I was alerted to the Trinity House vessel moored in the Wet Dock a few days ago but last night as I made my way from the station to the UCS campus to visit the ‘Untitled.’ degree show student’s exhibition last night at St Clement Church I noticed a revenue cutter was moored alongside the same quay. I travelled light to London as I knew I would be spending two long days on a board meeting so the only camera I had with me was the iPad. It stayed in the bag.

One aspect of my photographic practice is the regular revisiting of the same places day in day out. Obviously I had not visited the Dock fro the RPS Contemporary group on Tuesday as I was back in the old mould of commuting to the smoke. So walking past at twilight it was my ever scanning eyes that picked out the familiar profile of that whippet of the sea – a ‘revenue cutter’.  Whilst serving on the predecessors of this modern fleet we always referred to the RN vessels as greyhounds of the sea. Being much smaller but no less agile, whippet seems a good description. Whippet duly noted I hoofed it into an igloo cold church of St Clement that has a nautical history in that Slade, naval architect to Nelson’s flagship Victory has his bones resting in the yard. Bones was not what I was there for. It was the Christmas show that became a feature of Photography students at UCS last year.

I was a tad warm by the time I got to church but it was like all the spirits of many Christmasses past had gathered inside and lowered the temperature to that of morgue level. I could hear a chattering sound and a little further up just behind the choir stalls, I found the shivering shape of young Cramer, teeth chattering like an unintelligible Morse code key. It was good to see some students had shown work but this was by no means the full year. Pity. We had the same problem last year but at least we held our show in a heated and dry (apart from a leaking roof) Atrium building on campus.

Ipswich is full of redundant churches. You only have to walk up to the top of Christchurch Park and look down on the roofscape of the town to see towers and spires littering the skyline. St Clement seems to be a poor relation in terms of championship. Two other churches along the line of a long ago quay have had considerable support in terms of funding and renovation. This church basically is a very damp and cold environment suitable for penance or displaying 3-D artwork that is not subject to the ravages of moisture and cold. It really deserves several millions of pounds to make this into a decent exhibition space. It could be done but I suspect the Beadle dishing out the money has trousered what was left for some other causes not related to the arts. All said and done these students made a brave show of things and it is the best use of the space that I have seen so far. I am not drawn to this space and all galleries are like people. You either like them or you do not.

This morning, I trotted down to the dock to make best use of the associated clouds that were tumbling in with an eight o’clock sunrise. Clear skies are OK but can be boring. This is a selected edit from this morning’s shoot as I gather work for the RPS Contemporary Group project.

Cardinal Wolsey had an aim to make education enjoyable. A long time local hero, this ancient river gate is now tucked away in a 24 hour grid-locked one-way system. I understand that it has been removed and rebuilt but why it should occupy such a parlous position in Ipswich I cannot say. It is very much a subject that is about the docks and commerce over the centuries has pushed it into a cultural backwater.

Did you ever queue up in a tuck shop line at school to buy a Wagon Wheel? Apparently they came from here.

The wine rack has now got a new owner and Ipswich Borough Council have granted restrospective planning permission for the extra floors. Maybe this golden frame will finally be completed.

The revenue cutter alongside turned out to be Vigilant. I never sailed on the original Vigilant, sister to Valiant. Both those vessels were designed bi the then Marine Branch naval architect but built by a barge builder. At least one of them was. It spent most of it’s time at sea trying to emulate the build position. Barges were traditionally laid upside down unlike tradition vessels. I doubt this vessel would do anything other than cleave its way through a sea.

Another vessel I served on was Alert. Nothing like this Trinity House vessel though. It was a Fairey Marine Mark 1 Tracker. GRP hull, no insulation, two stroke diesels. Noisy, fast, fun and wet, very wet.

Stoke Quay continues to change by the day. Scaffolding is coming down and the fabric is being revealed.

All in all I am getting to grips with the D810. Some of these shots are as slow as 1/23rd second hand held. I am not aware of any softness but I have found the low light behaviour to be radically different to the D3S. I would need to test side by side to certain but there is more blue spectrum gamut I think in the D810. Early days.