Well, Covid really messed up my international travel plans again earlier this year. I had to postpone a Costa Rica photography trip, a tiger safari in India (which was already postponed from last year) and my Namibia photo trip (now postponed three times!!). So, nowhere nearly as exotic as my usual posts, but here’s a selection of images from British day trips.
First of all we have the picturesque Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley in South Wales. The first photo is taken from the top and we walked right down to the river from there. It seemed much further coming back up!
Next we have the pretty market town of Wells, Somerset. The following photos are of Wells Cathedral, and although it’s only about 45 minutes away from me, I’d never been inside before. A lot of it is shrouded in scaffolding at the moment, so I didn’t photograph the whole building from the front.
There were some intriguing steps through an archway, so I just had to venture up them. I love how the stone is worn away with probably millions of footsteps over the years.
One room nearly at the top of the steps had a beautiful ceiling held up with a central column.
Cloisters. So full of character. I love them. And the light is always great for photography.
Vicar’s close is claimed to be the oldest purely residential street with original buildings surviving intact in Europe. It was completed in 1348.
Red Deer at Ashton Court in Bristol. We wanted to photograph the stags which we’d seen the week before, but didn’t have cameras with us then. Armed with long lenses we went back, but typically, they were nowhere to be seen. I’ve been to Ashton Court dozens of times as it’s only 30 minutes away, but never into the deer park itself. Why do we ignore things that are right on our doorstep?
Another day trip was to Stourhead in Wiltshire, run by the National Trust. I had to pull the car over when driving down this road, as the trees forming a tunnel over the road were just too good not to photograph.
Stourhead gardens in all their summer glory.
You’ll have realised by now that I love photographing interesting trees.
And here’s the classic shot of the lake that everyone has. Inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, this structure was built in 1753-54.
Below we have Lacock Abbey, also in Wiltshire. Fans of Harry Potter may recognise the room in the bottom right photo. It’s where Harry sat in front of the Mirror of Erised and saw himself with his parents. The village of Lacock is owned by the National Trust and is a firm favourite for film and TV producers, most notably for its picturesque streets and historic cottages, untouched by modern alterations. The village’s most famous appearances include ‘Downton Abbey’, the BBC’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Cranford’, and the films ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘Wolfman’.
There was a very old Landrover parked on the street, and I really liked the bird on its bonnet.
Finally, my hometown of Bristol. There was an art installation in Bristol Cathedral, called Museum of the Moon. Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally-lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface. It certainly had the ‘wow’ factor when you walked in.
And an even more famous artist stems from Bristol whose name I don’t even need to mention. His work is instantly recognisable and can be seen in various places around the city.
