nomadlens

Images of the South West
Exposed timbers in a rotting ship hulk believed to be a French trawler abandoned in 1998 in the tidal Hooe Lake in the City of Plymouth, South Devon

Hulk, Hooe Lake

When doing the South West Coast Path we have tended to have a bit of a kneejerk dread of the bits that involve substantial sections of walking through largish towns and cities; there aren’t a lot of these really: Ilfracombe, Barnstaple, Bideford, Newquay, Newlyn/Penzance, Falmouth, Torbay, Plymouth and Weymouth. We haven’t done Weymouth yet but have walked through all the rest and often these walks have turned out to be very interesting indeed, none more so than the longest city stretch of all through Plymouth.

Amongst its many points of interest we came across Hooe Lake, where one crosses a dam between the tidal Lower Hooe Lake and the freshwater Upper Hooe Lake, complete with the large folly of Radford Castle in the middle of it. The Lower Lake is tidal but we were fortunate to be there with the tide fully in. Various decaying hulks of boats can be seen close to the shore here; they always make an interesting photographic subject. Another place that has some fascinating hulks is between Appledore and Bideford.

I believe this hulk is the one identified as the french trawler on the website: http://www.hooelake.org/2011/11/the-eastern-hulks-of-hooe-lake-plymouth/. Abandoned in 1998, it now looks as if it has been here for a hundred years.

Location

Hooe Lake, Plymouth, Devon, UK

EXIF

Camera: Olympus XZ-1
Lens: Olympus XZ-1 (built in lens)
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture: ƒ/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO: 100

  • Before-Hulk, Hooe Lake
    After-Hulk, Hooe Lake
    Before Hulk, Hooe Lake After
  • Before-Hulk, Hooe Lake
    After-Hulk, Hooe Lake
    Before Hulk, Hooe Lake After

Image Details

A serious amount of purple fringing reduction was necessary on this in Lightroom. In Photoshop it had a little dynamic contrast boost in Color Efex Pro. There was a hint of the sun beams coming through in the original but not enough to easily enhance so Digital Film Tools Rays was used to add some in. Cheating! Finally, the image was converted to monochrome in Alien Skin Exposure. This was done using the very contrasty Polapan conversion, with some warm platinum toning, a red filter and reduced contrast.

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