Photoblog

Klagshamn is a lovely little harbor in the south of Sweden, not present in any touristic guide. 25 minutes by bus away from Hyllie Station. And one of the targets in our Swedish coastline scouting in a sunny Saturday of late November. The harbor is couple of kilometers away from the bus stop and we walked through the forest on a relaxing hiking path. People running, walking their dogs , all smiling and saying hello; and us willing to get on the coast, to search for some minimalist opportunities, involving or not the Øresund bridge. The bridge is a symbol for the south of Sweden and is visible from almost everywhere across the coastline, and an interesting composition balance element for a seascape. Just out of the harbor there are some industrial facilities, not used for many years. While in harbor, a bunch of colorful houses (or more huts if you want to accurately describe them) are surrounding the main water channel. A few boats anchored, very few people doing som...

We start the day in Eastbourne, again with traditional English food, served by the owner and his (maybe) Russian wife. Today we plan a trip to Beachy Head and Seven Sisters. Beachy Head is the highest chalk cliff in UK and a renewed place for suicides. There are two lighthouses there: one on the next hill,the older one, called Belle Tout, was built in 1834 but was moved recently to prevent being damaged by erosion.  The second one, a 43 m colossus was operational in 1902, being build to compensate for the lack of light given by Belle Tout in very foggy weather. Up there, its very windy, making impossible to keep the camera still on the tripod for a few minutes. We take couple of shots, mostly from a slope that is a bit protected from the wind and we head to Seven Sisters. Seven Sisters, now a natural park, consist of a series of chalk cliffs, having a very bright colour. They are used in movies as an alternative for the White Cliffs of Dover. We go up and down, on...

We started the day early in Torquay: another portion of bacon and eggs. Its 6:30 and its only us and some construction workers in the hotel restaurant. Its raining outside. Not heavy rain, but dense and depressing. Today we have planed to go to Teignmouth and we need to be there early to catch the high tide. The rain might make the trip a bit less fun. But lets hope it will be over in couple of hours or at least we can find a break in it. With our stomachs full, we take the train to Teignmouth. Due to some repair works, the train is not running directly, but a replacement bus is taken at Newton Abbot. So, instead of half an hour by train, the trip gets over an hour long. Thats how it is. We arrive in Teigmouth. It is still raining while we quickly head to the sea front. There is almost nobody there: very few people walking their dogs and couple of workers , doing some repairs around the pier. We mount the camera on a tripod, to shoot the pier. The rain is multiplied...

English Riviera has been crippled by the last February storms with an interruption of the rail, so that all the transportation in the area takes almost three times more then normal. This is the reason why our journey from Weston to Torquay was quite long. The hotel is pretty good, with no character but with all the comfort of a large chain as Premier Inn. Torquay does not really have a beach. At low tide, some portion of sand is uncovered but when sea gets bigger, everything is under water. I guy is making some interesting and very complex drawing on the sand; it dedicates it to someone called Carol who is in heavens now; probably a sad story behind all of these. After a quick lunch we take the train (and bus) to Dawlish Warren. Its cold and windy, with light rains at times. The beach is rather boring, with plenty of groins and nothing else. We would like to shoot those groins as the tide is growing but we figure out that we have no umbrella and there is some pouring rain, s...

We arrived in Somerset Thursday noon, after a long trip: from Copenhagen to Weston-super-mare through Heathrow airport, Paddington (from where Carmen enriched her toys collection with a Paddington bear) and Bristol. Somerset was described by the ancient Welsh Celts and the Saxons as the Land of the Summer People.  Weston, one of the main touristic attractions in the county, is a picturesque seaside resort, with a wide beach (extremely wide when the tide is low). And the tide was very low when we arrived, with the new pier laying on the sand. You could say that it was sunbathing, but…there was no sun. Some hundreds meters away, three boats were aground in the muddy sands. Our hotel is an old  and extremely small building, with just few rooms, located perfectly at the seafront; and nobody at the reception for many minutes, even if we rang. We waited and waited until somebody came to tell us to return after 14:00 for the checkin and let us store the luggage behind ...

The end of year wrap-up continues with part 2. Lots of images that are so close to my heart that it was so difficult to decide between them. July: Finally a good image with Bella Sky Hotel. Taken in May, in a day with some crazy clouds, it turned out pretty well after post-processing. I often left the hotel with frustration as not being able to capture it as I wanted, but this time, the weather and light really teamed up with the beautiful architecture to create an image that I like a lot. Bella Sky is one of the finest pieces of architecture in Denmark: the largest hotel in Scandinavia, offering 814 rooms and a mind puzzling modern design by my favourite architecture firm in Denmark: 3XN. At some point I was planning to make a series featuring this building, but now I have the impression that I already captured its soul, so not sure I will have the energy to work at 3-4 more images with Bella Sky hotel. But you can never know. August: In August we spent...