Photo impressionism and creating art from the everyday

A Recent Trip to Bodmin Moor

As a member of one of our local photography clubs I recently visited several places of interest on Bodmin Moor here in the UK. These were Golitha Falls, Trethevy Quoit and Minions and all offer significant opportunities for photographers of all abilities. Minions in particular has a number of good examples of old mining operations with the remains of various pump houses dotted around the area. For some examples of images taken on the day, why not take a look at our combined album here. I’ll add some additional images at the foot of this article. The image above BTW is photo-impressionistic art that I created using one of the photos I took during the day. You can see more of this type of work over at Pixtures – visit https://www.pixtures.co.uk/index.php/buy-prints-online

The day started at about 07:45 when I was picked up by good friend and fellow photographer Stuart Chapman. The trip to Golitha Falls, the first stop on our list took just 80 minutes so we arrived at the falls around 09:15. Sadly, the cafe there doesn’t open until 10am so we were forced to wait another 45 minutes before we could enjoy breakfast but the time passed relatively quickly and since we were waiting for some fellow club members to join us nothing was lost. With regards the breakfast, the cafe here does a nifty range of breakfast baps plus of course a nice cup of tea, well, at the second time of asking as the first was practically stone cold! All in all though, a well-deserved 8/10 for the breakfast! Personally, I could have stayed there all day but my friends were keen to start walking the treacherous track that follows the river (or stream as it more appropriately appears to be) through the forest. To be honest, a much easier track runs higher up so no need to break ancles or legs if you prefer a more relaxed walk with scenic photographic opportunity. All in all I would say we spent a good couple of hours here although we didn’t get very far into the mile or so walk that we could have done. Even so, a good start to the day. Now, in case you’re wondering and contrary to its name, there is no single waterfall at Golitha Falls, just a number of small pinch points where the water cascades down over rocks into small pools before continuing on its never-ending onward journey to who knows where. This though offers some excellent opportunities for photography as you have the option of photographing the stream, the rapids, the forest or any number of other objects, including people, that are doted around.

Next on the agenda was Minions. Now, I know what you’re thinking, how strange to find little yellow bubble shaped people with high-pitched voices on Bodmin Moor! Sadly, this proved not to be the case and in fact Minions is just a place – yawn. Well, it’s actually a bit more than “just a place”. True, it’s a tiny village on the fringes of the moor BUT it contains a vast number of derelict pump houses from a bygone age when tin mining was in its heyday. Nuff said, cameras out and we spent a good couple of hours here vying to find the best vantage points to out-do each other. It’s not easy of course as I suspect that these pump houses have been photographed from every conceivable angle at every possible time of day. Nonetheless, it’s a great way to spend a few hours and good exercise to boot! There are a couple of additional places of interest locally here, the first being Hurler Stones, a Neolithic stone circle right next to the car park and the Cheesewring, which Mike and Lesley Bond walked to, which is an interesting array of natural stones – visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesewring for more information and some photos. Following on from all of this exertion we voted en-masse to have a cup of tea and some tea cakes at the local cafe. Very enjoyable.

The last point of interest on our journey was to be Trethevy Quoit, a Neolithic burial chamber which now sits alongside some considerably newer houses than would have existed back then. Again, if you want more information take a look at https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/trethevy-quoit/. Its location doesn’t make it the easiest place to photograph but it’s well worth exploring all of the angles. Again, it’s within walking distance of a small car park so accessibility couldn’t be better.

Golitha Falls, Bodmin Moor

Image 1 of 10

Our day out concluded with diner at the Premier Inn in Liskard followed by a short drive back to Torbay. Overall, it couldn’t have gone better so a big thank you to Stuart Chapman and Mike and Lesley Bond for a very interesting and fun day out.

Please follow and like us:

Leave a Reply