In the bleak mid winter

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Well, not really but the black and white images kind of suited the title! In the last few days I've been walking Ferb at the "Flashes" as they're known locally. This is shortened from the Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes, an area of reclaimed land that was heavily mined in the 18th and 19th centuries leading to serious subsidence, forming craters and the creation of lakes where the River Weaver flowed into them. Today it's a rather unique site where some seaside plants thrive due to the high salt levels and it's rich with birdlife, butterflies and dragonflies. There are several circular walks that link to the wider Northwich Woodlands and it's easy to walk to Marbury Park and the Anderton Boat Lift. From most points you are reminded of the industrial heritage of Northwich by the dramatic factories on the horizon with  pipes and chimneys pumping out steam.

As you can imagine it's a great place to walk, with a multitude of circular routes to choose from and real variety of scenery - woodland, canals, lakes, meadows and rivers. And of course it presents tons of lovely photographic opportunities. During today's walk we met many other dog walkers but also lots of people out and about with their cameras attracted by fresh snowfall, clear blue skies and the threat of a thaw within 24 hours.

I didn't end up taking many photos, as I was simply enjoying the walk, watching Ferb's highly comical run - his back legs seem so much longer than the front ones and he lollops clumsily along but somehow at high speed. When I got back and looked at my shots I decided to have a go at thinking square again - admittedly I didn't shoot them with this intention but I'll allow it as another useful exercise. (If you don't know what on earth I'm talking about you need to look back at my last two posts).

I thought the images looked a bit flat and monotone so I experimented with some black and white conversion as well as the square cropping. I like the results but am not blown away. Looking forward to more walks over the coming weeks and more photo opportunities.

I've written about the Northwich Flashes before - I was shocked to see it was 4 years ago almost to the day. Click here to read what I thought back then - apologies that the pictures aren't there - I think Blogger ate them as I couldn't have deleted them as I wouldn't even know where they go I've posted them! I'm going to root out some photos I've taken in the last 4 years and post them.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

A trip to Crosby Beach with Big Boy

After endless days of rain over Christmas we were desperate to get out somewhere - me particularly so as I had only been able to use my new Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens once since Christmas Day!

This is a real Big Boy of a lens - extremely sharp, focuses almost instantly and silently, is image stabilised and has a wide aperture of f/2.8 at every focal length. Basically it's great for making sure moving subjects are really sharp even when the light isn't great.


I first got my hands on one at a pet photography course in December and it went straight to the top of my list for Santa (I did help Santa out a bit with the cost!). I couldn't get this shot of a spaniel in flight with my best zoom lens - it just wouldn't focus fast enough nor let enough light in to achieve the amount of blurred background I wanted.

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On Christmas morning I barely had time to get one shot of our puppy, Ferb, before the holiday monsoon set in. It was well into the New Year before a free day and good weather came together at the same time. The beach seemed like a great idea, especially as Ferb hadn't been to the seaside before.

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Nic's wanted to see Antony  Gormley's "Another Place" art installation at Crosby Beach for a while (once he explained it was those naked statues of men staring out to see we were a bit more enthusiastic!).

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Conditions were perfect for an uplifting frolic across the sand and for getting used to Big Boy - bright, low sunshine, clear, flat light. At any other time of year the sun would have been too high and direct, causing harsh contrasts but it was perfect that day. The sun was at the right angle and bright enough to create silhouettes and I was able to get an amusing picture of Abi assessing one of the figures - we all know what she was looking at! Works well in black and white as it emphasises the contrast.

OK, so the naked statues weren't exactly going anywhere and I wanted some practice shooting moving subjects. The kids and puppy duly obliged by dashing around on the beach, somewhat complicated by the fact that Ferb was on a 30 metre long lead! To keep them in focus I used the AI Servo focusing mode, which I'll admit I've largely steered clear of, but it performed perfectly. You just have to remember to keep tracking your subject with the lens and it looks after the focusing. Takes a bit of practise but well worth it.

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It's not often we see Nic in full flight - he's renowned for falling over, so this is a rare sight indeed! I love Ferb in this one too!

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And freeze framing the kids kicking water around worked well too. (Spot the full frontal statue in the background!)

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Nic had made that fatal mistake of forgetting to put a memory card in his camera so we nipped into Crosby to buy one and to refuel. When we got back to the beach around 3pm the sun was lower in the sky, the light had changed significantly and the tide was in. I would have loved to have got a proper sunset shot of the statues being immersed in the sea but cold, bored kids and wet dog were clamouring to go home. So I made do with this shot instead and felt very jealous of the increasing numbers of people appearing with cameras and tripods.

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By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

New year, new look blog

It's been a while since my last confession post... I fell out of the blogging habit last year, largely because I spent most of my free time on a project to take and post a photograph every day during 2012. (Separate post on this is simmering away in my brain and will come to the boil soon).

I've really missed writing and have made it a resolution for 2013 to do more. I'm planning to combine all my blogs into one - it was getting confusing for me never mind anyone else. So top tips on photography and posts about recent shoots will all nestle here alongside tales of our exploits as a family.

I've given my blog a bit of a facelift - it took far longer than I expected to do a few simple changes to the background and header - but I'm pleased with the overall result. Feels a little friendlier than all that serious black and green I had before. And it seems more appropriate to feature my lovely children and dog in the header too!

Ferb, the dog, is a new addition to our family and he will no doubt be the star of the show for the foreseeable future - he's so darn cute and extremely photogenic. He even has his own Facebook page if you can't wait between posts to see his little hairy face.

Also set to feature a fair amount is our new (to us) caravan. With two successful outings under our belt (we won't mention the encounter between our gatepost and a caravan window!) we're planning holidays up and down the length of Britain this year.

I've already got a long list of ideas for blog posts and am itching to get started. With heavy snow supposedly heading our way I can forecast lots of photo opportunities and lots of time sitting in front of a roaring fire, blogging away. Hopefully they won't just languish unread in the ether somewhere - at least I know my other half reads them and points out where I've used apostrophe's (sic) in the wrong place and embellished the truth somewhat, in order to be more entertaining!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!