Saturday night at Camber sands- in which I venture into the darkness all alone.

Saturday night in Camber sands.

OH (other half)  watching utter drivel on TV. 

Dr Who is teaching some rather weedy Vikings how to fight off intergalactic warriors. Vikings are wearing horned helmets. OH loves to inform me on a regular basis that Vikings never wore horned helmets back in the day when Vikings lived and marauded. 

What do do when internet free and unable to play with my iPad. OH is convinced that I am addicted to my iPad. I am convinced that he is addicted to many things...... TV drivel for one.

I have read the paper, cooked a meal and now I am in need of some action.

Time to go outside with my camera and see what I can find in the dark.

It is very quiet. I can honestly say I didn’t encounter another human during my hour outdoors in the dark. I am not a brave person, and the dark was a test. On the beach there is no moonlight  to lighten the sky. I resort to shuffling my feet tentatively on the sand.

Without a tripod, for I am lazy that way,  I decide to see what I can achieve in the Camber night. I ramp the ISO up to 8000 and later to 16,000, then 32,000 as it gets darker and darker. I explore the bushes, the street and the beach.  No matter if none of them are worthy of space on my hard disk.

It kept me amused, and iPad free.

So here are a few to share with you.

First the bushes.

wind in the trees

verge

Then the street

the telephone kiosk, camber sands

full english. cheap at the price

sleeping prohibited

Then the carpark

self portrait of the artist at night

the toilets, camber car park

the car park union jack

The beach

lights at sea, camber sands

beach houses, camber sands

And finally the telephone box, receiver hanging ......

All a bit grainy and a bit blurred, but you get the picture.
 

travels without a tripod

waiting for the tourists; Yosemite in November

I am in the land of big scenery.

Magnificent in every way……….in November, when it could be snowbound
but is not. There is snow on the high ground, but not on the roads.

Which is lucky really, because if there was snow we would have had to hire snow chains to enter the park or the rangers wouldn't have let us in. And the car hire company wouldn't have let us use the snow chains if we had needed to…………. which created a bit of a dilemma, which has been resolved by the absence of snow. Crisis over.

The sun has shone relentlessly since our arrival, making landscape photography challenging, unless you want the sort of picture postcard views that would grace a calendar in a tourist shop. Which I do not, but am ending up with just because the sky is blue.

blue skies and sequoia trees

I left my tripod behind as this is  a family holiday, not a photography workshop or tour. Just me and my other half, cruising around in a shiny red hire car, no snow chains allowed.

The sun sets behind the mountains very early in Yosemite valley, surrounded as it is by towering rocks, so artfully captured by Ansel Adams and many more since. By 4pm it is pretty dark, and without a tripod I couldn't get away with less than 640 iso, really not done if you are a proper landscape photographer . Could I get away with it?

No. Not really. The are grainy and the colours are weird.

So I just have to accept that I have come home with images that are good enough as a reminder of my trip, but not special.

Good enough for a small book that serves as a holiday photo album. But not much else.

Life is full of compromise. Which is a small price to pay when spending time in one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world.

autumn in Yosemite valley

more autumn in Yosemite

thicket

and the inevitable grass picture from down by the river behind Yosemite Lodge