The other London- Stoke Newington

It’s a sunny morning in England, but it is still very cold. I’m going up to London today. Just a year ago this wouldn’t have been such pleasure for me, because I only knew the tourist London. Not that it is not pretty, but it’s just not the “real” London. Now I know some parts of the “real” London, I’m very excited about going there again. Somehow London seems to me like a series of many villages. The “village”, I’m going to today is called Stoke Newington. It is located in the North of London. Particularly noteworthy is the “Abney Park Cemetery”, a great cemetery. Not as well known and crowded as Highgate. A walk through “Clissold Park” is a must to if you go there. And afterwards I’m going to enjoy a burger at the “Daniel Defoe”. World class!

Anyone who has seen much of the tourist London should have a look around Stoke Newington. It’s arty, it’s classy. I love it!

Abney Park Chapel

Clissold Park

 

The Mud and the Mist

5 am. I’m sitting on the train to Lewes. Although it is cold and there is a drizzle, I decided to walk the next part of my South Downs Way adventure. Today it will take me on a walk of about 20 km from Lewes via Ditchling Beacon, the highest point of the South Downs Way in East Sussex, to Brighton. It is still pitch black outside. I’m in a good mood, but feel a bit nervous, as it is my first major walk after this long winter. Actually, the winter isn’t over yet. I hope the winds on the Downs won’t be too strong, so I will be able to take some good photographs.

5.47 am. One patch of the sky is really beautiful. All clouds, but with a soft, reddish light shining through them. The day might even turn out just fine.

6 am. Arrival at Lewes. My walk starts here. It is a bit of a struggle to find my way out of town, but once I pass the prison, I am out in the open countryside. The path is steadily leading uphill. In some parts the mud is so deep, it almost reaches my knees. I’m on my own. No one is around. Just me, the sheep and the views over a misty valley. There are still some tiny patches of snow along the way which shows that we are really having a harsh winter.

I reach Blackcap, a local nature reserve owned by the National Trust. The views from up here would be spectacular, if there wasn’t the thick mist lying over it. Still, it is quite impressive, somehow dream-like. This area is supposed to be full of wildlife. I read about Blue Tits and Common Chaffinches living in the thickets, grazing Exmoor Ponies and Roe Deer as well as Carrion Crows flying overhead. But, apart from a few rabbits, I don’t see any wildlife.

Time for a little break. I stop at a triangulation point, but the wind is too cold to sit down. So I just take a couple of photos and walk on.

Triangulation point at Blackcap

The mist is getting thicker. Crows are watching me as I make my way along windswept trees further uphill. Ditchling Beacon shouldn’t be too far away now.

What a change! My path is not going through the middle of a field full of bulls. They are fenced in and I walk along the other side of the fence. From this position they seem to be quite friendly animals, but every time I had to walk through a crowd of them before, it was a little bit, well to be honest, quite scary.

Some cyclists ride past me. They don’t get very far. The mud is just too deep and they are giving up, returning to where they came from.

The Sun is trying her best now, but the mist and the bitterly cold wind is preventing her from sending me some much needed warmth. Ditchling Beacon is in sight now. Just a few more minutes and I’m up there.

It’s a shame, that it is absolutely impossible to take a few good shots here. The wind is too strong and the view is not good either. Anyway, Ditchling Beacon is fabulous with a long history reaching back to the Bronze Age when there was a hill fort standing here which was still visible up to the 1940’s when ploughing destroyed it. Today Ditchling Beacon is managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust and grazing has been re-introduced to the area. This helped restoring and maintaining the chalk grassland which is one of the rarest habitats in Western Europe.

The wind is getting stronger and colder. I’m wearing gloves and a hat. It just doesn’t seem to be enough. This isn’t a good day for photography. It isn’t even a good day for walking. Still, the walk does me good and, whilst walking on, I’m planning my next walks.

I’m leaving the South Downs Way now. The Sussex Border Path will bring me down to Brighton. Accompanied by the sound of sucking mud I walk downhill and suddenly, I’m up for a surprise. What’s standing there in the middle of nowhere? It’s an Indian War Memorial.

The Chattri War Memorial is situated 150m above Brighton and can only be accessed by bridleway. Some Indian soldiers who fought for the British Empire in World War I were cremated here. It is an absolutely exciting place. Despite my frozen fingers I unpack my camera and take many photos of the place. Wow, now the long walk finally turns into a photo walk which it was intended to be in the first place.

The Chattri War Memorial

To avoid walking through the city, I take a path along the main road and get to Stanmer Park which is really nice with the little village of Stanmer located in it. From there I have to walk only a few minutes to get to Falmer Railway Station from where I take my train back to Hastings.

I walked for 7 ½ hours, almost without having a break. After processing the photos, I kept 22 of them. A couple will be up on my websites soon.

All in all I had a nice day although it was very cold. It made me hungry for more and I will continue my walk on the South Downs Way pretty soon.

 

Thanks for reading.

The Duellist

Oh God, it’s been ten days already since I wrote my last blog. It’s time to keep you up to date with what has happened. Well, I was very, very busy changing things around. In other words, I did a massive spring clean of my photos, galleries, websites and so on.

After buying the Topaz Labs Software Bundle I reprocessed many of my photos. This software is just fantastic and brings out that little extra of already excellent photos. Whilst doing that I reorganised my photo library, kept only the best of the best in there, aka the ones I work with in galleries. I also changed galleries from being location-based to subject-based (i.e. The Beach at Hastings is not in “England-Towns-Hastings” anymore, but simply in “Coastlines”).

The next step was to reorganise my website http://www.oliverkluwephotography.zenfolio.com. That meant deleting the old categories and most of the old photos, setting up new galleries and loading up the new photos. I also changed the look of the website so it stands out a bit more.

Next on the list was my profile at viewbug.com. Deleting and renewing. New albums, new photos. This was well worth it. I joined them in September 2012 and got 3 awards and 97 peer recognition before the change. Now, after the remake, I got 101 peer recognitions and 1 award in just a few days. Check it out yourself: http://www.viewbug.com/member/oliverkluwe

DeviantArt.com got recommended to me, so I opened up a gallery there, too. In just one week I got 437 favourites and followers. As it is free, it is well worth having a look at it: http://oliver-kluwe.deviantart.com/

Last not least I joined Pixoto.com. That is where the title of today’s post derives from. Pixoto is about duelling images. You always have the choice between 2 photos. The more duels a photo wins, the higher up it is in the rankings. There are daily, weekly and monthly awards in all categories and under certain circumstances there are cash prizes to be won every week. I think this website is great fun and I’m adding new photos there every day. By the way, I “earned” ten awards in the first two days. http://www.pixoto.com/oliver.kluwe

In between all this computer work I have been to London for a couple of days. I stayed in West Hampstead. On the first day I walked there from Charing Cross and took a few photos of Trafalgar Square and Regent’s Park on the way. The next morning I went up to Primrose Hill which is such a great location to take images of the London skyline. Unfortunately I had only my wide angle lens with me, so buildings seem to be a bit small. I’ll have to go there again!

What’s next?

I am working on the last of my galleries which is on artistwebsites.com / finaartamerica.com. I added ten categories so far and expect to finish the work by the end of the coming week. If you are interested, have a look: http://oliver-kluwe-photography.artistwebsites.com/galleries.html

Finally, I went for some location scouting this morning. On a 2-hour walk I found a waterfall, some flowers and some palm trees that might be worth taking photos of. When scouting, I only take my Galaxy III with me and take some snapshots. Back in the office, I have a proper look at them and decide, if the location is worth going back to and do a proper shooting.

And that’s exactly what I am going to do now before having some more duels at pixoto.com. Maybe I’ll have a “shoot-out” with you readers there one day, too.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Photo of the Day

Foggy London- taken from Primrose Hill.

 

 

Folkestone- not only the sky was dull

I’ve been to Folkestone for a few days last week with my girl-friend. We stayed at the Southcliff Hotel which had a great offer. The hotel was really nice, a bit old-fashioned furniture and worn down, but okay, especially for that price. The bathroom was very small though. Has anyone stayed there, too? What are your experiences?

The first late afternoon we went for a walk through town which seemed to be abandoned. Lots of shops were opened only from Thursday to Saturday. I guess it’s different in summer. The creative quarter is very nice with a narrow street going down to the harbor. It’s a shame that quite a few shops are empty. I reckon with the recession it’s everywhere like this now. We went for a drink to the “Pullman” which is an excellent pub. Open fire, nice furniture, an exotic beer garden, just perfect.

The next morning I went on a photo walk, but wasn’t very successful at all. The sky was very dull. I walked through the Lea Coastal Park, took a few shots, went along the seafront, passed the Gran Canary Hotel which is derelict beyond belief, before reaching the harbour which is surmounted by one of the ugliest hotels I have ever seen. The Grand Burstin. It was low tide and at least the fishing boats were quite interesting. After less than two hours I was back at our hotel. I took 72 shots altogether of which I deleted 58. I keep 13 for myself and only one goes for sale.

I really seem to be a moaner today which I’m honestly not, but the Greek meal in the evening was a bit disappointing. I had Souvlaki which wasn’t spiced and the fries were too crispy (not to say hard) and Frances’ potatoes were just microwaved.

What impressed me the next morning was the local Wetherspoons. It is located in an old church. Fantastic building and the drinks are so cheap. The East Kent Arms was fine, too. We had an early dinner at Papa’s Fish & Chips which was really good.

After checking-out on Saturday morning we didn’t feel like travelling home straight away. So we went for another couple of pints to Wetherspoons before getting on the train. Frances back to London and me back to Hastings. It will be interesting to see where yet another smart deal of booking.com will take us next. Can’t wait for it.

Thanks for reading.

 

Photo of the Day

Folkestone Harbour

 

Swop indoors against outdoors: I want out!

I am grateful that it is the last day of January today. A month of editing photos, tagging them, organising them in albums and experimenting with them lies behind me. The mostly dull month of January didn’t give me much of an opportunity to take new shoots. So I was confined to my PC working on editing as well as social networking. It is all fun, but hopefully the grey days are over soon and I can get out there again and do what I like most: Take photos of new and exciting places!

On my agenda this year are definitely visits to the Lake District and Snowdonia as well as revisiting Dorset. On my drive-through last year I was very impressed with Corfe Castle, the deserted village of Tyneham and the beautiful coastline at Lulworth Cove. I will camp with my girl-friend at the campsite at Burnbake which is highly recommended by her. I am looking very forward to that.

I’d also like to take her for a visit to Germany to show her some of the nicest parts. The trip is intended to enclose the beautiful Baltic Coast and the stunning mountain scenery in the Bavarian Alps. Of course, Neuschwanstein Castle is a must.

Until then it’s just planning and dreaming of far and not so far away places and waiting for spring time and the sun to come out and end this dull winter.

I WANT OUT!

Photos of the Day

The beautiful coastline at Lulworth Cove.

The fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein.

 

 

Dungeness- The power of nature vs nuclear power: A photowalk

Yesterday I’ve been to Dungeness, a headland on the Costa del Kent which is quite famous for a couple of things. On the good side, there is a nature reserve with great possibilities for bird-watching. On the bad side, there is a nuclear power plant. For a HDR photographer, which I like to call myself although I’m far from being a professional, Dungeness has to offer even more: Lots of derelict buildings and boats.

As a good environmentalist, or only because I can’t afford a car, I went there from Hastings by bus. It took me about 1 ½ hours with a change in Lydd. The bus driver dropped me off at the Pilot Inn, a local pub. The sheer size of the nuclear power plant was overwhelming the whole area. Well, at least at seven in the morning when it was still dark and the only lights around came from the NPP.

I started walking towards the NPP along a small road. There were only a few cottages accompanying me, one of them quite famous for its garden. The artist Derek Jarman arranged it with collected flotsam that was washed up nearby and also planted some endemic beach plants. Both are set in pebbles.

To the left of me, I saw the first derelict huts and boats on the wide shingle beach. I followed some rails that were probably used to transport the freshly-caught fish from the boats to the road. Now I was in my element shooting a couple of hundred of photos, always bracketed to 3 exposures. By this time it was of course daylight and the lights of the NPP had gone out. As the NPP was of some kind of interest with the lights on, I now lost all desire to take photos of it. I walked to the lighthouse, took a couple more shots and then went back to the bus stop. Just in time! There are only 4 buses a day.

Missing my connection in Lydd and having to wait for an hour for the next bus worked out in my favour, as the local church was open to the public and I was able to take another few good shots in there.

Back home I spent hours of processing in Photomatix Pro and Photoshop and I am really happy with the results. An overcast sky usually is quite a nightmare for photographers, but in this case, it just brought the right mood to the photos of the derelict boats and huts. And the nuclear power plant? Sod it! It is a shame that you can’t just erase it out of the frame like you can easily do it in Photoshop.

See the best photos at: http://oliverkluwephotography.zenfolio.com/kent

Photo of the Day

A derelict hut at the shingle beach of Dungeness.

The Big November Sweat

It was rather chilly when I left my house to go for a photo-walk this morning, but the sun was shining already on a clear blue sky. I decided to do something for my fitness as well as taking photos and so I went on the rather strenuous walk through Hastings Country Park. Up and down the cliffs for miles, but gorgeous views. First I had the low sun on my side and later on in my back, so it was almost ideal conditions for taking some great shots. I also wanted to experiment a bit.

After a while of going up and down the hills I realised that wearing a fleece and a light windbreaker were just too much. The sun was really warm and that on November 29^th. Of course, the walk did its bit as well to me sweating a lot.

At the end of the Country Park at the Fire Hills I had brilliant clear vistas over to Rye and further on to Dungeness. The only bad thing about this was that I saw the nuclear power plant there quite clearly, too. After enjoying the views I went into Fairlight Village with its amazing church which was thankfully open to the public. I took some more shots in there and then walked back the “straight” way to Hastings.

I will have hours of processing ahead of me now. Tonight, or maybe tomorrow.

Questions I asked myself today:

• Is Global warming taking effect more and more?
• When the hell do I get something to eat? I’m f…king starving.

Resolution of the day:

Go out there and shoot, shoot, shoot. Experiment and try not to get sun-burned at the end of November.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share.

Photo of the Day

Overlooking Hastings Old Town from the Country Park.