The month of May was split into two defined timescales, the first two weeks produced only one photography activity, whilst the last two weeks of the month produced a flurry of activity.
Garden Photo Shoot
The month began with a ad hoc photo session with Cody, a short and fun session in the garden with a bubbles machine, the plan was to set off the bubbles and try and capture Cody’s facial expressions.
The next photo activity for me was on the 23rd May when we visited Northumberland, we enjoy visiting the Commissioners Quay Inn, having stayed here several times and enjoyed our stay each time.
Blyth
The weather during our stay was exceptional, clear sunny days for each of the four days, the plan was to enjoy the area and secure some quality R & R.
The first day was a slight lie-in, enjoy the breakfast then take a leisurely walk along the beach and in the park, where coffee and cake was the order of the day.
The second day began with a gorgeous 5.05 am sunrise, I only seen it due to me waking unexpectedly, on the back of this, I decided to get up and photograph the sunrise for the following day, the forecast was much the same, so a 4.30 am alarm was set.
My plan was to visit the two jetties at the entrance to Blyth Harbour, the reasoning being that it was not too far away, and I thought that I could get some decent images from this location.
I was surprised how warm it was at 4.45am, my coat was swiftly discarded, with a tee-shit being the order of the morning.
I began the long(ish) walk along the southern pier with the aim of getting to the end of it which would create a suitable angle looking towards the lighthouse in front of the impending sunrise, unfortunately, this was not possible as part of the wooden pier had collapsed and was fenced off.
A quick improvise to lign-up a shot, then back to the beach to capture some shots whilst the sun was still relatively low in the sky.
A satisfying mornings photography, and back to the hotel in plenty of time for the cooked breakfast.
This being the only photography of this trip, as I said it was aimed at plenty of relax and recreation.
Latrigg Fell
Once we were back home, and only a couple of days later, the weather gods were being kind, so it was another ridiculous alarm call to get me on top of Latrigg Fell well before sunrise.
The plan was to capture some pre-dawn blue-hour images, then concentrate on a shot that would go into my website portfolio section.
Overall, a nice morning’s photography with a suitable set of images, not the most original, but nice light conditions, and a sharp set of images.
I was back home before 8.30am with a well-deserved sausage sandwich purchased from Cottage Pie at Dearham on the way home.
Ashness Jetty.
The very next afternoon I was off to Ashness Jetty with the aim of securing a decent sunset image of the newly constructed pier which replaced the previous version which was wrecked during the winter floods.
Surprise number one was that I was unable to park in the car park on the road up to Ashness Bridge, this being full of cars, and a burnt-out wreck of a car, I managed to park the car just above the road junction.
Surprise number two was the number of people on, and around the jetty swimming in the Lake, it’s a while since I have seen this many people swimming in the water, but nice to see.
All I could do was wait and be patient, in the hope that by the time the sun began to set, the swimmers would have dispersed.
Waiting was not enjoyable, all I could do was picture compositions in my head, and wait for the people to leave, slowly, very slowly the number of people began to reduce, eventually leaving two paddle boarders, and a couple of people swimming, but I could work around these.
I needed to set the camera on the tripod so that I could capture a range of exposures which could be blended in post processing, this was necessary due to the very high dynamic range of the scene.
I was soon on my own, with a set of decent photographs, and a hope that one set of exposure brackets would be good enough to make it into my website portfolio.
Harrington Railway Line
It is some months since I was last out to photograph the Red Squirrels at a local location, so I had a plan to visit here to try and get some more images of these lovely animals.
The temperature at this time were very un-seasonal in the mid to high 20’s, which I was unsure if they would affect the Squirrels.
Visit one, during the afternoon drew a blank with the Squirrels, I shot a few birds but that was it.
Visit two was a early evening visit, again no Squirrels on show, and it was soon too dark to take any reasonable photographs, so it was home empty handed.
Visit three was the nest morning, just after sunrise, the hope being the Squirrels would be out feeding at this time.
At first nowt, nothing showing, but after 45 minutes I caught sight of my first squirrel, then another and another. I was not sure if these were sightings of the same Squirrel, or different ones.
Again, a nice set of images was got, another worthwhile session
I was more pleased with a visit of a Jay, this was nicking the nits from the Squirrels, but they are a lovely, coloured bird.
This brough to an end a hectic end to the month of May, which turned out to be a pleasing couple of weeks. A couple of images added to my portfolio, and a wide selection of images for my social media accounts.
Thank you for finding the time to read this blog, stay safe and lets seen what June brings?
