The early bird….

There are many days where I could sit and type a decent short blog. The words may not be as important as the accompanying illustrations, whether artwork or photographs. But time just slips away. However, this morning was one of those days where I felt the need to put together a small post after what was a stunning morning here in Teesdale.

Up before dawn I headed up to Holwick near Middleton in Teesdale to see if I could capture the sunrise. The conditions were enhanced by a light dusting of snow that we have had over the past couple of days. My timing was almost perfect as I know that there are certain days where the early sun rises along the length of Holwick. My planning worked out.

As normal for me I just use my old (and slightly faulty) Nikon D7100, hand held. Nearly all of the time I take shots with the potential that they will be used as refernces for paintings in the future. Seldom do I use filters or tripods when out and about. As for post processing, well I like to tweak the images so that they look as natural as possible because that is how I see things and portray them in my paintings. I can’t be bothered trying to ”enhance” the scenes with filters and tricks in post processing- I can’t improve on nature. I want you to see the image as if you were standing next to me and watching the scene unfold with your own eyes.

Here are just a selection of the images.

Holwick as the sun rises
The sun comes up over Holwick
Holwick at sunrise
The light reflects of the crusty snow
Holwick tractor
The old workhorse
Holwick sunrise
Holwick Scars
Holwick Lane
Holwick lane
Holwick Scars
A little bit of shelter
The Castles, Holwick
Holwick Castles
Winter trees, Holwick
Winter Trees against the crags

And here is the bonus. When I was back in the warmth of my studio a quick movement outside the window caught my eye. This stoat was having a fabulous time playing in the snow on the sloping roop of the workshop next door. I was enhanced, watching him twist and tumble at speed for 3 or 4 minutes. He looked up, and then skitted away. A moment to savour.

Stoat

Thank you for taking time to have a read and I hope that you have enjoyed sharing with me this wonderful daybreak. In the near future I will add some of the images to the Teesdale collection so that prints may be ordered.

Feel free to comment on this or any other post and feel free to share with your friends.

Thank you.

4 Comments:

  1. Some real beauties there Andy. Thank you!

  2. Christopher Butterfield

    Lovely images Andy. You captured them to perfection. The tractor shot was superb. Really nice write-up too.

    • Thanks Chris for the kind comment. It was a glorious morning to be out again. Yes, the tractor is probably my favourite too. I can see that one featuing on a calendar.

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