Roseberry Topping, Nr Great Ayton

Welcome back to my blog page!
I have many new photo's to share, but finding the time to upload them is another matter, which is the main reason ashleycorr.com hasn't had the update treatment lately. But that is about to change. A busy July scuppered my chances of getting out with the camera, which obviously had a knock on effect with site updates. However, I got my arse into gear this week and ventured outdoors once again to catch some more of the local landscape, including sets from Offerton, Cox Green and Wearmouth. They'll be here soon enough, but first up is a selection of images I captured in North Yorkshire, at Roseberry Topping near Great Ayton, a fifty minute drive from my home. I'd visited this location as a kid, as part of a school trip to Captain Cook Country, and distinctly remember being shepherded up the hill by our teacher, who clearly wasn't enjoying the task due to a complete lack of fitness on his part. Roseberry Topping is a mere 320m in height, so hardly Mount Everest in comparison, yet our shepherd struggled big style, and was ready to collapse at any given moment, much to the amusement of me and my classmates, he he. Since then, I've had no connection with Roseberry Topping, other than marvelling at it in photograph form, taken by Joe Cornish (probably Britain's most famous Landscape photographer). Joe lived locally for many years, so the Topping was on his doorstep - easily accessible throughout the changing seasons, and ready to be captured in all its glory. I made three visits to this site between May and June. My first jaunt was for one purpose only - to photograph the bluebells, with Roseberry Topping as a backdrop. The result is shown below. The bluebells were on show for quite some time, but getting 'The shot' wasn't as easy as first anticipated, due to the fact that a fair few had been trampled on by idiots. Aye well, you get them everywhere, unfortunately.

From the car, parked in the visitor car park at the foot of the hill, it was a very mild accent through the bluebell woods and up towards the summit, taking around 40 minutes in total. There were families up there, dogs, pensioners et al. Great views from the top, panoramic style. Another visit saw me heading through the woods once again, but instead of climbing to the summit, I headed through more wooded areas and out towards the fields. I wanted to retrace the steps of Joe Cornish and to locate one or two of his vantage points that he photographed from. After studying one of his shots in particular I headed up a footpath towards where I thought the shot was taken. I found it in no time. The foreground trees were ideal for a landscape shot that I was about to land, so I got to work quickly before the clouds drifted over and killed what was left of the blue sky in my viewfinder. Click. My first shot (top) is without doubt my favourite one from the three visits I made. I converted it to Black & White, and it too made a great shot! Another visit followed soon after, as I was in the nearby town of Guisborough, so paid a visit while the oilseed rape was on show, also shown here. And no doubt I'll be back again, sooner rather than later. I reckon Autumn might throw up one or two surprises down there.

Finally, click this link to view the Joe Cornish shot, which I replicated above. A nice comparison - which one do you prefer?

See ya soon, Ash

Penshaw Countryside

April 2011 saw the Spring weather take a firm hold in Houghton le Spring. It was a mild season in many respects - overcast skies and rain were evident most weeks but we had our fair share of sunshine too. One place I was drawn to, yet again, was Penshaw Hill, a ten minute drive from my home. I supply quite a lot of my work to Penshaw Tea Rooms & Nursery, who in turn sell it on their premises. The Tea Rooms look out onto Penshaw Hill and its dominating Monument, making it an obvious attraction and customers are surrounded by a selection of framed prints, by yours truly. Over the past two and a half years they've sold dozens of frames, including my mounted prints, canvases and postcards. Sales continue to do well as I write, so hopefully that will continue for some time to come. Naturally I'm always on the hunt for new photographs of Penshaw Monument so I tend to visit the National Trust site every few weeks to update my collection. My best selling images up to 2011 were of the nearby poppy fields which I shot during Spring 2008. Since then the oilseed rape hadn't been planted so I didn't get the opportunity to update my poppy shots, which by my own admission, weren't that good. That all changed however in Spring 2011 when I drove past Penshaw Hill towards the A19 dual carraigeway. I noticed to my left that the oilseed rape was in bloom and this signalled the arrival of the poppies once again, although that would follow the yellow carpet once it died off, probably in early May.

My first shot (shown here) was taken on an embankment next to a busy road near Penshaw Hill. I wanted a variation of shots from different points near the field, although the location of Penshaw Monument and the field itself meant I was shooting towards the Monument from similar angles. Situated on the edge of the field I included the wooden fence in the foreground, rather than have little or no interest in this part of the shot, as in my second effort shown below (shot 2).
Again I chose a day when there was plenty of broken cloud - something I prefer to add to landscape shots, as opposed to a clear blue sky or even an overcast one. I like those picture-postcard type shots and I've tried to capture that kind of Spring scene here. In ful bloom I'd say the oilseed rape only lasts a couple of weeks at most. As it begins to die off you begin to see the emergence of the poppies, usually scattered around the outskirts of the field, which was again the case in 2011 as red began to replace yellow. This shot was taken from a position right in the middle of the farmers field. No poppies in these shots though as I knew they'd be getting plenty of attention during the next few weeks, once the yellow had gone. As you can see in my third and final shot, the rapeseed was by now few and far between, but that was ok - I'd got what I wanted and that was that. All I needed now was the poppies, and plenty of them. It was time to update my collection of images and I knew a good batch would sit well in frames too. It wasn't long before the fields were in full bloom - but did I get what I wanted?
Results shortly...

Cheers, Ash