Spiders.

Not much else to say really.  Just in the right place at the right time as a ton of Crusader Spiders left their nest and spread out to take over the garden.

Sorry, probably should have done a trigger warning for people who find them freaky.  Sorry.

Covered in Bees

Another belated blog post, but more calming shots of wildlife.  We've done well this year for bees in the back garden, so Amy and Elder Child have been out playing with their phone cameras...

And if that wasn't Springwatch enough for you, there'll be another post along soon with spiders too...

Lockdown Walks in the Woods

We're still waiting for some publication deadlines to clear so we can show some work on here, so in the meantime here's some shots taken during the daily permitted Boris-ercise walks we were doing.

Damems Lane in Keighley, nominally a public road... if you have an off-roader or possibly tractor.  Surprising how busy it was; hoping that a long-term benefit of this lockdown is that more people discover the bit of countryside around here and make the most of the place... should help having normal people and families, rather than people who don't clean up after their dogs, or risking some property company tarmacking over the whole lot.

And before we get to the pretty pictures of flowers and things, a brief look at the downside of it all... Damems Lane used to be a mecca for flytippers, but it had improved in recent years.  Until the tips shut down, and suddenly some bastards have been dumping stuff in the river.  The second walk we did a van tried to stop, but there were about 30 of us along the lane, so he sped off.  We've seen police patrols a few times since, which makes a change.  Still a bit of tipping going on though, and evidence of drunken barbeques here and there.

Right, bad stuff out the way, let's have some pretty pictures, starting with the wild garlic on the old Great Northern Railway embankment.

It stayed looking really nice for a few weeks, and the smell was strong.  Keeps away the vampires too probably.

Further on the path, towards the railway station.

We'd love this level of moss on our walls.

We started varying our usual walks to take in the old trackbed of the Great Northern Railway itself.

It used to be a bit nasty and overgrown up here, but it appears some of the local residents are going to a lot of trouble with maintaining the path, even leaving up bin liners for people to put their rubbish in.  Shame the phantom dog-mess dropper of Keighley is still letting their monstrous hound leave steaming piles of muck on the paths, but apart from that it's lovely up here now.

So that's that; there's a limit to what you can photograph on the same walk three times a week (particularly when you're trying to stop three kids paddling in a river), but it's been nice getting a few landscape shots here and there, something we haven't bothered with much in recent years.  Probably some more wildlife shots coming up in the next post, in the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy :)

More Calming Pictures of Flowers

Unable to go out in the Lockdown (apart from the permitted hour-long, later slightly longer Boris-ercise walks), Amy decided to combine her twin interests of photography and gardening in the nice spring sunshine.

Most of the shots were taken using mobile phones (the SLR has hardly seen any use at all since the lockdown; the phones are handier and cope better with close-up shots).  Not much else to say this post; in times of stress, just enjoy the calming flowers and plants...

Next time, either a selection of landscape shots from the Boris-ercise walks, or maybe some wildlife pics.

The problems of railway photography in a lockdown...

Well, apologies for the big gap again in blog posts.  Really productivity ought to have risen under an enforced lockdown, but with three Childs to homeschool, some magazine work, Amy as a keyworker, and the general screaming-into-the-abyssal-void the situation has been inspiring in me (Ben), I've somewhat neglected the blog.

So for this post, the last of the railway photography for the foreseeable.  

I'd been involved on the periphery of the replacement of Bridge 11; I've taken a lot of pics there over the years, and have given a number of images to the railway to use in the publicity of the operation, as well as being assigned to get some pics with the Civils team taking delivery of the new bits.  

I was asked by the chap who runs the KWVR blog to photograph the last train over the old bridge, which thankfully coincided with the last day of our self isolation (before the mandatory lockdown was bought in).  So there I was, on a blustery sunday afternoon, with 3 other photographers to watch the last service for the next fortnight (hah) cross the bridge. 78022 was doing the honours.   

As the national situation rapidly deteriorated, I kept an eye on the replacement work when I was going out to do school runs (when there were still such things) and the food shopping (again, when there were still such things, before panic buying really kicked in).  An awful lot of other people were out to watch too; cars would screech up, and a variety of elderly gentlemen would leap out, and start snapping away before speeding off again, whilst glowering at me for daring to be present, endangering their health.  I suspect most of them should have been voluntarily self-isolating, but hey-ho.

Anyway, on the morning after the Prime Minister gave his "we're doomed, mandatory lockdown, remain indoors!" speech, we were sat in the garden and surprised to hear the rumble of locomotives.

So I used my allowed daily hours worth of Boris-ercise to snap these two pics; 20031 and "Ashburnham" removing the crane and other equipment to safety, as work stopped on the bridge replacement.

And this was my last railway photograph taken; tragically, the railway were achingly close to getting the bridge replaced.  It's still in this state now.

I hadn't really realised, until I could no longer do it, just how big a part railway photography played in my mental wellbeing.  The KWVR has been playing host to a large number of Pacer trains during the lockdown, at Keighley, but I couldn't legitimately pop down there to photograph them, and I didn't dare go any further to take pics, as it just wasn't worth the risk to my health and wellbeing, or my families either, so I've stayed put.

Ironically though I have kept getting pictures in print- a shot from Eureka from earlier in the year, in a recent Railway Magazine...

...and more unexpectedly, a shot from several years ago taken on the Welsh Highland in Porthmadog (I appreciate getting published, but wading back through my old photographs of Welsh holidays for the shot just dropped me into a mess of depression, as we'd been banking on going there for Easter).  This image was used in Steam Railway.  There may be others I've had published too, but annoyingly I cannot get out there to look for them as I don't want to risk going into a newsagent, and the 'is this really essential' atmosphere in the supermarkets made me feel too awkward to buy a mag there.  I only got these because I have a subscription to the one, and ordered the other online.

Whilst the railway photography is over for the foreseeable, other photography goes on; we've a few odds and ends to put online from wildlife shoots around the house, garden, and local walks, and I've been doing some miniatures work for the likes of Garden Rail magazine.  Hopefully we'll get round to putting some of this on the blog in the next couple of weeks or so.

KWVR Spring Steam Gala 2020... as the storm was brewing

As the recent post on the grim-conditions of the winter for photographing trains showed, I (Ben) hadn't had much luck with railway pics for months.  Therefore I'd been looking forward like mad to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Spring Steam Gala as being the first decent opportunity to get some shots.  Usually the weather is a bit dull, but at least there are lots of trains, and the usual pattern is to lineside on the Friday, and ride the trains on the Saturday and Sunday with the family.

For weeks the weather had been poor (localised flooding), and indeed on the day the visiting Large Prairie tank loco was deliviered, I was the only idiot out to photograph it in the heavy hailstorm which hit as the train was being moved, but it was all starting to clear as we went into the weekend.

I couldn't believe it on the morning, crispy, clear, and perfect blue sky.  After dropping off the kids at school, I walked to Keighley Station and decided not to join The Gallery on the bank above the station as I was feeling a bit antisocial (before Social Distancing was de rigour).  I headed instead for my favourite, slightly grotty spot on the climb out of Keighley for the departing Prairie on the goods train, which kicked-off the gala.

My chest was playing up a bit in the cold weather, so I broke with my usual tradition of walking the whole valley, and caught a service train up to Oxenhope and walked back down towards Haworth, getting some pics of my favourite loco on the line, S160 "Big Jim".

A stop off in Haworth for lunch, then down to Ebor Lane where to my surprise I got the prized spot looking down towards the tunnel.  The number of locations where you can stand on public land looking at the railway is slowly declining, and I still haven't stumped up for a lineside permit so I can wear a snazzy orange vest beside the rails, so I was a little taken aback to get such a popular spot on a public footpath for the Prairie. 

To be fair, a number of other photographers turned up after me and grumbled I was in the spot they wanted, but as they say, you snooze, you loose.

Down to Damems for "Bahamas"...

I think this is the first time I've had chance to photograph this very impressive loco in the sunshine...

Then along the footpath to the tower for the demonstration goods, to the annoyance of another photographer who clearly wanted the place to himself but who got their five minutes after me.

Then the walk back, with the goods returning from Damems station.

I was pleased to get a pic on the old Bridge 11 at Ingrow, as it would soon be replaced (at least that was the theory)...

Saturday was... odd.  Not many photographs taken as we were actually on the trains.  What was odd was the atmosphere; I'd been worried about the weather, but the Coronavirus was starting to loom a bit by the Saturday, with lockdowns abroad, and people starting to worry over here.

Well some people.  My mood throughout the day dropped a bit witnessing how few people were taking hygeiene seriously.  I don't like to stereotype, but railway enthusiasts (particularly males over about 50) aren't the best in my experience at taking care of that sort of thing, but on a weekend where a killer virus was starting to decimate Italy and spreading worldwide, I was annoyed (but sadly unsurprised) to see, whilst queuing for the loos, dozens of people not even washing their hands.  I heard conversations along the lines of "this virus... its a conspiracy by Europe to cripple us back into the EU!" right the way up to "I'm not washing my ****ing hands just cus the ****ing Government tells me to!".

Middle and Younger Childs decided to have a fairly immense tantrum mid-afternoon too, which about put the final gloss on my bad mood, so we left Elder Child on the train with the in-laws, took the younger ones home, then I returned to collect Elder Child from a gloomy Ingrow later in the day.  I had planned to go back after tea and get some night time shots, but by that point my mood was as gloomy as the weather so decided not to bother.

Sunday featured better weather, but worse news internationally, so a bit of an atmosphere.  We (myself and Father-in-Law) took The Childs for a walk around the valley because we were rapidly realising that with the virus spreading this might be the last chance for normal railway photography for a while.

So overall?  Lucky that the Gala was scheduled early enough that it was held before the lockdown.  And being as it doesn't look like I'll be doing any railway photography for the foreseeable, at least we had a couple of days of beautiful weather and a lot of trains.  Just a shame that there was an encroaching atmosphere of doom and paranoia hanging over the event...