Brandon Marsh Sunrise, Had planned a sunrise shoot on this Sunday, as the weather was just perfect, we were having some real hard frosty, foggy moody mornings in the week, Alan Ranger posted on the photography forum if any one was interested in attending just for meet up and walk, jumped at this one as not been before and previous photos seen by others looked stunning.

Up early for Sunday up and out at 7.00am, six of us managed to meet up, not the mist i was hoping for and at times the light wasn't brilliant but managed to get a few shots i was happy with, you are not stuck for composition here really is a beautiful, the ponds with two trees on small islands is stunning, certainly a place I'm going to revisit as we only covered a small part, The morning ended with a lovely bacon and sausage sandwich and cup of tea in there tea shop and chat and warm.

Brandon Marsh just outside Coventry, its the headquarters of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. Set in 220 acres, the Reserve, consists of large pools created by gravel extraction. The Visitor Centre is a great place to visit including a Tea Room and shop. ideal place for photography It consists of reedbeds, willow carr, grassland and woodland. It is outstanding for birds and there are eight bird hides throughout the reserve to use.

More Photos below and in my Gallery

Love you, Love Life

Brandon Marsh Nature Centre
Brandon Lane
Coventry
​CV3 3GW

.Well after months of debating, searching and endless YouTube videos I decided on DJI latest drone, the "Mavic Pro" this was my first drone purchase. The convenience and size of this model just nocked the competition, this fits within my camera gear bag the Manfrotto advanced travel bag with ease.

You can be up and flying within a minute of switching on, just remove the gimbal clamp, unfold the arms switch on wait for GPS lock it runs through a series of pre flight checks and you are safe to fly, 

Give it the command to take off and rises to 4ft and sits in the hover position, rock solid it really lulls you into a false sense of security on how easy it is to fly. 

Everyone says you will crash your drone, "not me" never after spending this much I'm not going to push it......

2017!! Where did 2016 go, Well we sat chatting with Mrs Jones just a few days before before New Year, we have nothing planned, we have house full of food and wine Christmas with the family was really good, I really wanted to do something different for New Year Eve, it then popped into my head how about we celebrate New Years Day with a walk and some photos and a sunrise on the first of the year! Now to convince Mrs Jones to get up at 4.30am on New Years day.

Well we went to bed before 12.00 this was odd, but new it would be worth it, Alarm went off and we were in the car at 5.00am 3hrs before Sunrise travelling up an very empty M42 and M1 to the top of the Peak District, Mam Tor was our destination, a beautiful spot and fairly easy 5 mile circular walk watch the sun come up should have some good photo opportunities and then find a lovely pub lunch with a roaring fire was the plan.

We arrived with half before sunrise, it was evident we are not the only people who though this was a good idea, a few people had already arrived at the carpark. Also my photo I had in my head of the sun coming up with the path of Mam Tor wasn't going to happen as the cloud cover was 100% and the fog, mist and rain that was swirling round was slightly annoying, but lets make the most of it we started our walk and it got slowly lighter as the first day started of 2017, no sun but the scenery through the cloud was well worth, what a brilliant thing to do, we took the obligatory selfie shot (as above) at the summit, we carried on our walk and the snow came down thickly just to make it that bit colder, it was slippy underfoot and about halfway Mrs Jones decided to do a commando role down the side of a very wet muddy path, i didn't laugh i promise, and didn't even get a photo :( but she was ok, but managed to collect half the side of Mam Tor mud from head to toe, 3hrs later we made it back to the car, due Mrs Jones mud wrestling we were not going to a pub, so we travelled back home and collapsed had lazy afternoon at home with a glass of wine.

Was it worth it, yes, brilliant thing to do and the wether and scenery was dramatic and great thing to do on the first day of the year, will be planning next years trip admittedly with more clothing. 

​Happy New Year!

Love you, Love Life