#fakenham

Photos on my 2022 landscape and other outdoors calendar: June-December

June: St. Andrew’s Church, Little Snoring in Norfolk taken in September 2020

A photo from one end of last summer on the month to start a summer usually, this is different to anything else on the calendar as it’s a landmark photo something its nice to include if I can. This was such a key memory yet something of a runaway key photo from that stunning Norfolk holiday one of my true highlights of 2020 which had its landscape and landmark moments a lot which a strong wildlife and birding holiday this church which we came to see so much in the charming village we stayed in and captured in that breathtaking hot sunshine and blue days which defined most of the week. I do like how the sun is used in this and how it came out. I am looking forward to seeing this photo printed and I thought its something quite different to include a church in a calendar for me.

July: View from Stockbridge Down in Hampshire taken in July 2020

The amount of photos meant I think less deliberation between photos and putting them through their paces to complete this project this time so for landscapes especially I did rather go looking through my photos for certain aspects. This photo may not have faired as well under my past levels scrutinising my photos but this shows an aspect of a British landscape in the spring and summer which I have come to really appreciate even more and more than I already did the past few years and cherish the rich, life supporting, healthy, important to the planet and so colourful wild meadows and lush vegetation. I think this is one of my best ever photos for showing that, showing also one of Hampshire’s most beautiful areas especially in spring and summer. The bits of the photo within the nature reserve Stockbridge Down looking so nice contrasting with maybe other bits of the landscape so I like how this came out. I feel this expresses the exact landscape I wanted to and the more I think of it I can’t wait to see this one on the calendar. It was taken in July 2020 a month as so easily can happen with butterflies we need to see there at that time when we visited Stockbridge Down on three of the Sundays that month taking so many pictures so it was good to represent that too.

August: Portland in Dorset taken in April 2021

It’s a testament to what a glorious sunny day and what a glorious sunny week that was that this photo looks so sunny I chose it for August. It’s a testament to that day and week too as one of four pictures from that week off making my wildlife and landscape 2022 calendars in a time when my line ups were more of less finalised forcing their way on and this was one of two that Monday with the Lodmoor Mute Swan on my wildlife calendar too. In truth I had one slot to fill on my landscape calendar at that point and I wanted to fill it with a landscape I had not yet covered, and a sheer cliff coastal one was one such category. This one was just such a breathtaking view and I just wanted to capture it. I had my big lens on before in the interest of wildlife on the walk and I sometimes am lazy and just take landscapes with my big lens but when I saw this scene it was such a stunning view and had some nice aspects to it that I had to get my general lens back on to do it. It’s the pure simplicity of seeing something I find beautiful and snapping it. But also I like how the sea was so incredibly blue, the direction sign adds a charm to the landscape, the sun kisses the observatory in the landscape and it screams the type of coast I must love and my favourite sort of area well. Going back to colours of the landscape thinking and that addictive spring time green is really there in the landscape in the vegetation. But so also is the blossom, I was desperate to get some blossom onto the calendar during my best ever spring for it this one and so many photos I’ve taken of it especially locally but I just couldn’t seem to fit any in so I gave one a day box taken just three days before this actually. But at the eleventh hour I did manage to find one that subtly snuck blossom in, two in fact as its in the Martin Down cover collage photo from my last post taken the end of that week. That week and that day I took an incredible number of photos and so many of those coastal. I had to compare this to lots of others to nab that place on the calendar and I felt it was stronger than them all including some the same day, one of my most memorable landscape pictures so far this year exactly what picking my calendars are all about so I was glad to get it on.

September: Stormy beach scene at Holkham in Norfolk taken during that September 2020 holiday

This holiday last year was to some extent a week of two weather halves with the hotter and sunnier weather replaced but not entirely unexpected going in late September stormy, windy and in places wet weather. I remember clearly being on the beach seeing maybe the darkest sky ever move closer and closer to the shore, I just could not resist snapping away and trying to capture this phenomenon really. I took so many over the beach area and I took one similar to this which had the added flair of some horse riders in shot but I felt this one worked better for the calendar. I don’t think I’ve ever photographed stormy and pre-rain weather like this, and I think it would be so hard to recreate ever being in the right place at the right time on that beautiful, flat, distinctive and characteristic Norfolk beach and the sun shining too. What an amazing time to be there and we luckily got back to the car just as the winds had blown in this storm. One of the absolute key days of my trip and most memorable moments with us doing a bit across Norfolk that day I feel such nostalgia and precious memories flooding back as I write this. I knew it was popular right from that week as the other very similar photo was one of the winners of a theme in one of the photography groups we are in that week, I thought it was one of my standout photos of the trip and year as it appeared in my landscape end of year photo tweets where I say these are four of my favourite pictures in a category to take that year. This photo is definitely that standout landscape from 2020 for me, one of my best landscapes ever to take I feel up there with my pictures of Hatchet Pond in the New Forest in 2013, Boscastle, Cornwall in 2014, Sky at Pennington in 2015, Bala Lake in Snowdonia, Wales in 2016, sunlight reedbed at RSPB Radipole Lakes in Dorset in 2017, the snowy highland vistas at Coignafearn and Loch Garten especially on our 2018 Scotland trip and also in Scotland colourful rock and blue sea at St. Abb’s Head during our 2019 Nortumberland week on a day trip all pictures which I can visualise instantly and stick in my mind so much.

October: Yellow autumn leaves at Lakeside taken in November 2020

Like blossom this year autumn leaves last year I had my best ever year for being out in the landscape every day and seeing the festival of colour come as the year shut down. This photo actually taken the same day as the sky one which is on May on this calendar as mentioned in my last post so what a day that was! I just had to get autumn leaves onto this calendar and I love the simplicity of this one with the bright yellow against the really bright blue of the sky this is what autumn is all about for me and I found this so beautiful and had to capture it. I have such a connection to these trees at Lakeside I usually marvel at them going red but they went yellow this year and through working at home I found out I can see these trees from my room I just looked at them now to see how they’re doing in spring so it was great to get these on.

November: Devil’s finger mushroom near Bolton’s Bench in the New Forest taken in November 2020

October and November 2020 are very well represented on my calendars for 2022 both were incredible months for me with so many smashing sunny pictures. This one wasn’t so sunny but secured a mushroom picture being on my calendar again which I always love to do if I can and I found it strong and memorable. It also has a good history for me as it appeared in the Hampshire Chronicle through me being a member of their camera club Facebook group something I’ve had happen a fair bit from last spring onwards with me putting a lot in the club and this is the only one so far I’ve then gone onto place on a calendar of mine. This was a mushroom I’d wanted to see for years and it was a true goal achieved in 2020 seeing this quirky and interesting mushroom. I was so happy when we saw it just before a second lockdown and it was a great chance for a macro image I’d never taken before in my best ever year of fungi on a quite charming walk in the amazing and so wild New Forest. This is an image showing off some great bright colour which really sticks in my mind.

December: Reflections at Lower Test, Hampshire taken in November 2020

Last but not least, this was one I instantly knew I wanted on the calendar, it was successful in my 2020 end of year posts too. What a way to mark such a gorgeous sunny winter’s day one that sticks in my mind so much for number of photos taken and what a pleasant walk starting in the morning it was. It was cloudy in the afternoon I believe so that worked out well and personally I have other happy memories of things that happened that day in my other interests too. I was so pleased with this one, these last three photos all representing my minority subjects photos I don’t think I’ve had so many on a calendar before but reflections, fungi and autumn leaves were subjects I photographed so much over the last year so I was pleased to get them all on. This is one of my best ever reflections photos I think but also one of my best ever photos I think I just like it so much and am really proud of this one and such a beautiful scene it is.

A Royal Recycling (part 199)

Pensthorpe Play Barn / Adam Khan Architects