Monday 16 March 2009

15 03 09

Sunday and not a bad day weather wise.
There's a shot of Mucklebank Crags I'd like to get but it needs a figure in the shot to give it the right scale.(Mucklebank Crags are the two bumps in the distance on this photograph of Walltown Crags)
I head off to Walltown, I thought I'd be tripping over mating toads as usual at this time of the year but I don't see any at all, shame as I'd like some toadspawn for my pond. Toads return to the pond they were 'born' in, often travelling miles overland to get there.
I take the gentle incline around the lake and head up towards Hadrian's Wall and the gnarly hawthorn tree.
Photographers all claim this little tree as their own, but of course they're wrong, it's my tree :)
With a good cloudscape it can make a spectacular shot but today's is pretty average. Of course that doesn't stop me taken half a dozen anyway in case the camera sees something I don't.
Wander along following the line of Hadrian's Wall, Walltown has some fairly sunstantial chunks of Wall and they are fairly easy to access, as long as you can climb up to them.
The views across towards the Solway are amazing, you can see into Scotland on a clear day, nearer the views are across Longbyre and Gilsland.
The light is coming and going and there aren't many people about, certainly not as many as I expected. I catch some sheep grazing in the dip and set up the tripod. Don't know who has been training them but, as soon as they see a camera, they turn their backs like reluctant celebrities. I take shots all the way along the crest of Walltown Crags,although they're not my favourite type of photograph, you never know when you might need a simple sunny day shot.
I eventually get along the top of Walltown Crags to the spot I need for my shot of Mucklebank Crag, a bit of twoing and froing before I'm happy with the composition and then I wait for someone to come along.
A pheasant wanders across the view, stopping to cluck at me but not at all afraid, not quite the figure I had in mind.
Wouldn't you just know it - the sun goes in, and this time it stays in as big banks of cloud blow in from the west.
Putting a mental 'x' marks the spot I pack up and head back to the car. As often happens as I'm heading back streams of folk appear, I suppose I was being optomistic to think they'd be out before 10am on a Sunday :)
Not long until Easter, if the weather is good to us I'll get my shot then and I know exactly where to stand for it.
I was back home by 2pm for a nice cup of coffee and a Werthers. In a week or so's time the Old Forge Tea Room in Greenhead will re-open after a refit, I've heard they do amazing cupcakes, something to look forward to.

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