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A misty morning across Bridport and the surrounding hills....

I arrived a bit late and the sun was already above the hills and the mist was beginning to disappear, so I only managed to get a few shots before it went completely.

The sun was directly on Colmers Hill which was shining golden in the early morning light.

I have been getting a bit fed-up with the weather over the last few days, with mist and fog forecast, but after getting up early, seeing nothing! Today, that all changed, with a wonderful misty morning across the Marshwood Vale.

I set off (again) early this morning to agreat lookout point across the Marshwood Vale up near Lamberts Castle. mIt was a cold morning with the car covered in ice, the lock frozon solid and the roads a bit icy and slippery, but I was determined to get there and capture the valley.

I arrived well before sunrise and got organised, setting up my gear. The view across the valley was very atmospheric with a thick layer of mist across a lot of the valley, with the trees, pylons, farms and buildings popping out of it sporadically across the valley floor.





I took a few shots before the sun rose above the horizon, which gave a very cold and almost monochrome feeling and with a cloudless sky, there was not too much colour in the sky, even as the sun rose above the clouds on the horizon.

Once up the valley came alive, with side lighting to the centre of the valley, striking shadows across the mist and lighting up the trees. I took a selection of shots across the valley, including one I converted to black and white using SilverEfex pro.









I then broke all the rules and took a few straight into the sun, to capture the outline of Colmers Hill in Bridport against the rising sun, with the 'layers' of hills around it.





I had been wanting to take this valley in the mist for some time, so it was a real treat to see it, experience it and capture it.

I went out for sunset tonight as it was looking promising, with clouds across the sky and the wind was blowing gently as I set out from home.

However, as I reached the coast, the wind had really picked up and as I walked down to the jetty it seemed to be blowing harder and harder as I got closer.

I only managed to take a couple of shots as the clouds were disappearing as I watched and due to the strong winds. I setup the camera before walking down to the end of the jetty, which was fun (not) where a few more planks had disappeared since I was there last. I setup the shot and then took a long exposure using the Lee Big Stopper of 1 minute, which allowed the clouds to streak and the water to soften.

Another of my local fav spots, again well photographed by many, but still a place I like to go.

On Sunday afternoon, as the sun was setting and the liught beginning to 'glow', I headed off to Stonebarrow to try and capture Golden Cap in the amazing golden light that was shining.

On the way I drove past Colmers Hill, one of my favourite (if over photographed) local spots.

I walked up the hill opposite to capture the scene from Eype Down, to include some of the ferns on the down which were turning golden brown and looked wonderful in the setting sunlight. I tried a couple of different scenes, using some of the late-flowering gorse as foreground interest, but in the end discarded that one in favour of a more traditional composition.





As the sun lowered still further and it looked promising for a grerat sunset, I headed off towards Lyme Regs but as the sun dropped the clouds built up and formed a low barrier across the sky, resulting in a rather dissapointing and grey sunset. I stopped on the front of Lyme to capture a set of steps I had seen a few weeks earlier, that I thought would work well as a black and white iamge.

This weekend saw another visit to the The Avenue of Beech Trees up at Bradbury Rings, near Kingston Lacy, Wimborne. The colours in the canopy of the avenue had turned further, with many leaves having already fallen, but as the sun shone and lowered in the sky, the leaves captured the colours and glowed.

The road was very busy and it took many attempts to get shots clear of cars, lorries and vans. There were also many neavy clouds in the skies, which the sun kept hiding behind, so it was a day of patience.

The avenue was bathed in light, but the branches of the trees captured my attention as theyv were swaying in the breeze, but bending under their own weight and almost touching the grass floor. The patterns formed by the trunks and the branches were wonderful and mixed in with the colours, made a scene worth capturing.





As the branches curved and bent over they formed a 'tunnel' of there own down the avenue.

This weekend it seemed that all the colours changed almost overnight. The greens morphed into into oranges and yellows and the rusts and reds started to develop. It was time to search for autumn colours. I have now replaced the D90 but am still waiting for the Sigma lens to arrive, so these were taken with the normal 18-55 and 55-200 Nikon lenses, occasionally using my Cokin filters

I started locally and with the sun shining I decided to shoot Colmers Hill from the top of Walditch avenue, across the fields, taking in the rooftops of Bridport with their bricks and painted walls to add to the colours.





Following a recent visit to the Wimborne Avenue up near Kingston Lacy where the trees had still been green, I thought it time to revisit. I wasn't disappointed, and neither were the other 20 or so photographers up there that day. The only issue was the clouds, which were stopping the sun from lighting up the avenue in all its glory.





Having never been, I then took off up to Stourhead, arriving with an hour or so to spare before sunset, but again with lots of clouds stopping the vibrant colours of the hillsides really popping, it took a while to wait for the breaks in the clouds for the hillside to come alight.

There were a lot of people wandering around, many photographers out and about, all enjoying the spectacle of the gardens. It was worth the wait and I'll definitely be going again very soon before the autumn colour go.

It has to be one of the most photographed places in the South, but in the autumn, with the evening sun, you can easily see why.

I used a B+W 10-stop filter on the this one, to try and stop the ripples, caused by the ducks and geese, from spoiling the reflections.

On the way home I managed to buy an SD card and headed of to Charmouth beach. The sun was setting and lighting up the cliffs of Stonebarrow and Golden Cap, and off in the distance behind them, those of West Bay, Freshwater and Burton Bradstock.

I was using my old Nikon D50 with its 18-55 kit lens, so I was a bit limited, so I chose to use the 10-stop B+W filter to help slow things down and add some movement into the scene.

Unfortunately, as the sun set, the clouds disappeared which was a shame, but the golden light as the sun went down really made the whole shoreline glow.

A few people were milling around and these were turned into ghosts with the 10-30 second exposure times.

This is a shot I have been wanting to do for a while, but I really want to go back with the D90, Lee Filters and do it properly. I missed the Sigma lens here tonight and really wantd to get close into the rocks in the foreground and the water swirling around them.

A Sunday afternoon at Beer promised to be a great outing, with wonderful sunshine, a low tide uncovering the rocks and some great company. The only missing was ....... my memory card! Yes, I do have a spare, but I'd used that yesterday and left that one in my pc at home too. Oh well, it was all down to my Iphone for the day then, capturing a few shots to remember the scene by, so I can go back at a later stage.

One bit of fun was I have just downloaed the app. Pro HDR and I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype online.

I often use the Iphone to capture images where i stop, as a quick reference of the place, the layout etc.

This is just for fun and I'm not about to give up on my Nikon, but it seems to work reasonably well, certainly better than the standard camera, but it does struggle with high contrast points, like sky-lines. You do have to hold it very still, as it takes 2 shots and merges them.

Here are a few of the results...

Its been a busy weekend and I only wish I had my D90 back. I spent the Saturday at Wimborne and got the chance to visit Canford School as it was half-term and then Sunday nipped off to Beer and Charmouth.

Saturday was spent at the Wimborne Food Festival, part of Dorset Food Week and after sampling lots of fab food, cakes and drinks from the various stalls, I was invited to go and visit Canford School by a former students parent. Very nice indeed, with lots of trees, flowers and grounds to go back to at some point. The school and its grounds were covered in the Dorset magazine this month.

As I entered the grounds via the 'back' gate, the river Stour and wier are on the left hand side, and in the afternoon sun, the trees were lit up and glistening their autumn colours. Above, the clouds were wispy and curling around too and as I only had my Nikon 18-55 lens to hand, I took a series of shots, merging them together in Photoshop to cover the whole scene.

Sundays adventures are covered in a later post .... including details of the Apple Iphone app. Pro HDR, but as a teaser, I have included a shot taken at the school.

The sunset tonight looked promising with lots of clouds in the sky, but with a band of clear sky at the horizon, so I set off to the Freshwater beach end of Hive beach, near the river inlet to see if I could capture the curves and sweep of the river against a sunset.

As I arrived with time to spare, the clouds were beginning to clear but it was almost high tide and the waves were running over the bank that at the river entrance and the river itself was flowing quite fast ..... so I could not easily cross to the other side. After my adventures with water last week, I decided to play it safe and keep on the West Bay side.

As sunset approached, the sun did drop below the clouds and the cliffs lit up and some of the clouds caught the light too. As there was a light wind, the clouds were tracking across the sky quite nicely, so I got the 10 stop filter out to try some long exposure shots. As I was using the old camera and lens, I was using the B+W screw in filter, which gives a very warm tone to the shots, which was adjusted later in Photoshop.

The long exposure captured the reflection in the water reasonably well, although the waves were rippling the surface constantly, but not a bad light.

The sun was dropping behind lines of clouds as it set and the colours in the sky were changing quite quickly, so with a 2 minute plus exposure, I managed to capture most of the action.

After a very busy weekend at the Eat Dorset Food Fair, up at Parnham House, near Beaminster, I was ready to relax and sit down for a while, so I went down to my favourite beach and watched the sunset develop.

Only having my old camera was a bit of a shame as the entire sky started to glow. All around the sky lit up and as the sun ducked below the horizon, behind the clouds, the sky really started to take on some wonderful colours.

I started playing around with some of the boats in the foreground until 2 people came and sat down right in the middle of the shot, so I moved down to the waters edge and started to frame a new shot. After a few attempts I decided to get my ND110 10-stop filter out and try some long exposures to get some movement in the clouds, and to accentuate the colours developing across the sky.

I really liked the result and its a shame I only had my old Nikon D50 available.

The last of my recent visit down to Hive Beach, Freshwater Beach at the very low tide. For this shot, I visted the river outlet at Freshwater to see if I could capture the snake-shape of the river flowing out to see, but that wasn't taking the shape I wanted.

Instead, I waded out into the middle of the flow, standing on a small sandbank, and looked out towards West Bay and Golden Cap in the backgroud.

I used the Lee 'Big Stopper' to slow down the movement of the waves, which were running high up the beach in a long sweeping motion.

It appears that my camera, the Nikon D90 and Sigma 10-20mm lens, that went swimming yesterday, is not well at all. Having trried to dry them out, they are not working and they will have to be repaired, so there may be a lack of images posted for a few days while I get that sorted.

As promised in yesterdays blog post, there were a few pictures I took yesterday that were still to come. I have added them below.

Having got up early for a sunrise shoot, only to find low cloud, I headed off to the beach at Burton Bradstock where I knew high tide was due, and the previous days had been very rough and exciting. The weather had changed and the waves were lolling up the beach. I got carried away taking images to show different wave patterns using long exposures, but here are a couple I liked. Both were taken with the Lee 'Big Stopper' to capture the movmeent in the water as the sunlight was already quite harsh.










Later in the day, I ventured down to the Freshwater end of Hive Beach, where the dreaded rocks were that drowned me and my camera, but before we got the soaking, I managed to take a few shots of the rogue rocks where it all happenend seconds later. Again, the 'Big Stopper' was used to slow things down and allow the movement of the water to form into mist.

It was an eventful day today. I got up early as it looked like mist was lying across Bridport so I ventured up the hills to try and capture the sunrising across the town, but alas, it was low level cloud and I didn't see the sun until nearly 10.

So instead I went off to Hive Beach for another high spring tide, but as the wind had turned to the North, all the waves were being reduced to a rolling action, rather than a crashing one. I managed to capture a few early morning shots.

Later in the day I went back to the beach, starting at the Freshwater end of Hive Beach, where a large collection of rocks, ledges and seaweed had been uncovered by the low tide. I managed to capture some good shots today and I was a happy boy.

Towards the end of the shoot, as I ventured back to the Hive Beach Cafe (the best cafe on the South Coast, if not the UK), I stopped at a set of larger uncovered rocks/boulders to try out some long exposure shots. As I was setting up the camers, fixing the tripod so it was sturdy in amongst the rocks and waves, a large wave caught me off guard and sent me flying, and the camera/tripod too. That was the end of the shoot and the camera is currently drying off on a radiator with a hair drier aimed at it too.

It may have been an expensive afternoon as my Sigma 10-20 went swimming too which has water inside the lens, so I think thats the end of that.

There's a few to come on Flickr over the next day or two as I process them, but here's one of my favourites from today.

Today saw one of the lowest tides of the year at Hive Beach, uncovering the rock ledges half-way along towards Freshwater. It seems there also a low weather system out in the Atlantic, bringing in some strong Easterly winds and causing quite a swell. The nett result was a a fast moving tide, with strong winds (20-25knts) which meant the water was running up the beach a long way. As always with the waves, every 6-7th wave brings a larger, more powerful one, so today I got wet.

I ended up standing on the rocks below the ledge, getting covered in spray, and then a large wave would come through covering my boots completely and once, the water came up over my kness and up to the tops of my things. At that point not only did I decide I had probably had enough, but I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed for the beach as quick as I could.

The sun was coming out from behind the cluds sporadically and I decided to use the 10-stop filter for one or two of the shots, to create the misty effect. Mostly I shot with a 4-stop allowing for shutter speeds of 0.3 - 0.6 second to show the movement.

Despoite a host of walkers out enjoying the beach in the sunshine, I managed to capture a number of shots without too much interuption.

Hope you enjoy them. Here are a couple, but there are more on Flickr.

I went out for a walk at sunset, up Hive Beach towards the fallen rocks at Freshwater, to see what I could find. Sunset was looking a bit greay and cloudy, so I was focusing on the rocks and shooting towards Portland, using the sunlight to illuminate the rocks. It was looking great, so I turned roiund to find the sky alight with dusky pink, lighting up the lower clouds.

I wasn't in the best spot for a great composition, and the pink light was fading afst from the clouds, so I quickly setup and captured a few shots.

I dont think they'll make the site as they are quite noisy and there was a lot of spray in the air.

Here's one of the better ones.

The forcast was looking promising for a really good show at Corfe Castle this morning. A warm day yesterday followed by a cold night, low winds and a bit of cloud in the skies. It certainly sounded good enough to get up at silly o'clock and drive the hour across to Corfe.

As I left Bridport and drove across towards Dorchester, the mists were laying in the valleys and all was looking like a real cracker was in store. However, as I neared Corfe, although the mists were still around, they had thinned substantially and there was none around the castle. What a shame.

A group of us had met up for an early morning shoot, so Good Morning and well done to Kev, Sue, Mike & Alan and his made dog, who made the trek worthwhile.

Although the mist was missing from the castle, it was laying out across the landscape of Poole Harbour, Arne Forest and out towards Wareham and Wimborne. Still the only thing lacking was a bit of good light.

'Til another day.

These were a couple of the better shots from the mornings visit ....

A colourful sunset went on at West Bay tonight, amongst the wind and waves, which brought out a few surfers amongst the swell.

I think the filters must have got covered in spray because the image isn't quite as shorp as I would have liked. I was standing on the rocks right by the waterside, with the waves crashing a couple of feet away, so its not surprising. The air was full of spray and it took a number of goes to get the shots, but I think the perserverance paid off.

The surfers were certainly having a great time: great to see them out on the water at West Bay.

Three of my images have recently been licensed by the National Trust for use on their new camper van.



The van travels around sites mainly in West Dorset, attending fairs and events, allowing the public much closer contact with the National Trust team. You can follow Ben, Caroline and the team on their own Blog here.

It was very exciting to work with the NT Team on this project as we waded through the images of Dorset that I have in my portfolio to find the ones that suited their use. They were very clear on what they wanted and it didn't take too long to find the right images.

I have worked with the NT before, as I also work for the Hive Beach Cafe in Burton Bradstock, as a freelance photographer, and often work in conjunction with the National Trust on events.

So, if you see the van driving around Dorset, give them a wave or a toot on your horn and if you see them parked up, go and see the photo's for yourself.

I have now setup the first Gallery and 'turned on' my new website, so I hope you enjoy the pictures.
I am using the site as a simple method of showing my portfolio of work and making it available to those who'd like to purchase copies and prints.
I will be updating it regularly from here on in, adding more galleries, adding the shopping cart and blogging more often.... and I may even get out to take some new photos.
I hope you enjoy the site and please feel free to leave comments and suggestions and make contact.
I am availalbe in South and South West as a Freelance Photographer and have been involved in various sporting events, landscape assignments, food photography and more.
I have recently had some of my images published by the National Trust, who used them to wrap their NT Camper Van which tours the Dorset coastline. It was great to see them on such a large scale and the team of Ben and Caroline had received many favourable comments about it.
More coming soon ....