Apologies that the blog has been a bit quiet over the last few days. I have finally had a week off work and got back from Cornwall today, feeling totally chilled out and well rested. We drove down in the wee small hours last Wednesday and sucessfully avoided any Easter holiday traffic, arriving at my parents’ cottage just before 2am on Thursday.
After the best nights sleep I’ve had in ages, I was getting dressed on Thursday morning when a CityLink van pulled up outside and delivered a box for me. Andy, knowing that my beloved Nikon compact camera sadly lost it’s life on the last Trail trip I went on, and thinking that it was time I took the big step into the world of DSLRs, had ordered me a Canon EOS 400D, and had it delivered to where we were staying. He had also brought me a funky National Geographic bag to put it in, so I was all set. And what can I say except, a whole new world has opened up!
I’ve never really seen the point in walking before (shoot me down in flames, dear Trail readers) – you get to the top, it looks nice, and you walk down again. So what? But now there’s a photo in everything – a new thing to focus on, a new abstract to find, so much to learn before you can make it look as good through your lens as it does to your eye. And it helps that Andy knows what he’s doing so that when I’m getting frustrated, he can show me what to do to put it right. Only problem is, I want to be as good as he is after only a week, when it took him years at college and years of practice to get as good as he is. Hmm..patience, grasshopper, patience!
Photography is so much fun… walking is no longer about plod, plod, puff, puff, plod. Suddenly there’s a reason for being there, and that feeling of anticipation when you wait for your photos to transfer to your laptop at the end of a long day is like nothing I’ve felt before. I don’t think I want Claire Maxted’s job any more – I want Tom Baileys! (I know, in my dreams!)
So, a brief run down of how the week panned out.
On Thursday we walked down into the town and paid a visit to the local camera shop to get me a UV filter and a polariser (not entirely sure what they do yet, but apparently I need them). Now, my parents’ place is up an extremely steep hill, but with my new found ’slowly slowly’ approach learned in Wales, the walk home was no problem to me, although it took some getting used to for Andy! What you learn on the mountains works in real life too! In the afternoon we headed to Polzeath, where I’ve been going since before I could walk. It’s changed a lot since then (mainly in a bad way as all the Rahs/Yob Snobs have moved over there from Rock) but essentially it’s a really nice place, and the Galleon does the best mugs of tea in Cornwall. We moved round to Daymer bay in the evening and I did my first attempts at photographing sunsets, but, as Andy tells me is the law of photography, the really good light came just as we got back to the car to go home, so we made a note of the time and vowed to come back another day!
Shameless product placement (it’s a Kata bag, just in case you’re interested)
Good Friday dawned, and after another fantastic sleep we went to the Eden project. I didn’t have my pedometer on me, but the site is so big I bet there were thousands of steps taken that day, and thank goodness for sunblock!
I had read about Minions, the Hurlers and the Cheeserigg, being the highest point in Cornwall, and felt the need to see it for myself on Saturday. I didn’t expect there to be scrambling involved, but there was, along with a fair amount of ’slowly slowly’ hill climbing! The light was rubbish (check me out, sounding like a photographer!) but I think I got some photos that show the sheer size of the rocks!
Andy getting chatted up by some random woman on top of the Cheesering
On Sunday we took the recommendation of Country Walking and went to check out the waterfalls that are at number ten in the best waterfall walks chart – Golitha Falls. Problem was, the magazine says it’s a four and a half mile walk, the sign at the falls says it’s a twenty minute walk each way, but after a hour of walking through woods and alongside the river, we hadn’t found anything resembling a spectacular waterfall or viewpoint. Eventually we decided that what we had dismissed as just a series of small falls on the way the main fall, actually were the falls, and that we had expected too much. Still, it was a lovely walk, and I think I grasped the concept of photographing fast moving water. Still a fair way to go though, which you’d agree if I uploaded the reject photos!
On Sunday night we returned to the cliffs above Polzeath and Andy finally got his sunset. Right on key, a trawler sailed across the sun, so he’s got some lovely shots. I’m going to need a bigger lens…!
Andy, doing what he loves to do
Monday was a lazy day in Perranporth, and today we came home. Off work tomorrow and then back to work on Thursday. Still thinking about a career change, preferably one that doesn’t involve me having to go to work when the sun is shining!
