Northumbria is on the English side of the border between Scotland and England, a county of rugged scenery, beautiful unspoilt coastlines and villages, a perfect place to unwind for a few days. And of course there are castles. In Scotland the castles tend to be fortified houses and fairy tale turrets. On the coast of Northumbria, the castles were built as defensive fortresses. So I had hopes of good opportunities for aerial photography.
The journey down was uneventful, a five hour drive, and we got ourselves settled into our little home for the week. As the daylight faded we wrapped ourselves up against the wind and rain and went for a walk down to the tiny harbour. Even in the foul weather I could see the area was photogenic.
The following morning we took a walk in bright sunshine along the beach to the next village. After we had walked about 3 miles, the skies darkened and over the next few hours the weather turned colder and the snow began to fall. As the temperature dropped, the snow even settled on the rocks and beach in front of the cottage. By late afternoon I was hopping about with anticipation as a light breeze and lowering sun created the perfect conditions for some KAP. Without much ado I was out with the gear, down the little flight of steps from our garden to the beach and photographing the amazing contrasts of snow, sand and rock.
I got several amazing abstract shots from above, all of them arresting, for me this one has a bit of everything, from the swirling patterns of snow, water and rock, the footprints, and the two figures in the top of the frame.
Then it was a brisk walk down to the harbour to get some more aerials, this time, of the harbour and the old lime kilns as the sun set over Beadnell Bay in a glorious display.
The following day we headed up the coast to Bamburgh, and I spent an hour or so on the pathways and in the sand dunes attempting to get some decent aerials of the castle.
The sun was still low enough to create a pleasing colour on the stonework of the castle
Lyn took a walk along the beach and took this atmospheric shot of my kite flying over the castle.
With the light fading we headed across the causeway to Lindisfarne (or Holy Island as it is known) but with no wind and failing light there was no chance of aerials at this wonderfully atmospheric spot.
The line of old upturned herring boats used as storage sheds and all the other fishing gear around would have made a wonderful set of aerial studies
The following morning, I decided to take some aerials close to our cottage, to capture some textures and old fishing boats and lobster pots in the yard next door. My interest had been whetted by the traditional fishing gear at Holy Island the day before. At Beadnell there was still snow on the ground. I had high hopes as I allowed the camera to hover over the derelict old fishing boats.
The results certainly met my expectations. The snow gave an ethereal, monochromatic look to the photographs, the camera was easily able to obtain sharp shots. In hindsight I could have overexposed a stop or so to make the shots less grey, but on playing around in Photoshop, I ended up preferring the results as they came from the camera, so that is what is presented here.
The boats looked superb with their covering of snow.
In the afternoon it was a walk along the coast to Dunstanborough castle to try to take some aerials of the brooding ruin on the clifftops. The walk across the gale-swept, freezing coastal path took about half an hour, all the way I was mulling over the craziness of taking the KAP gear with me, the wind being far too stong. Of course once we arrived at the final slope up to the castle I had decided to fly anyway, I hadn't lugged the gear all the way for nothing. So without ado, I got the kite up, pulling enormously strongly. I had to take my gloves off to set up the rig, the bitter wind numbing my fingers in seconds. I let the rig up into the sky, but once it was up about 30 feet, the kite was up as high as I dared fly it, I was at the limits of my strength holding onto everything. I managed to remember to fire the shutter a couple of times before I gave up. The results, in the gloomy light and with the wild motion of kite and line, were hardly surprising.
Then I got the parafoil up for a few shots around the harbour area, of the boats I'd just painted.
Finally I walked out along the headland and took a set of shots for panoramas. Here is a highly compressed result. It shows why Beadnell is the only West facing harbour on
the East coat of Britain.
Note: some of the pictures from this page will appear in an article on KAP in digital Camera Magazine Issue 18 - March 2004
This page copyright Feb 2004