Durham City Cathedral & Ramside

 Durham City Cathedral & Ramside

Photo highlights of a weekend in & around Durham..

I spent the weekend in the start of november mainly in Durham.

On a brisk, cold autumnal day of saturday I enjoyed a short stroll around the cathedral and city taking in the afternoon glow that surrounded the area and saw it as a nice opportunity to try to capture the autumnal landscape.

The following day, I spent out a few miles from Durham city for a sunday lunch and saw another immediate opportunity to take some photos..

Hadrian's wall, Steel Rigg to Housesteads

Photo highlights of an afternoon stroll along Hadrian's wall this Autumn

One of the most photographed areas on Hadrian's wall, and showed on Britain's favourite view.

The Wainstones Walk, Cleveland Way, North York Moors, Sept 2012

Most of these photos in this blog have been taken with an experia phone camera.

The quality in some could obviously be better, but I think, not bad for an old phone camera! on this occasion, anyway..

The walk is a relatively easy, short walk, although it is steep initially in places.…

I was really surprised by the interesting rocks scattered all over the area and the bountiful heather, which embraces the landscape aplenty.

You are spoilt for choice if you are looking for interesting compositions here!

Seaham "Green-Flash" Sunrise, August 2012

I Witnessed the rare phenomenon,  "The Green Flash" at Seaham harbour!

A natural phenomenon that occurs on rare occasions usually around caribbean shores..

It happens a few seconds before the sun is just setting or rising.

Basically the sun looked a luminous green before it came up!

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to catch it or switch to video camera mode as I simply didn't expect it to happen! but the sunrise was still good to catch and managed to capture it with a few select photos as you can see in this blog

Wild Camp at Hard Tarn, below Nethermost Pike, near Helvellyn, Lake District

Having not done much creatively for a while (or had the time to) I was somewhat, not-knowing-what-to-expect by a one night “wild camp,” and the chance to see some of the Lake District in a potentially different light..I was looking forward to it, yet I didn’t really have any high expectations…

However, the experience was quite simply breathtaking, and although I didn’t have the best of cameras and photographic experience behind me, I was inspired by what I saw and did my best to capture it all as best I could.

I was further inspired by this experience to create this blog, to work on my back catalogue of photos, and get back into photography once again…

Buttermere, Lake District & Western Lakeland 2008 / 2009

Sunset 

I like buttermere. It always seems to be one of the more quieter, stiller, peaceful lakes to be near…

The last two times I ventured there it was around May and September time.

The last time I was there it was a little bit disappointing my camera died on me whilst witnessing probably the most vivid, colourful sunset I’ve ever seen!, which happened to be over Haystacks. Nevertheless my friend captured it very well (see link - http://stuarthodgson.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/NATURE-photos) and I still managed to get one or two before the sunset really kicked in!

Up and around Haystacks are some very good vantage points for capturing sunsets, just remember to bring plenty of batteries and even a spare camera, just in case...

Brierton – Dalton Farm Countryside, Hartlepool 2007

The collection of photos here were taken in one spell during a snowy period in the Winter of 2007.

I chose to portray them all in black & white as I felt this seemed to suit the atmosphere and feeling of the specific time & place.

The Caribbean 2007

The photos here show a glimpse of my time in St Vincent & The Grenadines – my last port of call around my ventures around the Caribbean! (Unfortunately, during my mini trip around the world I had my camera stolen when I was leaving Barcelona, and unable to afford a camera until I reached St vincent).

During 2006-2007 (I think it was then, give or take a year!) I did some independent travel work around the South of Spain, staying at quite a few different places including, “Ecoforest”, and some nice friendly places in Alozaina such as “Temple Garden,” and Martin’s Family house!

Further south in Orgiva I spent some time hitch-hiking around the mountains and living off the land in a wild “hippy” commune called “Beneficio”, I think…

I then worked my way around to Barcelona, spent a bit of time in the Montserrat mountains, before a pit stop at a Vipassana retreat centre where I also worked at for a while…

After all that, I moved on to the Canary Islands, eventually culminating in a speculative sailing voyage, really far away! – almost to the other side of world – The Caribbean!

Out Of Time & Place (Sun, Sea, Sky)

Rays of light over the sea

The photos here are a random selection taken mainly around my local area of the North East of England.

I can’t exactly remember when I first started getting into Travel & Photography but it must have been somewhere around 1997/8 when I was in Art college and moving on to University.

For some reason I wasn’t particularly concerned with man’s effect on environment but had a desire to capture the natural environment as untouched as it possibly could be...

The natural environment to me was beyond the fashions of Art & Design

but yet expressed a timeless, universal beauty and language shared by One & All.

And so I first started taking photos around the North East of the nearby coast (Seaton, Hartlepool) and nearest mountain range of Roseberry Topping, around the late nineties/early noughties..

Devon (Lynton/Lynmouth, The Valley Of the Rocks & Ilfracombe) 2003

Sunset by the cove 

I regrettably didn’t take or keep as many good photos as I would of liked upon travelling around the South West of England, with it being the bygone era of the film camera!

However, I still managed to find some highlights, helping me to remember fondly an area of the country that I love and still love to visit when I get the chance.