Ghosts of Winter

The March snows, that covered the much of the country last weekend, reached as far as St Neots.  Although nothing compared with the north-west we did have a couple of centimetres worth.  I had intended to get some shots of spring flowers in the snow.  But the all the cold weather has delayed most spring blooms and the few that were out were buried.  A new plan was needed. 

I took inspiration from images that Sue had shown in a recent club talk, featuring intentional camera blur.  The churchyard of St Mary's Church in Eaton Socon made a suitable subject.  The brightness of the snow required a minimum aperture and a polariser to give me workable shutter times of an eighth to a tenth of a second.  Just enough to move the camera a little during exposure.   The technique is very hit and miss, but after a few hundred shots I ended up with some I quite like.  The ghostly feel of these shots conveys to me the mood of the day and location.

Stamford Fair

I haven't done any night photography for a while, so last week's mid-Lent fair in Stamford was a perfect opportunity.  I was able to get there before dark, so managed a couple of shots in the blue hour.  But I mainly wanted to shoot light trails, which is easier against a darker sky and can look more dramatic.

Snowdrops at Benington

On Saturday I took a trip to Benington in Hertfordshire to photograph snowdrops.  Benington Lordship  Gardens boosts a large collection of snowdrops and is one of the best places in the region to view them at this time of year.  But that was not what drew me there.  Next to the the house and gardens is St Peters Church, whose churchyard also has a in impressive display of snowdrops amongst the headstones.  It had been a few years since I had last visited.  Not since I had acquired my Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens.  So I was keen to use this for some shots of the flowers against a background of the old stones.  The original plan was to spend some time in the churchyard and then visit the gardens, but in the end I spent so long in the former, it wasn't worth heading into the latter.

 

Wave Movements - Assynt Beaches

Some coastal shots from my recent trip to Assynt.  As well as the inland delights, the area boasts some beautiful beaches. Secluded little coves with golden sands.  On the right day you could think yourself in the Med (until you put a toe in the water).  Sadly, these weren't the right days.  But at least my previous trip to Sennen taught me how to may the most out of a beach with a poor sky. 

I did a lot of slow shutter speed shots to try and capture the motion of the waves against any handy foreground interest.  The dull conditions meant that a 1 or 2 second exposure could be achieved without resorting to the 'big stopper'.

 

Images of Assynt

I spent last week in the Assynt area of the NW Highlands of Scotland, based just outside the village of Lochinver.  It was a long trip (5 hours north of Glasgow), to a very sparsely populated area of lochs, lone hills, peat bogs and bleak beauty.

Any visit to the Highlands in winter is a gamble with the weather, and this time the House won.  For the first few days there were gale force winds, and the mountain forecast, with typical bluntness, was describing movement on the hills as "extensively tortuous".  This put paid to many of our hill climbing plans, and left us looking for low level shoots.  At least the strong winds had the benefit of blowing through the clouds quickly, giving ever changing conditions.  As we experienced rain, hail, snow and even the odd break of sun, in less than an hour, it brought to mind the old saying that if you don't like the Scottish weather just wait around for five minutes.  Later in the week the winds dropped, which meant we could head high, but also meant that the flat grey cloud hung over us like a shroud.  But such are the joys of both landscape photography and hill walking.  If it were easy, everybody would do it.

 Suilven is the most iconic mountain of the the area.  Although not high by Scottish standards, with no surrounding hills, it stands proudly above landscape, seemingly cutting through the bogs and heather like a shark's fin.  Sadly, possibly because there is no other massive near it, the Grey Castle seems to attract every bit of cloud in the area.  Either there was high grey cloud behind it, giving a dull flat sky, or there was low cloud obscuring the hill itself.  Sometimes there was both, but never, it seemed, neither.  We spent much of the week stalking Suilven from one angle or another.  The picture above was probably my best effort, and seeing as it took a 13 mile walk to get, I include it despite the less than interesting sky.

St Neots - After The Thaw

The rain came on Saturday night and washed the last of the snow away.  By Sunday the Great Ouse had spilled out over the riverside park in St Neots.  Since it was a sunny day, I headed down to try and get some reflection shots of the flooded trees against the water.  Sadly, it was quite a windy day and the ripples on water took away all but a few of the reflections. 

Some More From Wimpole

A few more images taken last weekend in the snow at Wimpole.