We were spending a few days in Plymouth as a stopover prior to our visit to Cornwall.
Writing this blog has made me ponder why I may write about a holiday when my blog is about photography?
Well… it’s also about photography! While 95% of the images will be handheld and there may well be some ‘snaps’, I’m still trying to learn the art and I’ve always got an image in my head wherever I am.
To that extent, I hope the blog offers something, if not just the bizarre thoughts that run through my mind!
We’ve been to Plymouth twice before as Kathryn went to Uni here and so it has fond memories for her.
We were staying in ex Navy accommodation Royal William Yard which was very plush with modern refurbishment and facilities.
Day 1 – Plymouth Walkabout
Our first day, and first breakfast consumed, and we were off for a wander around the local area, and I was using my Z7 and a fisheye lens.
The Yard has many restaurants, bars and cafés and the dock was temporarily being used as one of the ferries to Mt Edgcumbe. This was very handy as we were planning a trip over there while here.
We walked towards Plymouth Hoe and if you’re here, you have to take a pic of the lighthouse – this wasn’t a scene particularly suited to a fisheye lens but that’s all I had so there you go.
Plymouth’s history in this area of the Hoe, and more specifically on the nearby bowling green with Sir Francis Drake can be referenced here.
In 1588, Drake was playing bowls on the Hoe when news broke of the impending invasion of the Spanish Armada. Drake is celebrated amongst other traits for his calm and cool temperament and on this occasion decided to finish his game of bowls before doing anything. However, it is likely he and colleagues knew that the tides were not favourable for launching ships and therefore why not finish one’s game of bowls first?
We then wandered around the war memorials which are very impressive.
The anchor on show belonged to the Ark Royal which was the ship Kathryn’s Dad was stationed on.
Sadly, Kathryn’s mum and dad are no longer with us but she has happy memories of them visited her when she was at Uni, and they also used to stay down here, and play bowls on the very green that Sir Francis Drake played.
We had a cup of tea in a nice café looking out to Drake’s Island, then we had a wander into town.
After milling around in the Drake’s Circus shopping centre, we popped into the Dolphin Hotel where I enjoyed a pint of Dartmoor Jail Ale.
Food was next at Cap’n Jaspers which is a burger bar on the Barbican Quay and was a regular haunt for Kathryn in her student days so offered some nostalgia.
I wouldn’t go to Cap’n Jaspers again (although I have been before) as I’m not convinced about the meat in my chilli burger, but it’s here where Kathryn’s vegetarian diet offers some benefits!
We had enjoyed our wander around and were ready to head back to our accommodation and we decided to hop on a Beryl.
An hour later and we were in the urgent treatment centre as Kathryn came off her bike!
She had tried to mount the kerb at the Hoe to get off road and onto the cycle path. However, trying to mount the chunky tyre and weight of an electric cycle at an angle didn’t work and she went flying off the bike and her face hit the concrete. It was quite a shock and there was a pool of blood.
As I dismounted my bike and checked on her, a very kind passer by (Jeff) stopped at provided first aid. While Jeff turned out to be a trained first aider and helped, I phoned an ambulance and after answering some questions, unsurprisingly, they were not going to attend due to Kathryn being thankfully conscious, alert and not dizzy, and it being a usual busy Saturday evening for emergency services.
Jeff and his wife kindly offered us a lift to the UTC as he said this would be a better option than A&E, which proved to be spot on.
We were very grateful to Jeff for stopping at the scene, helping us out and giving us a lift to UTC and I insisted on giving him my contact details so we could send a thank you at later date.
The UTC staff were great and Kathryn got checked over, firstly by a triage clinician then by another for more detailed tests, and thankfully was deemed OK.
We walked back to our accommodation where some paracetamol and rest was in order.
Day 2 – Mount Edgcumbe
We went to breakfast with Kathryn sporting her sunglasses to and from as her face was battered and bruised.
We had a wander around the Royal William Yard area before hopping on-board the ferry to Mt Edgcumbe. It’s £2.50 for a ticket (one-way) and the grounds and sights once there are free to enter.
I had taken off the fisheye lens and replaced it with my trusty 24-120 lens due to its flexibility.
We went for a walk through the grounds and woodland so I grabbed some shots as we wandered around. Although I’m in casual photography mode (smaller camera, handheld shots), it’s still useful and enjoyable to practice the art of composition and image making.
I’m leaning into Gill Moon’s recommendation to create groups of images to tell a story, which works quite well for a blog when you may not be grabbing epic single shots.
On the way to the woodland, we took a closer look at a folly, and on exiting the woodland, walked out to sit on a bench and enjoy the view of Plymouth Sound.
I spotted a nice shaped tree nearby so grabbed a shot of it, and due to a clear sky with no clouds have converted it to monochrome.
We made our way back and decided to visit the gardens, which are lovely.
I was intrigued by these trees and their apparent symmetrical positioning although when you look more closely, you can see differences.
We left the country park and decided to grab a drink in the Edgcumbe Arms pub right near the ferry point as they were advertising roast dinners.
We were in luck, the roast was on and we had one of the best, if not *the* best roast dinners ever! We’ve been mentioning it ever since, and in particular the dreamy melt-in-the-mouth crispy roast potatoes.
It was time to catch the ferry back
As we disembarked at Royal William Yard, I took this final shot of the day at the dock looking to catch the reflections of the boats in the water.
I had been thinking of a recent club presentation by Ruth Grindrod where she was talking about breaking free of the common landscape 3:2 aspect ratio, and try shooting 5:4 or 1:1.
This is to be more intentional with image capture at the time of shooting, and trying different aspect ratios in-camera is something I have started thinking about, and putting into practice. I have to say, I am rather enjoying it.
Day 3 – Wistman’s Wood
For our last day, and with reference to the Fotovue book, I suggested Wistman’s Wood.
It wasn’t too far away, would be a casual walk to get to the woods and this was a location I was sure I’ve seen many images from of gnarly trees.
About Wistman’s Wood
Wistman’s Wood is one of Britain’s last remaining ancient temperate rainforests and one of three remote high-altitude oakwoodson Dartmoor in Devon, England.
The first written document to mention Wistman’s Wood date to the 17th century, while more recent tree-ring studies show that individual trees could be many hundreds of years old.
The name derives from the Devonshire dialect word wisht, meaning ‘eerie, uncanny’ or, in some readings, ‘pixie-haunted.
The Walk
We parked in a small car park opposite a hotel and walked along the path and trail for about 20-30 minutes before reaching the wood.
I had a wander around following the instructions on the nearby sign to stick to main routes and not to trample over parts of the wood that had clearly not seen human feet.
The shapes of the ancient trees certainly looked familiar from the many YouTube videos I have watched of photographers visits and their images.
It was quite challenging as always with woodland locations.
As well as bright afternoon sunshine peering through gaps in the natural canopy, there was a fair bit of clutter, overlapping branches, lots of moss-laden rocks so I just walked around to start with, then took some sample shots.
I fired off a few with a polariser on but wasn’t convinced this was adding a great deal of benefit so took it off.
I did some shots in portrait orientation to emphasise leading lines of rocks to the trees.
Looking at the above image a little closer annd comparing it to the images in the collage, perhaps I should’ve left the polariser on?
As I wandered further into the wood and along near the back, I stopped to get ready for another shot and a bird was tweeting at me. It was close and as I looked to my left, I could see it literally just a few feet away. It was a chaffinch.
I started to adjust my camera settings in readiness to see if I could grab a shot, and smiling to myself that I could predict a common occurrence very shortly where I usually have just got ready to take a shot of a bird, and it flies off.
However, this time the bird was happy to pose for me – this shot isn’t going to win any competitions but it was a lovely experience while in the wood.
Next, I got what I think is my best shot, as I think the composition just works.
Trying to do some different things, I opened up that aperture and shot a close up of the moss on one of the rocks.
It’s a nothing shot, but it’s me trying different things, experimenting, seeing where that takes me, risks that being absolutely nowhere!
I could see a fence up ahead as I walked sideways along the back of the wood where another wooded area was visible.
From what I could see at distance, the trees in that adjacent wood were not as old, gnarly or as impressive as these trees, and with Kathryn patiently waiting for me outside the wood, it was time to head back.
I took one final image just outside the main woodland area of this tree as I liked the shape of it.
We walked back to the car having really enjoyed the walk and views of this awesome woodland location.
I could really see why it’s a magnet for photographers, especially in Autumn or Winter and with fog too.
This was out last trip out in our few days staying in Plymouth, and we would now pack our bags and move on to North Cornwall.
Onwards and upwards…