The Coldstones Cut

On the way up to Durham for last weekend's wedding, we stopped off at my parents and had a trip out to The Coldstones Cut near Pateley Bridge.  Mum has been talking about it for the last year, so we thought we should go and check it out!  From the road, it doesn't look there's a lot to see.  There's a short walk up the hill, and you can hear the rumble of the trucks and the machinery, as this sculpture is built within a working quarry. This amazing public art work was built in 2010.  It sits on the hilltop looking out onto the quarry and the heather moors beyond.  It has been described as part art, part tribute to the quarrying industry.  It was constructed by Andrew Sabin and it won the PMSA - Marsh Award for the best public sculpture of the year.  You enter the site along a limestone tunnel, with steep cold walls, and to get to the viewing posts, you walk along and up a spiral corridor.  Although you're sheltered, there were little pockets of wind and the echoes of people's voices in front and behind that led to quite an eerie walk up to the viewing points.

After taking in the views and filling our lungs, we took a little detour down to one of the old lime kilns before heading back home.  If you're ever in the area, I'd highly recommend a little trip up that hill!

When the Moment Seizes Us

We went to see Boyhood at the weekend.  It's a remarkable film.  If you get the chance, I'd highly recommend it, it's full of life's moments.  There was a line in it that really resonated with me, and it kept popping up all weekend.  We don't seize the moment, it's the moment that seizes us.  

I was thinking about it in the shoots we did on Saturday and Sunday.  There was a time, when I started out with my photography, when I pretty much planned every image on a shoot.  Sometimes I'd draw little figures and hope that no-one would ever see those little scribbled stick people!  Then I'd get to a location and follow my little notes and figures and although I knew I had good shots, they somehow lacked something.  There are always spontaneous moments you can't plan for, those are the ones we crave, the magic shots.  We might look at a location one day, but when we go back the next, the light and the feel has completely changed.  And when those beautiful spontaneous moments and that light come together, it makes my heart sing.  It's what makes me tick as a photographer, it's pure adrenalin when I know everything is coming together.  So I'm going to keep looking and hope those moments keep seizing me.

MODA

In the midst of the summer weddings, I'm doing something a little bit different this weekend.  I'm one of the photographers at MODA, a trade fashion event showcasing brands' collections for SS2015.  For someone who sometimes leaves the house dressed top to toe in Seasalt, I will definitely be checking out their new range for next year!  Here are a few from the event I photographed earlier this year.