River Trent (May 2020)

More post-lockdown photography, this time along the River Trent, near to Fiskerton. It is very quiet along this stretch of the river, easy to maintain a distance with the odd passer by, and easy to stop and take in the beautiful spring scenes and warm weather.

In this post I will concentrate on the pleasure of simply being out with the camera with shots of the spring foliage along the river bank, vivid greens and fluffy clouds reflected in the water...in fact everything that is joyous to see after being stuck indoors for weeks...

Following this, in a separate post, I will show some of the more creative photography returning with a series of abstracts images taken on the same day at Hazelford lock and weir.

Stalker Castle (2013)

Now that some of the coronavirus restrictions have lifted there is new photography to show - see my previous post - as well as the series that I started from the Scotland trip in 2013. In terms of posting, this will mean switching between timeframes, balancing my eagerness to post up-to-date material whilst ensuring that my photo processing efforts during lockdown are not wasted. Going back and re-processing old photography turned out to be more rewarding than I first envisaged and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the results including these images of Stalker Castle.

As I stated in previous post in the Scotland series, we had identified Stalker Castle as a location for the golden hours of the morning and evening. The indifferent weather had stalled the progress on day two and it was not looking great at the start of day three. By evening, however, there was a great improvement in the weather which continued into the following day. These were the sunset shots from day three:

And these were the dawn photographs from day four:

The early part of day three was spent touring through Glen Etive. The photography was conducted between showers, some of them quite wintery. As a result, some of the original images appeared to be over exposed. I was therefore pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail I recovered in the re-processing exercise:

On the way back from Glen Etive we stopped again to repeat the waterfall scene below Buachaille Etive Mor (see my previous post for the first visit). There was more light this time and the composition seemed to work both in colour and mono:

The rest of day four was spent traveling from Ballachulish to the Isle of Harris. Due to the timings we didn’t have an opportunity to stop during the journey so the next photography from Scotland 2013 starts on the following day at Seilebost and Lustkentyre.

May on the Southwell Trail

This week has seen the relaxation of the lockdown rules. Outdoor activity with distancing is allowed including leisure activities like photography. So, after near enough eight weeks without taking any photographs, I am back on the Southwell Trail and enjoying the opportunity to capture the seasonal changes.

Unsurprisingly, there was a real sense of freedom on my first journey out, reminiscent of the first day of the school summer holidays as a child. Everything looked fresh and vibrant; spring had come whilst I was stuck at home. The snowy hawthorn blooms were a delight. March’s bare branches now smothered in green creating tunnels of light and shade along the trail. The seasonal tree trim, like so many people’s haircuts, had clearly been delayed by lockdown allowing nature to take full advantage.

Whether I managed to capture any of this with the camera is broadly immaterial, it was just great to be out, with a reminder that it is the small freedoms that lifts the soul and brings joy to life.

This was some of the hawthorn blossom:

The trail as I left it in March:

Eight weeks later:

The overgrowing trail:

A reminder: