Today the Bromley Camera Club went on their Autumn Walk.
This year, we started from the National Trust car park at Ightham Mote, which is a 13th Century moated manor house. The house wasn't open today, but as we were only using the car park as a starting point for a walk, that didn't matter to us, and was possibly actually an advantage, as there was more room in it for walkers to leave their cars.
(For those of you who don't live in Kent, Ightham is pronounced "item"!)
From Ightham Mote, we walked along footpaths to Plaxtol, where we had a look inside the church. It was quite a small plain church with few stained glass windows. It had an interesting beamed ceiling though.
From the church, we progressed to the pub, where we had an enjoyable lunch. We managed to arrive there before the other party of walkers they were expecting, which meant that our lunch orders came through promptly. By 1pm, the pub was much busier, and service could well have been slower.
After lunch, we walked some more, until we came to Shipbourne. (That's pronounced "shib'n"!!!) We had afternoon tea at a pub there, and then went into the church next door. It had a mosaic tiled floor, tiled walls to window height, and then frescoes. The ceiling was wooden.
The footpath continued from the back of the church and eventually brought us back to Ightham Mote, going past the manor house.
I had two cameras loaded with film: my modern Pentax MZ-M which had a roll of 200ASA colour print film in it; and my recently repaired Pentax MX which had a roll of 400ASA C41 process black and white print film in it. (This can be processed in the same chemicals as are used for developing colour films.) My most recent photography purchase was a set of filters for black and white, and I was dying to try them out and ended up shooting three times as much b&w as I did colour. I think that if I've got any really good pictures that they have come out of the b&w camera. Although the weather was wonderful for October: sun and blue sky and very little wind, the footpaths didn't take us through places that really lent themselves to colour photography, but with one of my new b&w filters in place, what I saw through the viewfinder looked much more interesting, and I'm hopeful that I may have a couple of winners among what I took in b&w.
Neither Stephen nor I make a habit of going on a walk which starts at 10am and doesn't finish until 4pm, even if it does have a couple of pub breaks included, so we are now tired and somewhat stiff, and will probably have an early night even if tonight is the night when you get an extra hour! I don't think we'll be able to wait that long before resting our weary bodies!
Helen
Click here for pictures taken on the 2001 Autumn Walk.
Last Revised: 28th October, 2001.