Isla discovers the seaside 1: Wells

In early April Isla and I went to Norfolk for a couple of days, the primary excuse being that I was giving a talk at North Norfolk Photographic Society.  Since the talk was in Holt, I stayed at Mary Walsh's excellent White House Farm in Hindolveston, which happens to have a dog-friendly annex.  It was the first time I'd taken Isla away on an "adventure", and I was slightly nervous as to how she would behave.  I needn't have worried, though, as she was absolutely fine and didn't disgrace herself once.

I was determined to introduce Isla to the joys of the seaside, so on Thursday morning we headed to Wells-absolutely-nowhere-near-the-Sea.  As luck would have it the tide was out, so there was mile after mile of empty sand to play on.  Isla acquired a particularly good stick while walking through the woods behind the beach huts, and held onto it all the time we were there.  When I say "held onto it", what I mean is that Muggins had to keep throwing it for her, and she would then proceed to retrieve it.  So, an endless throw/fetch cycle, interspersed with bouts of frantic digging and a bit of swimming, so it's no surprise that she was completely knackered afterwards.  Indeed, she slept for the whole afternoon!

Can we go to the seaside again soon, please?

A trip to Wells

In an attempt to burn off some of the Christmas calories, we went to Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast a couple of days ago.  It was dull, grey and gloomy, and the rain set in during the afternoon.  Nevertheless we had a great time on the beach, throwing a frisbee for the dog and photographing the beach huts.

I've never tried photographing the beach huts with a fisheye lens before, but the results are rather interesting.  Of course, there's always the possibility of a stray dog and frisbee finding their way into the shot, but that's just an occupational hazard...

I also took my newly converted IR camera with me, and rather liked the false colour images produced simply by correcting the white balance.  Something akin to a cross between split toning and hand colouring...

The final shot shows my daughter, Frances, taking a picture of something interesting on the beach - a cockle shell, by the look of it.  Perhaps she'll post it on her blog at some point?