutes on touch up work.

Very interesting to see this photo almost a century earlier than yours. There's not much of a seawall! I wonder how regularly the houses were attacked by waves in a bad storm.

[Geoff F]

That image shows how much sand has disappeared over the years, Bruce.

[skitterbug]

Geoff ~ It is hard to pic a favorite out of these three because I really like water scenes and the texture that the water has at any given moment. There will never be an identical shot of water no matter if a person stands in the same spot at the same time every day! But if I had to make a decision, I'd rank #2 (captioned "a bit closer") as first! It shows the angry water demanding access to the houses beyond the wall! Wonderful series!

[Shadowman]

Nice before and after.

[Cantab]

Here is another angle which shows the road to Dartmouth that runs along this strip of land.



On the left is a freshwater lake and the sea on the other side.

A few years ago those houses were nearly swept away by a gale with a couple of them being substantially damaged.

Back in 1944 this beach was used to train American Forces before the D Day landings.

This scene shows the entrance to Dartmouth Harbour in the distance.

These images should have a GPS link embedded.

Geoff, I used the GPS link to see the location on a map. It's a longer lake than I'd imagined. I'm not surprised at your comment about major damage to some of the houses a few years ago.

On the postcard photo from the 1920's, it appears that many of the houses are thatched. Is that correct?

[Wavelength]

Very nice images...Black and white is a killer!!!

[bnnrcn]

The old B&W image is super Geoff

[Geoff F]

If I can wander off for a few moments. Yes, Bruce, most houses for poorer people would have originally had a thatched roof. There were a couple of small slate quarries in the area but slates were considerably more expensive; although cheaper in the long run.

100 years ago the small nearby village of Hallsands was devastated by a severe storm. Here are some photos which I have recently been scanning for the Salcombe History Society.



You can see that some older houses constructed with rubble stone walls and thatch are on the outside while block built buildings with slate roof are tucked away against the cliff. Obviously the older houses took full force of the storm. Here is the result.



I'm not sure why the village was constructed on flat top rocks in this exposed location when there was a sheltered valley and sandy beach nearby. Possibly, nobody owned this bit of coastline so it made economic sense to build here.

Eventually, houses were built in that valley and this village was deserted.

[Wavelength]

Very nice additional images; they are fit to be in mono

[joebranko]

Nice to be able to go back 100 years and to see what was captured then.

[Shadowman]

Nice mono series.