Rainbow Journeyman’s diary

The Guardian (2 May 2007) publishes a list of the top 10 Coastal Walks in the UK, with the 6-miles circular walk from Hartland Quay to Hartland Point in Devon included in the top 10.

“Very fine rocky shores are the target on this wild stretch of coast, where vile weather can actually make the whole experience more romantic. The quay is a pretty little spot, with Hartland Abbey behind dating back to 1157 and noisy with peacocks. Then it’s all up and down along a three-mile switchback to the lighthouse at Hartland Point. The big grey lump out to sea is Lundy Island. You can wend back inland via Titchberry, Hartland village and other sources of cream-teas.”

for more info see southwestcoastpath.com

Looking back on last year, 2006, I found it easy to see where photography has taken us over South West Devon and Cornwall. So as part of the process of producing photographs that you seem to like, I tried to analyze where our cameras should take us this year.

In some ways we are spoiled for choice. As the heading says “The Road goes forever on!
In the North of Devon and Cornwall we have rugged cliffs, craggy coves, and some incredibly deserted beaches. In the South subtle differences; tighter bays, and more people.

I suppose one of the benefits of living in this most beautiful area is to have the playground to ourselves, once the tourists have gone, so to speak. And out of season we do.

To park a car; releasing the dogs from their temporary captivity, watching them do a lightning recce of the area. then walking down to a deserted beach is magic even if it is raining, it is exhilarating.
To see the same when the sun tinges the top of the steep cliffs with shades of purple before flooding the beach with its soft diffused light is pure magic. Then the bonus. To follow the seasonal ebb and flow of the tides, watching the magical effects on the sand as the sea sculpts it on a whim, is the cream on the cake. I call these sea effect shots, “sand sprites”..
Everything can be done by the sea, from full blown emotive sculpting to twirling nodules of sand; to placing a ripple effect across a sand bar that would have taken us hours, as humans, to perform. Even down to minuscule detail like grading the colour in the sand. And whilst we ar eon that subject.

A colleague of mine, recently down from the big smoke, London, spent a little time down at St Ives. He wasn’t staying with us at the time and was using the time-honoured method travelers use of lodging in B&Bs. On his way back home to the big smoke he dropped in for coffee and a chat. It would be less than honest to say that the topic of conversation did not get round to photography. It did.
In previous years when Mike has made his passing visit, he was convinced that every photograph that we had taken was being computer tweaked for effect. On this visit, he had been enlightened and his tune was different.
Let me explain. Over the winter months because of the Atlantic air, which as you know is very pure, we are blessed with days where, in reminiscence of my being at sea many years ago, we would say “look at that, you can see forever”. And you can!
Mike had just experienced one of these days down at St Ives. He commented to me “The effect was unbelievable, everything was so clear. Now I see what you mean about the light down here. No wonder there are so many painters pursuing their art in various studios dotted all round St Ives”.
Eureka! I would’ve cried. But in my new role of being the more serious studious type, my comments were more mundane, something on the lines of “Smirk, smirk, now you see it, now you don’t”. So……… I am sure you don’t need me to tell you that many of the pictures, in fact most of the pictures you see on our site, are first Prints. That is, not tweaked at all. Not none, no how!

Yesterday, I was at a meeting in Launceston. I won’t tell you what the locals call it as it is nearly impossible to put it into print. Even D’rectly, that lovely Devonian saying when they are not sure when a job should start, means possibly a year later that Manyana. Anyway as I was saying.
My meeting was with a very professional photographer and friend. The well recognised and locally known, Philip Glew. Phil’s speciality is Bridal Art. Some people take photographs at weddings. Phil’s work behind the lens, leaves the family and the happy couple in total bliss, reminiscing for ages over the wonder and splendor on how a camera can produce such beautiful picture. Anyway, again I digress. Where was I! Oh yes.
It was no surprise, the conversation got round to talking about cameras and photography. Just to fill you in on a little bit of the background detail involved with this, I have to tell you that four years of controversy between the “Professionals” has surrounded the method of storing pictures on your camera’s memory prior to bring it back to base for studio work. Some people prefer RAW photography. Others JPEG. So, what’s the difference I hear you say? Well, tis easy. Pictures captured in raw store a huge amount of detail about the picture you have just taken but do not use any specific colour setting, contrast, or white balance correction. Leaving it to the professionals to load it into Photoshop, or one of the other professional programs, to do the business of twiddling the knobs, making a photograph look like a photograph etc Bells, whistles and all.
No, no we said! If you understand your camera, and most of us who use them in the field try to. We would take time to set the camera up to take the photograph correctly in the first place. After all, short of there being a complete change of weather within a few hours of leaving base and arriving at the shoot. There should be no need to tweak the camera to make it do the things that the camera is supposed to do.
Now the purists will climb out of the woodwork at this remark and baffle you with arguments about lossy files and so on. My only comment. As often put by a good friend of mine when he knew I was wrong was “I’m sure you are right.” But if you doubt oh faint and feeble reader, look at the A0 pictures that we produce from our prints. They are mind blowing. You will catch your breath. You will, you will!! They are really stunning. (Trumpet blowing done by author)
So, to continue. Arriving on site, my only interest is what the subject is, and whether to use depth of field focusing, to enhance or deny the background.
And for those of you who are caught out there with the same dilemma. Our advice for what it’s worth. If, you are unsure whether you want to shoot in RAW or J PEG. Take a positive decision initially………… and do both. In all probability, and speaking from our experience, you will probably dump the RAW within short while. The least point of the argument is RAW settings chew up disk space. And, anyway, most cameras today will do bracketing for you. (That’s where the camera would take three photographs in rapid succession. One on the setting you’ve given it, one under, and one over.)
If that doesn’t give you a good result there is always E-Bay.

More soon. Be Happy!

Mike Tyrrell for Rainbow Journeys South West

Travelling as a Journeyman can be interesting. As I think I have mentioned before, you can meet some very entertaining people when you travel as much as we do.

Just like the guy with his English family who was on tour from the colonies, Australia. We met him on the beach at Trebarwith Strand. Good looking fella, little grey on the top but bright with it and charming to talk too. But Australian.

Now I am not knocking Australia. Or Australians. It was my cousin Greg from Australia who told me… “The maker (what ever your belief) made a beautiful land under the Southern Cross. He made it green, fertile and full of wealth; tremendous natural resources and a surfers coastline to live for. After the maker gave it its final touch to finish what was already perfection, he looked at it and thought to himself that it was too perfect.
So he took it away from the appointed gardian keepers, the aborigines, and gave it to the Australians. And they have been wrecking it ever since.”

Whoa now! Before you start digging trenches, I have family out there somewhere. After they got off the prison ships…..

As I was saying this rather distinguished Gentleman had come from the Aus to see his Grandchildren. (His words). We met on a tricky piece of shaped rock full of holes (See Trebarwith Strand) and water bridges that needed us to grasp hands to pass each other. Or go walk about on water.
We chose the friendly bit. Poppy, our dog, thought we were nuts. Her fours legs offered ample grip for the occasion.
Passing that close involves some niceties and with two cameras slung round my neck I either had to be a fellow tourist or an eeejiot. I think that he settled for the latter. Anyway we got chatting about England and Australia. As a time served Aussie he was very complimentary about our heritage. He was also very interested in our Journeyman’s Diary as he felt that too many people spent more time burning up tarmac with fast cars and too few got out into the remains of our Heritage to take a real look at what we have left. He and I had a common bond although we had never met before. His and my ancestors had graced the hold of a prison ship and been transported to the colonies for minor misdemeanors. Mine stole a chicken, his a sheep. The Judge at Bodmin Court thought a boat trip and a holiday would improve their health. Many died waiting in Prison Hulks.

Now to me, and my hard working office-bound team, that is what Journeymen are all about. Meeting with history. It’s not the dates to fill the history books, 1066 and all that. That’s for purists and bores at dinner parties. It’s the people behind the dates. The real people, who’s hard won ambition under terrible conditions was to raise a few kids, dig a plot of land, live under a non-leaking roof; have a few beers (If that is your tipple) and live a long life for life itself.

Few of these people who built these landscapes that we have photographed did all of that. Life expectancy was too short. The Judges sentences for minor demeanors too harsh. The prison boats too handy.

Now what’s he at…I can almost hear you say it! (Or as some Devonians say “Where’s he too”) OK, you have a point but let’s look at the photographs that we have taken. Let’s look at Morwhellan Quay for starters. It didn’t just happen.

Would you build a jetty and a boat yard on a river that can walk through your land whenever it chooses? I don’t think so. So why build a processing plant and dig a deep hole in the valley to pull out mineral ore where it floods all too often?
At a guess, and I have to say it’s pretty shrewd guess we come back to the profits for the mines and a reverse cargo for their boats; Lime. Neat isn’t it. Products extracted from ore go out, lime comes back in, and someone made a profit. But it was the skills of the Journeymen who put it together. The guys who were paid in scrip that could only be cashed in at the company shops.

So trade grows and you repair a few ships as well, when they get bent. Ship worms bore holes in boat planking, and bumping into nasty sharp pieces of rock do make bigger holes, as you are aware. And you don’t nip down to Plymouth to get the odd plank welded into position, that’s too far away. It’s at least a day’s journey, there and back by boat - if you look out for the tides and the wind, longer. But you as an owner, you are a smart cookie, you have the staff captive, you now run an MOT yard for all river boats. Repair your own, and invite others in. And, as you have got the skills from these voluntary captive workers living in your tied cottages benefitting from your little enterprises, you knock together the odd sea going vessels. Make a few barrels for other trades. Run a foundry. ………….. But who does all this? Who left all these wonderful works of architecture around for us to see?

Why, people of course, your people, my people. (Before the excise men got them to travel in chains voluntarily of course to Australia for finding a little extra food to feed their children). Or the judges hung them!

Oh, without doubt there was a Lord or Master at the top of the pile, away in the big city looking after the affairs of the estate. But don’t give him/her a thought they took their profits then. Take time in your thinking while you look at this site and think of the craft skills that were developed.

Look at the Great Overshot Water Wheel at Morwhellan. Look at the solid built boat sheds and the craft trade shops, each built for their own profession. Feel the steel of the over head railways, horse drawn wagons feeding ore to the boats bumping and nurdling on the slip way below. Look at the huge Lime Kilns. The remains of the boilers and the rusting hauling gear. The Rail tracks running to the Jetties from deep in the mines.

Twasn’t the Jack me lad in London’s work who supplied the skill or the brains. It was Travelling Journeymen and skilled local craftsmen wot did it. And left us a Superb Heritage to see. Our “Jack-me-lad” in London was to too busy developing his jaw muscles and gambling the profits.

So while you look at these pictures and of others in our gallery remember… It was people from our heritage that dug the holes and cut the poles that staved the barrel and climbed the mast to build what lasts. Your heritage.

Enjoy the pictures. We enjoyed taking them.

Mike Tyrrell for Rainbowjourneyman South West.
Oh and if you want a short cut to our site. Try rjsw.co.uk

Rainbow Journeymen are sometimes, when they are taking photographs that is, accosted by the public. Some of these strange people. Or should I say, some of these people are strangely misguided and under the opinion that taking photographs in a public place is against the privacy of individuals.
And to add to that, strange persons in public offices have poured fuel to that fire by telling the public that they must report to the police when they see a photographer in a public place. (Thank you Red Ken) What stuff and nonsense this is.
MP Austen Mitchell defends the freedom of the photographer and rightly so. We all know that there is the odd weirdy our there who’s intent is evil, but using an Armoured tank to remove a worm isn’t the answer. The damage caused by the tank tracks are far greater that the removal of this nematode. Would you really want to have fashion papers with no fashion. Devon Life magazines with no life. I think not.

Through camera clubs and working with professionals who take photographs for a living, I have seen many examples, good and bad, of what we as photographers are trying to achieve: quality images for public pleasure and appraisal! And sometimes…. if we are lucky, to achieve the high standards that we set ourselves. A picture that we can look back on and say in all honesty, I was proud of that one because….

Now if you also follow my trend of thoughts here, when most people go out they dress to be noticed. Isn’t that what fashion and putting on the style is about? My daughters, bless them, will tell you that it is. And, whilst we humbly strive to acheive the pictorial standards layed down over the years by National Geographical we need this colour in our lives. Indeed, where would we be without N.G.’s offerings along with hundreds of quality magazines that subscribe to ethical standards of images worth a second look!
We all hope for our futures to have pictures for our children and their children to look at….. and laugh at like drains over the style and fashion as she is worn today. I know we did over my mothers photgraphs of her youth.

So Journeymen don’t go out to be nosey. They don’t go out to pry. Their interest, and I have to say most of it doesn’t include people, is for the structure of architecture, the flora and fauna ( That’s flowers, trees and weeds to me and you!) and the way life is under the lens of a camera in these pressured times.

We want you to look at pictures of our beautiful South West. We cannot in words describe the incredible kick we still get in going over the top of a headland to see a harbour bathed in morning sunlight, boats lying on their sides with net unfurled in the sunshine tended by fisherfolk. (Sorry Hay fever sufferers and all those with Agrophobia.) Or to see a freshly mown field awash with colour as seen through a five bar gate on a lazy siummers evening. Absolute Magic.

And the people caught by our lenses here in the West Country? Most of them are honest down to earth, Cornwallies and Devonians, with no axe to grind. Honest fun loving humans with a caring need to make a living. And, anyway, we always ask, when they are working to repair a net or to tend a stacked kiln. (Just in case they are refugeess from an over zealous wife. I joke of course!!!) These are the real people, people who enjoy as much as we do the spririt of the West Country with all of the natural benefits we gain from living here. Not some pompous person hiding behind a badge of office who’s only knowledge of photography matches the sordid narrow minded stupidity of their minds.

So you see, or I think you do, the spirit of living in these areas of incredible beauty only lacks two values. Sound and smells. We wish we could bring you the sound of the estuary when we photograph. The call of the curlews and gulls as they patrol this feeding ground and the sticky essence of tide exposed mud flats. The interesting smells of the Fishing wharves and the banter of the fishermen as they cleverly weave the broken strands of their nets back in to working shape. Maybe, also, you can listen in your minds eye to the crack of the new ice on the inner Harbour at Padstow when we photographed there last winter.

In our West Country our People in their public places strive to bring you pleasure. Docton Mill, Hartland Abbey, Pencarrow, Helen Bridge Pottery. The incredible rock formation of Sandymouth Bay, ( And I shall probabley be slagged by my colleagues for not mentioning the rest) are just a few of the many many places that we have been priviledged to capture on camera.

Meanwhile as the mood takes me I will continue to add to these blogs. If you have been do keep reading.

The Road goes forever on…………….

The dilemma of degenerative ageing pixelation.
We are all aware, if we know anything about photography, that Digital Cameras have really advanced (rapidly) over the past two years. Oh, we would not argue that our early Fuji cameras were clever but at that time the pixilation was low. Like most of us we thought the picture quality looked good until we compared it with some of our early film exposures. Good, that is, until you started to enlarge it to A3 and above. It then looked like old news print! As we often say, hindsight is a great educator. We learned rapidly to change with the times: what was high definition then is, by today’s standard, low grade. And to give you, the discerning user, pictures that you can manipulate; that can be enlarged to poster size; you had to have high quality.
And, you’ve heard it here first, but know what I am going to say, quality also comes at a price.

All our latest cameras handle eight point two, megapixels and above. And our range of lenses to cope with our discoveries grows rapidly. (Expensively)

A racing driver friend (John) at Thruxton Race Track meet training session once said “Give me an engine that can produce four hundred bhp. But don’t give it to me until you have a power train that can deliver it to the track! (He had, minutes before, left a very greasy track, parking his Camarro sideways on and very neatly between a stack of tyres and bales of hay.)

The point I am making? To photograph something special is all very fine and charismatic, but, like the proverbal chocolate teapot, useless if we cannot turn a quality picture into a quality print!

Fortunately, for Rainbow Journeys, with the growth in the power of our cameras, we have seen a parallel in the quality of printers available. Our real concerns, that if you bought a print from us, you could not put it on your walls or into print, were unfounded. Almost daily we see exhibition standards produced on Home/Office printers. Power to the end user!!

Alongside this home/business process we have to offer you a service second to none. We needed, in house, to find a jobbing printer who would produce constant high qualilty work, if you decided that you did not want to do the work yourselves.
A printer that has the (Very,very, expensive) commercial equipment on hand, and will, on demand, produce superb large High Definition prints. A1 poster size, and by request larger. Someone whose dedication to perfection and quality on producing an end product is as high as our own when we are favoured to capture the perfect image. Re quote: To convert the power of our camera’s (Cammaros) engines to the track of the printed page.

Another (Universtiy of life) module of knowledge we had to learn: we did not understood the topography of some of the sites that we visited. As a result the coverage was poor. The light was in the wrong place and we spent too much time missing the best shots in the sheer entuhusiasm of being there. And, we certainly did not allow enough time at the right time of day to get the best shots. (It is easy to turn up on a shoot and to find that the sun is boiling away over head with x billion candle power; all shadows are vertical….and the depth perspective has gone out of the window.
And on other occasions the consequence of arriving on site unplanned was to shoot when we should have waited. Waited that is, for the ideal conditions as we did with out Sunsets. (You cannot hurry a sunset!)

But, as time goes by, we improve, and as we travel we learn. Now years later, our pictures are travelling the world and appearing in many prestigeous places. Our aim, after all, is that of a true Journeyman. To set a standard that others will want to follow. Again and again.

Finally some breaking news. We are also in the process of re designing our WEB site. We listen to our viewers and customers. They have told us; quality pictures are one thing, too many quality pictures are information overload. So, we have thought it through: laid down in the darkend room, and as they say in the best of Black Adder, “we have a cunning plan!” So watch this space.

Finally finally. Some of our recent shoots are still in the process of waiting to be launched. We will be releasing these later once we have restructured the site itself. There are some superbly interesting pictures in this “future” stock. But as we keep saying, the Road goes forever on and we are planning a lot more Journeys to come. And whilst we are in this area perhaps you also have a favourite site that you feel we should give time and effort to and visit.

If you can find the time, add it to the blog, and we will look at your proposal as favourably as possible.

And if you have been, Thank you for reading this.

Mike Tyrrell for Rainbowjourneyman-Southwest.

We talked about it often enough. Got lost trying to find it. But when you do find it it is worth the effort. Hartland! Beautiful rural farming area with lots of lovely people who tell you what road to take when you didn’t find the one that the previous farmer told you about! Very patient too!

Hartland is not one area, it is a peninsula of land that wraps itself round the North corner of Devon before it wanders off to become Clovelly. There are many small bays linked together by a very spectacular display of rocky protrusions. On a clear day you can see the island of Lundy.
These rocks have been known to bite into the softer steel of ships. Those ships who were unfortunate to lose their way round this Nothern corner of Devon causing the Captains to cease to navigate sucessfully and to leave the ship were it was parked.
To avoid this problem becoming a regular occurance a Lighthouse was erected by Trinity House on the pointy piece of land that stuck out into the sea to show the way round this annoying hazard. The coast line is well worth a visit and the bacon baguettes on the headland, served from a small mobile catering unit (just under the ship to shore Radar dome) are scrummy.

Travel from there after you have had you fill down the road to Hartland Abbey. This Abbey was built around the twelth century and was consecrated by Bishop Bartholemew of Exeter in A.D. 1160 as a monastery, to the order of St. Augustine of Hippo (Serious!) to serve St. Nectan’s Church, Stoke, which is the parish church of Hartland. The Abbey and Garden area, is a site of special interest and worth spening a day just browsing. It really captured the minds and souls of our Rainbow Journeyman who ran out of superlatives in their efforts to pass all the information he had gleaned to us. As part of a team they spent a day exploring the whole area from the Abbey to wonderful stone and rock formations that have captured the minds of poets and writers for many years.
The Abbey has regal presence and as you can see from the images that we captured has stood the test of time standing as it does facing towards the might of the Atlantic, who’s seas have destroyed many man-made edifices.

It doesn’t stop there. If you put your back to the Abbey and walk towards the Atlantic you will arrive at a Beach and Headland that is incredible. The pebbles on the beach take a little manipulation to reach the sea but the effort is worth it. Abseilers use part of the vertical face of the local cliffs to test their skills.

The Road goes forever on.

Camera used Canon 20D and 200mm Telephoto lens

If you remember in one of my previous blogs as a Rainbow Journeyman, I talked about the Hartland peninsula. In passing, I implied the roads go everywhere, except where you think that they should. But in the end you will get there.
Well, if you don’t find Docton Mill at the first glance don’t panic, it’s in that same patch of roads that go everywhere, but well worth finding. When you do!
As you can see from the images that our Journeyman captured, it is a working Mill, with an overshot cascade. The leats and water channels lead everywhere and add to the tranqulity and beauty of the incredible cameoed gardens that are a Garden lover’s life blood.
Round the front of the building, by the tea room, is the door of the engine house that houses the workings and the power train of the Water Mill.
Through a small window you can see the inside surface of the wheel. Peeping inside is an engineer’s dream. Huge wooden cogs on oiled bearings rotate slowly but with immense power. A pair of labradors’ baskets tells tale that this is a home as well as a place to visit.
The Mill dates roughly from the time of the Battle of Hastings. It was one of the last local mills to finish turning grain into flour supplying one of the local bakeries that still trades. Restoration is an ongoing process.

Crossing the road away from the main garden area lets you follow the path of the river back through the woods to the source of the leat that feeds the Mill.

Camera used Canon 350D

The Road goes forever on.

Deeply moody ever changing. Strikingly beautiful. These are a few of the superlatives we gleaned from our Journeyman’s notes. Oh, and his shoes leaked water. (We must see if we can find him another pair in Oxfam Relief or Help the Aged.)
(see more images of Tamar Lakes)
A cloudy day becomes a series of inspiring pictures when water is added. These reflections add deep broody moods with glimpses of ethereal light breaking through the cloud base, just enough to let you see the beauty of these digital images.

These lakes straddle the borders between Devon and Cornwall. Wildfowl throughout the year use these watery tracks as transit stages on their journeys too and from everywhere.
(see more images of Tamar Lakes)

The Road goes forever on…………

Camera used Canon Pro 1

Keywords: Devon,Cornwall,Lake,Tamar,River,Valley

Hatherleigh was a must on our list of our sites to be visited. It had suffered so much during the scourge of the dreaded Foot and Mouth that left its scar across Devon and Cornwall. Dividing friends and neighbours.
(more images of Hatherleigh)
Its one main street ambles peacefully through the core of this quaint Devon Village, past pub and village shop. There the road vivides. To the left the village pump has been left open as the village water source. Always flowing never ceasing. A stanzer that epitomises the history and past of this Market Village. Its stoic band of locals, including a notable town crier, and the previous Mayor Dennis, who’s constant efforts kept this tiny village in good heart, survived this episode then erected in the town square and by the lower car parks statues to the memory. (See Famers and Sheep. And the Bulls Heads)

Our Journeyman faithfully recorded these pictures capturing the essense of the village for you to see. Bringing together a taste of old and new for your pleasure.

The Road goes forever on…………..
(more images of Hatherleigh)

Camera Used Canon 350D

Dartmoor is an enigma of age and traceability. In the 17th Century it had two main prime purposes. A retreat for Landed Gentry to pursue their sport…… and the Prison. To view the pictures that our Journeyman has captured in this photographic shoot you have to understand a little of this history that surrounds this area - see Dartmoor photos

You have to take your emotions and feelings back several hundred years to a time when Dartmoor meant protection for the wealthy and incarceration for the prisoners.

As convicts?: Misfortunate men who were a cheap source of ready labour used in working teams for the semi manual extraction of vast quantities of building rock. Used in many public buildings to build Grand Porticos and arches.

Unwittingly ( And I am sure that they did not realise or care as they toiled their term) they created beauty. And that remains today for our journeyman to discover.

A series of hidden lakes, housed in the cleaves of a valleys, dug by the continuous removal of granite. A miniature canyon of tall cliffs hiding this enchanting scene. And if you care to view the pictures of the ruins carefully you can see the remains of the holding cells that were used by the guards when foul weather caused a cessation of the days labour.

These captured enclosed lakes have over the years matured. Rain and sunshine have added flora and fauna. Lichens glaze the rocks with velvet green. Sheep have added… well sheep droppings and the harshness has mellowed.

The vastness and emptiness of this moorland albeit close to Tavistock is emphasised by the huge thunderheads that can climb to darken the landscape followed by wind driven rain. Bleakness with beauty. Pictures for memories. And where better to view them..Dartmoor! - see Dartmoor photos

The cameras used were a Canon 20D and a Canon Pro1.

The road goes forever on….