At the very north of Northumberland lies a town that was, up until the 15th century, the subject of numerous battles between England and Scotland fighting for ownership. Berwick-Upon-Tweed still proudly exhibits many remnants of these battles including bastions around the town wall which in itself provides a lot of photographic subjects. The artist L.S.Lowry made many of his paintings in Berwick-Upon-Tweed and the town has the 'Lowry Trail' which makes for a good photographic project.

At the end of a concrete pier sits a lighthouse which provides good photographic potential. The best time of day is early evening when the sun gets low giving good quality light with long shadows. This particular evening I was rewarded with a blue sky and soft wispy clouds. Attaching a polarizing filter darkened the blue sky and enriched the colour of the lighthouse. The flanking wall of the pier and the path produced good lead-in lines to the lighthouse itself.

After shooting the lighthouse I turned to start walking back down the pier and saw this angler against the evening sky. Not being one who generally includes people in my photography I thought he would make a good silhouette against the setting sun. Having briefly spoke to him earlier on my way to the lighthouse I kindly asked if he would mind if I took some shots of him fishing. Sounding a bit puzzled as to why I would want to photograph him he happily agreed. Fortunately he was getting a lot of bites and bringing in his catch every couple of minutes so I didn't need to wait too long to get a good number of shots before I lost the beautiful light.

Pleased with the shots of the fisherman I continued back down the pier as I watched the last of the evening sun develop into some lovely shades of orange. Stopping a while near the start of the pier I waited a little longer and set up my camera looking across the mouth of the River Tweed toward Tweedmouth. It wasn't long before I was rewarded with some wonderful sunset views.

I ended the day being very pleased having achieved some nice images for just a couple of hours work.

A few days later I visited Bamburgh Castle, a short distance down the coast from Berwick-Upon-Tweed. By the time I arrived, the light I was hoping for didn't materialise and I only had a limited number of angles to shoot from. This location is definitely one for early morning light. It was still a worthwhile trip, however, as I found this sandcastle someone had built to mimic the real castle which I found amusing. They had even used a shed gull feather for the flagpole.

News update about my good friend and companion, Poppy:

Her eye problem has re-occurred exhibiting a milky redness of the iris and pupil. It has been giving her some discomfort problems and for the last couple of days she hasn't been able to open the eye and she keeps rubbing it. Sadly I have come to the decision that due to the deterioration of the condition of her eye, probably the best thing to do is have it removed. Speaking to the vet at Glasgow Small Animal Hospital, he strongly advised to go ahead ASAP with the operation. So she is off to the hospital later this week. Hopefully it's the right decision.