Three Day Road Trip along the Northumberland Coast

Three days cannot do the Northumberland Coastline justice I'm afraid - to do it proud you have to give it much more. Unfortunately, three days was all a very good friend of mine and myself had this trip, so we tried to do the best we could with early rises and late finishes. I suppose sunrise and sunset times would be different at different times of the year, which would make those early rise times more palatable, but you have to make the best of the early morning light the north east coast is famous for. For this trip, we stayed at Beadnell in a nice AirB&B so we would not disturb anyone during our early morning rises and late returns home. Beadnell is quite central to the area we wanted to photograph which cut down the travelling time and allowed us to concentrate on each particular section we wanted to do. I hope you get the sense of drama some of these locations had to offer from the images in this BLOG post and it makes you want to travel to this spectacular part of the North East of England.

When you come to Northumberland what is the first location that comes to mind - yes Bamburgh Castle. On the way to this location, all we were talking about was will we get a dramatic sunrise that Bamburgh is famous for. All I could think of was - A dramatic castle, big skies and a colourful sunrise and I wasn't dissappointed. Bamburgh had come up with the goods for me again. We had been here before so we knew where to go, and having checked the tide times knew we could get down on the beach and pick our spot. There are lots of places you can choose, so look out for pools left by an out going tide, green seaweed or glistening rocks that really are slippy !! We roughly knew where the sun would rise above the horizon so it's really important you select a part of the beach where your wide angle lens will be able to capture the sunrise as well as the light catching the castle in the distance. We hoped for great colour and great cloud formations which seemed to chage every few seconds, again the location gave us exactly what we hoped for. We chose the perfect spot and with near perfect photographic conditions 'snapped' with a smile on our face filling many an SD card.

After an early morning breakfast of a 'full English' with all the trimmings in one of the many cafes the area had to offer we decided to keep in the area and try and do Bamburgh justice from the southern side of the castle. Shortly leaving Bamburgh, you come to a small pull in on the left hand side of the road. There is enough room here for several cars either side of the gate that leads to many paths through the dunes. We took the left hand side path which meandered through Marran grass and colourful summer flowers. Always trying to keep the castle in view we kept going towards the shoreline where the dunes started to get taller. In the distance we saw a picket fence with several 'gates' which we thought would make for some great foreground interest. Always keeping to paths, we left several gates behind until we came upon the gate we had in mind. There was a great lead-in line with the fence, some foreground colour with purple flowers and a 'kissing' gate that made the image. The cloud formation had not changed much from the morning shoot but the 'golden hour' colour had gone leaving a typical summers day which was still photogenic in its own way. There were several compositions similar to this one, so you could stay in this area for several hours.

Although we didn't have time on this trip you must do the trip out to the Farne Islands. You can do trips from Seahouses which land on some of the islands but not all due to bird flu. You will have to check with the National Trust as to which islands you can land on.  If you can't land you can still take the ferry that circles many of the islands which will enable you to take images of puffins, arctic terns, cormorants and shags to name a few. There is also a colony of grey seals that really don't seem to mind having their picture taken at all. If you are able to land, you won't need all your 'long' lenses as these birds are quite close to the permissive paths that you are able to walk on. The first time I visited, I brought all my long gear with me. I must admit I was getting some amusing looks from some of the other passengers. I didn't really know why as I thoughht my 'grear' was quite good and didn't deserve some of the looks I was getting. Unknown to me I didn't need all my long lenses and gimbal head tripod as the puffins and arctic terns were just feet away. A great experience and one you should do when the conditions on the islands allow the National Trust to re-open them to visitors.

Just a couple of images I was lucky enough to take before bird flu unfortunately hit the islands.  The top one is an image of a puffin returning to feed its chick with a colourful beak full of sand eels and the bottom is of two arctic terns doing acrobatics worthy of the olympics. 

Day two we travelled to Amble, a beautiful fishing village with a lighthouse and fishing harbour about 20 miles down the coast from Beadnell. Although it was a 4.00 am get up we had our fingers crossed for a dramatic sunrise which we had worked out would be close to the end of the lighthouse. I checked the car and even though it was August it was only 7 degrees. There is plenty of parking either paid or by the road side so no need to worry about your car. It's always one of my worries when going to a location for the first time  'where can I park the car and how long to the view point' !! No need to worry this time, as the parking area is only a short distance away from the location with toilets in the area and a fantastic cafe that did great breakfasts and opened at 8.00 am. We paid for parking and I must admit I put every piece of clothing on I brought as it was bitter on the jetty close to the lighthouse. We spotted where the sun was going to come up, pointed our tripods and waited. Boy, we were not dissappointed. I can honestly say this was one of the best sunrises I have ever witnessed with us being able to point the camera straight at the sun for several minutes which is really un heard of in photography. The colour was phenomenal and stayed like this for a good while even after the sun had risen. I have since found out that due to the Canadian forest fires and the jet stream bringing across clouds of smoke that had diffused the sun giving sunrises and sunsets much more colour. I wasn't complaining as it gave us some of the best photography of the trip.

Once the sun had done its bit for us we decided to walk ( 5 minutes ) around the bay to shoot the lighthouse from the other side. After a couple of hours, a soft cloud formation had descended upon us which was perfect for long exposure photography. This has become very popular recently with 'big stopper' and 'little stopper' sales going through the roof. You either love this type of photography or you don't - I'm in the former camp and love it. It's great to get that milky look in moving water and to soften moving clouds giving a more dreamy look to your image. This was a thirty second exposure using a 'big stopper' and increasing the white balance to give you the look you are looking for. I managed to find a spot that gave me a slight reflection of the lighthouse as well as capturing rocks and seaweed in the foreground - I must admit I could have stayed here all day - perfection.

Back now to Bamburgh Castle for the sunset. We didn't want to get the normal sunset shot of the castle from the beach. Marram Grass is really famous in the area with plenty of it amongst the dunes. Keeping our fingers crossed for some nice colour and cloud formations we set off back to Bamburgh. When you start to enter Bamburgh look out for a small road that is sign posted 'golf club'. Drive along this small road until you come to some car parks on the right hand side. Great to see Northumberland making some of their car parks free of charge. We took advantage and set off to find the Marram Grass and a great vantage point for the castle. Luckily, the light was perfect even though at sunset there was going to be little colour. We had the clouds we wanted, great light on the Marram Grass and no one on the beach. The sun was now quite low in the sky, but at this time of the year it was still shining perfectly on the castle lighting it up against a darkening sky. This was a great end to a great days photography.

We had a lot to get through on day 3 so off we set bright and early. You have to do Lindisfarne on Holy Island whenever you come to the North East coast. We timed our trip right so we could catch an early crossing and hopefully some early morning colour. The colour over the Castle didn't materialise unfortunately, but we did get some nice cloud formations - I suppose it was a typical summers morning. We dropped down to the right of the path that leads to the castle to take advantage of the boulders and the now famous wooden posts strewn amongst the rocks. There are hundreds of beautiful spots on the island, unfortunately too many to put into this short blog post, but going to the island has many photographic locations such as the Castle, the Priory and many abandoned boats to name just a few.

Just two locations to do on the last part of our trip to the Northumberland coast. You can't come to Northumberland without taking an image of Dunstanburgh Castle. You can either take an image from the Craster side or from the 'Boulder City' side. This image is obvious where I took it from. I just love how the tide has smoothed the boulders making them look like the rocks the 'strongest men' carry for their challenge. Again, a long exposure, as I wanted a misty look to the water as the tide came in. A truly great location, but you have to be so careful when walking amongst the slippery rocks as some of the really big ones that you think won't move surely do !!

Just a short journey now to Howick to capture the Bathing House. Try and time your shoot on an incoming tide so you can capture some great long exposure images.  We stayed a good while here getting our wellies wet trying to dodge the incoming waves. Lots of foreground interest with the bathing house in the background. Definately worth a stop here to capture some unusual images.

Back to the north west coast for me and to Marske-By-The-Sea for my friend who's company I always enjoy. I hope this BLOG post about my short trip to the Northumberland Coast has wetted you appetite to go out and adventure in some of the best coastal scenery our country has to offer.