The Seated Man, North Yorkshire (Recce Visit)

Eyup!!!! ... and we're off to North Yorkshire ...

Yes, it's a trip south, into North Yorkshire for a recce visit to a statue on a hill in the middle of nowhere land. It was a chance sighting of the statue that caught my eye whilst browsing the internet, one rainy Friday morning in August. I was sitting down with a cup of tea, trying to shake off my night shift jet lag, when I first noticed The Seated Man, in situ on Castleton Rigg, overlooking the tiny Yorkshire village of Westerdale. At first I was a little confused as to what the statue actually represented. All I could see was an elderly man sitting on a seat, with a brief case resting on his knee. His facial expression was one of deep thought - definitely a pensive mood going on here, I thought. And it suddenly struck me that he resembled Jeremy Corbyn, without a doubt. Well, well, well ... I need to visit this statue in person and I need to visit it soon. I originally had nightscapes in mind. Star trails, milky way, moon shots ... and this place seemed like the ideal spot, as it was in a dark area away from light polluted urban areas, that would and could have a negative effect. There was a carpet of heather surrounding the statue. I could only imagine how nice it would look during the day, when bathed in sunshine. That's it, my mind was made up - I'm heading down there, first chance I get. It's only an hours drive from home. That'll do nicely. Within 48 hours I was heading down there to check it out, in the flesh, with my brother Chris. The weather was poor, very poor in fact - certainly not a day to be walking on the moors, but what the heck ... this WAS a recce visit after all.

My satnav took me into the village of Castleton, before I headed out and across the moors road towards Castleton Rigg. From this vantage point we got our first glimpse of the statue in the distance. I parked up at the roadside and we headed through the heather and up the hill towards the main man, accidently disturbing a few grouse on the way. That was funny - not for me, for the grouse. I almost shat me'sel a few times over. Once we'd negotiated the incline, and the grouse ha, we were on the flat moor and heading towards the statue, which we could see directly in front of us, approximately 100 metres ahead, with his back to us. Within no time we were standing in front of this amazing statue. Amazement was my first thought as I stood in front and admired the artistry in front of me. This bronze statue stood around 3 metres in height and the detail was outstanding. All I could think about at this point was returning another day to photograph him in better conditions. The heather was in full bloom, although its colour was almost non-existent under this overcast lifeless sky. I wanted sun and lots of it. I wanted blue skies and broken clouds. I wanted perfect conditions. I wasn't asking for much, was I? Should those pieces of the jigsaw fall into place then it was down to me to do some damage with the camera, to complete the puzzle, so to speak. I was up for the challenge - just give me my conditions and I'll try to deliver.

Time to return home. Recce over. I already had the photographs in my head, but they were no good in there - they had to appear on my memory card, ticked off and uploaded to ashleycorr.com. I was glad to get back to the car, to be honest. The rain kicked in as we left the site and the winds didn't help the situation either, but this was a recce after all. Groundwork done. Just a waiting game now. Come on Mother Nature, throw some sun at me and let's see the heather blooming in all its glory. I'M WAITING !

Ash

Ready To Return

Hello again, after a rather long absence due to other commitments. One of those commitments was the painstakingly long task of revamping my website following the decision to expand the size of the pages. What should have been a fairly straightforward task became one that took many hours to complete, as the content on every single page had to be realigned to suit. I chipped away here and there, mostly during days when the weather was less than favourable, so being indoors behind the laptop kept me more than busy. Web design can be tricky, depending on what you're wanting to achieve, from the simple to the complicated. I prefer to fall somewhere in between. Since the site inception in February 2008 and a visitor count of over 250,000, I dread to think how many hours I've put into my site. It's most definitely a labour of love, there's no mistaking that and I'm quite proud of my creation considering I had no previous experience in website design. And so to the next chapter ... as ashleycorr.com prepares to go again and I now have extra time to do what I enjoy very much - getting out there with the camera.

By the way, it hasn't all been about the website. I've still been out there now and again, taking photographs. flying my drone and pulling in some nice time lapse footage with the GoPro. Yes, there's plenty of new stuff queued up and ready to unleash once I get the editing done, so stay tuned for that and much more. As the dark winter nights creep ever closer, there should be a nice balance of blog updates (and there's plenty of those in the pipeline) as well as photography outings, which should continue into 2018 and beyond. So much to do and not enough hours in the day.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just a little reminder that I still exist and with the most tedious task now behind me, it's time to go again, with the enjoyable stuff.

STAY TUNED

Ash

Welcome Back!

November 2013 seems a long time ago now. It was the last time I updated my Blog page before the big overhaul at ashleycorr.com. Now that my site is up and running once again I hope to restore normality in the shape of new updates on Blogger, starting from today, with news of recent changes. Firstly, my Canon 5D2 went to the Canon graveyard last week after it took a tumble on the rocks near St. Mary's Island, Whitley Bay. A gust of wind swept my tripod off its feet, taking the camera with it, face down in a rock pool. It suffered water damage despite the fact that my filter holder took the brunt of the impact. The attached lens was unmarked, although it needed recalibrating through my insurance broker. The camera and lens were away for five weeks, although it seemed much longer then that. Being without a camera for that amount of time wasn't a happy experience, but what can ya do? Eventually the camera body was deemed 'Beyond economical repair' and as the 5D2 had been recently phased out, my insurance company replaced it with a 5D Mk III, which I was over the moon about. The 5D2 was the camera I had wanted to get my hands on for a few years, not even considering the 5D3 because of its hefty price tag, so to own one now goes above and beyond what I expected to run with. Although I've had the new camera for slightly over a week now, I still haven't been out to test it in the field, but that will be corrected during the next few days as I have more time to play with. Having flicked through the menu settings on the 5D3 I must say that my initial findings are very impressive. Lots of upgraded features, lots of head scratching too, which seems to be part and parcel with these things, no matter how many user manuals you have ticked off the list.

Currently looking at new tripods too. The trusty Manfrotto took a clout on those rocks, although I need to be more vigilant in those kind of situations. One thing is sure, it will only happen once!

Also dabbling with new image software in the form of Google's excellent plug-in's for Photoshop - Nik Collection. Some really interesting stuff bundled with it.

And that's about it for now. I'll have my Blog page restored to former glory in the very near future, bringing you more of my escapades form my trips into the depths of God's Country and beyond. Until then, welcome back!

Ash

www.ashleycorr.com

Hello again and welcome to my new look blog page. I've been toying with the idea of tarting this page up for quite a while now, as the original template wasn't consistant with the theme that I designed at ashleycorr.com. Gone is the brown background with the less than interesting header bar -  'In' with the plain white and mid-grey, along with the ACP logo of Penshaw Monument. Now then, that's better! So there seems like no better time than now to write about my website and the nuts, bolts and many cogs within it. Since the introduction of ashleycorr.com back in 2006 the site has evolved and developed into much more than it originally started its life as. It's humble beginnings as a modest 20 page web site has grown rapidly during the past six years and now contains a staggering 156 pages and almost 1000 photographs. God only knows how many hours of work has gone into the site down the years, a labour of love that continues to this day and hopefully many more years ahead. I often tinker with the site, as you may have noticed from time to time, as there's always room for improvement here and there, although I always try to avoid making wholesale changes with its overall appearance as I feel that this can distract the visitor and be quite off-putting, especially if it happens regularly. I used to do this in the early days, until I realised quickly that I was chasing my tail. No more.

So, more specifics about ashleycorr.com - currently showing a hit counter of 75,111 visitors as I write this blog entry, the site was set up and designed by myself, with no previous experience of Web Build. Those first few days were an opener, to say the least, when I opened up the Content Management System and wondered what I'd let myself in for. Although the toolbox didn't look too daunting, unlike that of Photoshop CS6 (gulp!), there was a hell of a lot to get to grips with and a brief dabble with the tools left me with no doubt that my delve into website building wasn't going to be an easy one. After dipping my toes in I quickly got to grips with quite a few of the features and found the software was exactly what I'd been looking for, as everything was there 'In the box', so to speak, just waiting to be lifted out. Exhibiting photography couldn't be easier and everything I wanted was here, including slideshows with the facilty to add music, pop-up galleries, image effects and much more. With an 'All you can eat' disc space of 5000 Megabytes there is scope for thousands of image uploads in future, so the sky is the limit in that particular department.

Forthcoming plans for my site - well, unless by some quirk of observation you haven't noticed a complete lack of activity on my Profile page, I can now announce my intention to get my arse into gear and turn that blank canvas into what it's supposed to be, a page about myself with accompanying photographs of yours truly. Hang on a minute, maybe that's not such a good idea at all, he he. For one reason or another I simply haven't got my act together to design the page, although I did have it up and running four years ago, only to 'Pull it' a few days later due to the cheesiness of my profile pic. Oh dear. I need to get out there and get some new photo's of myself, on location, camera in hand, so if you're up to the task then give me a shout. Profile page aside, there are no immediate plans to add anything major to my site, although I'm constantly thinking along the lines of improvisation, so don't be too surprised if I introduce new ideas at some point in the near future. My Canon 7D shoots stunning High Definition Video, which is something I may incorporate once the footage is edited, so keep your eyes peeled for that one. The Store at ashleycorr.com will be hosting new products shortly, including my new 2013 calendar, as well as A1 and A0 poster prints of my photography. Again, watch this space!

Finally, a big THANK YOU to you, my audience. Without those 75,111 hits my site wouldn't be what it is today. I often wonder who visits my site and where they live, which town, which country, which continent. I'm looking into Google Analytics, to find those answers, which are always interesting. As far as my blog page is concerned, click on the two images above for the latest stats - these relate to my blog page only, not site-wide. To date, my blog page has 10, 733 page views since its introdution on July 18th, 2009. It's all good stuff!

And on that note I shall make myself scarce. Time for a cup of coffee.
Thanks for visiting!
Ashley Corr (Webmaster & Curry Connoisseur)

It's that time of year again

Yes, it's that time of year again. Autumn is almost over and Winter will soon be upon us. It's usually this time of year that my time 'In the field' with my trusty Nikon is at a minimum as I fulfill orders for framed prints in the run-up to Christmas. Although many hours are put in when printing and framing my images, with the rewards being very welcome, I still get most enjoyment when I'm out there, doing the easy bit - capturing those rather nice digital images. Now that the early dark nights are here, plus those sensible 'Alarm Clock' mornings for sunset shots, I'll still be putting time aside for more low-light work. This is an area of photography that I've always had a big interest in and my website will testify to this. Of course, it's all pot-luck isn't it. There's been many a time I've turned up at 5.00am onwards but the sun hasn't. But, as they say, if you don't buy a raffle ticket...

So, although October was a busy time for updates at ashleycorr.com, November could well be lighter in the way of new offerings. I have quite a lot of orders to fulfill, including framed images, calendars, postcards and mounts, but all work and no play might see me miss out on some nice new shots. The batteries are charged and the Lowepro bag is fully equipped...stay tuned...

Thank ya kindly, AC