snow melts...

27th January 2013, Dunstanburgh, 8am

After the snow comes the thaw and the floods. There were new water features on the golf course this morning. Annoying for the golfers but rather attractive for a passing photographer

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Snowy Walks

26th January 2013, Christon Bank, 8am

Heavy snow falling when you've nowhere to be but home is quite a nice feeling. We were up early and off to the woods to see what last night's snow had left for us.

We found the trees silhouetted against the dawn

Snow on lichen

Daisy in the woods as the morning sun filters through the trees.

26th January 2013, Howick shore, 10am

After a spot of breakfast we were back out to enjoy the beautiful weather. We're promised a thaw and rain tonight so I wanted to make the most of today.

Winter trees at Howick burn

We headed up into Howick gardens and spent a happy hour or so wandering through the woods.

At Howick you emerge from the woods on a footbridge which crosses the road bridge which itself crosses the burn 100 feet below.

A hellibore (Christmas Rose): Anachronistically in full bloom when so much is cold and dead.

Another evergreen plant brings colour to the frozen landscape.  This photo would be nice in b&w but the leaves' colour was important today.

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Brief Colour

25th January 2013, Embleton Bay, 8am

I've been a fair-weather photographer of late. I think it's the desire to keep my new camera sand-free at least for a while...

A rare gap in the grey weather let the sun shine through this morning throwing colour over the monochrome landscape. An hour later all was grey again as the clouds closed in for another snowy day.

A familiar location with two different presentations to ring the changes...

...and a new angle on a familiar view.

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snowy woods

17th January 2013, Christon Bank, 3pm

It's already noticeable, especially on a bright day, that the days are longer. So plenty of sunshine as we wandered round the limekiln woods.

Daisy's favourite spot for looking out over the field to see what's to be seen.

...and here's the view with the shadows of the trees on the snow.

There are still patches of green.  In fact the flowering currant is coming into new leaf. It always does at this time of year.  It's a resilient plant and it grows vigorously helped, no doubt, by its head start over the competition that still lies dormant.

Fern shadows on a woody shrub.

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golden morning

17th January 2013, Embleton Bay, 8am

It was quite dull and unexciting pre-dawn today with just a bit of colour in one corner of the sky. That all changed when the sun came above the horizon.

Daisy was pestering me while I was setting up the last shot (not uncommon!) so I chucked her my gloves to play with...

Up to the top of the dune. I thought I'd get some snow in the foreground but there wasn't much.

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iPhonography

16th January 2013, Low Newton, 8am

I'd left the camera in the car and -5C overnight had killed the battery. "Every challenge is an opportunity" so here are a few shots using the hipstamatic app on the iPhone. Although this app exaggerates the colours a bit it really was this nice as you can see from the last picture (which is a normal photo). I enjoy the square format of this app - it's good to approach composition from a different perspective sometimes. The striking feature this morning was the textures and reflections of the wet sand.

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snow at last

15th January 2013, Christon Bank, 9am

The first proper snow fall and after a quick run into Alnwick, Me and Daisy wandered around the village...

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Beat The Tide

13th January 2013, Holy Island, 10am

We fancied a trip to Holy Island as a bit of a recce for a possible venue for PhotoTrails this summer. (watch this space).
We had to be off the island by 13:10 before the rising tide engulfed us and the car!
I hope the images in this photo-essay are mostly self-explanatory...

 "A Couple of Hours Round Holy Island"

Lindisfarne Castle with Bamburgh Castle in the distance

The picture-postcard view

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A Long Walk

9th January 2013, Dunstanburgh Castle, 8am

It was cold and bright and one of those days when going back home was to be delayed as long as possible.
The sun was still half an hour away but the sky was that beautiful colour gradient - as nice as any rainbow.

Daisy silhouetted.

On S of Dunstanburgh Castle to see the sun appear out of the sea. The sheep had seen it all before...

Back up to Embleton Bay and the sun was shining onto the big dunes with that lovely golden light.

Embleton Bay was empty and it seemed far too nice a day to just go home so Daisy and I had a bit of a run around on the sand...

Nearly back to the car we met this handsome Saluki. He'd never been off the lead since he arrived at his new home from the Dog Rescue (SHAK). Daisy soon gave him a lesson in running madly around the golf course. It was lovely to see them together.

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