Horniman Museum

Leanne and I visited the Horniman Museum.  The Museum has been open since Victorian times and contains ‘internationally important collections of anthropology and musical instruments, as well as an acclaimed aquarium and natural history collection.’

Flying Gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans). They can’t fly however ‘they have been observed to “walk” along sandy sea floors while looking for crustaceans and other small invertebrates by using their pelvic fins.’

Yellow-Bellied Pangolin (Manis Tricuspis). ‘The tree pangolin can walk on all fours or on its hind legs using its prehensile tail for balance. It can climb up trees in the absence of branches. When walking on all fours, it walks on its front knuckles with its claws tucked underneath to protect them from wearing down.’ ‘When threatened, it rolls up into a ball, protecting itself with its thick skin and scales. Its scales cover its entire body except for the belly, snout, eyes, ears, and undersides of the limbs. When a mother with young is threatened, it rolls up around the young, which also roll into a ball. While in a ball, it can extend its scales and make a cutting action by using muscles to move the scales back and forth. It makes an aggressive huff noise when threatened, but that is the extent of its noise-making.’

Flying Fox (Pteropus Medius). ‘The large flying fox has a wingspan up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)’. ‘Characteristically, all species of flying foxes only feed on nectar, blossom, pollen, and fruit, which explains their limited tropical distribution. They do not possess echolocation, a feature which helps the other suborder of bats, the microbats, locate and catch prey such as insects in mid-air’

Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). ‘The jellyfish is translucent, usually about 25–40 cm (10–16 in) in diameter, and can be recognized by its four horseshoe-shaped gonads, easily seen through the top of the bell. It feeds by collecting medusae, plankton, and mollusks with its tentacles, and bringing them into its body for digestion. It is capable of only limited motion, and drifts with the current, even when swimming.’

Cambridge

Leanne and I spent Friday night and Saturday in Cambridge.

The first photo is from the Fitzwilliam Museum. Apparently the building itself looks really impressive but I couldn’t see this as it was covered in white sheeting and scaffolding.

The rest of the photos are from the King’s College Cathedral. I noticed the architects loved to design buildings with parts jutting out of the top of them.

Couple

I haven’t posted in forever. Since the last post I have started a business with my friend and it has been running for nearly two months now! I have been slacking on the photography front but a couple of things did catch my eye during that two month period. A lovely textured wall and a beautiful twilight sky.

A new enterprise

Since the first couple of years of college I have been wanted to run my own company. From around September last year I had been thinking seriously about doing just that. So with many scribbled notes and discussions with my friend Tom Barden we slowly became edging towards making our company a reality.

Today after quite a few months of hard work and preparation we are all set up and ready to go!

Here are a few photos I have taken over the setting up period –

Constantly buying equipment and going back and forwards.

Tom in action building our workbench. Our workshop/studio combo was once a housing for pigs, so every surface in the place is either wonky or bumpy which made it extremely hard to get the work bench level. In the end after trying to use laser pens and strings we did actually manage to make a pretty level work bench!


We had barely set the machine up, we still didn’t have a carpet and a guy from another unit on the farm came to ask if we could make some lettering for his new windows. Our first job!

At this stage it is all about advertising. If you know anybody that may need vehicle graphics, small signs, company branding, safety signs, window vinyl or print design please pass on our information/website.

www.distilleddesigns.co.uk

(V) Cornwall Adventure – Stonehenge

Our last destination on our way home from our cottage in cornwall was Stonehenge.  Both Leanne and I felt strange paying and going to see some stones in the middle of a field but it is one of the most iconic wonders in England, so felt like it had to be seen!



Coach loads of people turned up all the time to stare at these peculiar rocks.

(IV) Cornwall Adventure – Kynance Cove

Our first view of Kynance Cove. Stunning.
Leanne on the edge!

I think this photo does a nice job at showing the sheer scale of the rocks/cliffs/mini islands in the background.

The landscape is nothing like what we have in Upminster where I live, it looks alien. I think the photo below looks like it could have been taken on another planet.



One of my favourite photos of the whole holiday. Beautiful landscape.
The rocks were really interesting. The sea was really rough and you didn’t have to look at it to tell. The rocks were all carved and sliced up, most of them jutting upwards in layers. They also had a red tinge to them which made them interesting as a texture.





Standing on the edge of these jutting rocks next to a sea that was in turmoil maybe wasn’t the best idea but I wanted to get interesting photos! Needless to say this shot shows the moment I got wet. My luck run out, I was on the edge taking photos for a while and the past two times I had kept my eye on the sea and managed to spot when a big wave was coming twice before (not so easy when you have to spot a bigger bump of water than the rest as I was a bit further out than the beach) and managed to hightail it out of there, quickly jumping across the jutting rocks as best I could. However this one got me and I had to walk around for the rest of the trip with wet feet/socks/boots, not very nice! Just as I took this photo I ducked down and held onto a rock just incase it was a really big wave (did not want to be dragged on and into that sea, pretty sure you wouldn’t stand a chance) but it wasn’t too bad, albeit cold and wet!

Another beautiful place in Kynance Cove. The sea coming from both sides of this beach area that you couldn’t get to.

Next we visited Lizard Point,  the most southerly place in England. It was by far the most disappointing place that we went to all holiday. The most southerly point consisted of an eye sore of a gift shop and then down by the sea and even bigger eye sore of a broken down and disused concrete jetty. Usually I like abandoned places and things but not this. It was disappointing that because it is the most southerly place they tried to capitalize on that or… once did, now it’s just sad.

We also found the most southerly lighthouse which might have been a little bit more interesting if it was open or you could get near it, the stone wall was easily jumpable but we had lost interest in the whole place by then, disappointed by it all. Two saving graces however, when we was walking up hill on the edge of the cliffs to see the lighthouse we saw an eagle on the cliffs not far from us which we saw took flight. The second being the one and only photo I shot at Lizard Point, part of the lighthouse buildings.

(III) Cornwall Adventure – Gweek Seals

We visited the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in the small town of Gweek. Usually I don’t like zoos but this is a sanctuary where they keep seals that either can’t fend for themselves or are nursing injured seals back to health to release them at a later date. They are an amusing and curious bunch to watch!

Im not sure what this one was doing. It was standing upright with it’s nose sticking out. Maybe catching what little rays of sun there were.






We passed these chimney stacks on the way to our barn. We decided to go back and find them since they looked unusual in the middle of fields.


There were fields and fields of daffodils a two minute drive from where we were staying.

Again taking inspiration from Leanne’s Eric photos, Totoro was out and about exploring.



When we first spotted these from our window Leanne thought they were small sailing boats from a distance!

Can you spot our temporary home at the Lower Pentire Barn from across the River Loe. This shot shows how remote the barn was.

(II) Cornwall Adventure – Local Walk

A view of our temporary home at the Lower Pentire Barn from across the River Loe.

Our colourful boots ready for adventuring!

Leanne kitted out for a great photo session.

Off to the far right is where we were staying. We went for a long local walk to see what was around on. I am standing on the ‘Loe Bar’ which seperates the river Loe (which I am looking at) and the English Channel.

This is the other side of the Loe Bar. There was this one smooth flat rock on the entire beach which Leanne took advantage of!

Sadly I got too close to the waves trying to get a good photo. A few frames on and the water fooled me with a double wave and went over and inside my boots, not the most comfortable thing to happen mid adventure on a cold day!

I decided to bring my Totoro with me, taking inspiration from Leanne’s Eric adventures.

To the left is the river Loe, the middle the Loe Bar which seperates the Loe from the English Channel on the right. It is unusual to see two lots of water one on either side of land, at least I think it is! The Loe Bar’s terrain is a curious mix of grass and sand.

Continuing further around the river Loe.

Tree roots normally grow below the ground, this tree must be rebelling in its teenage years!

One of my favourite parts of the holiday was the fire we had. We had filled my car boot with wood so that we could use it every night and we ended up burning through all of it. We hardly turned the tv on, much more interesting to sit and watch the fire dance. Being a converted barn and an old style one at that with cold stone floors it felt amazing to have a roaring fire burning through the nights.

(I) Cornwall Adventure – Eden Project

To break up the long six hour+ journey to our cottage in Cornwall, Leanne and I stopped off at the Eden Project. Click here to view her photos! We brought our tickets online and printed them off but when we got there the normal ques were huge, we looked for a pre-paid ticket section which we found to be closed and decided to just walk through the nearest doors, which in fact led behind the tills and we walked casually through without showing anyone our tickets……nice security…. kind of a shame it cost us nearly £40 when we walked in unquestioned but hey!

The Eden bubble/dome structures were what drew me to the Eden Project.

Above the forest floor, 50m up (which is taller than the tower of London!) is the rainforest lookout platform.

I found the patterns that the biome structures made fascinating.

The first place we visited was the Rainforest Biome. Our lenses took a good 15 minutes to clear of condensation but after that it was pleasant to be in the warm. Around 20 minutes later however it become more uncomfortable as the thick hot air took it’s toll especially since we were dressed for winter!

Next up the mediterranean biome. We expected it to be at least kind of hot but I didn’t feel any kind of heat at all in the place. It wasn’t cold, it was just slightly warm…. It was an odd place to say the least. Not so odd were the beautiful tulips!


Next up the odd……

Didn’t think a person with a moon for a head would be as scary as it is.

I wasn’t sure what this was but because of the moonhead person I am going to guess it represents the sun.

I have no idea why there were rabbit heads on sticks….

Going outside of the biomes didn’t end the weirdness either. This guy is called the ‘WEEE Man’ sculpture. He weighs 3.3 tonnes and was made to represent the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment te average British household throws away in a lifetime. The WEEE man is made up of this.

The huge bee sculpture was really interesting. It looked a bit lost because of the season we are in and how bare the outside grounds were of flowers but still it was cool. The sculpture is there to remind visitors how important pollinators are to grow our food.

One of the only plants that was in bloom were the daffodils!


On the way out I found this really really weird plant. I haven’t see anything like it. It had very small orange dots all over it too. Weirddddddd.

The Eden Project was interesting but it disappointed me a little. Maybe it was the season we went in. There were hardly any flowers outside (kind of to be expected, though because you are missing half of what it’s about they could reduce ticket prices for off season?) Comparing it to the incredible Kew Gardens I would pick that over Eden Project every time. However I am still glad I went and experienced it, the biome structures alone were interesting enough to go and see. It made a good break for our six+ hour journey to our cottage in Cornwall.

Thorpe Bay

Thorpe Bay. There isn’t many places where you can shoot such minimalism. The grey day only emphasised it further.