Church On The Hill, Washington Village

There is only one holy hill in Washington village and that is the one upon which the Holy Trinity Church stands. Also known as the 'Church On The Hill', it is situated right next to the Old Hall in Washington Village.

It was purely by chance that I got this shot as I had intended to visit the gardens of the Old Hall but it was closed on Wednesday's. A bit strange I thought, but never mind. It was a lovely day too, and at this point I thought I'd have to do a runner and return another day. I walked the short distance back to the car - yes, I'm a bit of a lazy bugger after putting in a night shift! Right next to the car were the steps to the church and I couldn't help but notice the floral display right in front of me. Time to 'Tap in' and see what I could get. I took a few low angle shots with the 'Live View' activated as I didn't fancy lying on the floor and composing through the viewfinder.

Quite pleased with the results. Infact, I think I'll send one in to Pip at Tyne Tees - she likes a flower or two.

That is all.

Ash

Sunderland Echo (x2)

Two more of my photo's were published in the Sunderland Echo newspaper earlier this week. I must have sent them in a while back because I've been busy with other things lately and I haven't sent in any recent images. Still, it was a nice surprise to see my photo of Washington Old Hall followed by the 'Swans At Sunset' a couple of nights later. Infact, the Swans were captured last summer and I'm quite sure the shot has already been published but those folk at the Echo must have thought it deserved another crack.

I've got stacks more shots to send in to the Echo, so now I've caught up with my website work I'll be submitting a batch in the next few days.

Cheers, Ash

Wildlife Photography

Following my recent blog entry 'The Nesting Season', I'm back with an update in the shape of more wildlife photography.

Recent wanderings in my locality brought me a few photo opportunities in the company of Mute Swans. I'd left the compulsory loaf of bread at home by mistake so I wasn't too hopeful of any close-up shots, especially as I didn't have my 'Lure'. Never mind, you've gotta be optimistic.

I'd stumbled across 4 Mute Swan nests when I was out with my son Christopher, and as usual, the hen was sitting. Naturally the birds become quite aggressive if you push your luck and get too close to the nest site. Over the years I've had quite a lot of experience photographing Mute Swans at the nest site so I know my limits - wouldn't fancy being pecked in the face off one o' them buggers!

It's been around three weeks now since the nest discoveries so it shouldn't be too long now before each clutch of eggs hatch. That's when the fun will begin. Obviously, as experience tells me, the best shots of cygnets are most definately during those first few days, when they look very photogenic at such a small size. I have a few photo's of day old chicks on my website but I'm hoping to get plenty more in the next week or so. Hopefully all eggs will hatch successfully and the nest robbers will be kept at bay, well, for at least another year!

As hatching draws nearer here are a few more shots that I took last weekend. They were all taken at ONE of the nest sites but I hope to visit the other three this coming weekend, so there might be more news in the pipeline by Sunday night. Looks like I'll be parting with some pennies to buy a loaf of the owld Warburton's Toastie, eh. A small price to pay if I'm gonna get some good close-up's. Anyway, hope you like the latest shots. I'm liking the reflection one quite a lot. See ya later...

Ash

Too Much Telly?

Aye, Mr Corr has been monpolizing the Tyne Tees TV weather slot lately. Well, that's according to someone who sent me the two images shown here (you know who you are!) he he.

I've been forwarding my recent photo's to Pip Thomson via email and she's included twelve of my shots up to now in 2010. The other weather girl, Alex Watson, stand's in for Pip now and again, especially on weekends.

I have changed the text in the second image. Aye, it was a bit naughty.

Click on an image to enlarge. I wonder if I get any more sent through???

Ash

The Nesting Season

It's been a while since I took any nature photo's, mainly due to the long cold winter we had recently. It was nice to get back into it this week at a local location which I will simply call 'The Pond' - for reasons I will touch on later in this post.

My son Christopher, aged 9, loves a bit of nature. Ya know, frogs, spiders, fish and the like. He was dying to get round the pond with his net and jar to catch a few tadpoles, so off we went on this calm summer's night. It was nice and peaceful and we only passed a handful of people on our journey which lasted a couple of hours.
It didn't take the little fella long to get into his stride as he brought up atleast 30 tadpoles with hid first scoop of the net, which brought a big smile from him shortly afterwards. As he sat at the waters edge I nipped into nearby reeds to photograph a coot's nest which contains both eggs and chicks. The chicks could have only been a day old and were ready to take their maiden voyage on the pond as I snapped away. I grabbed half a dozen quick shots before leaving the nest site and returning to the little fella and his jar of taddies.

We then walked around the whole site, passing many nests in the reeds as we went. It's a great place to visit and photograph but you always encounter the odd 'Bad Egg' or two on your travels.
By this I mean the regular knbob-head who has nothing better to do with his time other than rob nests and even shoot the nesting birds as they sit. It's a problem that seems to have tailed off over the years but not entirely, as a male swan was shot in the neck a couple of weeks ago and the hen then deserted the nest in search of it's mate. Quite sickening really. Only last year a Peregrine Falcon laid a clutch of eggs at Houghton Quarry but was later found dead after being poisoned by the preverbial knob-head. God knows how many years it's been since a Peregrine nested in Houghton! So, without really knowing which locals could be reading this blog entry I will avoid naming the location where I took these photographs for the safety of the birds and their eggs, especially when I came across a Mute Swan with a massive clutch of 10 eggs! More on that one later...

That's all for now,

Ash & Christopher

My Website - www.ashleycorr.com

Hello again!

I'd just like to take a bit of time out from my recent photography outings to say a few words about my website - Ashley Corr Photography. In early April 2010 my site cleared 30,000 hits, which is quite a landmark even though the site went 'Live' back in November 2003.

I've been monitoring the hit counter at regular intervals recently and the last three weeks alone have turned in almost 700 hits. Behind the scenes I've been advertising my website and its domain name (ashleycorr.com) is featured on everything I sell, including framed prints, mounted prints, postcards and calendars.

I endeavour to update my site as regular as possible, whether it's new images, new pages, page ammendments, or even a link to my latest blog entry. One thing that has taken a back seat is my online store which has been under reconstruction for longer than I had first anticipated, but should be up and running within the next couple of weeks. This has been a time consuming excercise and I do it all myself, which often limits the time I spend outdoors doing the best bit - taking photographs. It's been a bit of a juggling act but hopefully everything will pan out soon and normal business shall be resumed. If it's not then you're more than welcome to call round to my house and hoy a brick through the winda! Erm, only jokin' folks - forget I said that bit, he he.

So, to everyone who has emailed me regarding online purchases, thanks for your co-operation and hopefully everyone got what they wanted while my Store section was 'Down'. I always try to help customers where I can and alternative transaction methods can be done until the store is up and running again.

To those customers who have enquired about canvas prints through my site - until now I have not been in a position to offer my work in this format but that may well be about to change as I'm currently looking into the possibility of 'In-house' canvas printing. Stay tuned here and on my website for further information...

Finally, thanks to everyone has purchased my photographs, not just through my site but also the outlets in Sunderland that currently stock my work. Also, thanks to all those who took the time to post in my Guest Book. Your feedback is always welcome!

Catch ya later, Ash

Spectacular Sunsets

Unless you've been on another planet during the last ten days or so you'll have
probably heard about the volcanic eruptions in Iceland, which has sent huge clouds of ash our way. According to news reports the micro fine particles of dust from the ash cloud are reflecting in an abnormal manner in the sky. So when the sun goes down the reflection of these particles makes the sunset more spectacular.

Well I haven't seen much of these 'Spectacular Sunsets' on my travels during the last few days. Well, there's been the odd nice sunset up here but nothing special. Maybe I missed all the action when I was sitting in the house gorging on Indian takeaways!

Last Friday night I headed off to the Angel Of The North in the hope of seeing one of these fine sunsets. I thought a silhouette of the Angel against a sunset backdrop would work well, so off I went. When I got to the location the car park was stuffed! It was obvious there were a lot of other folk up here for a nice sunset, but although there was quite a bit of cloud kicking about I wasn't expecting much in the way of a great sunset. I eventually got parked along the far end of the car park and made my way towards the Angel. When I got there, as I expected, there were lots of of photographers kitted up and ready to go. It was a case of jostling for position without p*ssing anyone off. Aye, it's a bummer when you set up stall and some tit walks right in front of you and sets his own gear up. You're then thinking to yourself 'Ere mate, can ya shift out me way afore ah wrap that tripod aroond ya skinny neck' !!!

As the sun went down there was a young couple sitting on a nearby bank, taking in the view. I took a photograph of them and waited for the colours in the sky to show, which they usually do shortly after sunset. After about 15 minutes a few photographers packed up and disappeared. I waited a while longer in case the colours got better. A couple of times in the past I've left a scene too early and the sky suddenly burst into colour, so I wasn't gonna make the same mistake this time.

Well, that was about it. Nothing spectacular tonight and although it was a decent sunset it wasn't what I and quite a few others had hoped for. I hung around and took a few more
photo's before walking back to the car. Never mind. Maybe next time...

Ash