#keilder

[justgemma-t-blog]

#dirtyreiver #keilder #allterraincycles

[laurendrummond]

Blurrrry

[gforsterphoto]

Kielder Forest part 2

one creepy head

The journey further round the waters edge took me through a varied mix of deciduous woodland, heathland and obviously pine forest. This wealth of locations meant I had a choice to make, shoot everything or be very focused on what I wanted. In the past I may have took the 'gunning it' approach but now I am able to control my urges and deliver my initial goals ;-)

Within the first 2 miles I found a great location near the waters edge with bull rushes poking out of the waters of Bakethin. The only issue I had was time of day, long exposures with the sun glinting off the water tend to result in an effect similar to a glitterball...not the best for soft water shots!

Bullrushes on Bakethin

The peaceful walk through the trees means its easy to miss one of the most iconic peices of art in the area. Winking through the trees some 100yrds from the main path is a 15ft tall wooden head.

This is now one of the iconic places to visit. It provides a strange feeling of scale as the head is big enough to walk in too but its located with in some large pine trees. The creation is constructed as a layered series of wooden and is constructed to allow you to look out over the forest floor out of the eyes. the setting is perfect and it makes you stare and think about its context. Taking photos of the head was interesting as there are so many angles that can be used to emphasis the curves relative to the very straight lines of the surrounding trees.

u lookin at me?

This visit to the head also allowed me to take i some of the local wildlife. due to the rural nature of the area i was expecting to see a fair range of species, i was not disappointed. Most were a little too far away, like the buzzards flying above me a lot of the time, but i was lucky enough to get close enough to a sand piper scurrying around next to me while i was taking a rest stop.

part 3 will include some very dark antics with cables and tripods ;-0

[gforsterphoto]

Kielder Forest part 1

The north side of Keilder water

For the last few days I have been visiting some memories. Having been brought up in Northumberland one of the Sunday visits was up to my fathers place of work, Keilder reservoir. Keilder lies out in the far north west of the county just outside of Bellingham and Falstone.

The reservoir is the key focal point and is surrounded by ‘the largest manmade woodland in Europe’ the water attracts sports enthusiasts for both sailing and water skiing. In recent years there as been a significant shift in marketing and the creating of a more formalised footpath all 26miles around the water means it has become a hub for walkers and mountain bikers. Recent additions of downhill routes have cemented the area with biking fans from around the UK.

The commissioned artwork

Greenery near ‘Silvas Capitalis’

My focus for the trip was to have a relaxing few days and get some additional shots for my portfolio. As ever I was well planned and had enough gear to fill my car…I now think that my camera bag weighs more than my fully laded golf bag! With plans to shoot both landscapes and wildlife I had all the way from 10mm out to 500mm.

7D

10-20mm Sigma

17-50mm 2.8 Tamron

50mm 1.8 Canon

70-200mm 2.8 Canon

170-500mm Sigma

10 stop filter

grad filters

We stayed at Ravenshill forest park which is located at the far end of the reservoir next to Keilder castle (a hunting lodge built for the duke of Northumberland in 1775). The location is waking distance from Bakethin reservoir (the top end of the main reservoir) and within 15 mins drive to any of the main visitor attractions. Situated through a woodland drive and surrounded by stunning views the wood cabin provided a wonderful base for taking photos.

My shooting started on the cacophony of feeding stations outside of the cabin, sat on the balcony I was able to tick off the following visitors:

Chaffinch Blue tit Great tit Coal tit Spuggies Nuthatch

Eating all the nuts

I’m sure you could spend all of your time in the cabin relaxing but that’s not how I am programmed so most of our days were spent out hunting for locations and finding routes between the various artwork installations. The commissioned artwork features provide reasons for visiting the more extreme parts of the forest.

one of the first installations in the forest

The wave chamber

As a child I spent many a day on the banks of the water at the Bull Crag peninsula filling my time with staring at a bobbing orange float, waiting to pull out a whopping rainbow trout. At least that’s how I remember it, my dad enjoys telling the story that what actually happened was that I spent time making a reel go the wrong way and create many hours of cutting line followed by profanities. For this reason I tried to investigate some of the farther reaches of the area to widen my creative horizons.

Since the northern bank has only recently been accessible and the installations of ‘Silvas Capitalis’ and the ‘janus chairs’ being a big draw this was the first tripout.

this could go on a while so we can take a small break i think. more coming in part 2!