Moments of light

Now I know you may have been out with me on these early mornings before but, while the places may be the same, Mother Nature makes sure conditions on each occasion are quite different.

It was touch and go this morning, quite a bit of cloud about but as they say 'you have to be in it to win it', definately no photographs staying in bed, and maybe this morning would be a WOW morning. You just never can tell.

November and December have very low light, the sun doesn't rise in a very high arc through the sky as I'm sure you know if you're trying to drive with blinding sun low in your eyes.

With no mist we decided to go to Cawfields Crag, there's a lovely stretch of Wall there and with a bit of luck the rising sun will catch the stones for me.

Still no birds on the waters at Cawfields Quarry, maybe they'll come in when the weather gets colder, it has been unseasonably warm for November, hasn't it?

While the walk from the car park to the start of the Wall is muddy, the Hadrian's wall Path on Cawfield Crags is suprisingly dry and so if you're thinking of a bit of Hadrian's Wall  to go for a winter walk it's worth condsidering.

We got to the bit of Cawfields Crag, just west of Thorney Doors, where you can see Hadrian's Wall progressing up and down the crags all the way to Winshields Crag.

The sky began to colour up to the south of us, gorgeous light but nothing to put in front of it to make a pleasing composition, one thing we're short of on Hadrian's Wall is nice photogenic trees.

Eventually as the sun began to rise the colour spread across the sky.

We got ourselves ready for action and it started to rain a bit of a bummer when you're using filters (ND soft grads) .

Just as the rain stopped and the filters had been hastily dried off the sunlight caught the stones of the Wall. 

It always feels a bit like those old movies where the troops were told "don't to shoot until you see the white of their eyes". The shutter clattered away and I managed four shots before the light disappeared, so fleeting but it makes such a difference.

Realising that was more or less it we wandered back to the car park stopping to catch a few obligatory shots of Cawfield Quarry, before heading home for breakfast.

Catch you later,

Joan