Cawfield Quarry Circular (or at least half of it…
This weekend we did half of the Cawfields Quarry Circular, a short hike in Northumberland National Park. As always, at the start of a blog entry I like to lead with a what3words location (as you may have noticed from previous entries I like either ones that makes me chuckle, or ones which foreshadow) for the starting point of the hike. My choice from the car park at Cawfields is ///picture.incoming.dried. In this instance it is foreshadowing, as I was out taking pictures, we had rain incoming, but as we turned and headed back to the car park, it stopped and got out dry again…
Cawfield Quarry has to have possibly one of the most spectacular car parks within the Northumberland National Park, if not Norhumberland itself. (If anyone has suggestions for any that would beat it, drop me a DM on IG because I’d be happy to explore more and be proven wrong!)
Because the car park has such a good photo spot in it, I always end up doing something which I rarely ever do on hikes, and thats bring a tripod. I do it here because I can take my photo and then ditch the tripod back into the boot of the car before actually starting the hike.
Taken from the car park at Cawfields, Northumberland National Park
The above picture was taken in rather choppy conditions, 1+1/3 stop overexposed but using a 10 stop filter on my xf16mm. this lead to an exposure time of about 20 seconds, which was just enough to smooth out the waves. I will include a capture at correct exposure, but still with the 10 stop filter, at the galley at the bottom of the page. The movement is gone from the clouds, and its darker which brings a different mood to the image.
Farmhouse framed by Hadrians Wall at Milecastle 42
From the quarry you head along Hadrians Wall. First past a milecastle, and eventually past a turret. The walk then continues, but this is when we were hit by rain and turned back. Had it been just myself and the Mrs we would probably have continued on, but to keep the children motivated with these kinds of walks we try to avoid bad weather where possible to avoid future protest.
Looking along Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland
Holding hands, walking along Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland
One of the things I like about this stretch of the walk, is that I can get a lot of images that I consider as very ‘me’. Whether I stick to my trusty xf35f2 or stick on a longer lens, there are a lot of old farm builds, many with fantastic framing opportunities, such as the below image which is already in my IG feed. I think the first of the two below images was on the 35, and then the following image was on my 55-200 (all be it of a different farm house), and you can see the impact the compression of the longer lens has on the landscape. Both taken from the wall pointing north, but the second image very much brings the background forward in. the scene.
A farmhouse framed by Hadiran’s Wall, Northumberland
A farmhouse framed by Hadiran’s Wall, Northumberland
One thing I did on this walk which I’ve not done for a surprisingly long time, is focus more of photos of my little ones than the landscape around me. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a walk I’ve done so many times before, but it’s something that has been quite nice when reviewing images. I must make a conscious effort to do it more.
Hadrian’s Wall just passed Turret 41A
The above picture was taken just as it started to spit with rain. Instead of continuing along the hiking route, we doubled back towards the quarry, but over a style and away from the wall itself.
This little downpour give 5 minutes of really moody atmosphere, followed by patches of light over the landscape for the remainder of the walk.
Hikers on the Pennine Way near Turret 41A, Hadrians Wall, Northumberland
Northumberland in the rain
As the rain cleared the light went dappled, I tried to catch the pink house below in a patch of light, but the tree’s surrounding it kept the house in shadow from the angle. I still liked the contrast between the pink, and the sea of green it sits in.
Pink House, Northumberland
As we neared the Quarry, I still had my longer lens on, this meant I was already handily set up for taking images across the lake at the quarry to the farmhouses opposite.
Farm buildings across the lake at Cawfields Quarry, Northumberland
If you would like to see more of my landscape work, moving forward most of the images will be here in blog format, but I will notify of new entries on my Instagram page for landscapes - @photog.righ
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Holding hands at Cawfields, Northumberland
