Stamford is an extraordinary town at the very south eastern point of the county of Lincolnshire. When I first saw the above building it reminded me of something out of an old Indiana Jones film. I wasn’t too far wrong either, because Stamford’s Public Library was featured in a film, The Da Vinci Code to be exact. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to go inside the building, but I found the architecture of the whole town extremely interesting from both a historical and a photographic point of view. This is another rather old photograph, having been taken back in August 2006. The good news is tomorrow I am finally getting another chance to get out there with my camera (by there I mean Manchester and not Stamford).

After the bonfire on Saturday night I was keen to get another location photographed in Lincolnshire before travelling back up to Manchester. Located north of Bourne, on the fen edge, Sempringham is a very small hamlet. The Abbey Church of St. Andrew is pictured in my photograph above. This site was the home of Gilbert of Sempringham (Lincolnshire’s Native Saint) and The Gilbertine Monastic Order was founded here in 1131. It was a very cloudy and overcast day when this image was taken, but I did wait for a good half an hour hoping that there would be a small break in the clouds to light up the building. As you can see, my wait paid off and just as we were about to get back in the car the sun shone. There is no detail in the harsh shadows of the grave stones but I don’t mind too much as I managed to capture that golden colour of the Churches brickwork.

I spent this afternoon and evening in the small village of Horbling in Lincolnshire, on my uncle’s farm / plant nursery. He was having his annual bonfire party with friends and family, with fireworks and BBQ etc. I spent a lot of the evening experimenting with different lighting techniques, taking photographs mainly of the fire itself but also some painting with light ideas and firework pictures. The above image is my favourite firework shot. Personally, I don’t feel it is quite as impressive as the series I managed to capture from the Blackpool Fireworks Competition but I am still happy enough with this image to share it with you. Amateur fireworks are much harder to photograph than professional displays.

Before heading back home to Manchester we took a trip to the town of Stamford on the River Welland in Lincolnshire. There were lots of old buildings and interesting shops, streets and churches, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. The church in the photograph below is All Saints Church.