Take Us To Your Leader

Another night under the stars last Sunday (21st October, 2018) after a photography day out in the heart of Middleton in Teesdale. Clear skies were on show as we arrived back in Sunderland around 9pm, so it seemed a good idea to prolong the photography. I would have been working a night shift, but I had booked a holiday in, so I was keen to get the most out of my day off the grind. We headed to the coastal area at South Shields, South Tyneside, to attempt a star trail at an artwork near the Little Haven Hotel. Conversation piece, or The Weebles, as they are known locally, would be the creepy subject of tonight's star trail. It worked well - an hour of the earth's rotation was captured on an increasingly cold night.

The Weebles - copied and pasted from your friend and mine - Wikipedia...

These magnificent statues, affectionately known as the 'weebles', are a firm favourite with visitors and residents alike. Situated next to Little haven Beach at the mouth of the Tyne in South Shields, the 22 mysterious figures stand in various poses; some deep in conversation with one another, others simply gazing out to sea. Each figure is approximately 1.5 metres high and weighs approximately a quarter of a ton. They are a fitting tribute to South Tyneside's glorious coast and a poignant posthumous monument to the work of internationally acclaimed Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz.

Catch ya later … Ash

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Hello again and welcome to another rare blog entry - my first of 2018. I've had some recent issues regarding signing in to my Blogger account, but hopefully they are now a thing of the past and I can reignite this page once and for all. This is easier said than done, however, but I'll get my act together one of these days, trust me.

And so it continues with more writings. Planes, trains & Automobiles - an account of a recent visit to a train graveyard in the North-East of England. An ideal place to practise some more night time photography under a sky full of stars. Make no mistake - this graveyard is one hell of a place to visit with the camera. Without doubt a place of unending interest - a place where your thoughts can very easily be transported back in time to an era that you never actually experienced. I stood there, surrounded by trains, carriages and trucks from a bygone age, all ancient and disused. This was a museum of relics, most of which were standing idle on short sections railway lines, accompanied by a platform, a station, a turntable, amongst others. As a photographer of the night sky, this place was a gold mine of foreground interest - an absolute gem of a place that I was wanting to bring into my photography. The scene was set. All that was now required came in the shape of two camera's on tripods and a boat load of patience from myself. Put the two together and the results are shown here.

Me and our Chris had visited this place three months ago to attempt a star trail. 40 minutes in and some unexpected clouds drifted across and closed things down. It was a disappointment, but not to be derailed, it was a case of waiting for another opportunity to eventually tick this one off. Three months had passed before the opportunity presented itself. This was New Years Day, 2018. Clear skies were here once again. Factor in a 20 minute drive to this location and it was game on once again. Let's get this party started. Upon arrival it was quite chilly, with a slight wind thrown into the mix. Once parked up we went through the gate and headed down the ramp towards the graveyard. Once down in the dip there was a very noticeable temperature drop and the wind that was is suddenly no longer. Looking above it was a sorry sight. Cloud cover was claiming at least 70% of the sky and certainly not what the weather watchers had forecasted earlier in the day. Hmm, looks like we'll have to wait it out. Have faith in the weather watchers and thou shall be rewarded.

For almost an hour, we scouted out the best spots for our imminent star trail. Once decided, we killed time by photographing some of most eye-catching trains and trucks until the sky had cleared. In fact, some of this unwanted cloud was beginning to play a part in my first shots of the night. It was fast moving and a couple of five second exposures pulled in some great results. There was a full moon tonight, which was to play a big part in our star trails, as it sat in an ideal position behind us, lighting the scene perfectly. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Not a bad way to start a new year, with the pieces of the puzzle falling nicely into place. Neat.

PLANES -
Oh there was more than a few. Yeah, we were close to a flight path and the new year traffic was
in abundance. Nothing new there then. There would be some canny Photoshop wizardry going on tomorrow remove those plane trails.

TRAINS -  
Awesome foreground. Relics of interest. Dozens of them, adding to a scene that an astro photographer would lap up in no time. I've picked out some interesting foreground in the past, but photographing this stuff beats the lot. Even the abandoned aeroplane in Cumbria. Oh yes, it doesn't get better than this.

AUTOMOBILES -
With heated seats! With the shots in the bag it was time to get out of this place. Heaters on, radio on and yes ... those heated seats, too. A quick stop off at our local kebab shop rounded off a great night.

And those star trail shots. Yeah, one lasted 100 minutes in total. After setting the Canon away I moved a few metres down the track to set up my Sony a7s. Ten minutes of preps and the camera was now set up and firing. This one would run continuously for around 90 minutes, after which time we stopped our camera's and packed up, before heading off site and into the warmth and comfort of the 'Automobile'. Another job done. I love nights like this. The images were collected and in the bag. 

Camera settings ~ (star trails)
Canon 5D3, Samyang 14mm prime, Aperture f2.8, 30 seconds x 200 exposures, ISO 500

Sony a7s, Canon 16-35L, Commlite Adaptor, Aperture f4, 30 seconds x 180 seconds, ISO 400

(single shots)
Canon 5D3, Samyang 14mm prime, Aperture f4, 15 seconds, ISO 500, with torch to light foreground


Until the next time, cheers

Ash

RAF Spadeadam - Revisited

Welcome back!

Following on from my last blog entry, this is the second part of the RAF Spadeadam trilogy - a night time visit under the stars. I'd been excited about a revisit since our first outing a couple of weeks previously. The thought of getting back into Cumbria to attempt a trail shot kept me ticking over nicely, whilst anticipating the drive west, over the A69 for more astro photography. As you can see by the BBC Weather screenshot from that day, clear skies was the forecast and a three quarter moon phase would help to light up the foreground. A second screenshot, also shown here, gives an indication of where the moon would be around 11pm, the time we planned to arrive on site . The position of the moon was perfect - ideally placed in the south west and directly behind where we planned to shoot from. The elements were on our side tonight. We arrived on time, as expected, then began to shoot our star trails. My brother Chris was alongside once again - there was on way I was heading here on my own. The site was open once again as we headed through the wooded area and parked next to the cattle grid - a ten minute walk to the abandoned Lockheed Shooting Star.

I was running with two camera's - a Canon 5D3 and the amazing Sony a7s mirrorless cam. I wanted to pull in two star trails, one portrait and one landscape, hence the use of two camera's. Lens choices on the night were Canon 16-35 f2.8 and a Samyang 14mm prime, also at f2.8. From memory, we were on site around 90 minutes, during which time it became increasingly colder, even though we could hardly feel it when we arrived. I reckon the task of negotiating the boggy access field warmed us up a tad. I'd opted for walking boots on this occasion, but the field wasn't anywhere near as dry as our first visit, so my got rather soaked and it was no fun standing in wet boots for an hour and a half.

Once we stopped the star trail sequence we ran off a few selfies before heading back home. It was a productive night and an enjoyable one too, despite the brass monkey bollocks I acquired on the night. All part of the fun I suppose, with hindsight. It didn't feel like fun at the time, he he. As well as capturing a star trail or two, I also put together a motion star trail from one of the sets of images I pulled in. The result can be seen on my 'Night Sky Time Lapse Compilation' which I uploaded to my You Tube channel. Click here to view it.

With the job done I was already planning to make a third visit to photograph the airframe under the milky way. This came to fruition a week later. Stay tuned for that - coming next. And on that note I shall vanish once again. Back soon folks. Cheers, Ash

Star Trails @ Souter Lighthouse, Marsden

Ey-up!

Another blog entry heading your way. I'm gonna try and keep on top of my blog page as I know just how easily I can be distracted by my ACP Facebook page. Around 18 months ago I finally joined Facebook after steering away from it for so long. It was the commitment to that which was mainly to blame for me taking a back seat with my blog, so I'm gonna try not to let that happen again. It's a bit of a juggling act to say the least, but hopefully I'll get it right this time. I enjoy updating the blog, although sometimes I struggle with the task of not repeating myself. Ah well, I'll plod on and continue with the adventures of a roaming Mackem. Today's update comes in the shape of some recent Astrophotography. What the frig is Astrophotography, I hear you say. Well, let me enlighten you...(cut and pasted from the ver trusty Wikipedia)... 

Astrophotography is a specialized type of photography for recording images of astronomical objects and large areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it was not until the late 19th century that advances in technology allowed for detailed stellar photography. Besides being able to record the details of extended objects such as the Moon, Sun, and planets, astrophotography has the ability to image objects invisible to the human eye such as dim stars, nebulae, and galaxies.

Now we've got that little issue out of the way I'd like to tell you about my recent trip to Souter Lighthouse, near Marsden, which lies along our coastal route between Whitburn and South Shields. I decided on this location to do a star trail sequence as it is an ideal spot with not too much light pollution if you're facing Polaris (the North Star). On this occasion though, I wanted to give Polaris a night off and instead capture the sequence in a westerly facing direction. I was pretty much dictated by the shot I had in mind and the particular direction I would need to face to achieve this. So, I took up position with my back to the North Sea, which included a nice lead in line which was a set of steps. Obviously the lighthouse was to be my focal point and the star trail would finish the shot off. Well, these things always seem to work in theory, but it was now time to put in all into practise. As you can imagine, it was dark by the time I set my gear up and there was no-one else around. I wish I had a quid for every time I looked behind me. Paranoia tends to kick in during situations like this, but you just have to grow a pair and get on with it.

I don't remember off hand how long I ran the sequence for. I remember 30 second continuous exposures clicking away for quite a while, or so it seemed. Looking at the finished shot I was guess I stood there for around twenty minutes or so. More than happy with the result. I've included a colour splash version for good measure.

I still feel very much a novice in this area, although I've done half a dozen star trail sequences during the past year. It's all about how long you can wait it out. The longer the sequence, the better the trails. Hope you like it..

Back soon... Ash

Edlingham Castle, Northumberland

A first time visit to this location, at night, in the sticks, to have another bash at some Astro Photography. Arriving past dusk in almost pitch darkness, it was helpful in one way that an almost full moon was visible, although we weren't entirely sure how this would impact on the photographs we were about to take. A quick visual of this small site was enough to set up the camera near a large tree, just inside the main gate. Overhanging branches caught my eye immediately and this made for good top half interest, with the ruins sitting underneath. My first shot was right in front of me and the moon added that extra bit of atmosphere to it, so it wasn't long before the shutter was at work. The foreground ruins were lit by torch and the occasional bounce flash. Here is the first shot of the evening, taken around 6.30pm.

Before I continue I'd like to give you a brief history of Edlingham Castle, cut and pasted from the trusty Wikipedia page. It don't half come in handy!

Edlingham Castle is a small castle ruin, having Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I listed building status, in the care of English Heritage, in a valley to the west of Alnwick, Northumberland, England. It has been described as "One of the most interesting in the county", by Nikolaus Pevsner, the architectural historian. Edlingham itself is little more than a hamlet with a church alongside the castle. The ruins are mostly laid low though much of the solar tower still stands despite an impressive crack running several stories down to ground level. The foundations and part of the walls of the hall house, gatehouse, barbican and other courtyard buildings are still visible, most dating from the 16th century. The castle - more properly a fortified manor house typical of many medieval houses in the North of England - guards one of the few approaches to Alnwick through the hills to its west. Its fortifications were increased in response to the border warfare which raged between England and Scotland in the period from about 1300 to 1600.

By 1174, a manor house at the location was in the possession of a John of Edlingham. In 1294, a descendant, Walter of Edlingham sold it to William de Felton, who strengthened it by building strong ramparts and a gatehouse, fortifying the main hall and adding other buildings inside a courtyard. In 1396 Elizabeth de Felton inherited it, marrying Sir Edmund Hastings, who added a strong solar tower. Their descendants occupied the castle and estate until 1514; it was then it was purchased by George Swinburne; a constable of Prudhoe, whose family held it until the 18th century. During this time it gradually fell into disrepair, with most of the buildings dismantled to build nearby farmhouses in the 1660s, but leaving the solar tower intact. In 1978 the Department for the Environment acquired the site and conducted extensive archaeological excavations, prior to which rubble filled the solar tower to a height of three metres. The site is now in the care of English Heritage and is easily accessible from the nearby church of St John the Baptist, Edlingham.

We were on site for a couple of hours, taking photographs from various angles and at one point we climbed the perimeter fence and headed across a small field towards the stream to get a much wider angle of view. It was from here that the Milky Way was visible and rising directly behind the tower. The Milky Way was nowhere near as prominent as it would have been without the high moon playing a part, but nevertheless is was there and it was ready to be photographed. As you can see in the second photo above, the MW appears faintly behind the ruins. As the moon moved across, from left to right (east to west), even less detail could be picked out. Another night of pitch darkness, with the moon set and a clear sky, would ensure visibility at it's very best. Maybe next time, eh.

A final flurry of shots came in the shape of a star trail, which you can see here (right). Not the best of examples by any means, but it was nice to finish with a sequence of 25 shots that could be stacked in Photoshop to achieve this effect. Play was stopped prematurely when lens dew appeared. In fact, when wiping the dew with a lens cloth it became apparent that it was actually a very thin layer of ice, which was quite stubborn to remove. Ice, after only twelve minutes in! Ah well, ya can't have it all. It was odd really, because even though it was very cold at the time, I became quite immune to it and could've easily continued for another hour or two. It was only after we'd packed up and headed back to the car that the cold hit me. Walking into it was a wake up call alright. We were soon back into the car and the heaters were on full pelt. It was a good night overall. Great location. Just the background noise of a flowing stream and several Owls calling. Definitely a place to revisit.

Cheers, AC