The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lavender Water

My recent post showing some lighthouse steps got a few comments so I thought I’d do another one on the theme again. The interior shots come from the keeper’s cottage and were taken hand-held in low lighting conditions.

I wonder if there are any working lighthouses left in the UK? It’s probably all done with GPS these days.

Note the fog horn in the foreground. Don’t hear those much these days either.

The lighting and mirrors at the top of the lighthouse.

The coast as viewed from the top.Ilford HP5+ and one of the last outings for the EOS5.

Posted

15/10/2011

Architecture, Beach, Historical, Industrial, Landscape, Monochrome, Photography

mostlymonochrome

Tags:

Art, blog, coast, history, lighthouse, Photography, Pictures

Comments

9 responses to “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lavender Water”

Emma

20/11/2011

I adore the shot of the lights/mirrors, really gorgeous in black and white

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B. J. Parker

25/10/2011

Beautiful work.

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tms

21/10/2011

Great series! I always like insights into this very special way of life. While we travelled Scotland; I picked up a bok about the Lighthouse Stevensons – quite a family! Reading it also triggered some interest in lighthouses and lead me to the Northern Lighthouse Board homepage: http://www.nlb.org.uk/LighthouseLibrary/Main/ The library also lists the characteristics of the lights, which I take as an indicator they still operate. I very vividly remember seeing the lights at Ijmuiden operate when we returned to the continent.

To make a long answer short: Yes, they still work in the age of GPS.

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colorspace444

19/10/2011

Wonderful photography…love love love the lavender water shot

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nickysqueak

18/10/2011

love the lavender water and the light close up. And your manual monochrome bias is ace, I need to get a new old SLR, my old one is defunct and I miss it! Thanks for visiting my blog, I’m enjoying yours.

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compellingphotography

17/10/2011

I can remember the mournful sound of the fog horn, similarly I remember the sound of the lifeboat signal whose bang sent all of the town’s seagulls into the air shrieking.

I love a lot of today’s technology, but miss these old sounds of the seaside.

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cameravagrant

16/10/2011

Wonderful atmosphere in these shots, they elicit such a sense of nostalgia. Fantastic.

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Meanderer

15/10/2011

Wonderful images of the interior and exterior of one of these iconic structures. I love the romance of the Lavender water beside the shaving brush and container. I think all British lighthouses are fully automated these days and are in the ownership of Trinity or NLB (I take more than a passing interest in lighthouses) but stand to be corrected.

A good book to read is ‘Stargazing’ by Peter Hill (I think) – the story of a student’s experience working as a lighthouse keeper in a Scottish Lighthouse in the 70s – completely captivating. My funniest lighthouse story is about Portland Lighthouse, Dorset. We visited hoping to do the tourist thing of climbing up the steps and so on but were informed that it would be closed due to ……………. the weather! You couldn’t make it up.

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1. mostlymonochrome
  
  19/10/2011
  
  I would like to Portland one day.
  
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