A Load of Bullocks!

Living just outside Chester certainly has its advantages; I can be in Snowdonia or the South Lakes in around an hour and a half. However, I find I struggle a little for interesting landscapes when I have less time on my hands. Take this morning for example: The forecast was promising with the possibility of a frost, little wind and, perhaps even some low lying mist but I had to work which, with sunrise at around 7:30, meant I had very little time.

The closest body of water to home is the River Weaver; not exactly the prettiest stretch of water but, in the right conditions, it has some promise so this was where I headed this morning. Sadly, it became quickly evident that there would be only the lightest of frosts and the mist which often sits over the Weaver valley at this time of year was absent. Still, I was out, so I pressed on. The next problem was the state of the path which looked like a herd of cattle had been driven along it after a heavy downpour. It would have been impossible to negotiate without wellies and wasn't much fun wearing them. Still I pressed on.

Next I encountered the culprits - four bullocks happily grazing on the path; the presence of a feed bucket betraying the fact that this was no accident. Presumably an attempt to deter walkers. It nearly worked for me but, with tripod at the ready, I passed them warily. The greater problem was that there was just nothing very interesting about the river in those conditions. Even the water seemed particularly scummy for a longish stretch. The one saving grace was the sky behind me which had clouded over. I felt sure this cloud would colour up nicely as it approached sunrise but I struggled to find any decent composition in that direction. The scene above was the best I could come up with. It wasn't possible to avoid the pylons but I thought I might clone them out. In the end I didn't bother because, unbelievably, I had failed to see the ugly concrete structure to the side of the tree. That said, there was no way I could have avoided that anyway. This, then, was my one composition of the morning and it's nothing more than a record - not really worth squelching through the mud and muck and risking my life with bullocks (yes, I know I'm exaggerating).

Just to prove the conditions make all the difference, here is an image from a previous excursion - taken a few hundred yards from the one above.

Featured Photograph for June

I'm a little late posting this month's picture, largely because the last two weeks have been spent editing pictures from our latest wedding. I was tempted to use one of those pictures here; although our experience of weather for June weddings has generally been poor, this time it was a glorious day and we had some gorgeous evening sun in which to photograph the bride and groom. However, the couple have yet to see the pictures themselves and it would be wrong to post any online before they had.

The picture I have chosen is from a few years ago. It shows the sun setting over Liverpool and was taken from Frodsham Hill. It is only during the longest days that the sun sets this far round and I had been hoping to see it frame the Anglican Cathedral as it sank. I've been meaning to go back closer to the longest day to see if that does actually happen but have never had that combination of time, weather and tidal conditions necessary -for me, it is important that the foreground is broken up by the mud banks exposed by the low tide. Maybe I will have a chance yet this year.



Prints are available from my website: www.landscapeandlight.co.uk

Featured Photograph for December 2012

I do have a confession to make; this picture was not made in December. However, I don't necessarily think that I have to feature pictures in the month they were made and, anyway, this is surely a depiction of what we all want December to look like.

This is a picture from a couple of years ago when we had a rare episode of very heavy snowfall here in west Cheshire. I can only recall two or three times in the last 25 years when this has happened so I made sure I made the most of it with a trip into North Wales. This, however, was much closer to home - Frodsham Golf Course in fact (I wasn't trespassing, there is a footpath across the course - see below). It had only just stopped snowing and I went in search of just this kind of scene. I wanted something simple, that was all about the shape of the tree and really needed to find a tree I could position against the skyline with nothing else to intrude. Once I had found a suitable tree, making the photograph was relatively simple.

I had initially planned to make this a silhouette. Indeed, given the dynamic range involved, I expected it would have to be a silhouette as I exposed for the sky to ensure it was pure white - a bit like a studio background. When processing the picture, though, I discovered I was able to retain the white of the sky and snow whilst bringing out some detail in the tree and this, I decided, looked better then a silhouette would have.