Framedlight

If only, like the Frost poem, we could have some snow and a spell of cold weather rather than the dismal rain. I stopped by a local wood quite early this morning and managed to get some pictures before the drizzle started again. There were still raindrops clinging to the twigs from the overnight showers. I know pictures of disordered trees are quite popular at the moment and this wood is pretty chaotic as many of the trees are down following the January storms and it has not been tidied. I was surprised to see the tops of the bluebells already poking through the ground. I hope we do not get a late frost.

Mairi and I had a day in London and went to 2 photography exhibitions - the Landscape Photographer of the Year at the National Theatre and the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. We chose those two as they are ending next month. I must admit, much as I am a landscape photographer, I preferred the Taylor Wessing exhibition. People always find other people interesting and the variety of portraits was good. I even bought the book which was £15.00 - very reasonable and then we discovered we could get the ticket price off of it so even less. The only downside of the book being that they did not include much of the description with the photographs. Being on the South Bank was a good opportunity for photography and we also had a visit to Kings cross to see Hugh, my son, for lunch, so a small inclusion from there.

Leaving Saltburn we drove up through Redcar and along the rough track that leads to Paddy's Hole, a place made famous for landscape photography by Joe Cornish. Going past the steelworks and heading between the dunes is so exciting - this is a wonderful area, with the natural world coexisting with the might of heavy industry. I did not look at any of Joe Cornish's work on this area before going as I did not want to be influenced at all. However Doug did suggest where to take pictures from which was a bit of a giveaway. The light was retreating and the sun was giving a small display as it went down so  I was really pleased with the resulting pictures. The first two shots are looking across the green fisherman's huts to the steelworks and the last ones are taken around Paddy's Hole. By the time I packed up it was completely dark and I was just left with the long drive home and a big thank you to Doug for organising a fantastic couple of days. ...

After the tide had forced us off Saltwick Bay we drove north to Saltburn to photograph the pier. The tide was almost up to the very top of the beach which was good and the sea was fairly rough as well which made for good long exposure shots. I was finding that exposures of around a second showed some movement in the sea but longer exposures of 15 seconds or more smoothed it out. The scene was interrupted by a couple of horses being ridden along. I was not really set up to take them but have done so anyway! I had new boots on (Meindl Toronto) which stood up really well to the soaking they received. Again there are some coloured pictures and then monochrome. The pier really suits monochrome but I love the muted colours that long exposures give. The pictures with the horses I have only shown in black and white as one of the riders had on a high vis yellow jacket.

The second day of the workshop dawned grey and dull. We all met up at the top of the cliff overlooking Saltwick bay at 7.00am, but it wasn't until 7.20 that the gloom lightened enough to walk down the cliff to the beach. The bottom of the path had given way and the side of the cliff had had some subsisdance from the recent storms. The tide was on its way out and retreating quickly so we spent around 2 hours on the beach before it came up again, just as quickly, threatening to cut us off. I took pictures of the nab - a severe outcrop of stone and the waves as they were fairly fierce where they hit the edge of the reef. I got rather wet taking these as the waves kept sneaking up from behind. Also there was the remains of an old barnacle encrusted boat wrecked under the cliff which was very photogenic. With the wave pictures I prefer the ones with more detail in the water to show the movement. The whole place was a joy to photograph. It is just a pity that the tides do not allow m...

After working around the pier for quite some time we walked across the bridge that takes you to the east side of the town. The sun was low in the sky and we stopped to take pictures of the two piers before walking on to the east pier to photograph the sun going down over the town. From there we migrated to the Whitby steps - a famous haunt for photographers, although unfortunately the street lights which are supposed to leave pools of atmospheric illumination on the steps were out and we were faced with almost darkness. I have tried to make the best of this in the picture.