Passing Time In Eskdale

Throughout the year I've been trying my hand at timelapse photography. This is time consuming as two hours shooting can produce a few seconds video depending on the exposure time. The following is the best in my opinion I've done this year, unfortunately the quality is a bit disappointing when it is up loaded but nevertheless I'll get round that in due coarse. The video is best watched with sound turned on.

Filling in Time

I had a lazy Sunday morning, sleeping in late and generally mooching about, I looked out of the kitchen window to see if the feeders I put up recently had reduced but to no avail, maybe through time I'll get some interesting visitors, I do miss the busy feeder I had at the crescent. 

In the afternoon I decided to test my new camera's interval timing function which allows me to take multiple shots at pre-programmed intervals which makes timelapse photography possible without an external timer.  

The following is my first basic effort.

Coasting It

I started this blog two  days ago but somehow I cant get to grip with doing it on my tablet so I decided to wait until I got home before I composed it. Anyway I set off for Haddington on Wednesday morning to visit Neil and the boys for a couple of days. I drove up at a steady pace stopping of at a garden centre for coffee and cake and to replace one of the bird feeders at home.

I also broke my journey a few miles further on at the Leaderfoot view point to get some shots of the viaduct and the older Drygrange Bridge which dates from 1780.

This bridge carries the traffic over the river Tweed, where I stood in the centre to take above shot and was quite alarmed at how much the the bridge shook with the heavy traffic. Somehow I dont think it has the same romantic appeal as  the other two. 

Shortly after arriving I took a walk along the old railway line that leads to Longniddry. This is an easy path to walk or cycle, I intend to bring my bike up in the near future and cycle to Longniddry and back.

In winter this isn't the most interesting of walks but it is still a pleasure to walk along. One thing I did notice was the lack of fungus and moss maybe this was due to the fact it ran alongside the busy A1.

One the many road bridges that crosses the line

An apple tree still holding on to some of its crop.

This robin was happy to pose while it got some sunshine on its back

Nice light on these trees

I liked these information signs that were made to look like railway signals.

Next morning after dropping the boys off at school I headed off towards the coast with the intention of doing
Some time lapse photography. I drove over the hill to Aberlady and parked at the nature reserve and spent some time watching various waders.

I drove a few miles further up the coast to Longniddry Bents and found a suitable place to park and set up the camera. It takes about two hours of shooting at one shot every five seconds to get one minute of time lapse film. I sat back and enjoyed the scenery, listened to the radio, had some lunch, time went by amazingly quickly. I took approximately 1440 which will take some time to process so the result hopefully will appear in a post in the near future.

I then headed back along the coast to North Berwick to have quick walk along the beach before heading back to Haddington.

I received a comment on a previous post which recommended I try the Town House chip shop in Haddington, we did and I certainly wasn't disappointed so thank you to anonymous.

Warbla Time

We woke to a cold frosty misty morning and the outlook didn't look to bright for a while but as I was having breakfast thins were starting to brighten up and I noticed that the mist was starting to disperse so I set up my Canon DSLR on time-lapse mode pointing at Warbla from the landing window in the hope I would catch something interesting. I left the camera clicking away quite confidently on its own and went to take my turn at filling the feeders at the moorland station. 

This fella was strutting his stuff when I arrived

When I got out of the car I paused to appreciate how a little sunlight can brighten up what is normally a gloomy countryside at this time of year

Shooting pictures in the morning is always difficult as you're shooting into the sunlight

I tried to use my pocket cam's remote feature by WiFi from my phone but I just haven't quite have got the hang of it yet so I haven't got anything worthy of blogging. In the evening I went of to help Tootlepedal to put some entries into the database for a short while and the went to the Eskdale Hotel had our usual refreshment afterwards.

A Morning on Warbla

It's Snow Time

Shot of the Day

When I woke up this morning I was greeted by about 4 inches of snow that had fell through the night and another inch was to follow over the course of the morning. This put paid to all plans I had for the day. I was due to go to Carlisle to conduct some business but it wasn't that important that it warranted I should travel. I also reneged from taking my turn at the moorland feeders, which was rather disappointing as I wanted to see the grand new hide that has been constructed. I spent the morning catching up with college work that I had got behind with when I was off with my toe. While I was doing this I set the camera on the tripod and set the timer to take a series of photos to make a time lapse video of the snow at the rear of my house. Which hopefully you can view below.

After lunch and a snooze I went out and cleared the paths around the house and cleared the car of snow. I then spent a couple of hours processing the photos on Photoshop which was fun to do. In the evening Tootlepedal and I went to the Archive Centre to put a week of the E & L into the database but as there was no connection to the internet so we retired to Wauchope cottage and did the work there.  

Unfortunately viewing the time lapse video here on full screen it seems to have lost a lot of quality which is very disappointing as it is fine on my Facebook page.

At Last

Time lapse at last

A Monumental Slip Up

Shot of the Day

The mist coming down over Whita Hill this morning prompted me to get dressed and head up the hill and try some shots with time lapse in mind. I bought a Sunday newspaper to pass the time as the camera would be clicking away on it's own. By the time I got there all signs of the mist had disappeared, "typical" I thought. I drove past the White Yett to see what there was to see on the back of the hill. I was met by this sight.

The mist just filled the Tarras Valley. I wasted no time and soon the camera was clicking away on it's own. ( Hopefully the time lapse sequence will appear at a later date) After a while I got a text from Tootlepedal saying he had returned from his pedal ad to call in on my way home. I stayed another 30 minutes to finish the sequence before packing up. I called at Wauchope Cottage on the way home and arranged an outing to the monument after lunch. 

We parked my car at the Hugh McDiarmid  memorial and headed up the track towards the monument. Although it's the 1st of December it felt more like a warm day in September and the walk up was only hampered by walking directly into the sun, but was worth the effort of squinting as the view on all sides was breathtaking. 

Looking down over the town

We were joined for a short time by retired school janitor Bob Laidlaw. Bob had a brief rest on the seat and continued on his walk.

Looking over the Solway Firth

I suggested we walked down the face of the hill to Wauchope Cottage where Tootlepedal could drive me back up to pick up my car. This turned out not to be a good idea. On the way down I slipped in marshy patch and had to continue the rest of the walk rather damp and to top it all, when we arrived home Tootlepedal discovered he'd left his car and house keys in my car. As it was my idea to walk back I take full responsibility, but all turned out well as a kindly neighbor ran us up to collect my car.

Time Lapse

My first attempt at time lapse photography.