Shooting in Northumberland: Part I

Where: Northumberland Coast, UK. Stopping at Housteads Roman Fort (Hadrians Wall), Bamburgh and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

When: 19th-22nd September, 2008.

Kit: Canon EOS 5D, EF 24-70mm L USM lens and EF 75-300mm lens, lots of memory cards (shooting RAW I filled an 8.0GB, a 1.0GB and had moved onto a 2.0GB), a 5D shutter cable (genuine Canon model. Don't waste your time with the false economy of the cheap after market brands) and a sturdy tripod. Mine's a Calumet model, bought at an impressive discount as it was ex floor stock.


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If you are planning a photography trip of Northumberland, you are going to need a private car. While there are coach tours and the like operating in the area, one of the more simple rules of photography is not to be at the mercy of other people. There is possibly nothing more frustrating than wondering what shots you could have gotten if you had arrived at a location an hour earlier or stayed an hour or more longer.
Having said that, I travelled to Northumberland for the weekend from Nottingham with my non-photographer husband, but the trip wasn't strictly business. It was our first wedding anniversary, but it's hardly fair to take a photographer somewhere so picturesque and not expect them to get a little carried away. I only managed to throw one tantrum over the course of the weekend, and my frustration was squarely aimed at myself. I'll spare you the gory details.

We would have taken this trip even if the weather had been less than welcoming, but lucky for us Northumberland managed to pull a bit of a clever little trick out of its hat and supplied us with a generous three days of fine weather featuring blue skies and not a single drop of rain. Not even a shower.
If you're planning on tripping to Northumberland strictly for photography purposes, then be smart and check the forecast before you go. There is no point in making the trip if the forecast is for unrelenting rain (unless unrelenting rain is your photographic 'thing').

After staying the night at Hexham (just because) we found our way to Housteads Roman Fort, which is on a remaining bit of Hadrian's Wall. Because this is not a history blog I'll leave it up to you if you want to explore the ins and outs of Hadrian, the Romans and the Scots. Me, I like old stuff. It looks great in photos.

For details on how to get there, I shall furnish you with this linkage to the English Heritage web site visitor info for Housesteads. What they do fail to mention is how much the parking costs. If you are a member of English Heritage, it's free. Otherwise, take pound and twenty pence coins with you.
Fancy just looking at the wall and not paying to go into the fort? You can do that! There are access points all over the place for ramblers and while we were at the fort, plenty of folk were to be seen walking along the wall. The gates from the fort to the wall are locked (English Heritage claims 'erosion' as the reason. I cry 'bullshit', as if the gates were unlocked, any old rambler could wander onto the site for free from the adjoining sheep paddock), but any nimble type can pop over the fence for a better view of the wall when coming from the fort.

Although all the signage indicated that this is Northern Europe's bestest ever Roman fort, I didn't actually take any photos of it because only aerial photography would do it justice. I did take some of the bogs, though.



And this one of my pretty husband in an oven.



From Housesteads we went on to the Alnwick Food Festivus, where we purchased Food! and More Food! and Damson Gin!. Apparently Alnwick has a castle, which we drove past on the way out of town. It's really very pretty, so I pulled into a lay by to have a look at the vista, but didn't bother pulling out the camera. Or, er, getting out of the car. Or stopping the engine...
I'm sure Alnwick Castle is fantastic. It just wasn't the main attraction for us.

What was the main attraction? Bamburgh and Bamburgh Castle, and later, Holy Island.

We stayed the Saturday and Sunday nights at a Hotel near Bamburgh. Now, I have a confession to make.

Drum roll please...

I hate getting out of bed in the morning. That is, I really hate it. Meaning that sunrises and dawn photography are currently not part of my repertoire. While that's set to change in the near future, it certainly wasn't going to happen this weekend. Which relegated my shooting time to during the day and evenings. These shots of Bamburgh Castle, for example, were shot over a couple of hours on Sunday evening.


For better or for worse, I am exceptionally critical of my own work. It means I am always certain I could have taken a better photo if I had somehow been magically more prepared. Or if I had a real camera bag. Or if I paid heed to the God I really don't believe in. Etc.

What I can say with some certainty, though, is that better photos could have been taken by me on Saturday afternoon and evening if I hadn't left my run too late. Not only did I leave my run too late, but I also failed to check out the proposed area before turning up. This meant I wasted a lot of time just finding somewhere to set up and I was properly punished for my mistake by losing a lot of the sunset.

I am never going to know what I could have captured if I had arrived earlier and had given some real thought to where I should set up. The images I did capture are fantastic, sure, but what if...!

We went to the Holy Island of Lindesfarne on Sunday, which I will cover in part II of "Shooting in Northumberland".

Right now I have to go and do some real work.