A Nice Surprise!

Hello again,

Occasionally I send the odd photo to Tyne-Tees Television, in the hope they will show it on the daily weather bulletins. Over the last few years I've had quite a bit of success in this area and I continue to have my work shown on TV today. If you CLICK HERE you will find my archive weather photo collection, which features video clips of my photographs that have been shown on TV.

Yesterday I received an email from Ross Hutchinson, one of the weather presenters on Tyne-Tees Television. He told me he had been contacted by someone who had seen one of my photographs on his weather bulletin and they wanted a copy of it. An elderly couple, currently living in Yorkshire, they had gone to the trouble of hand writing a letter to him as they don't use email, before visiting the post office to send the letter on its way. I was quite touched by this and arranged for a print to be forwarded to them, free of charge, with the help of Ross. Great stuff and nice to see my work being appreciated, even if it sometimes flashes up on the TV for a couple of seconds.

Here is the actual correspondence, including the hand written letter ...

Cheers, Ash


Hello Ashley,

Odd question but I've had a lovely letter from an elderly couple in Yorkshire, attached- they liked this photo so much they wanted a copy!

Their request is for your address or phone number so they can try and organise this (they don't have email for a digital copy). 

I know it's a bit weird but shows how well liked your pics are! If you are happy to give them a copy but would rather not give out your details I'm sure I can arrange for us to get one printed (with your permission)

Completely up to you - but thought I would pass on the kind words/request.

Thanks for all the pictures!

Ross

 

 

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 46, 47 & 48)

Hello again.
Almost two weeks have passed since my last blog update - I must get my act together!
As promised, a short video clip featuring a selection of my photographs that appeared on TV recently, and they are as follows...
1. Sunset, Transporter Bridge, Middlesborough (Jan 2012)
2. Sunrise, Seaham Pier, County Durham (Feb 2012)
3. Snowfall, Angel Of The North, Gateshead (Feb 2012)

Rapidly approaching the 50 mark, which I hope to reach in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out all you people within reach of the Pontop Pike transmitter. I should be out and about with the 5D over the next few days, although nowhere in particular as a plan, but wherever it is, I'll be bringing home the shots. And that's all for now. Cheers.
AC

Reflections - Durham Cathedral

The blog entries are coming thick and fast, well...for now at least. Last Saturday afternoon I headed across to Durham City Centre and made my way along the riverside path as the light fell quickly. I was surprised to cross paths with a few people along the way, as the riverside has no lighting on its route and it's not the type of place you'd walk alone, unless you're a photographer with intentions of 'Getting the shot' regardless of the conditions. At 4.30pm I was in position next to the boathouse ramp on the north side of the River Wear, opposite Durham Cathedral. Fifteen minutes passed and it was now pitch black where I stood, with no-one else around. A big splash on the water directly in front of me had me thinking I wasn't alone after all. Was someone lurking in the thick woods behind me, throwing rocks and getting a kick out of it - 'Let's scare the shit out of that bloke with the camera.' Well they certainly did that! I was looking through the viewfinder at the time of the splash and I must confess that I nearly shat me'sel when the rock hit the water. Or was it a rock after all? Was it a Salmon jumping, I doubt it, unless it had been on the roids for weeks on end. A mystery to me. I started to ask myself what the hell I was doing here, it pitch darkness, nowhere near assistance if some dodgepot came looking for bother. Time to man up and forget the crap, so I grabbed a few photo's and got out of there. As I left the scene at 5.00pm the Cathedral bells chimed on the hour, adding an even more eerie slant to the whole experience. Walking back along the riverside path to Framwellgate Bridge I passed a goth, on his own, long black trench coat and all the horseshit, looking a bit sheepish as I passed him. God knows where he was heading, and why. Maybe another photographer looking to bag that nice shot, who knows.

The shot above is my favourite from the outing, a nice reflection, captured shortly before 5.00pm. I emailed it to Tyne-Tees Television the following morning and it was shown on their weather charts a few hours later. Result! Worth the effort after all. Where will I take my camera next, I wonder. You'll find out soon enough. Thanks for visiting.
Ash

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 40-43)

Hello again!
It's been a few months since I last posted any video clips on my blog, February in fact, so it's time to update my TV credits with four more snippets. I haven't been as active with the Weather Photo's this year, the four clips below take this years total to just 8, which isn't as many as previous years, so I'll try and make more of an effort to submit more to Tyne-Tees Television before the end of 2012. The latest four photographs are -

1. Penshaw Monument (Venus/Jupiter Conjunction)
2. Washington Old Hall
3. Autumn, River Aln, Alnwick
4. Littlehaven Sunrise (Part of a compilation)

Clip number 1 shows Penshaw Monument, Sunderland, taken back in March 2012, during the Venus/Jupiter conjunction. To read more of this phenomenon click here, and if you like what you find then click here for more, there's two blog entries devoted to it. As for the other video clips - you'll find recent blog entries referring to each photograph, so go looking and you'll find them.

There's no more Pip (Philippa Thomson) on Tyne-Tees TV, she's jumped ship and is now sailing with Sky, who offered her an extra £1.50 an hour for her services. Ah well, she has my best wishes. She was behind many of my photo appearances on Tyne-Tees and even posted in my Guest Book many moons ago.

I've been out with the camera tonight, along Durham riverside, capturing low-light shots, so there's a chance I may have another photo on Tyne-Tees TV very soon. To all blog readers in our region - keep your eyes peeled!

Ash

My Photograph On Tyne-Tees Television!

Hello again.
A couple of days ago I done the school run to pick up my son Christopher who is 8 years old. Whilst waiting for the school door to fly open before the stampede I was engaged in conversation with a couple of friends who were waiting to collect their grandson. They were complimenting me on my photographs that had been published in the Sunderland Echo newspaper on a few recent occasions. It's always nice to get feedback like that and equally as nice to know that my work has been spotted by people I know personally.

Anyway, I was encouraged to send some photographs into the BBC and ITV regional news programmes, which was something I'd previously considered but never actually got round to. Aye, well, time to get me finger out and do the necessary. BBC and ITV regional news programmes both run a similar slot by showing viewers photographs of a weather theme at the tail end of their bulletins. I selected a nice image that I shot a few weeks ago at the nearby Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve in Houghton-Le-Spring. I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a lovely warm summer night so me and the little fella popped over to the meadows for some quality time together, hoping we'd catch a few tadpoles at the same time. I took my camera along as Christopher tipped me off the day before, telling me he'd seen a pair of Mute Swans on one of the ponds with it's brood of 8 cygnets. I've photographed these big birds on quite a few occasions and the key to close up Swan photography is...wait for it...a loaf o' breed!!! Yes, dangle the carrot in the form of a Warburton's thick toasty loaf and you're onto a winner...oh yes. A tried, tested and very reliable method of bringing the birds in close - just what you need when you're operating with a modest 18-135mm lens.

We arrived at the waters edge and they they were, at the far side of the pond. One rattle of the bread bag and across they came. A lovely sight - 8 chicks, probably 1-2 days old, flanked by their parents. We both through the bread into the water and although there was some aggressive hissing at first from both parents, they quickly got used to our company and polished off the full loaf within a few minutes. During this time I fired off a dozen or so frames of the swans, just as the sun had set behind them. We then headed back to the car and made the short journey home.

I was very pleased with the batch of photographs. One in particular caught my eye and this was the one I submitted to Tyne-Tees Television on the ITV1 channel. I emailed them the image on Thursday morning (16th) and it was shown just a few hours later on the same day!!
Here's the best bit - I missed the programme....arrrghhhhhhh!!! I only found out about it when I received a few text messages from friends who had been watching ITV when my photograph was shown. Typical eh. Oh well, never mind. I'm still chuffed about the whole thing.

I think I'll have some more of this. Time to submit some more images to those nice people on the telly. Maybe next time, if there is one, I'll be in front of the telly when my photograph is shown.
(Hangs head in shame...tut tut).

Ta ta for now, Ash