High Moor II - Moonstruck

As promised, an update on the new novel by Graeme Reynolds, High Moor II - Moonstruck, which is close to be publication. It features an image of mine on the front cover, of Finchale Abbey, County Durham, which is a ten minute drive from AC Towers. An earlier blog entry touches on the initial contact from Graeme and his illustrator, Stu Smith, but if you missed it, here it is. When Graeme first approached me regarding my photo of Finchale Abbey (shown below), I wondered how a colourful picture postcard shot would look on the cover of a Horror novel, especially if it followed the theme of the first book, High Moor. Stu Smith got it just right, and although there's a huge difference between my raw image and the reworked version that apperas as a backdrop on the High Moor II cover, the alerations work very well, in my opinion. The story is set in Finchale Abbey, and as you can see by the cover, bad things happen here! Graeme and the publishers are aiming for a February or March 2013 release date, so I'll update you as and when I get more news on that.

That's all for now. I've got more new photo's to share, on my blog page via the website, www.ashleycorr.com, so don't go far from your Internet connection - I'll be back soon with those shortly. Until then, enjoy what's left of your Christmas/New Year holiday, but if you're already back to the grind, never mind (he he he).

Ash

Infinity Bridge, Stockton-On-Tees

Welcome to my first blog entry of 2013, and a Happy New Year to everyone!

With the new year just a few hours old I was out and about once again with the trusty Canon 7D, heading south down the A19 towards Stockton-On-Tees, home to the Infinity Bridge. I don't know what it is about illuminated bridges that draws me in, as I've photographed quite a few nearer home, in particular the array of bridges along Newcastle Quayside. For some time now I've dedicated a lot of my 'Camera Time' to low-light photography, mainly at dusk, but also at dawn, when I'm often in pursuit of that dramatic sunrise shot. When I recently noticed the Infinity Bridge on a local news bulletin, I made a mental note of it and added it to my 'Places to visit' in 2013, although I never imagined I'd be making that visit on January 1st. So what better way to begin a new year of photography than adding more low-light shots to my collection - no doubt this will be my first of many visits to this location, of that I'm sure.

The bridge was officially opened in May 2009,
following construction work that started in June 2007. It is a public pedestrian and cycle footbridge across the River Tees in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees in the north east of England. The bridge is situated one kilometre downriver of Stockton town centre, between the Princess of Wales Bridge and the Tees Barrage and it links the Teesdale Business Park and the University of Durham's Queen's Campus in Thornaby-on-Tees on the south bank of the Tees. The bridge is a dual, tied arch bridge or bowstring bridge. It has a pair of continuous, differently-sized structural steel arches with suspended precast concrete decking. The bridge deck is 5 m wide and 4 m between its handrails. The main arch of the bridge is 120 m long, weighing 300 tonnes, 32 m tall with its top 40 m above the Tees and the short arch is 60 m long and 16 m tall. The hangers (droppers) are spaced 7.5 m apart and are made from 30 mm diameter high strength locked coil steel cable. The tie cables are 90 mm diameter on the large arch and 65 mm on the smaller. A special feature is made of the way the bridge is lit at night. The bridge handrail and footway are lit with custom made blue and white LED lighting built into the handrail that changes colour as users cross. Attached to the steel cable ties are white metal-halide up-lighters to illuminate the white painted bridge arches, and blue LED down-lighters to illuminate the water and ground surfaces immediately below the deck. At night from certain viewing angles when the river surface is flat calm, the twin arches together with their reflection in the river appear as an infinity symbol ∞, and it is this effect that inspired its name.

Following the SatNav, I arrived at the bridge after a thirty minute journey, steady away from Houghton le Spring. The light was falling quickly so I got to work straight away, shooting from the top of a staircase, across the water, with the Infinity Bridge slightly over to my left. It was a great angle to shoot from. I fired off a few frames before making my way onto the bridge and making the short walk across to the other side of the River Tees, where I took more shots, this time with the last colours on the horizon directly in front of me, looking West. The river was flowing quickly, with the tide heading out, so there was no chance of any still water reflections tonight. Maybe another time. I headed back across the bridge, struggling to keep a grip on my tripod due to the fact that my fingers were about to drop off. It was effing freezing! But I was almost done, so I made my way back across the water and once again took up position on the staircase where I originally photographed the Infinity Bridge. The sky was much darker by this time and it looked much better as a backdrop, which you can see here (shots 3 & 5). Click an image to reveal a larger version.

And that was that. Another outing that yielded some good shots. I was glad to get back in the car to be honest. The heated seats were on full throttle and I out of there in no time. Job done.

Back soon, Ash

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

Boxing Day Dip 2012 - Seaburn, Sunderland

As mentioned at the end of my last Blog entry, here are some more Seaside shots. Not my usual Seascape offerings, these are 'People shots' taken on the beach at Seaburn, Sunderland, during the annual Boxing Day Dip. I already have a slide show at ashleycorr.com featuring more of the same from last years event, so feel free to check that one out. I had no plans to attend this years madness, until I received an email from the people at the BBC Tyne and Wear website, who dropped a hint for photo's of the event to add to a regional Boxing Day Dip gallery they were about to create. I charged the battery pack up on Christmas day and made the usual preps, before throwing the Wellies into the car for the task ahead. The Boxing Day weather was very mild, which was a definite plus point, as this was the only thing that would have put me off. I mean, who wants to brave the wind, rain and freezing cold North Sea, when they could easily be sat on their arse eating more turkey leftovers! If I see another piece of that stuff I'll most probably throw up - so off I went, bound for the coast at Sunderland. The event kicked off at 11am, so I made sure I arrived with at least 30 minutes to spare, parked up and ready to go. The crowds were out in force to witness this increasingly popular show of mad Mackem folk, running into the sea with barely a stitch on, all in fancy dress, all shapes and sizes. There were some big 'un's on show alright. I'm sure Greenpeace were in attendance, ready to push one or two of them back into the water! Yeah, some big ones - hairy, covered in tattoo's and looking mean as owt - and they were just the women!

Well done once again to the attendees of this years dip. Thousands of pounds raised for good causes through sponsorship and collections on the day. There are several such dips held around Europe, but the largest is organised by the Lions Club of Sunderland and it attracts one thousand dippers every year. Up to five thousand spectators turn out to witness the dip, including the City’s Mayor and Mayoress. Originating in 1974 the dip is one of the oldest events in the country. The dip of 2011 raised nearly £90,000 for charity, with several teams taking part. Some of the major donators are Ashbourn Guest House, Alexandra Plumbing and Heating, the New Clipper, CR Builders, TWR Window Frames, Ttonic, MTL Scaffolders, Print Centre, Jolly Potters, Jacksons.

11am came around quickly enough - I almost got flattened in the stampede. The lens cloth I brought was a godsend. I grabbed what photo's I could before everyone had their few minutes of fun before retuning to dry land. By this time I was soaked. Wellies were half full of salt water, freezing cold salt water. I did, on more than one occasion, ask myself why I bothered in the first place, but casting aside the obvious disadvantages, our Boxing Day Dip has its merits. Firstly, I was lucky to photograph the event instead of actually taking part, then there was the fun side of it, seeing all the madness unfold right in front of me, and there were some brilliant costumes on display. Finally, the short walk back onto the promenade was a good one, as usual, as the sight and smell of the fish shop was one to behold and I certainly wasn't gonna walk past it. Greedy bastards never do, he he. Sorry for the lingo, folks. Just getting the last few swear words in before yet another failed New Year's Resolution. Oh well. And on that note I shall bid thee farewell, with the promise of one or two more Blog entries before the end of 2011. Make sure you overdo it (wink).

Oh, before I go, here is a link to the BBC Tyne and Wear web page,  featuring a couple of my shots. I sent a few in, but they decided to show two of my 'Weaker' efforts, for some odd reason. Click here (Image numbers 4&5). Also, a short video clip from 'Look North', our regional BBC news bulletin, featuring this event. Plus, a few of my photo's. . .

Back soon, Ash

The North-East Winds

With Christmas almost upon us I took the opportunity of using a spare hour or so to fit in some photography. December has been a quiet month with the camera, as you may have noticed by the acute lack of updates at www.ashleycorr.com. This has been due to the usual hectic programme that often accompanies December, but I intend to make amends before the month is over, with a few updates being planned for the final few days of 2012. My last Blog entry brought you a batch of Seascape images, taken at Seaham Harbour last Sunday morning, and I was by the sea again this morning for more of the same. This time I was shooting big waves from the promenade at Seaburn, Sunderland. Although there was bright sunshine this morning, it was typically cold and the strong winds almost had me on my arse on more than one occasion, but I managed to keep my balance against all the odds. My Sigma 70-300mm lens got a rare run out today. It was just what was needed to pull in those telephoto shots - range is everything when shooting from afar, so the long lens was called upon once again, and it never fails to deliver. There was very little colour to play with this morning, so I converted my shots to Mono (Black & White), which is always a good idea with this type of photography. I think it worked quite well, apart from the lack of detail in the sky, but you can only pee with the tail you've got! Some folk add new sky to get round this problem, but we don't want to do that do we - no cheating allowed!

And here they are, three shots, cherry-picked from a batch of ten and shot in RAW format. I was done and dusted, then out of there after a few short minutes. Back into the car and off home to sit down to a nice roast lunch. I'll be back soon with more Seaside shots, so get yer'sel back here in a few days time. Until then, have a nice Christmas and don't overdo the calorie count, eh. You know it makes sense!

Back soon, Ash

In From The Cold

It's been a while!

Hello again, and an apology to my blog readers for an acute lack of activity on my page. Historically, December is always a busy month for me as I fulfil orders and other commitments during this hectic time of year. Naturally, I have less time to get out and about with my camera until the Christmas holidays, but I managed to change that this morning by getting my arse out of bed to photograph another sunrise. This time I travelled South, which is a rarity, as all of my previous coastal visits have been to the North of Sunderland. Today the destination was Seaham Harbour, a small town in County Durham, situated 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Sunderland and 13 miles (21 km) east of Durham. I made a quick stop to photograph the Christmas display on the promenade before driving the short distance down the gill towards the harbour. This was my first visit to the pier at Seaham. Upon arrival I got chatting to a fisherman who had travelled from Consett. He told me the sea was very rough the previous day and huge waves had battered the pier walls, which was evident 24 hours later by the many pools of sea water that sat along the whole length of the pier. He set up to fish the sea as I went on my way, passing through the pier gates to look for an ideal spot to photograph from. Unlike most piers, this one had no perimeter fence, so I made sure not to go too close to the edge, or that would have been it! 

Here are some of the photographs I captured. Plenty of colour, the sun on show, nice compositions. It was nice to get back into the car and open a flask of hot coffee, whilst warming my backside on heated seat. Overall, it was well the effort this morning - I 'll be back with more before the Christmas holidays. Stay tuned. 
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)