A Cold Morning in Great Yarmouth

I've finally had time to look back on some pictures I took at the beginning of December on a club outing to Norfolk.  We had been staying for the weekend in Acle (geographical centre of the known universe) and on Sunday morning the hardcore "nature" members of the group headed off to Strumpshaw fen.  Meanwhile the stragglers - including me - went into a very cold and blustery Great Yarmouth followed by a superb lunch in front of a roaring fire at The Ferry Inn, Stokesby.

There's something about seaside towns out of season which calls for a gritty, other-worldly treatment...

There's something about Great Yarmouth which makes one feel as though trapped in a time warp.  It reminds me of seaside towns I visited as a child in the late 1960s, and doesn't seem to have moved on.

Westonbirt Arboretum

On the best (weather) day of my stay in Bristol, Frances and I went to the Westonbirt Aboretum.  A magical place in the December sunshine, which also had the benefit of being dog-friendly.  Given the waterlogged, muddy conditions, there were a very large number of filthy (but happy) pooches to be seen at the end of the day.

The pictures here are a mixture of IR and three-shot HDR images, the latter taken in the gloom of the old Arboretum as the light faded.

Bristol Zoo

On another rainy afternoon in Bristol (is there any other kind?) Frances and I walked across to the zoo.  Being December - and wet - there weren't many animals to be seen outside.  Instead we spent our time in the reptile house, aquarium, monkey house etc.  Not great conditions for photography, and all of the images below were taken hand-held at ISO 1600 or 3200.  Still better than working, though...

Please, Mummy, can I have a lemur?  Please...

That's it for another year...

I've now reached the end of my annual two-day cooking marathon.  The food has all been cooked, and most of it has been eaten.  All that remains is to collapse into a chair with a glass of Chateauneuf du Pape and start to nod off while everyone else plays with their presents!

A very Happy Christmas to everyone, and best wishes for a a peaceful and prosperous 2013.

Dusk in Bristol

It had (almost) stopped raining by the time I walked back to Frances's flat, so I thought I'd have a go at photographing Bristol life as the light faded.

This couple were window shopping...

I've processed the following image in both colour and monochrome.  I know which I prefer (but then you'd probably have been able to guess anyway).

It was almost dark by the time I took the last three.  Even Primark can look moderately attractive on a damp evening as it gets dark! 

The final image was taken while walking through Stokes Croft, which is the "alternative" area of Bristol.  They like their local shops there, though, which explains the mural on the wall behind the bus.  It was painted during the height of an unsuccessful campaign to stop Tesco opening a store on the Gloucester Road.

These pictures, plus those from Woolies and @Bristol  were all taken on a Sony NEX5, many of them hand-held down to 1/4s.