Random Dorset #5

And as you can see, I’ve not exactly followed my own style guide for those (although in my defence, at least one or two of those posts predate that style guide). But I have digressed far earlier than usual from what this post is about to waffle on about things that I put far too much thought into. In fact, can we even say I’ve digressed if I never actually started on the right subject in the first place? Now that is definitely a digression. Anyway, what’s important is that I’ve definitely reached the ‘give up and just number things’ stage. If I were to start caring about SEO and other such silliness to bring more views to this website I might regret that.

I’ve been to Dorset a bunch, as you can probably tell. Some trips are big enough to get their own post; the posts above are from 2011, 2016, 2021 and 2023 respectively. This post brings us images from a trip in 2024. Although we stayed in the same flat that we’ve been using since we first came here with our child in 2021, this time we decided to stay for two weeks, allowing for a bit more relaxed of a holiday. Being two years ago, you’ll have to forgive my hazy memory of when we went where.

Our first day out, which was a bit of a soggy one, was out to Weymouth. I didn’t get too many pictures out there, being the first day and all, but I did get a couple of the bridge raised.

From this spot you also get a nice view of the quayside buildings across the river.

With a two week holiday, I settled into a nice routine. Most mornings I’d go for a walk, bringing my camera along just in case a scene took me. Many mornings I didn’t snap any photos, I just took in some fresh sea air and cleansed my soul. Sometimes, though, the morning light was irresistible.

I got a little creative on this wander, and went to the tip of Peveril Point to shoot a panorama.

It’s a little distorted on the tip of the point on the left of shot, but I’m pleased with how this came out. You can see the whole bay, from Peveril Point on the left to Old Harry Rocks on the right.

On a few occasions, I sat myself by the waterside and just listened to the water lapping at the rocks.

By the boatyard are a couple of jetties which make for a nice foreground element when photographing the water.

I also took some long exposures. Now, most of the time these days, when I’m looking to do a long exposure in daylight, I don’t bother using my big camera, not least because I’m rarely in possession of a tripod and a neutral density filter to make the shot work. Instead, I use a fantastic app on my phone called Spectre, which lets me do long exposures of up to 30 seconds, and does so really well.

Not every day was as nice as this one. As is always the risk on a British summer holiday, we did have a few patches of rain. No matter – the flat we stayed in has a big seafront bay window for watching the rain (and with double the amount of days there was less stress losing one to the rain). Plus, when the rain clears up and the sun comes out, you get a lovely rainbow across the bay.

It also helped make for some dramatic images.

I took many walks along Peveril Point. Sometimes I was able to see the lifeboat in her boathouse, although you can’t exactly get the best view when she’s housed.

The view looking down the slipway is pretty cool – this is a shot I originally got with my phone a couple of years previously, so this time out I made sure to capture it with my Big Camera.

And sometimes the fishing boats were moored up.

I took quite a few random walks, sometimes in the drizzle. It was great to not feel pressured into doing lots in a short week. On one such walk I visited the Banjo Pier, one of the landmarks in the town where I remember a time before it existed.

On the pier, I came across this bench on the Banjo Pier. I loved its colour, and the dedication, and the detail of the water droplets on the plaque.

This was a bit of a stormy day, which is always nice to photograph.

Something else that was built during the period I’ve been holidaying is the sewage treatment plant just up the hill from the pier. This used to be a raised car park, and when I was little my dad and I would walk into town for the morning paper under it. Now it’s far more pleasant to look at, and you can still walk on footpaths over the site from Peveril Point into the town. There are, however, a few access doors which are big, almost monolithic metal things hidden by foliage that, nonetheless, people have found a daubed with graffiti.

This door had some quite fitting graffiti on it, for a sewage treatment plant.

On one day we took an open top bus trip from Swanage to Bournemouth, something else I did when I visited as a child. On this occasion, it meant that for once I could go on a Dorset road trip where I could look at the views (especially from a bit higher up on the top deck). To mark the occasion I took a fair few photos, often with the bus itself as part of the frame.

This route takes us across the Studland Toll Ferry, which used to be a sign that we were almost there when making the trip to Swanage as a kid.

It’s quite cool to be up there on the top desk of an open top bus, as you can just about see over the sides of the ferry to see some of the activity on the water, which – as the entrance to one of the largest natural harbours in the world – is often quite busy. Despite there being an oil well hidden away somewhere near the harbour, it was still a bit odd to see a petrol tanker sitting on what was essentially a raft making its way across the water.

This ferry has been in service for many years, although I do still vaguely remember the older ferry. But it means these gates are very familiar to me.

As we approached the other shore, we got closer to a few other things too.

After spending some time in Bournemouth, we were on our way back again, waiting on that same bank for the ferry to depart.

One of the things I like about staying in the flat we do in Swanage is we’re in amongst everything –&nb sp;so when it becomes apparent that a golden evening sunset is in the offing, you can quickly jump out with your camera to grab it. The quirk of Swanage is that the bay faces east, so the sun sets behind the beach. It does mean the seafront is backlit by golden light as the sun sets.

On the flipside, you can go out early on a sunny morning to take photographs of the golden tranquility.

And of course, I took another iPhone long exposure.

This little sailboat caught me eye, as there was a man living on it.

On this particular morning I took another wander up towards Peveril Point. I gravitate there a lot. It’s where we used to stay on family holidays when I was a child, so it’s my favourite part of the town – and it is very peaceful early on a sunny morning.

For a bit of a non-sequitur shot, at some random point later on that day I saw a lovely weathered wheelbarrow leaning up against the door of a very old building.

During a visit to the lifeboat station, I got chatting to one of the volunteers there, and in so doing had discovered that the lifeboat did a weekly evening training launch. Although we’d missed the one in the first week, we had plenty of notice for the second one, so we made our way down to the station to see the launch happen. It turned out to be a great evening for it, the sun was getting low in the sky and the light was turning a golden hue as we waited for the launch.

A few people just so happened to be fishing off one of the jetties.

I ended up using that jetty to shoot the launch. It was the perfect spot – it took you out into the water in front of the lifeboat slipway, and it meant the sun was behind you, perfectly illuminating both boats (as the inshore lifeboat was launching too).

Before long the all-weather lifeboat was sliding down the slipway into the sea.

The inshore lifeboat did some local manoeuvres whilst the all-weather lifeboat headed for the horizon.

Late one evening, I decided that it would be nice to wander out into town after the sun had set to get a few night shots. Now, I’m not that practised in night shots, especially back then, and I was shooting handheld, but the results weren’t too bad. My first shot made an attempt at capturing the Moon, despite knowing that the exposures would never match.

Not far from this spot there is a fun park atop a hill. A medium-sized animatronic spinosaurus overlooks the bay. It looked pretty cool silhouetted against the fading sky.

I took a shot down the promenade too, with a few people. I took two versions – the one below at a relatively normal aperture of f/4, and another at f/16 to get a star effect on the lights. Personally I prefer the version here, but the other one is in the gallery below.

This next one is a HDR exposure of the bar under the Molem. The lighting is what caught my eye.

As I headed back to the flat, feeling a little exposed and self conscious, I did take a slightly longer exposure of the quayside. I believe I just used the railing for support here.

On what was one of our last days, we took a stroll along the pier. This next shot is one I’ve done with my phone on several occasions, but it’s always good to get a big camera version.

Although I did get a long exposure with my phone too.

Whilst we were there a passenger boat turned up.

Given we were surrounded by water, I think most of the photos I took from the pier I took with my phone and the Spectre app.

And that, such is the way of these compendium posts, was that for the photos taken on this holiday.

I’ve spoken before about my affection for Dorset, and specifically Swanage. In Even More Dorset I touched briefly on this, and the deep emotional connection I have with the place. A lot of that comes from the fact that I holidayed there for 1-2 weeks a year for pretty much every year of my childhood, so there is some inevitable connection to the area at least partly fuelled by nostalgia. But in many ways it runs deeper than that. Much of my formative experiences are connected to the place. It was whilst we were staying there I saw Jurassic Park for the first time. I have fossils I found on the beach at Charmouth on display at home. I still have toys won in the arcades there. It was the main places I took photographs as a child, with a little point-and-shoot Pentax and a 36 exposure roll of film that had to last me the whole holiday. It’s one of the few times we properly connected with nature in my childhood. It’s apparent that my love of photography, country walks, dinosaurs and steam trains have a strong connection to Swanage and Dorset. It’s continued into adulthood too. I still make sure to visit Dorset, even fleetingly, once a year. My dad’s ashes were scattered there, and on the pier there is a plaque in his memory which I make sure to visit at least once a year. And so inevitably we also chose Swanage as the site for our first family holiday, hoping that my child forms the same attachment to the place as I have. It’s clear, then, that it’s very difficult to tell if my love for Swanage is based on a love for the place as it is now, or if it’s partly me chasing the embers of my childhood. This is hardly the time or the place for that level of psychoanalysis. But to be fair, it has all I look for in a holiday location – which is why we would return here again in 2025. But you’re going to have to wait for that set of images.

It was also whilst I was on this trip I decided to buy myself a new telephoto lens. I had originally hoped to get it delivered to me there but it proved to be impossible, and so it would be another year before I could get out with my nice big telephoto to take some pictures. By that time I also had a drone. (Foreshadowing.)

As ever, there are some extra shots and takes in the gallery below.