Monday 4 November 2013

Northumberland

This article is about the English county of Northumberland. This is a big subject and I shall not be able to deal with the whole county in detail in one article.


This is an area where i go on holiday with tolerable frequency. most of the areas I go to are both coastal and touristy. The big advantage of Northumberland at the moment is that the madding crowds have yet to discover that it exists.

The place where we stay in Northumberland is Seahouses. This is where I shall start this article and then we shall go on various day trips around Northumberland. there is, of course, a great deal of Northumberland that I have never seen and I would not want to inhibit anyone from visiting these places as well.  


Seahouses.

This is a fairly small place that has a distinctly 'local' feel.  Seahouses is the harbour area of North Sunderland town.

The most obvious part of Seahouses, photographically, is the harbour. This is a working harbour, privately owned by by the North Sunderland Harbour Commission. When you go around the harbour you need to bear in mind that the locals are trying to earn a living, not be photographic models.

The activity here is variable. As with all maritime activity, it revolves around the tides. This means I am not able to give times of the day when it is worth visiting the harbour. Seahouses harbour is home to two separate boat-based businesses. There are fishing boats working out of Seahouses - mostly lobster, crab and fish for smoking. Seahouses still has small local smoke-houses that use the local catch. There are also a number of boats taking visitors out to sea either for fishing or for seal/bird watching. I am not interested in fishing and so will not comment on that, but I have been on a birding trip - more of that later.

When the fishing boats are in harbour, their lobster pots are left in neat, regular piles around the harbour. These are good for foreground interest in shots of the wider harbour and also as semi-abstract subjects in their own right. The geometric patterns of the stacked pots overlaid with wandering blue ropes can be particularly effective.

As the tide is rising in the morning (which might be very early - five to six a.m.) you will find the boat crews getting ready for a days work. At the other end of the day (again, the timing is dependant on the tides) you will find the boat crews unloading the day's catch and performing other end-of-day activities.

The other activity, boat trips, is also dependant on the tides but also dependant on the visitors' timetables. This means that the crews are less busy early or late in the day. This gives you opportunities to photograph the boats on their own or while embarking and disembarking surprisingly large numbers of passengers.

Not surprisingly, the visual appeal of the harbour changes with the tide. At high tide (twice a day) all the boats are floating in the water, which comes right up to the harbour walls. At low tide, part of the harbour is devoid of water and in much of the rest of the harbour there is insufficient  water for the boats to float. This results in the boats looking rather jumbled and forlorn.

The boat trips available from Seahouses are of two types - either a round trip in the boat with no stopping or a trip to Inner Farne with a stop on the island. The round trips offer good views of seals and water birds if you are happy to subject your camera to the effects of salt spray. My own attitude is that my camera is a tool and there is no point in preserving it at the expense of no pictures - others are more careful of their kit. The trip to Inner Farne is well worth the cost.  it is only available when the Nation Trust allow it - it depends on the progress of the breeding birds.  No landing is allowed if it would disturb the birds, but once the eggs have hatched, landing is allowed and well worth while. The island is crowded with puffins, guillemots, cormorants, tern and other sea birds.  Most of these will allow you to approach very closely and close-up photographs are easy. The only real downside are the tern - they are protective of their young and will peck the top of your head if you get too close to their nests - as they nest on the path avoiding getting too close is rather difficult, so wear a hat!
Cormorant

Cormorant

Puffin

puffins

Tern

Tern