Canal Foot, Ulverston

I'm not long back from holiday. My husband and I completed a pretty hectic road trip, that took us to England, Scotland (just briefly along the borders road, but it still counts!), North Wales and Ireland, over the course of 10 days.

The first destination of the holiday was Ulverston, in the English Lake District. The reason for the visit was to do the 'Velo Retro' - a vintage bike ride that takes in the scenery of the south Lakes. It's a fun event that we've been to before, and there are various lengths of ride to choose from, from the very short 30km to the more substantial 80km.

It goes without saying that I took my camera on holiday with me. This was NOT a photography trip, but I rarely get any opportunity to photograph anywhere that isn't London, so I was excited to be in a completely different environment with my trusty D750.

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We and some other friends were staying about a mile out of town, at a place called Canal Foot, by the Morcambe Bay estuary. Between the town and the hotel is an industrial area that feels slightly out of keeping with the town and the surrounding countryside. The canal runs from the town to the estuary, and used to take coal and other produce in and out of Ulverston. The canal is now unused, but the tow path is very handy for cycling into town, and is well used by the locals for walks. Canal Foot is quite isolated, with just a few houses for company. It has some very beautiful views over the bay, and is a very relaxing location.

We only stayed here for Friday and Saturday night, the ride being on the Sunday. But I did manage to squeeze in a bit of photography during our stay.

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A phone photo taken from the hotel room. The view is very special. Also, the rooms overlooking the estuary have a balcony that is absolutely perfect for keeping our bikes.

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After checking in on Friday afternoon, we went for a little wander around the corner of the bay. Here we found another very strange industrial area. There was a dilapidated pier with a very wonky trig point, and a factory, with metal fencing and lots of CCTV cameras. It was also blowing a gale. I took the image below hand held and really struggled to keep my horizon line level as I was being blown around so much. There was something very liberating about shooting hand held in broad daylight for a change though.

My husband standing on the wonky trig point.

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The next morning I woke up at 4ish and decided to twitch the curtains to see if there was any interesting light. There was! Not a golden sunrise, but a very beautiful, delicate blue light. I threw on some clothes and headed out onto the pier. It looks quite tranquil in the photo, but it was still blowing a gale. The shot below is my favourite of the set.

I tried a portrait version too, but I don't think it has the same balance, as the railway line is cropped frame right.

Ideally, I'd have walked down to the beach to take some shots, but below the pier there were about 30 sleeping swans. I didn't think they would appreciate the presence of a photographer wandering around. Sadly, there was also a sign stating that a small number of swans had been killed by bird flu in this area. The bird flu epidemic doesn't seem to have been much reported in the news, given that a large number of birds have died from the virus. There's so much going on in the world and nationally, that I guess that there just isn't enough air time.

I took this shot below of the canal as I headed back to the room. It was still only 4.40am but was getting quite light. There is a tree in the left of the frame that is very motion blurred due to the wind and the length of the exposure. I really hoped that the wind would die down for the ride the following day.

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Sunday morning was a rush. We had to eat breakfast, check out of the hotel, and pack the car, before heading to the ride. The light was really rather lovely, so I quickly squeezed in a 5 minute camera sesh, and took these hand held photos.

In many ways, this place is quite hard to photograph, as there is no obvious landscape or focal point. However the light, and the sea and sandbanks can be incredibly atmospheric, particularly when the tide is out and the beautiful layers of sand are visible.

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Just in case anyone is wondering what a vintage bike ride in the Lakes looks like, here's a collage of some phone photos from the ride.

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For the next leg of the holiday we headed to North Wales, were I took lots of photos in bright, midday sunshine (unheard of!!), and photographed my very first waterfall.

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Thanks for looking!