Mark J. Allen
Well-Known Member
Well, a week ago myself and my mate decided to book the Monday off work in order to go and try to capture the milky way up Clee Hill in Shropshire. Upon arriving up Clee Hill the car was shaking, i got out and the door got blown out of my hand and i got blown into the side of the car....far too windy (which is a shame as the sky was perfect).
Not to be outdone we went back to my flat and looked for a plan B which ended up being Mam Tor as the weather said it was clear....how wrong was the weather? VERY! we drove for and hour and a half and within 15 miles, out of nowhere came a blizzaed so bad we passed a car on it's side and my car decided it wasn't going to climb any higher. So we turned round and started heading back and thinking of a plan C.
This was at around 2.30am we decided to drive to Telford to the Wrekin to catch sunrise as the skies were said to have been clear.
We arrive at The Wrekin and set up and wait, and wait, and wait. Sunrise came but due to the direction of the sun coming up the golden light was taking it's time as it was blocked by The Ercall (next to The Wrekin) so we decided to take the short walk back to the car to fire up the gas camping stove for a well deserved cuppa.....but what happens in that 10 mins? The light arrives where we were waiting for it as we stood gawping in disbelief having brought our gear back to the car.
Not to be beaten we decided to take a walk to the base of The Wrekin to see what we could find before a trip for a Fast Food Breakfast and managed to get some rather nice shots of some Robins (and a nice abstract of bird feed left to attract them by the ramblers):
MJA_6235_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
MJA_6252_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
MJA_6253_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
MJA_6256_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
After Breakfast we decided to try something else, an Owl and Falcon Sanctuary attached to a Wolverhampton garden centre. We got there, went inside only to find out that it had closed for good the week before ***face palm***
We were about to call it quits when I remembered about a small boating/fishing lake near Cannock, and decided, as the light was nice, to try our luck there, thankfully managed to bag a few more shots of some ducks and flowers (and some abstracts which I shall post in the correct section):
MJA_6340_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
MJA_6343_editedWM by Mark Allen, on Flickr
By now it was lunchtime so after leaving it was time to go home and get some shut eye after an eventful, long night.
All taken with my bargain Sigma 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 macro (£35) on my D90
Not to be outdone we went back to my flat and looked for a plan B which ended up being Mam Tor as the weather said it was clear....how wrong was the weather? VERY! we drove for and hour and a half and within 15 miles, out of nowhere came a blizzaed so bad we passed a car on it's side and my car decided it wasn't going to climb any higher. So we turned round and started heading back and thinking of a plan C.
This was at around 2.30am we decided to drive to Telford to the Wrekin to catch sunrise as the skies were said to have been clear.
We arrive at The Wrekin and set up and wait, and wait, and wait. Sunrise came but due to the direction of the sun coming up the golden light was taking it's time as it was blocked by The Ercall (next to The Wrekin) so we decided to take the short walk back to the car to fire up the gas camping stove for a well deserved cuppa.....but what happens in that 10 mins? The light arrives where we were waiting for it as we stood gawping in disbelief having brought our gear back to the car.
Not to be beaten we decided to take a walk to the base of The Wrekin to see what we could find before a trip for a Fast Food Breakfast and managed to get some rather nice shots of some Robins (and a nice abstract of bird feed left to attract them by the ramblers):
MJA_6235_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrMJA_6252_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrMJA_6253_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrMJA_6256_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrAfter Breakfast we decided to try something else, an Owl and Falcon Sanctuary attached to a Wolverhampton garden centre. We got there, went inside only to find out that it had closed for good the week before ***face palm***
We were about to call it quits when I remembered about a small boating/fishing lake near Cannock, and decided, as the light was nice, to try our luck there, thankfully managed to bag a few more shots of some ducks and flowers (and some abstracts which I shall post in the correct section):
MJA_6340_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrMJA_6343_editedWM by Mark Allen, on FlickrBy now it was lunchtime so after leaving it was time to go home and get some shut eye after an eventful, long night.
All taken with my bargain Sigma 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 macro (£35) on my D90
