Tag Archives: hampshire

Farley Mount

I had noticed Farley Mount on a map when randomly looking at what is the area around Winchester but hadn’t planned a specific visit to it. Then, one afternoon, I was riding through the area and saw the sign to the car park. I wasn’t in any great hurry so decided to divert to take a look. There is a track that runs from the car park up to the structure and, since it was pretty quiet, I rode up there on my bike. The surface was rough, but my new bike has bigger tyres, and it seemed to be fine.

Apparently, the monument is to a horse that fell into a pit while out hunting but survived and went on to win a race. Seems like quite a strange thing to create such a large monument to but landowners have built far stranger things over the years (and still do), so why question it too much. The top of the structure is a pyramid shape. With plenty of trees growing up around it, it was a touch tricky getting an angle with the light that I liked but, since this was mid bike ride, I wasn’t working hard on the shot options. Time to get back on the road and continue home.

Reappearance of Something Long Gone

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I saw a post online about something coming to Lee on Solent near the Hovercraft Museum on a Saturday morning. A silhouette was posted which looked like it might have been Solent Express. This is a hovercraft that was built nearly twenty years ago and operated for a while on the Ryde-Southsea route with Hovertravel. It is a BHT130 and was found to be too large for the route and not commercially suited to the operation. In 2011 it was laid up pending an alternative operator being found. Since then, it has been stored at varying locations. I got photos of it when it was originally in operation and had wondered whether I might see it stored but hadn’t really pursued that idea.

Then, recently some images of it showed up on the pad at Ryde as it was being used for some testing and demonstration ahead of a potential sale to a new customer. The idea that it might be the subject of the Saturday event seemed pretty plausible. Sure enough, the announcement was made that it would come to the shore at Lee on Solent, everyone would be able to get a good look at it on the beach, then it would do a short demo on the water before heading off. I figured that this was definitely something I would like to do. Sure, I had a guest for the weekend, but they weren’t going to miss me for a few hours.

The weather was pretty ideal. The sun was out but the air temps weren’t very high. A bit of a breeze but nothing too serious. I wasn’t sure how busy it was going to be so got there in plenty of time to scope it out and find a location. I had plenty to work with. People gradually drifted in but there was never a completion for space. I decided to start out slightly up the bank near the slipway for the arrival. I would change later on.

While the hovercraft wasn’t due in until 10:15, it was visible for quite a while before. I saw it off in the distance heading in and thought it was going to be early, but they were busy doing some manoeuvring out in the Solent and weren’t coming ashore just yet. It wasn’t too long to wait, though. Soon they were heading for the beach. I was split in my mind about what I wanted to get. I love stills but the motion of a hovercraft really shows well in video. I decided video would be the main focus, but I would get as many stills as I could. Fortunately, unlike aircraft, hovercraft are not so fast that you can’t switch back and forth without creating a massive disconnect in the video timeline.

There was a large ridge in the shingle on the beach, but a hovercraft doesn’t have any issue transitioning such a discontinuity. They pulled up on to the beach and then settled down. A shorter time while they shut down and then the beach was back open to allow everyone to get a closer look. I think I am spending enough time on this post already, so I am going to split it into multiple parts. More to come.

Some Video of the Hovercraft

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I posted some shots of the Hovertravel operations previously and, at the end of that post, I mentioned that I had switched to video. Sometimes, when the lighting isn’t great, the photos can look a bit dull. However, video seems to work better in such conditions because the motion is more dominant than the colours. It also gives a better impression of what is happening. A still shot doesn’t easily convey that something is drifting sideways or turning tightly. Video gives you that.

The wind meant that the motion was pretty dynamic for the approach and departure from the terminal. Also, there were a few other vessels in the vicinity and that needed to be routed around adding a bit more interest. I realised that, while the conditions weren’t great, it was quite clear looking across to Ryde. With the 200-800mm on one body and a steady support on a post, I was able to video the departure from Ryde and the whole transit. The Wightlink catamaran did time it really badly crossing in front of me just as the hovercraft was rotating on the slipway but never mind. Since it was 4k footage, I was able to do a bit of stabilisation and zooming in when processing the footage afterwards. It would be nice to have had more natural sound, but the wind was so strong, the footage only has the sound of buffeting of the microphones. Here is the video I pulled together from all that I shot that day.

Someone Having a Fun Ride in a Spitfire

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I alluded to this post in a previous one. The Spitfire rides operating from Solent Airport take people up in a two seat Spitfire. I was down on the seafront at Lee on Solent when I heard the sound of a Merlin at power. I had almost every setting wrong on the camera but managed to switch to the right shutter speed and get the frame rate reset as it climbed out. This did take a bit of time and while the best top side view of it turning east were on display. Things were a bit more level but the time I got some shots off. Not idea but still okay. A while later, they returned from their trip, and we had a fly through along the runway alignment before they landed. I would like to plan better to be there in the future in a more planned way.

A Windy Day with the Hovercraft

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On a quiet Saturday morning, I had a desire to get down to the coast. There were a few photo ideas I had been thinking about and, with no competing things going on, I decided to head down. The downside to this was that the weather was not going to be great. Potential for some showers and definitely some strong winds in the forecast. This might thwart some plans, but the lack of sun might also mean some angles were less problematic from a backlighting point of view.

A trip to Portsmouth means it is unlikely I will miss out on some Hovercraft photography. High winds can mean that the hovercraft service gets suspended but, on this occasion, luck was on my side. Moreover, instead of the regular schedule, they seemed to be running a shuttle with the one hovercraft running back and forth almost constantly. This gave me more chance to get some material without waiting for too long.

Southsea seafront has been undergoing a major refurbishment, and it had reopened on this weekend. The beach had been inaccessible for a long time so now it was possible to get back close to the operations at the Hovertravel terminal. I started off getting a bunch of still shots. The tide was not too high when I got there but there was a bank of shingle on the approach to the slipway. This meant the hovercraft was climbing over this bank before getting on to the concrete. It made for an interesting motion although the skirt accommodated the different sections with relative ease.

Having got a few photos, I decided that I would switch to video for the next rotation. That video will get its own post in due course.

Didn’t Expect an Airvan

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I was down at Lee on Solent on a Saturday morning for a hovercraft encounter. It was a glorious day with lovely sunny conditions and not too much wind. The air temps were not high, but the sun made it feel great. I was pondering whether there could be anything interesting happening at the nearby Solent Airport but that wasn’t why I was there and I knew I had a visitor at home, so I wasn’t going to spend any more time self-indulgently than was already the plan.

There was regular traffic departing from the airport, but I wasn’t paying it much attention since the straight climb outs were some distance from me. Then I saw one turning in my direction. It was a GippsAero Airvan. I didn’t have the right settings on the camera so fumbled inelegantly to try and get things close to right and grabbed a few shots of it as it flew by. Looking at the shots later, it has markings associated with a Spitfire operator which will connect with a post to come.

Vacuum Mooring for a Ferry

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I had noticed the marks on the side of the Wightlink ferries at various times. I had thought it was just marks from the dockside when the ship rubbed up against it. However, when walking around Spice Island, I got a look across at the Gunwharf terminal and saw some odd panels alongside the dock. I zoomed in tight on these to see if I could read what was written on the side.

It turns out that these are a vacuum clamp arrangement which holds the ship when it is docked. I assume that this replaces the old process of looping ropes over posts on the docks. The location would explain the marks that I have seen on the ferries. I assume there is some degree of freedom in the connection arms to accommodate the motion of the ferry even while it is in harbour. Now I am going to have to try and see these in operation. Next time we take the ferry, I shall try and get a good look.

A Memorial to a Fellow Cyclist

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As we were driving towards Sparsholt, we came along a lane that I often cycle. At a junction, there was a white painted bike against a tree. It looked like a memorial, but we were in the car so there was nothing much to be done. However, it wasn’t too long before I rode back up this way on my bike. This time I was able to stop. The bike is a memorial to a cyclist that lost their life. There was a message with details of Dave Davenport. As a cyclist, I am very conscious of how vulnerable we are to the inattention of others with whom we share the road. This could be any of us.

Cattle Scratching an Itch

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It had been a while since I had last taken a walk around Barton Meadows and, with all of the things I had needed to do on a Sunday done, I didn’t want to just doze off on what was a lovely day. I thought a couple of miles around the nature reserve would be a good finish to the afternoon. I wasn’t going to go without the camera, though. There was some wildlife to be seen but most things were a bit distant. The cattle were in the field though. Some of them were up at the gate at the top of one of the fields and using it to scratch themselves. I find this very amusing for some reason so switched to video to capture them looking like they were really enjoying themselves. Not quite Baloo in Jungle Book but similar!

One More of the Scotsman

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I had spent a bit of time preparing to photograph the Flying Scotsman on a Saturday morning at the Watercress Line. Once done, I had gone home and picked up Nancy so we could head to an appointment that we had in Itchen Abbas. When we finished there, the plane was to head to Alresford for some other stuff. This was going to take us by the bridge in Bishop’s Sutton that goes over the track. I thought it was about the time that another of the Scotsman’s planned runs should take place. Consequently, we drove by that way.

There were plenty of people on the bridge when we got there so I parked and asked if it was due. Someone said five minutes, so I grabbed the cameras from the car. As I did so, I saw people lifting cameras to their eyes so zipped back. The train was already climbing the hill out of Alresford. The longer shots were not great because the heat haze was already showing itself, but they were okay. As it came up the cutting, it was making plenty of power. Then it was gone. We were back in the car and off to our destination and it had barely taken five minutes out of our day!