Blythe – Knightshoots Landscape Photography

St Marys Lighthouse, Blythe, Linhope Linn and Bird Photography

Northumberland 2021: Part Nine

12 June 2021

I got up for sunrise in plenty of time today. No more oversleeping for me! The tide was on its way in, so I needed to be careful that I didn’t get trapped on the little isolated section of sand, which was my chosen position for this morning. As it goes it was absolutely fine. The red in the sky was lovely, but unfortunately it stuck to a line of cloud on the horizon and there was little above it to even the colour out (see header photo) Although I took what I could, I actually thought I preferred yesterdays dawn shot (am I just being a fussy moo?!) As I left, the tide continued in, and I snapped a photo with my phone from higher up on the cliff. I really liked this position. It had a much better, open feel to it, for my taste. So I made a mental note of that spot for another time. For this morning however, the sun had risen fully by this point, the cloud was building and I wanted to start clearing up some coastal locations before moving inland. This meant a return visit to Blythe, so I drove straight there and jumped right into the spot I had been trying. Thankfully, the sun climbed out of a cloud for a short while, and beamed onto the huts exactly how I hoped it would. I only needed to take a few shots and I was done here too!

Third time lucky with the Blythe beach huts!

From here I drove for a while to go and find the waterfall at Linhope Linn. The drive was a pretty comfortable one, and towards the end I found myself driving parallel to a river – a long road, with large swathes of grassy areas. All along here were parked cars with people eating picnics, sunbathing, paddling in the water, and having a good day out in the sun, that was confidently beaming down now. There were ‘no camping’ signs everywhere, so I assumed all these were day trippers, which made the scene really lovely. I am used to seeing crowds at a beach, but I’ve never seen this sight along a river in this manner this before. I followed this road further until I was just over a mile away from the waterfall when I saw a few cars parked to the side of the road. I went to drive past them when I realised that from here the road was private, so this was actually as far as I could go. I carefully turned the van round and parked along with all the others and prepped myself a quick lunch to take with me. It was mid day, and I was already really hungry…(although to be fair, as I was up at 3.45, I guess my body felt it was much later!)

Now, I wasn’t expecting anything too exciting, since this was essentially just a straight down waterfall without anything specifically ‘pretty’ about it (other than being a natural waterfall of course!) but the hike was really lovely and I did it quicker than expected. (As I started walking, I’d asked a family on their return trip how long the hike was. One of the teens quoted ‘about an hour and a half’ – and 45 minutes later I was there!) I hoped that this meant my fitness level had been improving, since I am usually the slow one in a party, and this was a real improvement on the family’s quote! On your arrival to this one, you come to the top of the falls and look down. I saw quite a few people at the base when I looked – most with picnics, a group of free jumpers, swimmers and some packing up to leave. I wasn’t too concerned. I was happy to wait for them since I was in no real hurry, and besides that, my grumbling stomach demanded attention first! I ate the food, and as I finished, a delightful male chaffinch flew over to me and seemed happy to show off the big fly in his mouth. I chatted to him and he watched me intently. Eventually, I carefully got my camera out, and nervously tried to grab a few photos. This was a little more unsettling for him, and he hopped to several spots before disappearing altogether, making photographing him tricker than I expected. It was a beautiful moment though, he was clearly very trusting of people! After he’d flown away, I climbed to the bottom of the falls and looked at a few positions for shots. Unfortunately, from here, the sun was literally on top of the waterfall, and the light flared down the lens making every shot totally impossible. I struggled for a bit, then gave up, realising I would have to try this spot later on after the sun had moved more to the right. I climbed to the side instead and took a photo across the whole scene. The dynamic range here was very harsh too (lots of extremely light and dark areas in one shot) but I hoped I could balance it all up in the edit at home. It took a bit of work, but I did manage it. The shot was far too busy and cluttered for me to be totally satisfied with it though, and I suspect I should have just focused on smaller intimate scenes here. This fall was proving to be really tricky!

As I waited for the sun to move over far enough, I decided to try a little bird photography. Seeing the Chaffinch that close up had me really excited to try some more! I very briefly spotted, but didn’t manage to capture, a grey wagtail, which I love, and then I got buzzed by a Robin. To my delight, he was quite happy to pose a little for me – from a distance of course.

By now the sun had moved on, and the crowd of people had begun to thin, so I made my way back to the bottom of the waterfall again. The light was a little better, but what I had failed to really notice earlier, was how this fall comes down straight into a steeply sided rocky pool, that is obscured most of the way around. The only angle I could get where the composition was remotely pleasing to my eyes, proved to be one where I was perched at an odd angle, squeezed between a rock and a big tree, one foot in the water on a wobbly stone, one tripod leg likewise, and balancing quite precariously. I tried several shots, but the tree right next to me was very distracting and it really constricted my view. After some cropping, this ended up being the only shot I actually came near to liking, and even then, I wish I had of been a little quicker on the shutter so that the water was less of a blur. As it was though, I was too uncomfortable and concerned about the safety issues with this position to stay working this image for too long. I ended up abandoning it and clambering to safety after just a few shots. But, I know where this is, and if I am ever here again, I know what to expect. Next time I won’t go in such bright sunshine though, since it really hampered my efforts, and maybe I’d also go well out of the summer season, so I don’t have to work around so many people having a swim. I suspect this left me feeling too self conscious to explore compositional ideas thoroughly enough. For such an isolated area, I was quite surprised to see the numbers of people that were here, I wont lie!

Closer up on the falls once the sun had moved round

As I walked back to the camper, I wondered what to do for this evening. With so many ‘no overnight camping’ signs, I felt a bit loathed to stay (which had been my original idea given how little sleep I’d had over the last 2 days). While I pondered my options, I had tea and just sat looking out at the countryside around where I had parked. In the field next to me, goldfinches seemed to be playing together. They hid in the tall grasses, all erupted into view at once and seemed to chase each other, before they hid again, and then repeated the scene. This was such a delight to watch! Their happy chattering made it totally impossible to not smile at their antics. Unfortunately they were quite a distance away from me, but when one came slightly closer and just sat on a fence post, I was able to get a (slightly soft focus sadly) shot of him, before he vanished off to the games again. Way down the road, a pied wagtail wandered about, twitching his long tail as they do, and over the other side, pheasants wandered a safe distance away, keeping their eyes on this strange creature with a long metal eye that looked a little suspicious. They were all to far away to photograph well, sadly, but just sitting, eating, watching them all, and making a few vain efforts to photograph them, made me insanely happy and at peace.

Birds from today! A Robin, a Chaffinch and a Goldfinch

After some debate, I settled on going to Simonside, a location that had been recommended to, rather than researched by, me. I wasn’t totally sure what to find there, but it was something different, and, I was told, they had no issues with campers stopping overnight. This seemed to be an ideal location to stop and rest after the lack of sleep for 2 days. 7 hours total managed in 48 hours. Not good! I arrived at nearly 10pm, and once there, settled straight into bed. I was out like a light in minutes.

My Adventures

St Marys Lighthouse, Chambois, and Blythe

Northumberland 2021: Part Eight

11 June 2021

This morning I wanted to finish Tyne and Wear with location no. 4 and my most anticipated place to date. St Mary’s Lighthouse. Just about every photo I had seen from this location looked amazing, and it seemed there were endless possibilities for compositional ideas! The day started off really early, but where I had been driving so late into the night, I overslept slightly. I hurridly got ready and rushed out – but, a little guttingly, found the walk to be further than I realised and although I tried to hike at some pace over to the lighthouse, the sky bloomed into beautiful shades of pink and red, then faded in minutes. The colour had all but gone by the time I arrived. I was SO disappointed at myself! Despite what I felt however, the site WAS still lovely and I felt very relieved that I managed to get there in time for the actual rising of the sun – which allowed for some shots with a warm orange glow on the water instead. This shot was literally the first spot I plonked my camera on, and I was not at all unhappy with this as a start! The tide was just beginning to receed, and as it did the causeway over to the lighthouse island was being revealed. I wasn’t sure how far out the water went, but I guessed it meant that there would be a lot of varying opportunities, at a huge variety of different times. If I couldn’t get what I hoped for on this trip, its one of those locations I feel you can keep coming back to, since water height, and different sunset/sunrise/weather conditions etc would change just about every shot for sure!

St Marys Lighthouse, first dawn attempt.

As I finished these shots, I met another early riser out with his camera, and we chatted for a while. This man was a real inspiration to me, as he told me his story of why he got into photography. He’d had a stroke several years ago, and it incapacitated him to such a degree, that it changed his life. One of his medics advised him to find a hobby that would keep both his mind and body active, but in a gentler way than he was used to. Alan decided to take up photography – and in just a few years, not only has the quality of his work boomed, but he had the added bonus that the lingering effects of the stroke all but disappeared. Looking at him, I would never have known anything like that had ever happened. His story is a wonderful example of how this hobby helps build lives back again. Where my adventure helps me with my depression and self identity issues, his helped him recover from a serious medical issue. Look up some of his work and see just how hard he worked at his photography as a recovery aid.. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005502481710 and tell me that this hobby isnt one of the best self healing tools you can give yourself?!

Once Alan had left, I looked around for a while. Since there was SO much opportunity here, I decided that I might try a sunset shot here as well. This meant, ideally, that I needed to stay fairly local to this area. By now, large swathes of rock were visible, but the area was covered with growing numbers of tourists, so staying didn’t seem appealing. I thought that maybe Blythe might be worth re trying. I made my way back to the camper, and headed off, reconsidering my route as I drove, and headed slightly higher up the coast to Chambois beach. It had a parking spot right near it, and was pretty close to Blythe, so I simply thought, ‘why not have a look?’ and I wandered on down. It was pretty much like most beaches, and fairly plain. The most noticeable thing here however, was a huge pipe that seemed to go on forever out into the water. For such an ‘ugly’ feature, it was a fascinating thing to look at. Having said that, it wasn’t the easiest thing to photograph and I really struggled to capture it from either side in a way that I liked. Ideally, I thought, I needed to get above it – and before I knew what I was really doing, I found myself climbing up the sides, and I was perched on the top. Now this view was more like it!! The first shots were nice, but I noted that the tide had turned and I realised that they would be even better if the water were in more. So I simply sat and waited. Its an odd shot, but I still really like it! All the mosses, algaes, and crustations stuck to it, give it so much character, and the lovely lines of the coal grains in the sand almost give a sense of water movement. I say almost, since the water was coming so gently, there was little to no surf movement at all, meaning there was actually no white froth in any of my photos. This has really helped reduce the seperation between the beach and the sea, and the scene looks very gentle and calm because of that effect. Getting down afterwards was a slightly different story however… It looked SO much higher when I looked down and the tide was now in! Eek! I gritted my teeth through my fear of heights, treading carefully with the offbalance provoking kit on my back, and just accepted the very wet legs…(!!)

From there I travelled down to Blythe and tried to check out the pier. I hadn’t noticed, but the wind had really started to pick up over this last hour and the further I walked along the pier, the more noticeable it became. It was strange… I have no real head for heights – climbing up the pipe earlier posed very few problems for me – yet walking along this wooden pier (for a fair distance), had me extremely uncomfortable. Maybe it was because it had gotten so windy and I could see choppy water below my feet at points? Who knows?! For most of the walk up to the end, I was literally hanging on to the rusty handrail though! I tried to get a photo, but it was terribly hard, and really didn’t happen. Although one of the set was almost acceptable (see header), it wasnt the image I wanted from here. Giving up, I tentitively wabbled my way back, deciding to try this shot from the beach on a calmer day!

I then tried to photograph the beach huts, but realised the sun was now behind them, meaning that the colourful fronts of the huts were now in shadow. This also pointed to the fact that I needed to come back here another time – so I stopped trying to push Blythe today, and simply packed everything away in the camper before wandering over to the fish and chips shop right by the car park. This proved to be an awesome supper, and I felt ready to tackle the sunset at St Marys now without needing to think of cooking a meal tonight. I popped by Seaton Sluice on the way back, just a short visit to have a look, and there I noted all the coloured pebbles, gathering a few with an idea for a photo if I could find more (and a sandy beach) then I drove onto St Marys again, finding a good car park much closer to the Lighthouse this time..

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the tide here was so far back out again, that there was nothing but bare rocks on show everywhere. This would mean that I wouldn’t be able to get the watery shot as I hoped, but it was a challenge that I was willing to work with. Since sunset was still a couple of hours away, I decided to go and be a tourist for a bit, and check out the island. Everything was closed by now, but it was still possible to have a quick walk around, see the seals basking on the rocks, watch some of the birds, observe the quiet scurryings of some small mammals (well OK, yes – rats!) and then to amble back to get my camera. The seals especially, were a real treat to see. It was lovely to see signs up everywhere telling people to stay off the rocks at low tide to help encourage the wildlife here to feel secure enough that they would keep returning.

Once I had my camera with me again, I took a walk around the rocky part on the mainland, and found a couple of spots I quite liked. It was harder than I thought though, as the rocky pools were very small, and covered in ripples in the breeze. This meant that sweet, intimate reflection shots proved impossible. From my perspective, the whole of the wider view was filled with a confusing foreground that completely detracted from the lighthouse. This was a challenge indeed! For now however, the sun was beginning to set, and the sky lit up beautifully. I found myself a position further back still, and lowered the camera right down to try and cut out all the middle ground. I think this worked a bit better.

Sunset at St Marys Lighthouse, with the sky putting on an awesome performance.

The red light turned the rocks all a lovely pink, and although not totally thrilled with the shot, I loved sitting out in this light. The colour stayed for ages in the sky once the initial sunset had faded and I felt that it truly was a beautiful place. I really need to dedicate several days to this spot to explore it better though I think – at different times – to guage the tides and the varying looks it offered. What a location!!

As I wandered back to the van at the end, there were still people around, one of which, somewhat annoyingly, was flying a drone near to the lighthouse and all the rocks there. This made me feel a little sad for the seals, and birds, since I am sure it would have alarmed them a fair bit at some points, especially when I noted where the guy was actually flying it. Some people arn’t very thoughtful or considerate sadly. When I got back to the car park I decided that, as I was here for dawn, I might as well see if I could stay here the night, since it was literally only a few hours away now. I had been told by several people that they don’t really check, and indeed, on my return to the camper this morning at that car park, I had noted there were ‘no overnight camping’ signs.. (Oops didn’t see those when I pulled in all bleary eyed last night!) and no-one had knocked on my door to move me on from there. As I sat pondering this decision, I realised there were a lot of cars gathering, so I just waited it out. The cars building turned out to be boy racers, and though no-one bothered me (I have always found these kids to be pretty respectful) it was quite alarming at points hearing them. This was by far the noisiest gathering I have ever experienced, with lots of chatter, loud music, constant revving of engines, and the roaring of their cars as they raced up and down the long road to this spot. If anyone complained, or tried to move me on tonight – for quietly sleeping in a dark corner, keeping my space clean and being respectful- while all this was going on, I’d certainly be arguing the point! Because the youngsters were not bothering me, I managed to doze, and even sleep a little until, at around 1am, I realised they had all gone – then I finally fell fully asleep.

My Adventures

Alnwick Castle, Warkworth, Blythe, Newbiggin-on-sea, and Hadrians Wall

Northumberland 2021: Part Four

29 and 30 May 2021

I woke to fog. This would, in some situations, be awesome news to a photographer, but it was so thick, I couldn’t see very far out of Freds windows. This wasn’t looking like ‘good’ fog at all. I still got ready fairly slowly however, in the vain hope that it would lift – but it wasn’t happening. I didn’t want to waste my last day, but there didn’t seem to be anything I would be able to do. If it was like this everywhere, was it going to be worth staying on at all?

I decided that if I was going home, I may as well check out parking spots on the way, for the locations I hoped to visit when I came back, in just over a weeks time. I left heading for Alnwick castle, passing a curious tower called Outchester Ducket. It was a bit of a random thing to pass, so I stopped anyway to read the little plaque. It wasn’t very informative, pretty much saying that very little was known about it, and that it was now a holiday cottage. Though out in the middle of nowhere, its not set in a particularly pretty setting, so I took a snap on my phone for reference. I don’t think its a ‘spot’ I would bother with ordinarily.

Windmill? Meat store? Navigation point? It seems its past is a little mysterious, but Outchester Ducket is now a holiday home!

As I looked around I realised the fog had lifted, so continued on my way to the castle, happy with the thought that I might have a photographic day after all. Once I found the parking spot and went for a walk, hopes there were dashed however, when I saw the castle was covered with scaffolding. I walked around the area for a bit, but any shots I hoped for would have to wait until they had finished the work they were doing. Within the hour I had left again, and was headed for Warkworth castle instead. Here would be a lovely shot reflecting in the river maybe, and hopes were high, until I turned up, parked and looked at the scene… The castle was barely visible through thick fog that covered everything on the hill it stood on. I sat for a while, then just made a spot of lunch and looked out on the river I was parked next to. I spotted a man in a boat with a camera happily photographing a tree, and then two men on the bank near me, looking through binoculars. ‘What’s he photographing?’ I asked, so they pointed to the tree and told me that there was a heron in it. I hurriedly went in, changed my lens on the camera to the zoom, and headed out to see what I could see myself … nothing it seemed.. as the flipping bird had flown away, and the photographer was rowing his boat back upstream. Gagh!!! It really wasn’t feeling like my day!

I just sat and sadly ate my lunch on the camper step, torn with what to do, then, some 30 minutes later I spotted movement on the far bank. I looked through my own binoculars, and my heart leaped. There was the heron – he had come back! I carefully got out my camera, and tried what I could. Even with the camera at its maximum zoom, he was a little dot where he was so far away, but I still managed some fairly reasonable pictures of him that I am not too sad about. I am no bird photographer, but just following the movements of this one, being patient, waiting until he calmly moved a little closer, and trying what I could, brought me immense, and really unexpected joy. Now I get the reason why people enjoy birding and the reward of bird photography!

Once I finished here, my drive brought me inland, and the sky was looking beautifully clear and blue. Thinking the fog had finally cleared, I adjusted my drive to take in the coastal spots I originally hoped to get – first on the list was Newbiggin, where I hoped to photograph the rather unusual ‘Couple’ sculpture. Once again, I was thwarted, and the sculpture was invisible behind the thick wall of white. I altered my miserable attitude, laughed at the situation, and simply worked out the best parking spot, and, after walking the beach, the best position for the photo I eventually hoped to get. On the way back, I spotted some beautiful markings in the sand. The tide at this spot had washed the tiny grains of worn black coal that form some of this areas stratum, into beautiful patterns. I didn’t have my camera with me, but thankfully the mobile was as helpful as ever in capturing it…

When I left here, the sky cleared inland, and I again made a detour back to the coast… to once again be fooled – ‘will I actually learn?!’ I asked, laughing at myself… this sea fog was clearly in for the duration!! I sat mildly frustrated for a while, in the car park at Blythe, just looking out on a drab view that was fading into obscurity. I shook myself down again, and did go to check possible spots, and once again took a picture with my mobile just for reference (see blogger head) – but I didn’t waste time checking anything else out. There was a lighthouse here that I needed to find, but it was invisible to me today and I felt that it just wasn’t worth it for now. Within half an hour I was on the road again, this time I gave up and headed inland proper. One of the locations I knew I needed to check out in advance, was near Hadrian’s wall, so sod this for a game of soldiers, this fog had fooled me enough today!!!

I got to Steel Rigg car park at 6, but in my unfit state, it took the best part of an hour to actually get to Sycamore gap. This was partly because I decided that as I was here I would actually walk the wall, and the hike up and down the steep crags was HARD work. I am a plodder anyway, and I was in no hurry to be fair, stopping every 5 mins to take in the view (alright… yes… and to breathe!!) The sky was a mix of clear blue patches and cloud, and the horizon had a lovely orange tint to it, even this early – was I in for an amazing sunset I wondered?!! I met another photographer, Steve, and we chatted for a short while, before he headed off towards a hill further on, having no intention of stopping at the tree. I did stop at Sycamore gap when I got there though, because it was such a gorgeous spot, despite all the people here. Its no wonder this location is photographed as often as it is – its perfectly balanced, and the tree is a stunning example of a sycamore! After a while I moved on, since there was still loads of time, and I continued my plod to meet Steve up the hill overlooking a cottage and Crag Lough. The view was lovely, but definitely needed light. I took the photo anyway, hoping to recapture this view with a bit of sunlight across the scene, on my trip next time. This was just my scouting one for now. As the evening progressed, Steve and I took a slow walk back to the tree, getting there as the sun started to set. All the tourists had gone by now, and other than sheep walking through the scene, there was nothing to spoil it. The clouds went a light pink – then all the colour just faded into blue hour without any added drama – much to our disappointment. We still managed to capture some lovely photos however.

Sycamore Gap with only the locals sharing the view

With the light now fading, the two of us headed back to the car park, following a different route back (the Pennine way – a route that doesn’t involve the up and down hikes over the crags!) Steve suddenly pulled up short. ‘I cant go that way’ he said as he looked ahead. I followed his gaze. The gate and the style at the wall in front of us, had about 8 cows crowded right up to them. He told me that he’d had a really scary incident where he had been chased by cows, and that he was not comfortable near them now – well, OK – Yes – he was terrified of them. He would have to take the hike (up and down the hills) back from this spot. For me however, my feet were hurting by now, so I told him I would be fine continuing this way and I’d see him back at the car park. Truth be told, I was WAYYYY more scared of the pain climbing the steep hills, than I was of these bovine girls. I went on ahead, climbed the style and started chatting to the cows, confidently asking them to move out of the way, because I was going to come through, then I just started forward, being bossy and verbal with them all. They all moved to the side dutifully, and I just strode through. A minute later, Steve was walking at a far faster stride by my side. I chuckled and made a playful comment about him not wanting to be outdone by an old girl, and he hastened his speed, laughing but pretending to ignore my comment. We all know of course, he was just being the gentleman and was making sure that this irresponsible old girl wasn’t getting into trouble with the wild animals… don’t we…?!! In all seriousness, I applaud his bravery in following me, and in beating his fear on this evening.

Back at the car park, we swapped Instagram details, and both went our separate ways. I went back to Fred, and since it was now quite late, I decided that I would stay the night and leave for home in the early hours. Driving through the night while I was this tired would be stupid, unnecessary and dangerous. I climbed into bed but my feet were so painful that sleep was very fitful – with stabbing pains shooting across the soles of my feet constantly waking me.

At 3am I woke again, and saw daylight beginning to seep through the curtains. I looked outside to see the early pre light, with a beautiful pink glow on the horizon, and stunning light mists over by the hills. Since sleep was being a struggle, I made the quick decision to just get up and capture the view from where I was. My feet screamed at me as I dressed, grabbed my kit and hobbled over the road, but I ignored them… this was too beautiful to miss!

View towards Steel Rigg in the early hours of dawn

I spent an hour and a half just standing here in the silent, chill, air, photographing the mists rising and falling. I heard the birds wake and sing, watched the cows on a distant hill grazing peacefully, undisturbed, I filmed a spider on a gate, building his web for the day, and watched the sun gently rise. I just soaked up the incredible experience of being here, right now, as the whole world woke up to a brand new day. The peace I felt was immeasurable, filling my soul with something it had been lacking, and it was all for me alone to witness. There are no words to describe how this felt.

Once the sun had climbed high enough, I went back to bed and slept well until 9, when, far more refreshed, I finally got myself ready and drove home.