Well this has been a long time coming, it would appear I've become absolutely awful at posting my new pictures (even on Instagram which you should totally follow me on) but anyway here goes. Last month my dad and I joined some family friends for a week long stay on the Scilly Isles, which took us two attempts to get there. We all drove down to Exeter airport and anticipated an hour long flight over to the islands off the coast of Cornwall (the end bit on England), but after spending some time in duty free waiting out our then delayed flight we headed into the boarding lounge and were minutes away from getting on our plane when we were told, our plane wasn't there and wouldn't be arriving any time soon.

At which point me and my Chummy started telling every that something was wrong with the left phalange (if you know, you know), in fact the generator broke down which is a mighty failure so nobody was getting on that plane. The solution? Exeter airport put all the passengers on a coach to Lands End to get a 20 minute flight from there. Such fun. This airport was literally one room, and the planes had 8 seats. Imagine two seats of a bus: that was the plane. I was sat at the back with the sack holding all our luggage behind me (within reach - tiny plane was tiny) and with my Chum sat behind the pilot, she told him it was her second plane journey so he took the scenic route and flew over all the islands before landing on St Mary's, which is where our fun begins...

What better place to start than with a map of the islands? On the first day we didn't do too much other than exploring the local town and stopping at the first place we found for dinner (in my opinion, the menus at all the places we dined out in were really crappy, but I don't like seafood so already my options were minimal).


There was plenty of sea-fairing memorabilia around the islands and I quite enjoyed it. Since the islands are so small, you're never far from a sea view, plus as I live in the midlands I don't get to see that sort of aesthetic very often.

 

Since I'm growing to enjoy documentary/street photography, I wanted to take a particular focus of capturing this in such a different setting than I'm used to - like people sat by the beach or on boats. I didn't capture as much of this as I'd like but I'm still pretty happy with my range of photos nevertheless.



On the second day, me and Chummy went on a very long walk around half the island. It seemed much smaller and achievable to walk the whole thing in a day when we were looking at it from the plane, but when we got about half way around, neither of us thought we would make it so we stopped walking along the coast and headed back towards the welcoming sofa of the home we were staying in. But not without taking a bunch of photos along the way...


Twice I have been on holiday with a friend now and I must say (aside from the endless bants and company of someone closer to my age to keep me sane) having my own personal model to photograph in a new location certainly has its perks.


(who needs a tripod when you have a nearby rock to balance your camera on, and an inhaler  in your pocket for support)






The next day we began to take our explorations further and took a boat to one of the other islands, Tresco. There's not much to do on the Scilly Isles other than explore and take in the surroundings but it was still an experience I enjoyed.


While sitting to refuel ourselves, we noticed the abundance of sparrows around us, to which my Chum began feeding bits of pastry to them, providing entertainment and a mini photoshoot.


We spent Tresco in a large garden filled with all sorts of plants - which I didn't find all too interesting to be honest but there was a display of a collection of ship figureheads (those creepy faces and bodies at the tip of a ship) and there was an old woman sketching some out, which I thought was interesting.





Hunting for crabs on Porthmellon Beach.


As I've said before I really enjoy documentary photography, as Gemma explained "it's like people watching in a photo" and I just really like that idea, particularly when people are doing interesting activities or interesting looking people are doing ordinary things.





The goodest dogs.



On day six we went to St Agnes and did lots of exploring together. I have a mild interest in light houses, I just think they look amazing but this is as close as we got to one as we just kept walking and lost track of it. Perhaps if we go again I will make it my mission to find one of the lighthouses to marvel at close up.


On our walk we suddenly found some cattle and I just love the dramatic lighting here.



After we had eaten (an exceptionally disappointing meal) we took our drinks outside and I noticed the light was getting more orange so I downed my drink and took off with my camera to find the setting sun and again I was amazed and kept saying "wow" out loud to myself. Sunsets are just my favourite.


I managed to find the sun with clear skies setting over the ocean and my oh my did I take a shit ton of photos of this view.



Another day, another boat trip (to St Martins) - I don't even know why I didn't take many photos this day but this flag is the Red Ensign, used by the Merchant Navy (the maritime register of the UK, describing the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews - courtesy of a quick wiki)


When we got back from our cheeky extra island trip we stopped for dinner at this pub which had a live band playing. While I waited outside I noticed these men tapping their glasses along to the tune and I loved the lighting so I snapped a photo.


Before we left on the last day we re-visited a nice restaurant we all enjoyed for breakfast (tea and scones please) and once we had finished, our sparrow friends returned to share our food. We covered up the jam after this as we were doubtful that jam was good for the little birds.



Our plane journey back to Exeter airport was more successful. We were on a bigger plane that included a co-pilot, small aisle and one row of single seats.  A couple had already bagged the first two seats so I sat in the lone seat one behind them, with a perfect view of the cockpit and propellers beside me. I was sure to have a charged phone and a memory card in my camera for the return journey and I'm so glad I did. My dad was sat behind me and we are both keen flyers so in such an intimate plane with the pilots in view was really exciting for us.





We landed safely and had a party in the car as we drove back to Birmingham - we travelled in two separate cars so when the other half pulled up to us in a spot of traffic we wound our windows down and sang and danced to them, such fun.

I loved getting out and exploring and having something to do with myself everyday, not to mention the new possibilities of photograph opportunities too. I would definitely go back, perhaps not to the same restaurants though but hey ho, nothing is perfect and it's all a part of the adventure.

I hope you liked this long post, do let me know if you've been to Scilly yourself and what your favourite parts about it were. Also tell me your favourite pictures from this post, I tried to include all the best bits, or else you might have had to have two sups to tea to get through it all.