Out with my friends Chris, Ron and Caroline from the camera club last night. We had a good night even if we only had an hours good light. We went into Caroline's field to take some photos of ... yes again...... haybales. We were fortunate to be blessed with a part rainbow which kept coming and going for a while.
I never got out tonight with the camera club as it was raining and I thought no-one would turn up. Later on at 8:00pm it stopped raining and i saw the sky light up like a fog of orange light. I ran, put my shoes on, grabbed my camera and got in the car and headed for the top of Castleside. I no sooner got there than the sky went dark again and the sun went down. Just my luck. However I saw some haystacks in a field and decided to take them. The light wans't brilliant so I decided to have a play in photoshop. I've given them a sort of soft focus painterly effect. I like it... Hope you do.
The Hownsgill Viaduct (The Gill Bridge) was constructed in 1857 and spans 700ft across a ravine, it is made up of almost 3 million white fire bricks and stands 175ft tall weighing approximately 12,0000 tonnes. It has 12 arches each with a 50ft span and at a total cost of £12,500 to build. It was Thomas Bouch an engineer who was given the tender and later knighted by Queen Victoria during his career but later ended his life in disgrace after the collapse of his greatest achievement The Tay Bridge. Before the viaduct was built the rail journey had been interrupted by this ravine and freight had to be taken across it on wagons which were lowered and raised by means of a stationary steam haulage engine.Now, part of the Derwent walk it is still used by cyclists and walkers crossing the ravine and unfortunately now more notably a place where people in despair take their lives, Most recent that of a mother and her child. Because of the suicide activity at this bridge, it has gained a reputation with those down on their luck and, used as a term for feeling low, out of luck and as an insult, a place to go and jump.
These were taken in Blackhill cemetary tonight on our camera clubs Mondayphotographic jaunt. There was only four of us turned up on a very miserable evening. The clouds had just started to break a little and the light started to get better as we got there. We just thought we'd try some moody shots tonight. (The first image is 7 bracketed images merged together in Photomatix).
I think i've mentioned the Terris Novalis art in my home town of Consett. The gleaming stainless steel replicas of the late 19th Century surveyor’s instruments are twenty times life size and weigh four and five tonnes made of stainless steel. They are the work of Turner prize winning Tony Cragg.
