Only six trees are standing these days, plus a sapling, which brings the total back to seven after one tree was burnt down. The sapling is always vunerable to vandals although no-one has had a go at it to date (touch wood - no pun intended). As regular visitors to my blog will be aware, the Seven Sisters is situated in my home town of Houghton le Spring and it is literally five minutes drive from my house, so I often make visits outside of the Summer season. The reason I miss out Summer is simply for photographic reasons - nothing else. The Sisters are much more photogenic when they've shed their leaves so I'm a regular visitor during Spring and Winter when I can grab some nice silhouette shots. As you can imagine, I've made countless visits to this place down the years and the resulting images are always different. Here are two recent examples that perfectly illustrate the changing mood that the weather can bring. The first shot was taken in mid-March, on a cold foggy morning. I hadn't photographed the Seven Sisters in fog before so it was time to put that right by making a visit, with visibility being very low as I drove up to the Copt Hill Public House car park. I met a dog walker as I was in position taking my first shots near the path that leads you to the barrow from the top of the field. As she was heading over the barrow with her dog she kindly offered to pose for a short while as I took more shots. A big THANK YOU to Sue and Henry for making the first shot (above) possible. I love it - captured the moment nicely!
The second, and more recent shot, 
was taken just before sunset as we entered the last few days of March. I had been out somewhere in the car and was heading home along the A690 when I noticed how low the sun was, and also how full and orangey it appeared. Normally, just before sunset, the sun is so bright that the glow around it is blown out and it's shape isn't visible. Today there was almost no surrounding glow, just a perfectly round deep orange sun, on it's way down and quickly approaching the skyline. As I had my camera bag with me I made a quick diversion and drove up to the location once again. A quick dash from the car to the barrow gave me enough time to take half a dozen quick shots before the sun had set. I just made it in time. There were no dog walkers about today though - just as well as it must have looked odd seeing a grown bloke legging it over the field with a large back-pack bouncing up and down. Oh dear!
was taken just before sunset as we entered the last few days of March. I had been out somewhere in the car and was heading home along the A690 when I noticed how low the sun was, and also how full and orangey it appeared. Normally, just before sunset, the sun is so bright that the glow around it is blown out and it's shape isn't visible. Today there was almost no surrounding glow, just a perfectly round deep orange sun, on it's way down and quickly approaching the skyline. As I had my camera bag with me I made a quick diversion and drove up to the location once again. A quick dash from the car to the barrow gave me enough time to take half a dozen quick shots before the sun had set. I just made it in time. There were no dog walkers about today though - just as well as it must have looked odd seeing a grown bloke legging it over the field with a large back-pack bouncing up and down. Oh dear!Anyway, no tripod involved in these two shots - both were handheld. I'll be uploading them to my website very soon, on a page dedicated to the Copt Hill Barrow (Seven Sisters), that's if there's any room left on the page!
Next up - I'll be blogging again with some accompanying Springtime shots.
Until then, thanks for reading.
Ash
