I am conscious that there has been a lack of updates and activity on my web site recently, this is due to several factors, one being that I have become bone idle and lost my enthusiasm for getting out into the landscape to take photographs.
Me and the good wife agreed to find some time to take a run-off somewhere this weekend to enjoy a bit of time together away form the home as we have felt a little trapped recently.
After a bit of homework, we decided to travel to Bamburgh castle on the Northeast Coast, the plan was to spend some time visiting the Castle and the grounds then me a little time photographing the Castle from the beach. The tide would be coming in during the afternoon so I hoped that this would provide some interesting compositions, and the weather forecast was favourable.
We arrived at Bamburgh around 11 am so we found a car park for which we had to pay 😡 (not my favorite activity), from the car park we headed up to the castle to see what was on view, a payment of £12 each got us into the grounds where we headed for a well-deserved cuppa and a slice of cake that was on offer before we began to explore.
First impressions were favourable, the grounds were very well kept, and numerous artifacts were on display with information boards available to enable you to learn of their importance. We entered the Castle to view the various rooms that you can visit, some of which were beautiful. There were loads of items to view and read about throughout the tour of the castle rooms. We were surprised to learn that the castle is still privately owned by the Armstrong family, you must applaud them for the quality and quantity of the items on show within the Castle. I must compliment the staff; they were so very friendly and provided loads of information. Our tour of the castle took us around 2.5 hours, an altogether enjoyable experience, below are a few phone photos of some of the Castle rooms.
Bamburgh village is located below the Castle and has an atmosphere of an old English village, with several pubs and eating houses are located around a triangle of roads within 5 minutes walking form the Castle, the greens and verges are immaculately kept. On the day that we were there, there were many people sitting on the benches and on the greens enjoying the local beers and food.
Early afternoon we trekked over towards the beach, and what a beach, golden sand for as far as the eye could see which was spotlessly clean. It was pleasing to seen hundreds of people enjoying the warm autumnal day when we were there, people sitting in deck chairs watching the world go by, children paddling in the many rock pools at the north end of the beach, people swimming, and surfers try to conquer the quite substantial sized waves that we incoming on what was a gentle breeze blowing form the shore towards the sea. I headed to the northern end of the beach with the aim of using the rocks has foreground interest looking back along the beach towards the castle.
My plans changed slightly when I got down on to the shore as the incoming tide was whipping up some considerable sized waves which were having their tops blown off them by the breeze coming from the shore. I spent quite a bit of time trying to capture the moment has the wave was at its highest and the faint traits of spray being blown seawards.
From here I headed towards the sandy areas and began looking for some interesting foreground, or leading lines heading towards the castle, I used rock pools, patterns in the sand, rocks, and waves to try and secure some decent shots. I also practiced with short and long exposures to achieve different effects of the photos.
All in all, I spent over 2.5 hours on the beach and fully enjoyed the experience, I have to say though that I was conscious the Mrs was waiting patiently on shore for me to return to the car.
A photo of Bamburgh castle from the beach, note the number of people enjoying the lovely autumnal weather.
Just before we left, we both agreed that there is scope to plan a return journey to this area which will include a several nights stay-over to allow us to explore and visit the may attractions that is on offer, I must admit I never realised that the Northumberland coastal area had so much to offer, we will be back, a thoroughly enjoyable day, if a little tiring due to the travel time and distance.
