Autumnal Misty Morning

The opportunist photographer can often be rewarded with that special shot when determined to go that extra mile. I had one such moment last week, which paid off when I pulled in an autumnal misty morning shot at Joe's Pond, a nature reserve in Houghton le Spring. This location was often well frequented until I edged away from the nature side of things in favour of landscape and seascape photography. Appearances at Rainton Meadows and Joe's Pond are a rarity these days, which is something I'll be working on over the Winter months when I make more of an effort to revisit. Earlier this week I managed to get back round there, even though it was very much unplanned and a spur of the moment visit. I was driving home after a night shift at Nissan when my eyes were drawn to a thick blanket of mist on my final descent into Houghton, via the cut. Visibility was fine on this nippy Autumn morning, so the mist stuck out like a sore thumb around 7.20am. The mist was obviously lying on the surface of the water at Rainton Meadows, and although I've made this return journey home many times, it's quite rare to see mist forming as thick as this, so I just had to take a closer look.

I popped home, tired from an eight hour shift at the sweat shop and ready for some breakfast, I put that to one side and got changed, grabbed my backpack and headed for Rainton Meadows. I parked up and made the ten minute walk towards Joe's Pond, taking in the view of the mist on the nearby fields, which was very photogenic to say the least. Tempted to stop and grab some photographs, I reminded myself that the water was where I was heading and that any stop en route may cause me to miss what was on offer. Soon enough I was at the waters edge and it was a sight and a half. No one else around, just me, the swans and the mist. The sun rose above the tree line on the opposite side of the pond, making me realise that I had no time to lose if I wanted to bag the shot I was after. The Mute Swans were over to the left and out of shot. I needed to coax them over, but in a hurry to get over here I forgot to bring some bread. Never mind, I'll rattle that empty bread bag that some lazy bugger discarded on the floor. It worked well, although I wished I could have rewarded the Swans with some food as they drifted over, bang centre where I wanted them, right in the middle of shot. The shutter tripped!

An autumnal misty morning, accompanied with a website screen shot and a link to the TV weather
slot that featured my photograph, as well the feedback I received on one of the Facebook pages. It went down very well on Facebook, pulling in over 400 likes on three separate pages. And to think, I almost never bothered. I was soon back in the house and tucking into a nice cooked breakfast, before a bath and then bed. Job done!

Ash

Click here for video clip - ITV Weather (29/10/14)
Click here for Facebook feedback - Let's Talk Photography North-East

BBC Look North - Winning Weather Shot

Hello again.
Earlier this week my 'Buttermere Dawn' shot won the August weather competition on BBC Look North. It will now feature on the 2014 'Children In Need' Calendar, which I'm chuffed to bits about. The calendar, which sells in thousands each year, is due to go on sale in November, as its release coincides with 'Children' In Need day. It was first time lucky for me, as I'd never previously submitted one of my photo's to BBC TV for one reason or another, so it was a big surprise to win the competition in August, even though my photo had been shown earlier on two consecutive nights. It seems quite a while ago that I was stood at the waters edge at Buttermere, yet it was only three weeks since that day, and one that I won't forget in a hurry. Many thanks go to the judge who picked out my shot, Alison Leddy, and even better that she is a landscape photographer herself, so she obviously knows what makes a great shot. It must have been a difficult choice for her to make though, as I was up against some big competition, judging by the batch of shots that were shown in the run up to announcing the overall winner. You'll see them all in the video clip below. So, without further ado, here it is...

See ya all later,
Ash

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 55-59)

Hello again.

It's time for another video upload of my photographs that have been shown on TV recently. Another five to add to the collection, which now stands at 59. They are as follows -

55. First Light, Littlehaven, South Shields
56. Midnight, Penshaw Monument
57. Littlehaven Sunrise, South Shields
58. Littlehaven Sunrise, South Shields (slideshow)
59. Millennium Bridge, Newcastle Quayside

So, here they are...
AC

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 50-54)

Welcome back to my BlogSpot!
I recently hit a milestone of 50 weather photographs of mine that have been shown on Tyne-Tees Television. I often go a while without sending any in, but I put that right recently by making more of an effort by emailing them one photo per week. I was fortunate that they showed every one, so here is my latest offerings below, on the embedded video player. The photographs are as follows...

1. Roker Pier (Lunchtime slot)
2. Seaham Pier (Evening slot, both same day)
3. Gibson's Cave, Teesdale
4. Penshaw Monument At Night

That's 54 to date, with more photo's ready to go. They must be getting rather sick of me, by now, he he. Check out my latest gallery update on ashleycorr.com. 8 new shots of Penshaw Monument at night - new blog entry coming soon!

Cheers, Ash

 

Tyne-Tees Television (Part 49)

As quick as the last batch of video clips were uploaded I've got another one to share (bottom of this blog entry), taken last Sunday (10th March) and shown on Tyne-Tees Television the following day. Another snow scene, captured at nearby Herrington Country Park during a blast of snowfall. From the main road I could see across the park to my right, noticing a group of blokes flying kites, so I made an instant decision that they would add to a good photo, with Penshaw Monument as a backdrop. I parked up soon after and headed across the far corner of the park to find a position to compose my shot, passing the kite flyer's as I went. The snowfall was full on in my face and visibility was very poor. I asked myself yet again what the hell I was up to in these mad conditions, but I've lost count of the times I've questioned my sanity and went on to grab 'The Shot', so onward I travelled. Reaching a good spot in the deserted park, I dropped my bag on the floor and unzipped it, removing the Star Of The Show, ready to get to work. I turned round to eye up what was on offer and their was a big fat nowt - visibility was no better than when I arrived and the Monument simply wasn't there. The snow had been off and on for the last hour, so I stood there like the classic tin of milk, waiting for the next lull. During this time I was numb with cold and covered in Snar from head to foot, which must have been a funny sight for any passers by, but today I lucky, there weren't any. Not hard to guess why. Atrocious conditions!

Within a few minutes the snowfall eased off and visibility improved massively. Hello Penshaw Monument, where were you? Time to get busy. The kite flyer's were having no more and packed their plastic away, so I grabbed my first shot as they headed back in single file to their nearby cars. Forget the kites, I still managed to make a decent picture. As I walked back to my car I fired off a few extra frames, catching some decent foreground in the shape of a crossroads (see photo 2). There was no colour to be had today, so black & white conversion was the way forward with this batch, and it worked quite well. Again, patience, perseverance and the odd 'Screw Loose' ruled the day. I was friggin 'Brass Monkey' but it was worth it. Shot one (top) was pulled in with a 70-300mm telephoto lens and the others with the L Series 24-105mm zoom, all attached to the Canon 5D Mk2 body, which is one hell of a piece of kit. Below is the video clip that was aired live on regional TV this week, plus you can can view it on the Tyne-Tees Weather site in High Definition if you wish, just scroll down to 'Monday 11 Mar 2013' - click here to view. Just below the video clip is the stand-alone photo, posted in the 'Sunday 10 Mar 2013' section. I have other Weather Photo's on the same site but you'll need to search for them in the archives.

And that's for now. I've got more new galleries opening up at ashleycorr.com very soon, including... 'Historic York' and 'Black & White 2' so look out for them. Late March will see me heading across the A66 to the Lake District, where I hope to bring back some top notch shots of the National Park. I'll be up on the fells once again, although I'm not sure which one yet. Spring and Summer will test me and the new camera out, so I'm looking forward to the challenge, plus there will be a big updates in my 'On Location' section as foreign travel is booked and I can't wait for that one. No clues as to what Country (or rather, Countries) - but I expect to bring back some great shots, so once again, stay tuned.

I'll be back soon with more photography. Thanks for visiting!
Ash

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

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 44 & 45)

I'm back with another video clip!
Just getting up to speed with my latest Weather photographs that I recently submitted to Tyne-Tees Television. Two more shots, one of which was shown late November and the other on December 22nd. The first was taken along the banks of the River Wear in Durham City Centre. A low-light shot of Durham Cathedral, using a long shutter speed of 50 seconds on the Bulb setting, fired remotely with the aid of Mirror Lock. A nice shot, especially with the nice reflection of Durham Cathedral in the almost still waters. It was pitch black at the time of capture, which is hard to believe when you study the detail in the composition, but those long shutter speeds put paid to any under-exposure, so if you fancy giving it a try, dive in! Lack of light doesn't always scupper the chance of a decent shot, just let your creative juices do the rest and you'll be surprised at what you can achieve. To read more of this outing, click here.

My second Weather shot was captured on Seaham Pier. You may recall a recent blog entry that was dedicated to this particular outing, if not...click here to read about it. I like this shot a lot. A lovely sunrise, around 8.30am, a couple of weeks ago. Well worth getting out of bed for. The details, well, another long exposure of 4 seconds, perched on the tripod, aperture priority at f22, 100 ISO, fired remotely (as per), and shot in RAW format at 18 Mega pixels. The shot is tack sharp from back to front and may well get the print treatment at A2. We'll see...

And that's about it, for now. I'll be back soon with the final book cover of 'High Moon 2' which features one of my Finchale Abbey shots. The book is about to go to print, so more on that, as and when it happens. Again, for anyone who may have missed the finer details of this - click here.

Speak soon, Ash

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

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 35-39)

Another update to my Blog and it comes in the shape of more video clips taken from the regional weather bulletin on Tyne-Tees Television. I submitted five photographs, three of which were shown in one week during January 2012, with the remainder being shown late January/ early February. The first video player contains two of my photographs which were part of a slideshow of Winter Sunrise shots, followed by another set of Winter Scenes. My contribution was -
1. Seven Sisters Sunrise, Houghton le Spring
2. Bamburgh Castle Sunrise, Northumberland



The second video player contains a compilation of three photographs, which are as follows -
3. Millennium Bridge, Newcastle Quayside
4. Mute Swan At Sunset, Rainton Meadows, Houghton le Spring
5. Frosty Dawn, Penshaw Monument, Tyne & Wear

Thanks for visiting. More website updates to follow...stay tuned.Ash

Tyne-Tees Television (Parts 29-34)

Hello again!
It's been a while since I posted any video clips on my Blog page, so without further ado...
To be honest, I haven't submitted many photographs to Tyne-Tees Television in 2011 for one reason or another so I'll have to get my arse back into gear and do the necessary. Here are my most recent efforts, which have been sitting on my hard drive for weeks now. I've uploaded three weather photographs to each video player below and they are as featured...

29. Seven Sisters, Copt Hill, Houghton le Spring
30. Catbells, Northern Fells, English Lake District
31. Bassenthwaite & Ullock Pike, Lake District




32. Angel Of The North, Gateshead
33. Angel Of The North, Gateshead
34. Seven Sisters, Copt Hill, Houghton le Spring

Until the next time...

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