Aberdunant Fireworks, November

It's New Years Eve as this is posted, but these are some shots from back around November itself.  We (Ben and the Childs) were wanting to not only watch the display at Aberdunant Hall, where we were staying, but also have a play with some long-exposure pics with their new cameras.

Rather than take shots down with the crowds, we set off up the hill to get a vantage point looking down on the Hall.

Here follows a selection from the evening.

An interesting shape which happened to form.

All in all, some rather interesting, abstract images resulted.  Always nice to try a bit of firework photography when we get chance.

Oh, and Happy New Years if you happen to be reading this.

 

Making the most of the Weather and Work...

The Autumn and Winter provided some rather interesting weather for my (Ben's) trips to and from the Day Job.  The phone probably wasn't as good for this as the SLR would have been, but then I was making the best of what I had to hand...

The drive to work itself has provided some really breath-taking scenes with the winter fog, but there's never anywhere safe to stop... I was lucky with this shot, as I was sat in a queue with the engine off whilst stuck at some roadworks.

There have been some quite eye-catching sunsets...

...and sunrises too, over the hospital.

More fog.  I don't think I can remember quite so foggy an August.

Spooky when on late finishes.

An attempt at greyscale with the fog.

Trains in the Snow... Worth Valley Santa Specials, Dec '22

Something suitably snowy and wintery for a Christmas Eve blog post, here's some shots of the Worth Valley Railway in the snow a couple of weeks ago.

It hadn't snowed near the house, but a quick check of the KWVR's webcams showed there was snow on the ground at Oxenhope, so in-between a bit of Dad's Taxi duties, I had a couple of hours to spare with the camera, and headed up the valley...

I chose the bridge up near Top Field, and it was truly beautiful up there in the winter sun.

Not too many folk about either, which was pleasing; I'd expected it to be rammed with Sunday Morning dog walkers, and even other photographers.

The Class 101 rolled past just after I arrived.

Heading for Haworth.  I've a soft-spot for this DMU, having had a model of one when I was younger, it's always nice to get some pics of it.

The Black 5, no.45212 was on 'Elf Express' duties.

Vexingly, in the 20 minutes between the DMU passing and this arriving, the sun had started to move around just enough to slightly through the lighting, meaning the loco was a little more in shadow than I'd have liked.  Still, that trail of steam looked impressive in the cold morning air.

I still had an hour or so to kill, so strolled up into the woods.  If anything it was even prettier, and I began to wish I'd gone up here instead f the bridge.

Interesting air traffic whilst I was waiting.

20031 leading the return service.

The steam-heat was working well in the carriages.  We're booked on for the Mince Pie Specials on Boxing Day, and looking forward to our first ride on the train for a while.

Heading back to the car, a return to where I'd started.  I knew the DMU would be coming back soon, and I just had time to squeeze in another shot.

A successful morning of photography- I love taking train pics in the snow, and I don't often get chance these days to not only do railway pics, but even get this end of the valley.  There seems to have been a fair bit of interest from the mags in these shots, hopefully I'll get to see a couple in print in the New Year.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas all :)

 

December in Blackpool... by night

Having had an evening at Cleveleys, we nipped to Bispham, and caught a tram down to the Promenade.  The point of the exercise was mainly to have a nice stroll around the illuminations with The Childs, but I (Amy) wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to add a few more shots to my collection for 'Light Trails', particularly as there were a few extra light-up attractions for Christmas.

One of the eye-catchers was this fairground ride, right by the tower.

Middle Child was desperate to go on it.  The rest of us... less so.

The illuminated trams were back out again, and proving popular.

As opposed to our October visit, where Ben and I had walked about 8 miles up and down the prom, we were taking it easy what with The Childs and the In-Laws being with us, so we only walked from Tower down to the pier.

They'd changed the patterns of lights on the wheel compared to our last visit, and I always make an effort to get some shots of this feature.

Something more experimental, trying something a bit more soft-focus.

Back up to the Tower.

It was definitely worth the return visits this year- I love taking pics at Blackpool, and with my new SLR to try out, I'd been itching to get there.  Having twice had 'Light Trails' exhibited in 2022, I wanted to add some new pics to the set, and these two trips enabled me to do just that.