Sunshine and Showers

I had to meet up with another photographer yesterday, to do a swap of camera equipment.
I was buying his 80-400mm lens for my bird photography and he took a compact camera in part exchange.
We decided it would be civilised to meet in the Twice Brewed Pub (NY751668), near Steel Rigg.

It had been raining on and off all morning and while not frosty, it was cold, so we decided to spend some time enjoying a bowl of the 'Twicey's' best cream of mushroom soup, and very fine it was too.

Their soup is always home made, served with a bit of crusty French bread and butter and alway delicious!

As we were finishing the sun came out, and as we were close by I suggested a climb up Winshields Crag (NY742675) to enjoy the views.

I was doing my tour guide bit and pointing out the best viewpoints and just as if I'd ordered it up a rainbow appeared, lasting long enough for us to get a few shots before the rain made us rush to cover the camera's up.

We continued on up to the trig point, it's the highest point on Hadrian's Wall at 1132 feet and you get lovely views down to Crag Lough and way beyond the last of the crags at Sewingshields.

All that was missing was a person walking the Wall to give a bit of scale to the shot but with in minutes a figure in a bright yellow jacket hove into view.
 Blow me if it wasn't another photographer, Danny Brannigan from Haltwhistle.

We stood around chatting for a while and then another walker came up the hill.
It must be quite disconcerting to be faced with three people behind tripods, especially as we were all waiting until the person reached the point 'on the thirds' to balance the shot when we fired off a barrage of shots.

The walker stopped at the trig point consulting his map before headeing back down the hill again.

By this time the wind was getting up and we were beginning to feel the chill so we headed back down to the car park.

On the way home I saw some nice sun rays coming through the clouds, for a change no-one was coming up fast behind me and there was space to stop the car so I stopped and took a photo.

I'm working on a gallery of photographs showing shots through 12 months of the year so other photographers can see where the sun rises and sets and plan a visit accordingly. I've got three months up so far but it's an ongoing project, if your thinking of coming to Hadrian's Wall it might be worth bookmarking  http://joanthirlaway.jalbum.net/