Yarnbury Castle

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drama, hill fort, iron age, ominous, photography, rain, storm, threat, Yarnbury Castle

Yarnbury Castle, an iron age hill fort dating from around 300BC, sits atop a typical Wiltshire whale back hill offering panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. My relatively elevated viewpoint allowed me to watch the approaching storm and for a good half an hour I followed its inexorable march.

The atmosphere was thick, charged with electricity; the sweet smell of rain hung in the air and my excited heartbeat quickened. I felt alive; my primeval instincts roused in this ancient site. Occasionally the cloud base gave way; curtains of rain falling, drifting their caress across the distant undulating fields. Undiminished, the storm rolled on ….

… and yes – I got soaked!

(All images are copyright to Noeline Smith)

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End to End

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Cirngorms, drama, E2E, End to End, english, green, harbour, John o Groats, motorcycle, photography, rain, royal enfield, rural, sunset, Teesdale, tranquil

I recently undertook an ‘End to End’ trip on my Royal Enfield. For those unfamiliar with this, it is basically any route that traverses Great Britain between its two extremities: north east to south west or vice versa.

I was blessed with an amazing sunset as I made my way up to my starting point …… of the harbour at John o’ Groats ….. passed through the Cairngorms ….. and Teesdale …. had a well timed coffee stop ….. and after a week of riding watched the sun set at Land’s End ….. A very brief summation (!) of a great week that introduced to me to parts of the country I’ve never seen before – but will definitely revisit. Next time however, it will be at my own pace with no deadlines or pre-arranged accommodation that force you to keep moving on!

(All images are copyright to Noeline Smith)

Homing in …

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B&W, black & white, dew, droplets, flower, leaf, macro, mono, photography, rain, water

So, with my travels over for now I’m finding photographic inspiration closer to home – well, closer to pretty much everything else as well in fact! This is one of those ‘almost – but not quite’ shots; a slightly wider depth of field would have improved things, as it would had I been more parallel to my subject. Oh well, there’s always another time – after all, outside the front door isn’t too far to go 🙂

Any other suggestions on how to improve this? Constructive criticism is always welcome – after all, it’s the best way to learn!

 (All images are copyright to Noeline Smith)

Cultivated sunshine

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cloud, green, rain, road, spring, yellow

The recent hosepipe ban in parts of southern England was closely followed by more rain than we’ve had for a long time – in fact, it’s probably the wettest drought in memory!

The dull days are just that – dull. But the showery days are wonderful with incredible skies, racing shadows and beautifully saturated colours creating fantastic opportunities for great pictures as long as you can dodge the showers. As usual, I seem to have been struggling to juggle life’s everyday commitments as well as squeeze in some photography but managed to grab an hour or so yesterday to capture this scene, just off the A303 heading west. We seem to have an abundance of Rape being grown in these parts again, I’m not sure it’s too good for the wheat stocks but it does look like cultivated sunshine and is very striking against a stormy sky. Unfortunately, the incredibly black skies were behind me so couldn’t feature in my photograph, however they did contribute to the making of it by encouraging my decision to go for a quick ‘grab’ shot before getting drenched and merge two RAW conversions later in Photoshop. I hope the finished result brightens up a dull day!

(All images are copyright to Noeline Smith)

A wild afternoon

Tags

drama, photography, rain, silhouette, storm, sunset, tree

Finally a little spare time coincided with something other than endless grey skies – my timing seems to have been particularly bad these past few months. Anyway, with the wind streaked clouds racing across the sky, a blinding sun playing stroboscope and the trees outside our windows whipping up a frenzy I decided to head out to my current favourite spot and try my luck. Being high on the chalk scarp overlooking the Pewsey Vale I knew it was going to be pretty wild up there, but there’s something about the distant horizons that I like – great expanses are difficult to photograph but the views are spectacular!

The vistas certainly didn’t disappoint and I felt quite small as the wind bullied me about and storms raced across the skyline, the flowing tendrils of rain showing as dark draped shadows. Setting up my tripod was a fruitless task as, even pegged to the ground with my laden rucksack, the wind rocked it on its feet. Giving up on ‘serious’ photography I simply wandered, enjoying my solitude and the wild conditions. As the afternoon wore on the sun gradually slid downwards, leaving the brilliant blue sky to drop through the clouds and illuminate them from within with an orange fire. Too impressive to resist I shot hand held exposing for the sky, choosing to silhouette the foreground tree and capture the dramatic sky instead. Not a great afternoon for photography …. but a great afternoon!

(All images are copyright to Noeline Smith)