Northumbria - Blyth Harbour

Blyth, where I was staying, has an oft photographed harbour.  Since it was less than 10 minutes drive away and sunrise was a little after 8am, I really had no excuse not to roll out of bed for a dawn shoot.  The weather forecast had promised that the previous days cloud would clear to blue skies.  Sadly, this didn't happen until later in the morning.  For dawn there was just a thin sliver of sun visible.  The best of the colour in the sky lasted for just one frame.

Northumbria - Newbiggin and Tynemouth

More catching up with processing of recent(ish) shoots ahead of the new year.  At the start of the month, I took advantage of staying with a friend, who lives just north of Newcastle, to do a couple of shoots on the Northumbrian coast.  I spent a day of rather mixed weather at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.  The offshore breakwater features a massive sculpture, which gives another element to seascapes.  I have shot it before on a bright summers day.  This time I wanted to try some shots in evening light.  As well as the beach, there are some small cliffs that kept me entertained as I waited for the light to drop.

 

Finally, one image from a quick visit to Tynemouth.  The sky was rubbish, but I couldn't resist trying a moody post sunset shot of the harbour walls.

The Shard at night

After a busy couple of weeks, I am catching up on processing some images.  It had been a while since I last did a night shoot, so a couple of weekends ago I popped into London for some shots of the Shard.  It was the viewpoint in the mono image that I was particularly keen to capture.  But as sometimes happens, I got distracted with some views by the river and reached the scene a little later than intended.  The sky wasn't quite as light as I hoped, so I'll have to go back and have another go sometime.

Wimpole in the snow

Last Sunday's snow took me by surprise.  I am so used to predicted snow missing Huntingdonshire completely, that I didn't pay too much attention to the latest forecast.  So when I woke to a blanket of white on Sunday morning, I had to quickly come up with a plan.  I choose to go to Wimpole, as I was fairly sure I could get there safely and that the park would be open.  Plus, the big trees and the restored folly would make great subjects in the snow.  A light sleety snow continued to fall for most of the day, which made keeping the lens clear somewhat challenging, but it also made for some lovely minimalist and reduced palette shots.

Cambridge Street Photography

Two weeks ago now ( I know, my work-flow rate is terrible), I joined some other club members for a day of street photography in Cambridge.  In the market, I tried 'shooting from the hip' and as usual had little success.  So I soon reverted to my usual technique of staking out a spot and waiting for whoever happened by.  After a break for a very fine lunch, we carried on for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  By then the the low sun was giving some warm light and strong shadows.

 

Autumn Abstracts

I visited the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge recently on what ended up being quite an overcast day.  I decided to try some more creative and abstract Autumn images.  Double exposures, intentional camera movement and shallow depth of field.

Fungi at Brandon Country Park

A few fungi pictures taken last weekend at Brandon Country Park.

 

A Little Flower Creativity

I was a bit bored and fancied doing something a little different.  So I headed to Wimpole, to try some in-camera double exposure shots of the last of the flowers.  I spent an enjoyable hour or so (photographer's time) playing around with various flower combinations, before heading for tea and cake. 

All of the images are two shot combinations taken with my Canon 7D, in multiple exposure mode, and a Sigma 50mm macro lens.  I have tweaked the settings a little in Lightroom, but otherwise they are pretty much as shot.