South Shields

For a change of scenery, I thought I would visit the coast on the south side of the Tyne at South Shields, particularly at a place called Trow Quarry.  This ex quarry and landfill site is resident to Little Owls a bird I’ve been keen to photograph, without success so far.  It seems an unlikely place to see owls in daylight due to the amount of people walking around, but these small owls are known to be tolerant of people and I have regularly read reports of people seeing them perched during the day in full public view. From what I have read, it’s a bit of ‘pot luck’ as to whether I would see one or not and as I walked the length of the quarry side I could see why, there were plenty of places where an 8 inch high owl could hide. Some parts of the cliff sides where covered in bushes and trees, others just rocks.  Lots of holes and crevasses where they could hide out, but I walked one end to the other scanning for sights or sign but without any luck so I decided to stop off at the top of the quarry and have something to eat and watched a few others who were clearly also looking for something – perhaps the Little Owls too – so I thought I would just sit and let them hopefully find something.  They too went from one end to the other but clearly having no better luck than me – not just me then.  I sometimes wonder if you have to accustom your sight to see some animals, signs and tracks, once you have seen them a few times, you can then see them much more easily. A good few hours spent in the quarry resulted in no sightings.  I would probably have to regularly visit this location to have any success and maybe learn their favoured spots and maybe visit dawn or dusk when they are more likely to be active.

Trow Quarry panoramic view (click for larger view)

Rather than waste the day I decided to walk down to the nearby beach.  Looking northwards, across the north and south Tyne piers , I could see St. Marys Lighthouse, one of my regular haunts, just beyond that Blyth and then the Northumberland coastline. Little photographic opportunity other than the crashing waves against some rock outcrops from the incoming tide.  I tried some different effects – long exposures, short exposures and got in close.  Mental note to self.  Looking through your camera viewfinder with a wide angle lens on, makes oncoming, crashing waves seem further away than they actually are and therefore not a good idea!

While drying off I decided to have my lunch, and as I tucked into my sandwich I had the uneasy feeling of being watched.  To my left, like something out of a Hitchcock film there were a number of Crows on a cliff ledge just watching me eating.  Soon a couple of them did a fly past and one of them continued to watched from the other side.  I finished my food and left once more for the quarry.

Another visit from one end to the other of Trow Quarry still came up with not Little Owls, just a few Rabbits basking in the Autumn sunlight.  Although obviously disappointing in turning up nothing for a five hour visit I think it will certainly be worth future visits, maybe closer to sunrise/set.

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The last of the summer

The end of the ‘summer’ has definitely been in the air recently, colder mornings and the wind is starting to have a coolness about it.  This morning it was dark when I got up, another sign that autumn is approaching.  However, from a photographic point of view, you don’t have to get up really early to catch the ‘golden hour’, the colours in the trees is very photogenic and the wildlife seems more active as they get ready for the coming winter, and the weather can still be mild. Today there was a mist hanging in the Tyne Valley and a heavy due covering the ground bringing out the numerous cobwebs.  I just wanted to enjoy, what was probably the last of the summer warmth so wandered around and hoped there may be some photographic opportunities.  For this I dusted off my Canon 30D which I had to pump up the ISO to initially 3200 (first image) then 1600 (bird images).  If you believe what is said in online camera forums, then ‘old’ cameras such as the 30D are not capable of producing decent images over 800 ISO, yet is its at this number and over that I shoot at most of the time in all but landscapes on this camera and the 1Dmk IIn. Not much on this day to see.  Walking around, the woodland areas were still very overgrown though while photographing the birds I could see the smaller plants around me moving and rustling, presumably small rodents of some sort foraging.  Out in the open was little better, I had hoped to sight a Kestrel hunting over the fields or a Kite soaring overhead but no joy.  Still, it was a lovely warm day so I just made the most of enjoying it.

Whispery clouds on a warm Septembers day

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Jesmond Dene

With little luck with my wildlife photography in recent months, I decided to travel light and take my 5D camera and 17-40mm lens for a few landscapes and hopefully, creativity.  Ironically, after all the poor weather we’ve had this summer, today it was a bright, sunny day – not really ideal for landscapes as the light is too harsh, so I went down to Jesmond Dene which is largely sheltered being in a narrow, step ‘valley’ cutting through the east end of Newcastle.  I also took with me an ND 10, ND Grad and infrared filter as well as a tripod. I used to visit this area quite a bit in my student days, with my Olympus camera, as I used to live in nearby Heaton.  The area has changed little since then though the water seems a bit cleaner backed up by the only other time recently I have also visited, when I saw Kingfishers here.  None today, in fact little wildlife at all apart from what you might expect to see a city park.  Most of the picturesque part of the Dene is at the end around the much photographed waterfall, so it was here I took most of my images and experimented around with long exposures and infrared.  The third picture down had to be two exposures merged due to the extreme contrasts in light and shade beyond the latitude of the cameras exposure system.  It was strange that after taking some of the long exposures and waiting for the camera  to ‘process’ the image in the camera before showing it on the back screen, I was complaining to myself because it was taking so long!  How soon we get used to the luxury and convenience of digital photography.  Back in my film days I would have to wait up to a week to see any of the results.  In some ways I miss those times.  Just like life, it seemed so much more simpler.  Having said that, my film cameras haven’t seen the light of day for some years. My second and third from last are infrared.  Infrared is a type of photography I would really like to have a go at, but ideally a camera converted for the purpose is needed for best results.  The final image has been converted to black and white something I still find very attractive for landscapes and abstract images. Not my best work photographically, but sometimes I just need to have some success at taking photographs.

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At the beach

Today was one of those times where the tide, times, day and weather combined to make it an ideal time to photograph shore birds at a location easily accessible in using the dreaded public transport, so, not for the first time during my time off work, I was up at the crack of dawn.  By the time I got to my spot at the coast, the sun was shining (a rarity this summer!) and little stirred when it came to people about.  So it was with optimism that I positioned myself a distance from the incoming tidal line and waited.  By doing this the various waders will feed at the tidal line as it slowly moves up the beach closer to me by which time the birds have also excepted me as no threat and being pre-occupied with feeding. Keeping a low profile and waiting patiently for twenty minutes, the first bird, a Curlew, got close enough to reasonably fill the frame and I managed to get some frames off when the inevitable happened – a dog came bounding up the beach chasing the birds and off they went.  The spot I chose was not only because it’s ideal to photograph shore birds but it is a dead end at this time of the tide – there is nowhere to go, nothing to see, with miles of beach elsewhere there was no reason for these two people with there dog to deliberately walk right in front of me only to stop and have to go back again.  Looking at the smirks on their faces I guessed their reasons where some sort of self satisfaction.  Once they had gone I settled down to wait and hope the birds would return.  Twenty minutes again and slowly they did return and just as they were getting close enough along came another dog owner, chucking a ball right in front of me for his dog to chase after though it seemed more interested in sniffing around me and inside my camera bag then shaking itself of all its sand.  Once he left I settled down once again and waited for the waders to return.  After half an hour it was clear they weren’t coming back.  Ironically, no dog owners came by either! Most definitely I’m hitting one of those low points in my photography where I am having little success, at least with the wildlife side.  Perhaps I need to keep the long lens at home and concentrate for a while on photographing landscapes – at least if any dogs get in the way I can Photoshop them out!

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