NHHPC Indoor Showjumping

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

On sunday we were attending the North Herefordshire Hunt Pony Club’s indoor showjumping event at Kings Equestrian Center with David from Vero Photography running the print station. The day involved 12 hours of pretty much straight shooting which is ok in itself but when you mix it with running around after horses to get them over as many jumps as possible it starts to get very tiring! It was a great albiet tiring day which over the whole day may have ended up with en excess of 3000 photos being taken! Though we are looking forward to returning on the 19th December with a few improvements from the lessons we leart this time, including a seperate viewing station so my assistant does not have to manually show people every image they want to see and can focus on printing!

Caving in the Mendips

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

Last week I had some free time and was looking through some of my old photos, and I found these from a trip to Swildons Hole in the Mendips during August 2009.  Swildons Hole is one of my favourite caves as there is so much to do there, it has a waterfall which you have to climb down on a ladder, an active streamway with places to jump into and sumps along with the usual climbing that you get in caves. Last year I did not get to do much caving photography, but this year I am hoping to rectify that due to the wonderful sights that you can see underground that very few people ever see, and showing people the photos is a far easier way of explaining why I enjoy caving!

Summer Holiday

Alastair BegleyScrambling, Switzerland, Walking Short Link

At the end of August/start of September I went to Fiesch in Switzerland with my family and some family friends for 2 weeks of mountaineering, downhill mountain biking and climbing.  We had a fantastic time while we were out there but of course with me being a photographer my camera went everywhere with me (apart from the biking).  At some points I did question why I was doing this, for example, when I was walking up a 4000m mountain and had 5kg of camera gear on my shoulder!  But overall I am so glad I did as some of the sites we saw were fantastic. While we were out there we experienced all types of weather, the start of the holiday was 30 degree temperatures which makes strenuous exercise more difficult but it then cooled down and we had lots of sunny weather but nicer temperatures but also snow at resort level!  But despite this we didn’t have a single day when we didn’t get out even if it did mean wrapping up warm and going for a walk while it was snowing! I thought I would share these 6 photos that I took. Read the full article…

Lowfly in Scotland

Alastair BegleyAviation Short Link

Last week was my last week up in Glasgow before returning to university and I managed to get two days off work where I went to the Selkirk to Moffat pass in the hope that I would get some nice passes.  On the first day I arrived to lots of hill fog and rain, but I braved it and went up anyway and it proved to be a good decision as I had a great pass at the end of the day by a RAF Tornado GR4.  On the second day i went up a different hill and discovered that the weather forecast was wrong, it forecast to be sun all morning but it was overcast and then started raining for over an hour.  Finally it cleared but 2pm came and there had still been no passes and I had frozen due to a strong northerly wind.  But it was worth it thanks to the great pass i had on the first day!

Finch in Flight

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

I am back up in Glasgow for a few more weeks on an extension to my summer internship, so I decided to go to Lochwinnoch again in the hope of some good activity. Unfortunatly it was a fairly quiet day with variable weather.  There were however alot of chaffinches so in flight shots was the name of the game and here is one that worked.  They don’t half move quickly!  We did get a visit by a pair of Coal Tits and a Grey Wagtail.

Vintage Sports Car Club Western Rally

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

On Saturday I was invited along to the Vintage Sports Car Club Western Rally which turned out to be a great day out.  I was there with one of the competitors and as such there are a fair few pictures of that car as I couldn’t stay in the same place very long as once they passed me I had to jump into my car and drive an alternate route to get ahead of them so I could get another photo. It was great to see so many old cars in good condition and people actually enjoying driving them rather than just having them sit in a garage!  Though a few rain showers did mean they all got a bit wet!

Another visit to Lochwinnoch…

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

Well this weekend I had planned to go walking but unfortunately I didn’t have time so decided to pop over to Lochwinnoch in the afternoon and ended up staying there for 7 hours.  It was a very slow afternoon as the Sparrowhawks were about all afternoon but just hiding in the bushes which kept all the other birds away but eventually they came out to play which made the wait worth it.  Now this is probably my last trip as i am moving back down south on Thursday however there is a chance I will be back in Glasgow for a few weeks in September so might get another trip in then.

My final visit to Lochwinnoch

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

Today was probabilly my last visit to this RSPB reserve as I am only up in Scotland for one more weekend and I am probabilly busy both days.  It was a good day albeit a bit slow with lots of Chaffinches and tits but the few other birds that appeared more than made up for it and the company made the gaps between them go quickly!  We got treated to a Sparrowhawk but unfortunatly it only landed on some green wire a long way away in the shade but it was still great to see, the Greater Spotted Woodpeckers also came twice but played hard to get by hiding on the wrong side of the perch.  Due to the slow day in the middle I had a wonder over to the hide in the woods where it was very dark but there were two Juvenile Robins about which was great.