Making the most of an extra day off

The open road looking towards Belmont village

It's Monday, after a week off work... but after dropping Carole off at the station for her Monday morning commute to Manchester, I'm off for a first stop at the gym with plans for a long walk in the sunshine afterwards.

My extra day off is the result from working over the weekend earlier in the month assisting with some contingency testing of the IT systems in our office.  That I could do the work I needed to from home didn't come into it - I'd worked a Saturday from 8:30am until 9pm (on and off anyway!), and whilst this isn't such an onerous task these days I'd nevertheless earned the right to my time back.

A dramatic windswept moorland scene near Belmont.

After the gym, my first stop was the moors between Rivington and Belmont.  Here the countryside is barren and open, usually a little boggy underfoot, yet beguilingly beautiful.



On a clear day the views from the top of the 'pass' separating these tiny villages is impressive - out to the Fylde coast and Irish Sea, and inland over rolling hills to the windmills on Scout Moor, overlooking Rochdale.  Yet on the hillside right by the road here is the impressive structure of the TV mast on Winter Hill, the top of which stands over 2,500 ft above sea level.

I'd parked here to make a decision on my walk.  One option was to leave the car here and explore the open moorland over Winter Hill's neighbour, Great Hill, with the aim of some dramatic wide-angle landscape shots conveying the windswept landscape.

Another option was a couple of miles on  through Belmont village, where the A675 follows the shore of the reservoir and the views resemble a minature Lakeland scene. All gold for the landscape photographer, but today my desire for a long walk (only possible when I'm on my own), plus shots of the Autumn colours now beginning to show, took me further on to Abbey Village, where several paths lead into and through the large expanse of the largely deciduous Roddlesworth Woods.



My walk started from the Hare & Hounds pub in Abbey Village, sadly closed at the moment though I understand new owners are planning a refurbishment which will mean a change of style aimed at encouraging walkers.



View over Lower Roddlesworth reservoir with Darwen Tower just visible on the hills behind.



From here there are good paths leading straight out alongside Rake Brook reservoir before reaching the first trees of the woods by the run-off from Lower Roddlesworth reservoir.  The reservoir then opens out surrounded by trees in a majestic panorama.  For Autumnal colours it was perhaps a couple of weeks too early but even so the colours and reflections in the water made for a worthwhile photograph.



The river Roddlesworth in Autumnal glory

 The paths along the southern side of the reservoir lead through the woods, opening out at a couple of spots for views across the water, before eventually meeting the river in the heart of the woods.  The river marks the modern-day boundary between the boroughs of Blackburn and Chorley, so up to now I've been on the Chorley side of the woods.  The river's role as a boundary predates our modern administrations though - from the earliest days of Lancashire this was where the Hundreds of Leyland and Blackburn sat side by side.

After some lunch I found a promising spot for some slow-shutter shots of the water, rushing and tumbling over rocks framed by Autumnal trees.  Back at home later on I used HDR software to merge several exposures together to really bring out the textures, lighting and colours.

Crossing the river here, I continued along the old pack-horse route through the woods until eventually arriving at Hollinshead Hall - a ruined 18th century manor house.  All that's left now is a few ruined walls, though it's possible to work out the layout and get a sense of how it might once have looked.

River Roddlesworth in spate

Returning to Abbey Village via a different route, I soon found a spot where the river gushes over a waterfall, and with all the rain recently it was putting on a fine show.  Unfortunately the paths here were extremely boggy and not long after I'd completed a number of shots and started off again along the path I found myself stuck in deep mud, with nowhere forward or seemingly back to go!

Eventually I managed to extracate myself from the gloop without too much mishap and taking a little more care now, made it back to the little stone bridge and the drier pack-horse route.

Vowing now to keep to much firmer ground I followed the track around the opposite side of th reservoirs, eventually returning back to the viewpoint near the start and then on to the car.  In total, the walk covered around 8½ miles, a great day out in wonderful countryside.

Windy Lytham

Whitecaps on the waves on the normally serene Fairhaven Lake

Mid-way through our week off and after spending a few days doing nothing much, we decided on some fresh air. So on a breezy and overcast day we assumed our best chance of some brightness was to head for the coast, more specifically Lytham, Fairhaven and St Anne's.

Usually if there's sunshine anywhere then this part of the Lancashire coast is as good a place as any to find it... but today it was not to be as the windy blew strongly and the sun refused to make an appearance.

Lytham windmill with freshly
restored sails... for now at least!

Opportunities for photographs were limited (but to be honest I wasn't taken to look for them), especially after our first stop, Fairhaven Lake, where the whitecaps on the waves showed the lake to be anything but fair or a haven.

On leaving Fairhaven we drove through St Anne's to Lytham, where the strong breeze showed no signs of abating.  After a short walk along the promenade, we stopped by the windmill for the obligatory photograph, especially now the grade I listed structure had recently had its sails restored after a storm had completely removed one the previous November.

Although the wind wasn't likely to repeat the feat today, it was certainly buffeting the old mill to the extent that its creaks could clearly be heard.  By now we'd made the decision to head for the high street for a coffee and a browse around the shops.  This we did and shortly after we rounded the afternoon off with tea at Senior's acclaimed fish and chip restaurant in the centre of the village.  Their awards are certainly well deserved and their fish and chips a perfect way to round off the day.

Club competition success

I've been editing the Camera Club website (http://www.darwencameraclub.org.uk/) for six months now and judging by the number of visitors, which are up 30%, and the number of page impressions (the number of pages looked at whilst browsing the site), which has increased by 180%, then I must be doing something right. The members are also pleased, and most are in the habit of regularly checking for update about what's coming up in our calendar, or reviewing the latest club monthly competition winners.

Our club competitions are always keenly fought, and the standard of our work has been steadily improving as the year's gone on. Earlier tonight we held our latest competition, and as we'd skipped a month due to a busy programme over the summer, there was plenty of high quality entries to be judged.

Each month we can enter up to four images, with a maximum of three in either category: prints or digitally projected images. Prints take a little more effort, as they have to be printed to a high quality and presented on a card mount, but it's still a popular format in higher competitions and so printed entries are very much encouraged. I'd done my usual trick though and left things until the last minute, so I'd spent a couple of hours in the afternoon in the town centre, first at camera store Wilkinsons and then when this didn't work, Morrisons, to get a couple of reasonably sized prints to enter in addition to the pair of digital files I'd already submitted.

All the effort was vindicated though as one of my two prints, a close-up of a hoverfly on a leaf taken in the garden a couple of weeks ago, was declared the winner of the prints section, beating a several others that could easily have been the winner themselves.

Moving into Autumn, the club is preparing for several external competitions against other clubs, some local and others further afield, so we'll soon find out whether the progress we've made this year is backed up wiith better results against other, mostly larger clubs.

My first book deal!

Just occasionally something unexpected comes along totally out of the blue that's a nice surprise. So it was when I received an email from a publishing company in Lancaster last month seeking permission to use one of my photos for the cover of a book they were looking to publish!

The company, Carnegie Publishing, has been working with John Blackburn, a local amateur poet, about publishing his work under the title "I Leap The Lune". He'd a picture in his mind about the cover image - a shot of the Millennium Bridge across the river - and had asked them to pop along and take a few snaps of the bridge. Rather than this, they instead opted to browse the web to find a better quality image and stumbled across my effort through Flickr. It seemed to fit the bill for them, with enough space for titles and captions, and John himself was delighted when they showed it to him.

It's not going to make me a fortune but they are paying for their use of the image, and today I heard back from them that the book was at the printers with this as the cover design.

Once the book's back from the printers I've been promised a copy for myself before the book hits the shelves, a permanent reminder of my first 'deal'. Next time I'll drive a harder bargain but for now I'm happy to see my picture in print and the fee we've agreed is already on its way to the charity I asked them to credit.

Worthington Lakes

A rare sunny morning today (albeit temporary - there was rain forecast later) gave us an opportunity for a stroll and some welcome fresh air. A couple of weeks ago Kevan had told us about Worthington Lakes on the road between Chorley and Wigan, and although it's a place we'd heard about and noticed on the map we'd never actually been before.

Worthington Lakes lies to the north east of Wigan in the Douglas valley, 'lakes' being a slightly fanciful term for the three reservoirs constructed in the mid 1800s to supply the growing town of Wigan with fresh drinking water. Nevertheless, although man-made, the lakes make a nice spot for a walk, surrounded by trees with the hills of the West Pennine Moors behind.

Being early September, the deciduous trees around the 'lakes' are still in full leaf, but in another month or so they will be a mass of autumnal colour, so we may well be back before winter sets in.

There's a couple of options to extend a walk around the back of the lakes, where it's possible to link up to the Leeds & Liverpool canal and then back via the golf club at Standish. For today though we stayed on the lakeside paths along the far shore of the two main reservoirs, turning back over the main dam to the car park.

Here was where most of the birdlife seemed to congregate with plenty of ducks about and what looked like two dark-coloured herons on the iron framework. After consulting the book they turned out to be cormorants instead, which suggests there must be plenty of fish in the water.

Back at home the promised rain never materialised and we even managed to sit out in the garden for a while - a rare treat indeed after a soggy couple of summer months.

Shakespeare country

Before heading back from Rugby, with better weather forecast for the bank holiday Monday, we decided on a detour to Stratford upon Avon, about 20 miles south west from where we'd stayed.

After promising ourselves visits to Stratford twice whilst staying with Lynne and John in Bedworth, and again hoping to visit on the way down this weekend before being thwarted by the traffic and weather, this time there was no stopping us!

We didn't have a full day but at least we had a few hours to look around and see what the tourists come to see. On the way in we found signs to a handy park and ride which took us right into the centre. Nearby was a pleasant parkland area where the Stratford canal meets the River Avon - judging by the number of people there a popular spot.

Being Bank Holiday Monday, the Stratford side of the river was home to an open air market, attracting plenty of interest with stalls selling souvenirs, crafts and tasty nibbles. A couple of local photographers also had stalls and were doing a decent trade selling their work, which was of a high standard and not just the usual local scenic views.

The market had set up close to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on the banks of the river, which brought back memories for mum of a school trip here in the early 1960s. People come from all over the world to see the productions here, or buy a momento of their visit in the well stocked gift shop, where any reference to Shakespeare had been used as a marketing ploy from the expected books and postcards to badges and stationery (example: the pencils on sale were embossed with "2B or not 2B...")

The Stratford canal ends here at the river and a busy canal basin, having started its route on the outskirts of Birmingham and a connection there to the Worcester and Birmingham canal. Across the river from the canal locks we found a nice if rather expensive cafe for lunch and a cup of tea with good views across the park and over the river back towards the theatre.

Stratford makes the most of Shakespeare: dotted around the town are numerous sites attracting the tourists with a connection in some way to the famous playwright. On a short visit the most obvious place to find was his supposed birthplace, close to the centre of town on Henley Street, though in his day no doubt much less urbanised - at least I imagine there wouldn't have been Shakespeare's cafe or Shakespeare's giftshop established back then.

Even on a damp overcast day the town was thronging with tourists, and it was difficult to get any kind of shot of the older buildings on the street, including the house where Shakespeare was reputedly born and where he grew up. We smiled especially at the group of Japanese visitors who were making good use of their expensive cameras shooting anything that looked old, usually with a group of them stood immediately in front.

With a long drive back after a busy weekend we didn't want to hang around too long, and our decision was vindicated when we joined a lengthy tailback typical of a bank holiday on the M6.

Joanne and George (and blogging is back!)

It's been a hectic summer and a combination of severe computer problems (which eventually meant a complete restore), work, holidays (x2), several busy weekends and perhaps a little lack of motivation too has meant no blogs for the last couple of months.

So, I've plenty of catching up to do, so let's start with recent happenings, and this last weekend this meant little William's christening. I've known William's mum Joanne all my life, and as we rarely get to see each other these days it was great to be able to spend some time with Joanne and husband Gary the evening before the christening itself. Their other son George hadn't gone to bed, and I got the chance to snap the two of them before it was bedtime.

I'll gradually back-fill some blog postings over the next few days, so please bear with me as I start filling in the blanks!

William's Christening

This weekend we were in Rugby for Joanne and Gary's son William's christening, and with it being a bank holiday too we'd decided to make the most of it and so had booked a couple of nights in a Premier Inn.

With a little luck we were hoping for some fine weather so we could do some exploring of the East Midlands as well as catching up with some of our closest friends.

There was around 90 people packed into Sacred Heart church at Bilton, on the outskirts of Rugby for the ceremony, and afterwards it was only a short drive round to one of the many rugby clubs in the town for a celebration.

William and brother George both looked dapper in their posh waistcoats, and they're both photogenic too as these snaps of George and mum Joanne, and William with his gran Sandra show.

During the evening we had chance to catch up with friends, and as usual were kept thoroughly entertained by several younger members of the family, all of whom are very talented singers and dancers and well used to putting on a show!  A great evening and a great weekend.

Picking a subject that's good enough to eat

I've been continuing to look for subjects on a yellow theme and a project from a recent camera

magazine gave me an idea to try.

The article was based on the colour red, and one picture in particular caught my eye - it showed several rows of green apples with one bright red apple on the rule of thirds providing a contrast and drawing the eye.

Not wanting particularly to splash out on dozens of apples to try the same effect, I'd been looking for something less expensive that could give a similar effect but using my chosen theme, yellow.  Browsing in the shop at work, a pack of M&Ms suddenly stared back at me and I had my idea!

Trouble was one pack wouldn't be enough to guarantee enough of the right colours... so three bags later and I was fully prepared!

Here's a couple of my efforts - I tried the same idea as in the magazine with one colour contrasting with the one yellow one, then an alternative with a mix of colours but again just the one yellow.

But the best thing about photographing M&Ms in this way is that once you've had enough, you can eat the subject!!

Martha's naming ceremony