Photographing Scalpaigh & Norfolk: Post 1

(This blog began at 5pm on Monday 15th April 2013)

Scalpaigh

I've just returned from my second visit to Scalpaigh, where I met a lot of friendly and welcoming people. Before this trip I had a carefully worked out plan, but as I travelled up I realised that I wanted whatever was going to happen to be spontaneous and organic, relying more on input from inhabitants, landscape, weather and sheep rather than any fancy theories I might have cooked up sitting at home in Norfolk.

There are interesting comparisons to be made between Norfolk and Scalpaigh. Norfolk has a huge coastline and also contains the Broads, so like Scalpaigh, the county has a significant history and relationship with water and the sea. Fishing, boat building and peat digging are shared occupations and small often isolated communities in both locations are changing rapidly, coping with the modern demands of inhabitants young and old, in-comers and visitors.

 I have been photographing associations between land, water and local inhabitants for many years, in Norfolk, Holland and now in the Hebrides. I will include pictures of all of these locations in this blog.

So to begin with here are some pictures from Scalpaigh, in no particular order. Your comments are very welcome - contact me please by email at richard@richarddenyer.co.uk. I hope that anyone will feel they can contribute suitable images and texts to this blog to help develop a chronicle of the two locations. Factual and imaginative offerings are both welcome!

I'm hoping that the collected material will appear in published form at some point - maybe two or three years ahead. I am very open to suggestion with this plan. Already I am looking forward to my next visit to Scalpaigh.

 There are no captions at present - I'm happy to add them and will be grateful if anyone can supply accurate names for people and locations. I will group the pictures as I go along under three sub-headings: Scalpaigh, Norfolk, and On the Road.

Please make your screen as bright as possible

to see the pictures at their best!