RAF Spadeadam - The Recce Visit

The whole attraction of blogging about my photography outings is the opportunity it gives me to document more than just photographs, but the story behind them and the 'Behind the scenes' photo's too. Today's blog entry is a perfect example of an idea I had, which was put into practise beforehand with a recce visit, which would hopefully lead to a revisit at night to photograph the stars and milky way. The whole idea came about after I saw a photograph online of an abandoned aircraft. The location was RAF Spadeadam, a military base on the outskirts of Gilsland in Cumbria, not far from Carlisle. From my home in Houghton le Spring, a round trip is in the region of 140 miles, with an each way duration of around 70 minutes in the car. Not exactly on the doorstep, but it was a location that I just had to visit, so the distance wasn't a problem at all. So, across the A69 I went, with my brother Chris, who was just as keen as I was to see the Lockheed Shooting Star, in situ on a vast wasteland. The site is accessible to the public on non-firing days, so after checking their website it was all systems go on a Bank Holiday Monday. It was indeed ... MAYDAY!!  MAYDAY!!

It was a nice afternoon for it, with blue sky and the odd cloud here and there. We arrived and parked up at the roadside near a field where the airframe was located. We'd heard plenty about the access route to the plane - a rather boggy field with rotten, fallen tree's everywhere. It took around 10-15 minutes to reach the plane and it wasn't without it's drama, as we dodged one pot hole after another, plus the ditches and puddles. All part of the fun though. I was only carrying my small backpack, so it wasn't too much of an effort to slug it across the field. Mind you, the plan included revisiting at night with a fully laden large backpack, so that is bound to be interesting. On arrival the plane looked remarkably sound. I wasn't expecting it to be in such good shape, especially when it had been there for over 30 years. The cockpit was stripped of all instruments. Only wires and framework remained, as well as the odd switch and name plate. Guesswork would tell me the plane was around 10 metres in length. The paintwork was in good condition, although it may well have been repainted during the years it has spent in the field.

Chris climbed into the cockpit for the benefit of a photo memento or two. I set my Go Pro up on a tripod and began to capture a time lapse video of our 40 minute stay at RAF Spadeadam. It was interesting to gather as much info as I could about the site, especially as the plan was to capture as star trail, facing north towards Polaris. The orientation of the plane was perfect for this, offering a great angle of the aircraft when looking northwards. It was all good - just waiting for a clear night to put the plan into practise. I was hoping for a decent moon phase too, which would light the foreground, meaning we wouldn't have to light paint it to suit. It was time return to base and wait for a night with ideal conditions to execute the idea and pull in a nice star trail or two.

Mission accomplished!

A 7 minute video of our visit can be found on YouTube if you click this link. It was shot on my GoPro in High Definition and also includes photographs and a time lapse sequence at the end. Stay tuned for the next instalment - a night time visit to Spade, under the stars! Until then, thanks for reading.

Ash

Ready To Return

Hello again, after a rather long absence due to other commitments. One of those commitments was the painstakingly long task of revamping my website following the decision to expand the size of the pages. What should have been a fairly straightforward task became one that took many hours to complete, as the content on every single page had to be realigned to suit. I chipped away here and there, mostly during days when the weather was less than favourable, so being indoors behind the laptop kept me more than busy. Web design can be tricky, depending on what you're wanting to achieve, from the simple to the complicated. I prefer to fall somewhere in between. Since the site inception in February 2008 and a visitor count of over 250,000, I dread to think how many hours I've put into my site. It's most definitely a labour of love, there's no mistaking that and I'm quite proud of my creation considering I had no previous experience in website design. And so to the next chapter ... as ashleycorr.com prepares to go again and I now have extra time to do what I enjoy very much - getting out there with the camera.

By the way, it hasn't all been about the website. I've still been out there now and again, taking photographs. flying my drone and pulling in some nice time lapse footage with the GoPro. Yes, there's plenty of new stuff queued up and ready to unleash once I get the editing done, so stay tuned for that and much more. As the dark winter nights creep ever closer, there should be a nice balance of blog updates (and there's plenty of those in the pipeline) as well as photography outings, which should continue into 2018 and beyond. So much to do and not enough hours in the day.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just a little reminder that I still exist and with the most tedious task now behind me, it's time to go again, with the enjoyable stuff.

STAY TUNED

Ash

Derwentwater By Night - April 2017

Hello again,

As you can see, I'm still alive and kicking, despite my 4 month absence from my blog page. Lots to catch up on, with new images and stories to accompany them, as well as an insight to what lays ahead with all things photography.

Todays blog entry takes me back to Saturday April 22nd, going into the 23rd, 2017. An all-nighter on the shores of Derwentwater and after midnight it would be my birthday, so I was hoping for a productive night with the camera. My brother Chris made the journey with me, across the A66, arriving at approximately 9pm. Earlier in the day I received an aurora alert on my mobile phone, but the north-east was clouded out, so we made the journey west, where clear skies were predicted. I remembered previous Aurora shows, notably on St. Patrick's Day and Mother's Day, so the omen's were looking good for tonight - St. George's Day! We decided that Lodore Jetty, on the edge of Derwentwater, was where we would set up for the night, looking north across the water towards the Skiddaw range. We had the place to ourselves, which was ideal - no-one else shining torches or getting in the way. That'll do nicely.

It was still quite cloudy when I set camera one up, although what was left of the clouds appeared to be moving east, leaving clear skies ahead. Within minutes a purple haze could be seen in the distance, towards Skiddaw and Lake Bassenthwaite. Then purple spikes appeared. Some nice structure, albeit very brief. They moved from left to right, disappearing behind Skiddaw. I was running a time lapse sequence, so I was rather chuffed to have caught the movement on camera. It was a great start to the night. As camera one pulled in the shots I set camera two away, pulling in continuous shots, which I would use for a star trail. Derwentwater was so still and there was no breeze at all. This was an idyllic spot, even at night, with only owls for company. 

I was shortly after midnight by this time and we were both getting hungry. I left Chris at Lodore and headed into Keswick in search of takeaway food. I parked up and headed across the road to a pizza shop, but the guy inside said he was closing for the night, which was great. Starving and craving a kebab when the bloke waves his hand and shakes his head. Cheers mate, I get the message. I had a quick drive around but nowhere else was open, so I headed back to Lodore empty handed. I'm driving along the lakeside, it's obviously pitch black at half past midnight. I've seen it all now - a young girl, probably late teens, walking along the road with headphones in and a small torch in her hand. I was amazed. I mean WTF. She was nowhere near houses or any real safe haven. Instinct told me to check that she was ok, so I slowed down and her if everything was ok. She looked across, said 'Yeah' in a very confident tone, then looked away and continued walking in pitch dark. I said 'Ok then' and drove on. Very odd!

Got back to Lodore Jetty and grabbed what was left of my goody bag - two bags of crisps and a few biscuits. Hardly a kebab, but what can ya do, eh. We spent three more hours waiting for another glimpse of the aurora, but we'd seen the best of it by this point. Before heading home I ran off a quick panoramic sequence of shots, 5 in total, panning from left to right above Lodore Jetty, where the milky way was ideally placed and arching across the night sky. It looked amazing. A fox screeched on the fells, echoing across the lake. This night photography is so addictive, with nature adding those final little touching, as well as Mother Nature chipping in with some aurora too. It certainly was a birthday to remember and a very productive one at that.

Cheers, Ash (one year older) 

Ludworth Tower - After Midnight

And it's more Astrophotography on a freezing cold, blustery night in County Durham. I finished work at 11.20pm and drove to Spider Towers to pick my brother up. We were heading over to Ludworth Tower - a fifteen minute drive from Gilley Law, Sunderland. The plan - to photograph Ludworth Tower under the stars. Aye it was well chilly, but we were well layered and prepared for a couple of hours out in the sticks. The beauty about this location, especially in sub zero temperature, is the privilege of sitting in the car as the camera works its magic. I dropped anchor at the kissing gate, where access to the tower is at hand. From there it's literally a 10 second walk to the tower. Once in position we set up our camera's and walked back to the car. We sat there for an hour or so, listening to the radio and keeping out of the cold. There's not too many locations where you're afforded that basic luxury when photographing the stars, but this was definitely one of them.

Ludworth is a pit village in County Durham, England situated between Durham and Peterlee. It consists of just over 350 houses in three main housing estates (Barnard Avenue, Moor Crescent and Springfield Meadows) and a few smaller streets. Ludworth has one post office, a school, a community centre and a printers. The village used to have two churches and a fish shop, most of which were destroyed in a fire. The public house of Ludworth has been closed for some years.
Ludworth Tower was originally a medieval manor house, founded by the de Ludworth family. In 1422, Thomas Holden added a rectangular pele tower, when he was granted licence to crenellate his manorial complex, by Cardinal Langley. The only surviving remains are the barrel-vaulted basement, the three storey west wall and fragments of a first floor spiral stair in the south wall. The remains can be seen located on the left as you are coming into the village from Shadforth.

As well as running off a start trail sequence I finished off with a single exposure of my brother Chris, standing on the ancient arch next to the tower. Here is both shots from that night ...

Cheers, AC

A Nice Surprise!

Hello again,

Occasionally I send the odd photo to Tyne-Tees Television, in the hope they will show it on the daily weather bulletins. Over the last few years I've had quite a bit of success in this area and I continue to have my work shown on TV today. If you CLICK HERE you will find my archive weather photo collection, which features video clips of my photographs that have been shown on TV.

Yesterday I received an email from Ross Hutchinson, one of the weather presenters on Tyne-Tees Television. He told me he had been contacted by someone who had seen one of my photographs on his weather bulletin and they wanted a copy of it. An elderly couple, currently living in Yorkshire, they had gone to the trouble of hand writing a letter to him as they don't use email, before visiting the post office to send the letter on its way. I was quite touched by this and arranged for a print to be forwarded to them, free of charge, with the help of Ross. Great stuff and nice to see my work being appreciated, even if it sometimes flashes up on the TV for a couple of seconds.

Here is the actual correspondence, including the hand written letter ...

Cheers, Ash


Hello Ashley,

Odd question but I've had a lovely letter from an elderly couple in Yorkshire, attached- they liked this photo so much they wanted a copy!

Their request is for your address or phone number so they can try and organise this (they don't have email for a digital copy). 

I know it's a bit weird but shows how well liked your pics are! If you are happy to give them a copy but would rather not give out your details I'm sure I can arrange for us to get one printed (with your permission)

Completely up to you - but thought I would pass on the kind words/request.

Thanks for all the pictures!

Ross

 

 

Let's Have Some Aerial Video

For all fans of aerial video, I've got a few of my own creations to share with you all. It was only a few months ago when I bought my drone - a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, so I still feel very much a rookie, despite the fact I've got a few flights under my belt since August 2016. My interests in this area lie in the landscape of North-East England, the patch where I practise my still photography from week to week. Check out my youtube channel, where you'll find the story so far.

I've got plenty more footage to get through, so stay tuned for news of that, coming soon to my blog page. In the meantime, here is the link to my youtube channel. Play the video's in HD, with sound. Enjoy ...

AC

FAST CAR - Night Time Drive Lapse Video

Hello again,

A quick one tonight. I was messing about with my awesome little GoPro camera a few days ago and came up with a short time lapse video of my journey to and from work in my trusty Vauxhall Insignia. I propped up my tripod between the front headrests and sat the Hero 5 Black on the tripod plate to ready itself for action. The 30 minute round trip was recorded in 1080p, capturing a photograph every 2 seconds - an approximate total of 800. The time lapse video was assembled in camera, which was great as it meant I had no post processing to do. All I had to do was import the 2 video's and add some opening titles, end credits and a soundtrack. Very impressed with the final result. I think I'm going to have lots of fun with this little camera. Stay tuned for more video's in high definition and maybe the odd 4k production thrown in for good measure.

Cheers!   Ash

Click here to see FAST CAR - Night Time Drive Lapse, via YouTube