We had a fantastic long weekend in Suffolk to celebrate my Wife Kathryn’s birthday.
She had booked a hotel earlier in the year for an event and hadn’t been able to go and managed to re-arrange the hotel dates so that we could visit the area for her birthday.
We last visited for a stay in Suffolk post Covid lockdown one and just before lockdown two. This time round we’d have a day longer than that visit and had a list of places to visit with Flatford and Pin Mill being the target locations for our first full day.
Flatford is a small hamlet close to East Bergholt in Suffolk. It is most famous for Flatford Mill, Willy Lott’s Cottage and Bridge Cottage, immortalised in the paintings of John Constable.
By my poor navigating skills, we ended up at the Mill end parking in the National Trust car park rather than the car park the other side of Flatford. As it turned out, this was to be a fine choice.
As further evidence of my poor geography skills (following this being my worst subject at school), Kathryn tells me that nearby Dedham (which I had referenced in my online posting of many of these photos) is actually in Essex not Suffolk! See map below:
As we arrived here in the middle of the day, and the sun was out and the sky bright, I had decided to walk about this location with my Fuji and have some fun shooting with just that.
The first scene as you walk out on the meadow from the bridge is a lovely tree and I was very pleased with this shot.
The weather was surprisingly warm and sunny for late October, and we were having lots of fun wandering around with our camera looking for good captures.
I took the image below of the tree because I liked it’s fanned out shape and the texture on the bark.
I took this next shot deliberately looking to slow down the shutter speed and achieve some blur. The colours looked so complimentary, it seemed a good idea at the time.
Next up we’re the famous three trees which are one of the most regularly photographed trees in Suffolk if not the region.
The iconic status of these trees has diminished a little since recent storms have led to the tree on the left (as we look at it) has been knocked forward disrupting the symmetry that used to exist across the trio.
I had to take some shots here but it was very difficult due to the bright sky, and as I was just shooting a little more casually, I wasn’t chimping so I came home with a reasonable shot but with a blown out sky. It’s the main reason I’ve converted it to black and white.
I did another shot a little further up but unsure if I like it or not.
Walking a little further up alongside the river, Kathryn pointed out a really good composition looking back at the trees. I have to say, I really love this shot.
We decided to head back to the Mill for tea and cake. On the way back, we had to navigate through some cows which were wandering from the meadow over to the river bank to get a drink.
As we enjoyed a fabulous pot of tea and the most superb Victoria sponge cake, I had to take this shot on my phone as a souvenir of a very enjoyable few hours.
Same day, we were heading for Pin Mill next.
Onwards and upwards…