View From A Hill

My first ever visit to the top of Penshaw Monument was well overdue. The last two Summers have presented an opportunity to climb the column steps of the Monument, but I never took advantage, for reasons unknown. Better late than never, so they say, as I paid the £5 National Trust fee to go to the top, for all of 15 minutes. As expected, the steps were very narrow and dimly lit, even with my supplied head torch. The climb was slow and seemed to last an age. Once at the top I was snapping away whilst the 15 minute timer ticked down to zero. Visibility was excellent and so was the weather. Plenty of blue sky and broken cloud - ideal. Only one side of the Monument had public access, facing South to West and in between. Great 180 degree panoramic views. With 15 minutes flying by in a whizz, I was soon making the descent to the column door, with camera tucked away inside my top to avoid a scratching on the stair walls. I took a few more shots next to the Monument before making my way down the hill.

As I was about to get back into the car I noticed some nice cloud formation away to my left, so I set off on foot, along the road towards the fields, in the hope of catching the clouds before they passed by the Monument. By the time I got to where I wanted to be I was out of breath. Shirt stuck to my back off the mid-afternoon sun. Here are a couple of the shot I took, before converting them to Black & White. I was quite pleased with the results. Back soon...

Ash

Pea Soup

The term 'As thick as Pea Soup' is often connected with fog. Last week I photographed one or two locations in thick fog with very low visibility, which was down to 50 metres at best. I've never been one for taking my camera into the fog to be honest, as those type of mysterious shots never really appealed, until recently. I don't need an excuse to get out with my new 5D3 these days, as the sheer experience of handling it is enough to get the creative cogs spinning in my head. It really is a remarkable piece of kit and I've only just scratched the surface regarding its capability, which again is quite exciting to know that there's a lot more to this camera than firsts meets the eye. When I test out the camera in various conditions and situations I'll be posting a full teardown review of it here on my blog page. Even then, it's one thing to mention the tools within its box, but another to actually try these tools out, so hands on is something I'm looking to and I've got every intention of getting into the nuts and bolts of my new toy. First impressions are as impressive as I expected and I hope the further in depth I go, the results are equally as good. But back to that uninviting bowl of Pea Soup...

As I say, I'm not one to photograph foggy scenes, but that will surely change as and when, after pulling in a few decent shots last week. I visited four locations in one afternoon, which were Copt Hill Barrow (Houghton le Spring), Seaham Harbour, Littlehaven (South Shields) and Newcastle Quayside. The middle two locations threw up next to nothing in the way of photo opportunities, mainly due to very poor visibility, but Copt Hill and Quayside offered me at least a crack at it. Here are a few photographs from my outing...

1. Tyneside Commute - It's fog on the Tyne, during an early evening rush hour on the Millennium Bridge.

2. Copt Hill Barrow, Houghton le Spring (Seven Sisters)

3. Copt Hill Barrow, Houghton le Spring (Seven Sisters), re-processed

That's all for now. I'll be back shortly. Feel free to check out my new 'Hadrian's Wall' gallery at
ashleycorr.com    Cheers!    Ash

Black & White Icons

Hello again!
Continuing the Black & White theme...

I have a rather nice set of framed prints on offer at £45 each. One or two examples can be found on display at Clay's Garden Centre, Washington and also Penshaw Tea Rooms. Mounted in white and framed in black, each measures 20x16 inches and is part of an ever increasing set of 'North East Icons'. There are four available at present, with more additions planned for the very near future. I recently sold two to a customer in Lechlade, Gloucester, so it's nice to know my work is continues to be scattered around the UK and further afield. Here are the icons that are currently available. I will post photo's of the actual framed images during the next few days. Cheers!

Ash

1. Winter, Penshaw Mounument
2. Groyne Lighthouse, South Shields
3. Millennium Bridge, Gateshead Quays
4. River Tyne, Newcastle
5. Guardian Angel

The North-East Winds

With Christmas almost upon us I took the opportunity of using a spare hour or so to fit in some photography. December has been a quiet month with the camera, as you may have noticed by the acute lack of updates at www.ashleycorr.com. This has been due to the usual hectic programme that often accompanies December, but I intend to make amends before the month is over, with a few updates being planned for the final few days of 2012. My last Blog entry brought you a batch of Seascape images, taken at Seaham Harbour last Sunday morning, and I was by the sea again this morning for more of the same. This time I was shooting big waves from the promenade at Seaburn, Sunderland. Although there was bright sunshine this morning, it was typically cold and the strong winds almost had me on my arse on more than one occasion, but I managed to keep my balance against all the odds. My Sigma 70-300mm lens got a rare run out today. It was just what was needed to pull in those telephoto shots - range is everything when shooting from afar, so the long lens was called upon once again, and it never fails to deliver. There was very little colour to play with this morning, so I converted my shots to Mono (Black & White), which is always a good idea with this type of photography. I think it worked quite well, apart from the lack of detail in the sky, but you can only pee with the tail you've got! Some folk add new sky to get round this problem, but we don't want to do that do we - no cheating allowed!

And here they are, three shots, cherry-picked from a batch of ten and shot in RAW format. I was done and dusted, then out of there after a few short minutes. Back into the car and off home to sit down to a nice roast lunch. I'll be back soon with more Seaside shots, so get yer'sel back here in a few days time. Until then, have a nice Christmas and don't overdo the calorie count, eh. You know it makes sense!

Back soon, Ash

Black & White Shots

I really need to revamp my Black & White Gallery at ashleycorr.com as it has been rather neglected over the last year or so. I used to set aside some time for mono conversions, but that appears to be a thing of the past for no particular reason, other than my photography interests lying elsewhere. Sometimes it's wise to have a break from specific areas of photography, then when you revisit it brings out that creativity again, which reflects in the results, and here I have one or two examples of what I am getting at. The first shot was taken outside York Minster on April 23rd, 2012. The weather wasn't anything special that day - the sky was overcast and there was little or no sunshine to be had, but that didn't deter this photographer, as I planned to convert any decent shots into Mono (black & white). I spent 90 minutes inside the Minster, grabbing a batch of photo's to complete my York Minster Gallery, which, for the record, are all colour images. Upon leaving the Minster, via the Gift Shop, I crossed the road towards the shops and stopped to take a photo which is shown here (image one). The reflection in a shop window caught my eye immediately and out came the camera once again. I used a 10-22mm wide angle lens to cram as much content as I could into the frame, plus the use of a CPL filter on the window next to me, which made the lettering more prominent, when rotated to suit. I later edited the image in Photoshop CS6, which is the latest 'All singing, all dancing' software from the Adobe stable (a class bit o' kit!). I altered the levels and grey tones to suit, before converting the image to HDR (High Dynamic Range), which always works a treat with ancient stonework, and I think I pushed this one to its limit and brought out the best in what was a fairly 'Flat' image to begin with.

My second Mono shot, shown here, is another one that got the HDR treatment. Taken at a location that I have visited so many times - it's Penshaw Monument, on the outskirts of Sunderland, Tyne & Wear. I remember this visit very well - a freezing cold February morning, and there I was attempting my first ever Sunrise shots from the top of Penshaw Hill. Another one to forget though, as the sun only showed for a matter of seconds before departing behind a bank of low cloud on the horizon. I made my way back down Penshaw Hill after this non-event and stopped half way to photograph from the steps, which were well frosty, almost having me flat on my arse a couple of times. The 10-22 wide was paying for itself once again as it put itself to good use, with the pathway and steps offering the perfect 'Lead-In Line' to the shot, with Penshaw Monument once again providing the focal point for another Black & White effort. HDR came into play again, with two bracketed images instead of the single RAW file I used on the Minster shot above, tone mapped and aligned to create what is shown here. I've got this one printed on Ilford Galerie Satin Paper (280 g/sm) and mounted in textured white board, then framed in black - I have to say...it's a winner!    

And just before I pop off for a bite to eat folks, I'd like to tell you I'll be back shortly with some more creative photo's that I recorded last night, with the help of some string, an egg whisk and a roll of wire wool. Strange, eh. You'll be surprised at the results though. Not long to wait...

Ash 
www.ashleycorr.com