Alan Frost | alan frost photography

The ruins of St Benet’s Abbey in Norfolk

The ruins of St Benet’s Abbey on the banks of the River Bure within the Norfolk Broads are the best part of 1,000 years old. In 1020 King Cnut who ruled both England and Denmark, granted land and property to the hermits at St Benet’s and so the Benedictine Monastery was formed. It changed and expanded over the centuries and in the second half of the 18th Century a farmer built a windmill inside the abbey gatehouse. Some time later it was converted to a windpump but this ceased operating and now forms part of the abbey ruins.

Little remains of the monastery but in 1987 a tall cross was erected on the position of the High Alter. It was made from oak from the Royal Estate at Sandringham and can be seen from miles around.

Turf Fen Mill on the Norfolk Broads

The Norfolk Broads are a series of rivers and lakes (broads) most of which are navigable and together they form an area which has been called ‘Britain’s Magical Waterland’. The area is renowned for its big skies and windmills.

The drainage mill pictured in this post is Turf Fen Mill on the River Ant in Irstead and was taken from the river path at How Hill. Built in 1875 the mill ceased working in 1920, when cattle no longer grazed the marshes. Since 1976 the mill has been restored and maintained by the Norfolk Windmills Trust.

The Dunes – requests for a mono conversion

A few weeks ago I posted this image of The Dunes at East Head in colour. You can view it here. I had a number of comments, for which I am always grateful. They all had one thing in common – they expressed a desire to see a black and white version. Well here it is and I am pleased with the result, so thanks everyone for the suggestion.

I guess my only disappointment is that it was taken using an iPhone – nothing wrong with camera phones these days but when I came to processing the photograph, I just wish I had been able to work on an 18MB RAW file from my Leica Monochrom. The flexibility, dynamic range and the depth of detail from a full frame file would have been a joy to have at my disposal.

When the forecast is right I shall return with the Leica but I always remember that any photograph is capturing a moment in time which will never be repeated – and that’s why this hobby has such an enduring interest, as no two photographs can ever be the same.

Churches Project no.17 – St Peter’s, Hascombe, Surrey

Regular readers of my blog will know that the vast majority of my work is in monochrome and this particularly applies to my Churches Project. Today though I have to make an exception, so I am including a set of colour images as well as their monochrome twins. The church featured is St Peter’s, Hascombe in Surrey. The exterior is in the style of a 13th Century church and was constructed of bar gate stone in the mid 19th Century to replace a derelict church.

In complete contrast to the relatively plain exterior, the interior of the church is a very rich blend of gilding and painting, particularly on the roof, the screen and the reredos- it is quite extraordinary and not what you might expect to find in a church in a small village in Surrey. Whilst I can appreciate the beauty, for me it is far too ornate…….I personally much prefer a simpler or can I say quieter environment. Nevertheless it has to be admired and appreciated for the skill, the craftsmanship and the time it must have taken to create.

And now for a matching set of monochrome images –

Do click on any of the images to view a larger version which will open in a new window.

Agapanthus – simply beautiful

Agapanthus

In a break from my usual black and white photographs, I couldn’t resist posting this image of some flowers in our garden. I don’t profess to be a gardener but these plants are quite stunning and have given my wife and I a great deal of pleasure this year.

Agapanthus are an architectural plant originating from South Africa. These are growing in three pots on an area of decking immediately outside our living room. Without a great deal of care, they have produced forty stems, each about two to three feet long, topped with a ‘ball’ of intensely coloured flowers. They have such a long season of interest, from the moment the first stems start to appear, through to when their attractive seed heads form later in the year.

Simply beautiful and without question one of my favourite plants.

For those who are interested in the technical details, this photograph was taken with a Leica M9P and 35mm Summilux lens. It was shot at f2.0, 1/3000 sec at ISO 160. Cropped and with some processing in Lightroom, but the colours are just as the CCD sensor recorded them.