I’ve never really been a morning person, but the limited colour palette of a hazy sunrise on the East coast is always an incentive.
I was already using a long enough exposure to blur the incoming waves, but then a little bit of intentional camera movement changed things completely. The waves transformed from motion-blurred to brushstrokes, and a ghosted image of the fishing boat on the horizon as it approached the reflection of the Sun balanced the luminosity of the left hand side of the frame.
That horizon right across the middle of the image? Rules are meant to be bent and broken…
A lot of my photography needs to be as sharp and realistic as possible; dolphin photo-ID and kittiwake colony counts both require technical precision, and accurate depiction of the subject, and they’ve filled a lot of memory card space over the last few years.
For a long time, most of my landscape photography was similarly precise. Mainly black and white, although I love the colours of sunset and sunrise, often contrasty, but usually identifiable to location and with an obvious subject.
That started to change 7 years ago. I was leading a photography holiday on the Northumberland coast and all of the guests had said they wanted to be out very early the next morning to photograph the sunrise. Surprisingly, or not, I was the only one who actually headed to the beach at 5am so it was just me, my camera, an occasional dog-walker, and sublime light just before sunrise. I was hand-holding, with exposures of up to 5s, so knew that there would be some camera movement. I’ve always had an obsession with capturing the movement of water, but the ethereal painterly feel of images taken with several seconds of exposure and without the safety net of a tripod anchoring familiar shapes in the frame was something I’d never attempted.
Alnmouth beach, Northumberland, 19/04/19 (c)Northern Experience ImagesAlnmouth beach, Northumberland, 19/04/19 (c)Northern Experience ImagesAlnmouth beach, Northumberland, 19/04/19 (c)Northern Experience ImagesAlnmouth beach, Northumberland, 19/04/19 (c)Northern Experience ImagesAlnmouth beach, Northumberland, 19/04/19 (c)Northern Experience Images
In future posts I’ll share the development of my own landscape photography over the last few years, as well as techniques, and thoughts about veering away from realism…
After a few late withdrawals, due to the alternative evening entertainment from Atlanta, we still managed to sail with a full boat. There had been a sighting of dolphins breaching out near the Tyne Anchorage, and at this time of year that would almost certainly mean White-beaked Dolphins! Heading along the Tyne, under leaden skies, we had an update…”There are dolphins just north of the piers now, I’m sure they’re White-beaks”.
As we left the river and scanned along King Eddie’s Bay and Longsands, there were ten or so White-beaks well dispersed and quietly feeding. One or two had a quick look at us before heading back towards the shore, and we drifted well away from them. We decided to head slowly southwards, and passed the dolphins who were now either side of the mouth of the Tyne. As we picked up speed they started chasing us down and then we had them bow-riding to Souter Lighthouse, where we also had brief views of three Harbour Porpoises 🙂
White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesWhite-beaked Dolphin {Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesWhite-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
Suddenly, they all vanished. Our final sighting was one animal that had been bow-riding for ten minutes then disappeared with a vertical dive into the inky darkness below, just as someone spotted dolphins close to shore below the lighthouse. I lifted my binoculars and was surprised to see Bottlenose Dolphins heading south! We drifted for a few minutes without any further sign of them, then continued steadily towards Roker, where we were joined by six bow-riding Bottlenose 🙂
Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesBottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesBottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesBottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesBottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
They eventually departed when we were off Hendon, and it was time for us to start heading back towards the Tyne. As we approached Marsden Rock another Harbour Porpoise was typically undemonstrative as it slowly surfaced, then the White-beaked Dolphins reappeared 🙂 The group included at least three mother/calf pairs, with one of the calves so small that it was possibly only a few days old! There was more bow-riding, in failing light and a deepening swell, and dolphins were still widely dispersed off South Shields as we made our way through the piers. Other than sailing along the Tyne, there were probably only 20 minutes during the entire evening where we didn’t have dolphins in view!
White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesWhite-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience ImagesWhite-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
Most of our pelagic trips for the remainder of this year are already full, but we’ve just added some 4hr daytime sailings in September www.newtltd.co.uk/calendar. Bookings went live on Monday and they’re filling quickly, with only September 25th 09:00 having more than three spaces still available, so if you’d like to join us on the final day of Martin’s 30th season organising pelagic trips off the NE coast book soon!
Sunday was our seascape photography workshop with Peter, after a few delays due to the weather…
With an experienced photographer, camera settings aren’t an important consideration to concentrate on so we spent some time looking at how to predict which waves are going to break obligingly and chatted about compositional techniques 🙂
Generische Medikamente können gefälscht werden und einen stark negativen Einfluss auf den menschlichen Organismus ausüben. Zu schweren Nebenwirkungen wie einem lebensbedrohlichen viagra bestellen Blutdruckabfall führen kann. Wir empfehlen auf natürliche Alternativen zu diesem Mittel zurückzugreifen.
Monday was a 1-2-1 seascape photography workshop for Louisa and we started with exposure time, aperture and ISO (if you’ve never used a mirrorless camera, it makes it so much easier to see the effect of changing settings before actually taking a photo). With a tide falling from high, new compositions were presenting themselves right up to the point where it was cold and getting dark and with exposure and composition sorted, Louisa concentrated on judging which waves were going to break obligingly over the foreground rocks 🙂 I’m looking forward to our follow-up Zoom call/editing session to look at Louisa’s favourite images from the workshop.
Sunday was Sandra’s Autumn Colours photography workshop, which had been delayed for several reasons since 2019! We concentrated on exposure time, aperture and ISO settings as well as looking at composition, exploring how the angle of light can make a drastic change to the scene that’s in front of the camera and playing around with ICM (intentional camera movement) 🙂
NEWT having a period of hibernation, while we deal with another enforced lockdown, has been an interesting time. We’re walking every day (1.6 miles in a morning or at lunchtime, then 6-10 miles on both Saturday and Sunday). Occasionally I’ll carry my big lens (150-600mm) with me, but mostly I prefer to travel light…
Like many photographers I have a lot of kit accumulated over the years, often with a specific function in mind. Until a couple of years ago my photography was mainly offshore wildlife, and nightscape, using lenses that were purchased specifically for those (70-200mm and 14-24mm). I was leading a photography holiday in Glencoe over Christmas 2018 and during the briefing I said we’d have a constructive critique of our images after dinner each evening. “Only if you agree to put your images up for discussion too”. I don’t usually carry a camera during workshops, but agreed to put one camera body with a 50mm prime lens, and no other accessories, in my rucksack, along with lunch, first aid kit, emergency group shelter etc.
The effect was extraordinary. All of that kit, and I fell completely in love with a lens that cost me less than £100. Through all the challenging times of the last 10 months, it’s been rare that I would leave the house without that lens mounted on my D810 and in my hand. It’s provided a stable point of focus (apologies for the unintentional pun…) and keeps my mind occupied. Here’s a little gallery of images I’ve taken with it, from Glencoe in December ’18 through to a walk in the woods 2 days ago.
Of course, I’m now finding lots of situations where 50mm is slightly too much reach…note to self – research 35mm primes 🙂
Stay safe and well, and we’ll see you on the other side of this 🙂
Yesterday was a trip we were really looking forward to after what has been a really challenging year in so many ways. Emma and Janine have been on a couple of photography holidays that I’ve led since late 2018 and yesterday’s trip was organised for Janine’s birthday. Water and wildlife were the specific requests so I’d discussed how to structure the full day with Sarah and we thought we’d got a workable plan…
We started with wildlife; Dunlin, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Turnstone all exploiting the rich food supply available on freshly uncovered sand and seaweed as the tide fell. Low-angled sunlight and mirror-calm water were everything we could have wished for and after a morning of wading birds we headed off for an excellent lunch, and outstanding views from our window table, at the Jolly Fisherman.
Post-lunch we stretched our legs and walked towards Dunstanburgh Castle as the tide turned and surf started breaking over the rocks in the foreground while we sat close to the rising water. Juvenile Gannets were diving offshore and I was thinking that there must be plenty of fish when I spotted a couple of dorsal fins and for the next 5 minutes we watched a group of around 10 Bottlenose Dolphins that seemed to be on a mission to get somewhere away to the south 🙂 Heading back south down the coast our final stop was at Howick Haven/Rumbling Kern as the tide started to flood in below the Bathing House.
Lovely entertaining clients who are pleasure to spend time with, fantastic light, obliging wildlife and the Northumberland coast. There can’t be many better ways to spend a day 🙂
Sunday’s photography workshop was a guest short after a late rearrangement for one guest. I collected Sachin and Lucy from the Battlesteads and we headed to Cawfields Quarry. That wasn’t our original plan, but heavy rain meant needing to find a location that wouldn’t be treacherous underfoot. In just over 3hrs we covered exposure, focusing and composition, including how changing camera position and focal length affect the impact that an image has. I had my Samsung galaxy A70 in my pocket so couldn’t resist the beautiful light falling on the landscape 🙂
Tuesday was the final full day of our Focus on Northumberland holiday and we were heading to the coast for a day of landscape photography…
Blue skies and sunshine can be a bit overrated so the drizzle and fog offered something a bit different. Daniela had shown me some excellent photographs that she’d taken previously, so I was slightly surprised to learn that her camera was always set to auto. With a calm sea that only had white along the edge of the breaking surf, and with the impressive edifice of Bamburgh Castle vanishing in heavy mist, Daniela had composed an effective scene looking from the dune tops towards the Farne Islands (also shrouded in mist) so it was time to take the camera off auto and start exploring the exposure trinity of ISO, aperture and shutter speed and the creative possibilities that come once you start to control depth of field. The drizzle continued as we made our way south along the coast and a very welcome hot chocolate at The Drift Inn came just before we headed west along the line of Hadrian’s Wall and back to The Battlesteads.
