alan frost

Posts by alan frost

100 miles along the South Downs Way and the 100th Blog Entry!

Firle Beacon, The South Downs

When I typed the words for my last entry ‘Less is more’ I realised two things. Firstly that it was time to conclude this series of entires about my walk along the South Downs Way and secondly that whatever the subject of the next entry, it would be the 100th post since I started this blog back in June 2012.

So it is rather fitting that this post should mark the conclusion of a 100 mile long distance walk alongside the fact that this is the 100th entry. When I started the walk I had a definite goal in sight. Quite simply to complete the walk in the planned period of time. The same cannot be said for this blog. What started as a whim, has turned into a regular and most enjoyable hobby. On average I post about five times a month, mainly at weekends, simply because this is when I can find the time to sit down, write the words and select the appropriate photographs having processed them beforehand.

This blog has proved to be a journal of my photography. The places or events I have been to and the images I have taken. Sometimes I will express my thoughts or write about the cameras, lenses and equipment I have used. But one thing is for sure – nothing is planned too far in advance. All the posts are a spontaneous reaction to an event, a particular photograph or series of images, or thoughts that have entered my mind which I have wanted to record and share with others – Sharing does of course assume that there are other readers, not just my wife and close family!

So back to the main reason for this 100th post. A photographic conclusion to a great experience. I shall never forget walking with my nephew Ian down the steep slope from Beachy Head and into Eastbourne, to be greeted by my family and his father. This varied selection of images were all taken on the walk and will always remind me of wonderful time enjoying the beauty of the South Downs.

Gates and Posts

Gathering Storm. Near Birling Gap

Downland Mist. Near Cocking

Towards east Meon

Windswept Tree. Near Ditchling Beacon

The Seven Sisters. Looking west from above Birling Gap

The finishing post after 100 miles.
Ian on the right and me on the left.

The other entries about our walk along the South Downs Way are as follows:-

Last leg first.

Windmills on the Way.

Less is more.

And so to the future – Another long distance walk perhaps? That I don’t know, but I will be starting work on my 101st entry very soon.

Less is more when capturing the South Downs

Downland fence

It is hard to believe that two months have passed since I completed my walk along the South Downs Way and here I am still writing about the experience and the photographic lessons I learnt.

I guess that if you mention the South Downs to a bystander they will conjure up in their minds a wide expansive view of the Sussex Weald and Downland. Large vistas which are truly beautiful but incredibly difficult to capture in a photograph. It is perhaps one of the reasons so called ‘holiday snaps’ never quite do justice to the scene we witnessed. We are tempted to try and include everything we see in one photo and whilst it may be a good record of what we saw, it often fails as a photograph. It might lack a good composition, any form of focal point to draw the eye, be poorly lit or quite simply not truly capture the feelings that the photographer felt at the time.

I can’t deny that some of the images I took fell into the ‘large vista’ category but I was also mindful to look closer and try and simplify the landscape through careful composition, concentrating on just two or three key elements and in so doing try and capture the essence of the South Downs and not just the grand view.

So this entry includes a selection of images all taken from the South Downs Way, where less is hopefully more.

Field of curves

Straw bale

Lone cow

Downland field

No shelter

Dead tree

Gateway to the sky

Twisted Chanctonbury tree

Do these photographs capture something about the South Downs?

Do they capture the feelings I experienced when I first saw and composed the image in the viewfinder? Do they do justice to the beauty of the area and its countryside?

So many questions and of course I have my own answers and anyone viewing these images will have their own opinions. In the end they are the view I chose to take, my interpretation and my treatment. They give me pleasure and I hope others might just feel the same way.

Thank you for reading my ‘blog’ and do leave a comment if you have anything you would like to say.

Windmills on the Way

Windmill ‘Jill’ at Clayton

The South Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but in addition to the glorious rolling downland landscape it is enhanced by man made structures, in particular the windmills which shine like beacons when the sun lights up their sails and the ‘smock’ or mill itself.

Walking the South Downs Way provides a great opportunity to see these charming buildings from near and far. At the top of this page is an image of one of a pair of windmills at Clayton to the north of Brighton. This one is fondly called ‘Jill’ and there are no prizes for guessing the other one is called ‘Jack’. Of the two ‘Jill’ is the one that stands out and is very visible from a distance. Its white smock and four sails is in stark contrast to ‘Jack’, which is painted black and has no sails. The next two images were taken from West Hill to the east of Pyecombe.

‘Jill’ in the distance

Afternoon light on ‘Jill’

The other windmill which regularly appears in the landscape is Ashcombe Mill at Kingston, near Lewes in East Sussex. Like ‘Jill’ it has a white smock and currently only has two sails. Originally built in 1828 it was destroyed by a gale in 1916. Since 2009 work started to rebuild this windmill and when completed will have six sails. The two images below show Ashcombe Mill in its downland setting.

Ashcombe Mill in the far distance, surrounded by the downland landscape

Ashcombe Mill at Kingston near Lewes

One day I will return and visit Ashcombe Mill itself, when the restoration is complete and the windmill has been returned to its former glory.

Olympus 17mm f1.8 lens at Cowdray Ruins

Cowdray Ruins

Faced with the choice of having just one lens what would it be? A prime lens or a zoom lens? If it had to be a prime lens then the vast majority of photographers would choose a focal length of either 35mm or 50mm. The latter is closest to the same field of vision as the naked eye, whereas a 35mm lens is a moderate wide angle. Both are very versatile but of the two my personal choice would be a 35mm lens.

I use a micro four thirds camera, the Olympus OMD EM5, which has a crop factor of x2, so the equivalent focal length for this camera format is 17.5mm. Although I can cover both 35mm and 50mm full frame focal lengths using the Panasonic 12 to 35 f2.8 zoom lens, there is nothing quite like having a compact, fast and sharp prime lens attached to the camera. Any prime lens encourages a more creative approach to photography. You have to frame your shot by moving your feet as opposed to twisting a barrel on the lens. A wide aperture can give a more limited depth of field, throwing backgrounds out of focus. In this respect it will never be a match for a full frame camera, but for my requirements this lens more than serves its purpose.

The Olympus 17mm f1.8 prime lens

So in the past few days I decided to buy the Olympus 17mm f1.8 lens. In no way is this a review, but the all metal lens in black looks wonderful on the camera, is very fast to auto focus and has a ring which can be pulled back for manual focusing. It also reveals a distance scale which combined with the Depth of Field markings allow ‘zone focusing’, a technique often used by street photographers.

The 17mm on the Olympus OMD EM5

Having only had the lens for a few days I have not yet had the chance to put it through its paces but I already think it could well become my default choice when I want to travel light with just the camera and a single lens.

I did though have the opportunity to take a couple of shots of Cowdray Ruins in Midhurst. I set the camera to take both RAW and JPEG (Fine). Set to f8, ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second, the JPEG straight out of the camera is I think very pleasing. Sharp across the frame and good colours from the Olympus processor.

Cowdray Ruins – JPEG straight out of the camera

The RAW version was of course just asking to be converted to black and white…….

The first mono version

This is the same image as the one at the top of this post
but with a ‘coffee’ tint added in Silver Efex Pro2

Of the four versions I have my own personal favourite (it’s at the top for a reason) however this post was intended to be about a superb lens which I know will give me many hours of pleasure in time to come. With luck I will get out and about in the next few days to see just how capable it is in different conditions.

As an aside the Ruins at Cowdray in Midhurst, West Sussex are truly magnificent and I will definitely be returning to explore the photographic opportunites at some point in the future.

Last leg first – Walking the South Downs Way

Whist this blog is about my photography, there has to be an inextricable link between taking pictures with the things I do, the places I go and the people I meet. I don’t ‘set up’ my photographs or continually ‘pixel peep’ by testing cameras, lenses or other equipment. I may from time to time comment on my gear, but for me this blog is more about my experiences and trying to capture those moments with a camera. Nor may I finish processing the images in the strict order they were taken. I will be drawn to a shot, work on it and then return to it later on, and in the interim start processing another image which could have be taken earlier or later.

So you might be asking yourself what is the meaning of the title to this particular entry? Well quite simply in September I walked 100 miles along the South Downs Way from Winchester to Eastbourne and as you might imagine I took many photographs. Although I have now finished processing quite a few of these, there are still others to do. Unfortunately there are only so many hours in the day. However I think I have completed work on the images I took on the last section of the trail as we walked from Cuckmere Haven, up and down the Seven Sisters, over Beachy Head, before the final descent into the East Sussex town of Eastbourne. So this entry covers the last leg of our walk and other posts in the future will I am sure cover other sections of the trail which took place in the preceding days.

Sunlight on Eastbourne as rain clouds circle all around.

Beachy Head lighthouse

Seven Sisters with Belle Tout lighthouse on the cliff in the far distance

Rain approaching the estuary at Cuckmere Haven

All the images in this post were processed in Lightroom 4, converted to black and white in Photoshop CS5 and the grain was added in Silver Efex Pro2 using the Kodak Tri X400 film preset.

Whilst writing this entry I remembered a great line in a Morecambe and Wise sketch from many years ago with the conductor Andre Previn, in which Eric Morecambe was trying to play a piece of Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

Andre Previn said to Eric –
“You are playing all the wrong notes”
to which Eric famously replied –
“I’m playing all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order!”

So until the next leg of the walk, I hope you enjoyed the last one and if you have never seen this wonderfully funny sketch before, then here it is. The section of the sketch referred to above starts at around 10 minutes.