Another wet and cloudy weekend for late January with few breaks. Checking the BBC weather for around Pershore in Worcestershire there was a break of about 3 to 4 hours early Sunday morning around sunrise so decided to use this gap in the weather to do a local walk along the river Avon and Eckington starting at the old Eckington Bridge.
IFootPath
I got this little walk of around 4 miles off IFootpath. IFootpath is a another great source for finding new walks. Whats great about IFootpath is the walks are constructed by the users and include detailed descriptions as well as photographs along each leg of the walk.
Another great thing about IFootpath is the walks include a gpx file so the walk has a clearly defined route to follow. You can check your current position using your phones GPS to make sure you are still on the red line. The only downside to Ifootpath is not enough walks!
Eckington Bridge
I managed to get out of bed early enough and drive down to Eckington Bridge and park up. There is a free car park and picnic area beside the old Eckington Bridge.
Only had a few minutes left to capture the red sky, red sky in the morning shepherds warning was going to come true later. Another photographer was already setup. Managed a few photos then headed across the road to the other side of Eckington Bridge with views of Bredon hill in the background.
Was running out of time regarding the colourful sky, this shot of Eckington bridge, the river avon and Bredon hill was very contrasty even with a graduated ND filter, so decided to do multiple exposures and combine later in post processing using HDR, result is not bad.
Missed Opportunity
Just after a swan swam into the frame making a great focal point or point of interest. You cant plan these opportunities unless your patient.
I was now in a mad rush to change the settings to capture the swan swimming gently under the Eckington Bridge with a Bredon hill backdrop. Had to remove the multiple exposures setting and then fired away. In hindsight would have preferred the swan without the motion blur. To achieve that needed a faster shutter speed, could have used a higher F stop of around F/5.6 or F/8 and or a higher ISO of 200. I do love the golden sunlight reflecting off the river Avon. Some distracting elements are the red boys on the river Avon, these can be removed post processing if you can be bothered at least for small distracting items.
A bit further up managed to capture one of my personal favorites of the river Avon, what I love about this image is there is no human intervention in the frame and the sky reflecting off the surface of the water. Another HDR shot due to the tree breaking though the sky line.
A mile later up the river Avon between Eckington and Strensham the sky had lost its color. What I not know at the time, in wet cloudy conditions you can get better color saturation using a polariser which doubles as a 2 stop ND filter. A polariser is not only for blue skys and white clouds when the sun is at a 90 degree angle. A polariser is also good for eliminating reflections off the water which really hit home taking photos around Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds.
At Strensham lock some Chub fishermen were interested in what I was photographing and told me they regulary saw King fishers down this stretch of the river Avon, no such luck for me, not this time. I continue through the village of Eckington and back to the bridge. Its grey now but still not raining I decide to extend the walk up the other side of the river Avon towards Bredon Hill.
Swans Neck Bredon
I reach a point along the river Avon called Swans neck with some good unobstructed views of Bredon hill with the river in the foreground.
The rain was coming down now and hitting my lens which I had to keep wiping off with my lens cloth. I managed to find some cover under a tree and got a few photos. Again would have been alot better with a polariser. But Swans neck was a point I would like to return especially one morning with the sun rising over Bredon hill. A good walk and some good photos thanks to one of the members on IFootpath for sharing.