Trip to the Norfolk Coast

The past couple of weeks has been spent preparing for, executing, and then recovering from Christmas, so it was great to get out yesterday with my daughter Frances, her husband Christopher and Amber (of course) to the Norfolk Coast.  It was a bit nippy in the wind, but really nice when the sun came out.  It was also an opportunity for me to try out a couple of new Fuji lenses: the 50-140/2.8 and 16-55/2.8.  I deliberately put them through their paces by shooting wide open most of the day, and so far I've been very impressed with the results - especially from the 50-140 (75-210 full-frame equivalent, which is one of my favourite focal lengths).

Amber's natural home seems to be at the seaside, and she was terribly excited to be able to run round on the shingle at Cley (which patently isn't next-the-Sea, despite its name).

Christopher was skimming stones on the water, and Amber decided it would be a good idea to go and "fetch" one.  Unfortunately she didn't see the wave which then completely drenched her...

As always, there were lots of good smells on the beach.

The Fuji X-T1 is not known for its focusing abilities, but it made a pretty good job of capturing Christopher who was attempting to out-run Amber.

Frances had borrowed my backup Fuji camera - an X-E2 - and was getting to grips with it by photographing interesting things on the sea shore.

Ahhhh...

Time to check the pictures on the back of the camera.

Curses - spotted!

Christopher doing a little jig after winning the (highly intellectual) game of Pooh Sticks.

After lunch we went on to Wells (which really is next-the-sea), but by this time it had become very overcast and gloomy.

An excellent day out, and a wonderful antidote to the over-indulgence of the previous few days.

Hever Castle

On the way home from our brief trip to Sussex and Kent, Harriet and I stopped off at Hever Castle.  It was a dull, grey day; and, since we had Amber with us, it wasn't possible to go inside the castle itself.  This was more than made up for by several marquees which were groaning with food from local producers.

Hever is famous for its topiary, as will become apparent from several of the pictures which follow.

Having exhausted the hedges, I turned my attention to the various specimens of Homo photographicus which were wandering around.

OK, so some of them weren't exactly "photographicus"...

The final shot shows some of the amazing ornamental carp which were swimming in the moat and begging for food from the passers-by.

Camber Sands

On the way back to Rye we stopped off for a few minutes to visit Camber Sands where a large number of wind- and kite-surfers were doing their thing.  It was a perfect day for it: warm, plenty of sunshine, loads of surf and a howling gale.

The first picture reminds me of a butterfly (or even a fallen angel).

The wind was sufficiently strong that not everyone was able to keep their feet on the ground.

I love the idea of a safety instructor looking on as one poor, hapless surfer gets carried off to France...