Tag Archives: east anglia

The Town Bridge in Huntingdon


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Nikon D700 - 24-70mm/ f2.8 - 30 seconds @ f/10, ISO 200, +2 EV

Another city in the River Great Ouse, Huntingdon, is not very far from the Chinese Bridge in Godmanchester. This old bridge in Huntingdon is a well-preserved medieval stone bridge that connects Huntingdon to Godmanchester. The current bridge was constructed around 1332, with work starting on both banks or the river. It was intended for both pedestrian and horse-drawn transport but now serves exclusively for light vehicular traffic. There’s another bridge parallel to the town bridge just a few meters upstream, it is now used as a pedestrian bridge.

It was a quick shoot at this place, just a shoot-and-run kind of evening. The scene was quite one-dimensional and as usual, light was limited. But I did like how the textures on the stone bridge mimics that of the building right next to it, and the warm reddish-gold reflections on the water was a nice plus. [...Wait, more photos!]


The Quay at King’s Lynn


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The River Great Ouse viewed from Purfleet Quay.

This would be my fourth city on the River Great Ouse – King’s Lynn, a sea port and market town in Norfolk in East England. An uneventful night for me – no rain, no goose bully, no stepping on animal poop, just a still night under merry ‘ole England’s usual dreary winter skies. Enjoy!

*On a side note, I am now on Twitter so FOLLOW ME here if you will, or you can click on the little bird in the sidebar. [...Wait, more photos!]


Finding Light in Godmanchester


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Still early into blue hour, but since I knew the bridge was not going to be lit up, I started early while I still had some ambient light. The wind was not forgiving that night as you can see from the motion on the willow tree branches.

I found another small town that sits by the River Great Ouse, the third one in this series – St. Ives, Bedford, and now Godmanchester. And I’ve said it before, the trouble with these small towns is that most of them are very dark at night. Having seen very little of Godmanchester online, and even on Flickr, I did not have my hopes up as far as lighting goes. But I like to challenge myself that way and explore the possibilities I can come up with.

I’ve seen quite a few oriental bridges but never one like this; maybe it’s because I’m more familiar with the Japanese ones. This Chinese bridge, which is Godmanchester’s main landmark, was named so because it was built in Chinese architectural style in 1827. It has since been replaced a couple of times because of bad condition. Not a spectacular bridge by any means, as compared to the mighty old bridges of Europe, but these gems in smaller towns make photography a little less mundane and fresher to the eyes, albeit more challenging.

[...Wait, more photos!]


As I Was Going to St. Ives


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St Ives Bridge is a 15th century bridge crossing the River Great Ouse. It is one of only 4 bridges in England with a built-in chapel; the other 3 are in Rotherham, Wakefield and Bradford-upon-Avon. The structure not only served as a chapel but was at different times a tollhouse, an inn, a notorious public house, and a doctor's surgery house.

St. Ives is a small little-known town in Cambridgeshire which I’m sure not many of you have either visited or seen pictures of, as I have not until last night. But I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of it. The name St. Ives has been popularized in the famous riddle or song.

St. Ives is not much of a photographic town either and not many landmarks to speak of, but there’s a bridge there that intrigued me and I wanted to give it a shot. It is the second bridge with a built-in chapel that I’ve visited this year; I believe there are only 4 of its kind here in England. The other bridge I’ve visited was in Bradford-upon-Avon. [...Wait, there's more...]


Holiday Winter Scenes


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Hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season and staying warm. Today’s temperature here is 28.9 °F  (-1.7 °C)  with  a windchill of 25 °F (-4 °C). If it’s colder where you are, I feel bad for you.

Just a few images here to get you into the spirit.

Winter Wonderland at Bluewater Shopping Center - Greenhithe, Kent.

Somerset House Ice Rink - London.

Angel Hill Christmas Tree - Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.


Night in Newmarket


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Since it’s the first day of December today, I thought it’ll be fitting to post a Christmas scene, taken just last night in the thriving city of Newmarket. I hope I can keep up with these wintry scenes though – it’s not a joke to be out there in the bitter cold, and I can’t stress that enough.

Newmarket is one of those secondary cities that’s much less glamorized than London for example, but that definitely is not an excuse to not visit. I actually favor shooting these lesser-known and lesser-visited places because I have more of a palette to work from. You don’t see a lot of photographs of them in the web, and sometimes that’s a good thing. Winter is also my favorite time of the year to shoot, oddly enough. The skies are pure and cleaner and I get better blues at twilight. But it’s also the most challenging time to be out there and it takes more out of you to get motivated. I just have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the ball all the time.

Fun Fact about Newmarket : Newmarket is the mecca of English horse racing, with this sport dating back to 1174. There are more than 2,500 horses with most stables located in the centre of the town.

Newmarket's iconic landmark, the clock tower in High Street which was built by Richard Arber, celebrates Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887 although it was officially opened in 1890. It takes 115 turns to fully wind the clock every week.

Rush hour at the roundabout.


A Shot in the Dark in Cold Burrrrrr-y


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[...Bury St. Edmunds, England...]

The Christmas Fayre – that’s how they spell it here – is going on in the charming town of Bury St. Edmunds. It’s only a 3-day affair but judging from the amount of visitors, it’s one of the most successful fairs in England. I’ve been to quite a number of these in Germany – there they call it Christkindlmarkt or Christmas market, and they’re a good way of getting into the spirit of the season.

I had looked forward to this event not because of the fair, but because it’s probably the only time out of the year that the grounds of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral and the Abbey Ruins are open past dusk. I’ve wanted to shoot here at twilight since the summer, but like I said, they close down the gates before that. Much to my dismay, it wasn’t much of a spectacle after dark seeing that there were hardly any lights on in the Cathedral, and I had to fumble my way around the dark ruins on the slippery ground. It was so dark that the ruins were merely indiscernible silhouettes and focusing was a lot of guesswork and a bit of luck.

So there I was far away from the maddening crowd of the fair and in the middle of darkness by the ruins, when I saw two neon yellow figures walk towards me in opposite directions. One flashed his light briefly behind me, and asked,”Did someone run by you just now?”

I looked up behind me, put my frozen numb hands back into my coat pockets, and as I replied, white puffs of air billowed from my mouth. It’s a biting cold night, nothing that I wore tonight seemed to protect me one bit.

“No. Why?” I asked.

At this time, the other security – a female, had just inched towards us but said nothing.

“We received a report of a shadowy figure, dressed in black, running down here. Did you see anyone?” The man asked casually, as if trying not to alarm me.

No matter, I was still alarmed. I guess it didn’t help that not too long ago, I was just thinking about the Ipswich serial murders. I was in Ipswich on Wednesday night and was reading about the city this morning when I came across that article. I know that walking in the dark by yourself is never a good thing. That, and watching too much crime TV.

“Oh no, should I be worried?” I asked.

“No no no, we were just checking. Did you just get here?”

“I’ve been here about 5 minutes.”

“Were you down there earlier?” he was pointing further down at a different direction of the ruins.

“Yes I was.”

“So I guess it might be you then.”

“I guess it was,” I said, feeling much better with that thought. “I’m just taking pictures though, is that okay?”

“Oh no, you’re fine,” he said. “Carry on.”

And with that, they both left me alone in complete darkness for another minute or so of exposure that felt like forever.

The Georgian-style town square of Bury with the tree lit up in Angel Hill. Last year, the Christmas Fayre of Bury attracted over 70,000 visitors in 3 days.

This scene probably looks better in my shot than in real life, thanks to high ISO I was able to squeeze out every bit of light coming from the cathedral. My lens could not find anything to focus on in the darkness, so I moved the focus point around until it found something. I could've done it manually but it was too cold I could not think straight. Pictured here is the St. Edmundsbury Cathedral (more info at http://www.stedscathedral.co.uk). 25 seconds @ F/9, ISO 320.

Not much of a shot, but I just wanted to show the front of the Abbey Gate and part of the Cathedral on the right. The Abbey Gate was built vastly out of scale with the gardens and modest cathedral of St. Edmundsbury. It was damaged during the rioting in 1327 but it was rebuilt later in the 14th century.

Part of the Abbey Ruins where I met the 2 security fellows. Hard to believe by looking at this image that it was actually dark when I took this shot with only a faint light in the sky. The ruins itself was not lit up, so I used a high ISO to get something out of it plus a a little exposure adjustment in post processing. 30 seconds @ f/9, +.05 EV, ISO 320.