Onegav

I got it! Kind of……..

The girls are away visiting relatives this weekend, because, this weekend Holly and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary!

It’s not actually until the 29th, but we’re in Spain then, so we thought we’d do something this weekend, and we’re off to stay in Chester and go out for a nice meal.

Anyway, back to the “church view”, with the girls away, it gave me the chance to ask Holly if she’d drive me down the motorway early this morning; so that I could hang out of the passenger window and hopefully, capture a shot of this view I pass every morning and have bleated on about several times in this blog.

She agreed, even though I dragged her out early doors, before she’d even had time to drink her first cup of tea, bless her. She is such a great life companion to me, I do love her so much!

So, with no morning tea to fuel us, and Hollys petrol gauge reading low too, we headed off down the motorway barely dressed and bleary eyed, but I have to say quite excited!The view, or specifically the perfect angle of the view only happens for a brief couple of seconds. So as we rounded the final bend I prepped all my camera settings, I had my 18-55mm lens bolted on, so I had some scope with the focal length, set my ISO to 200, which is double normal, and plumbed for a middle of the road aperture of f/10. Both so I could hold detail and have a fast shutter speed, given we were bouncing along in Hollys car.

I got the shots, as you can see! The sky was kind too, though not as spectacular as it is sometimes (in the early morning sometimes if there is a mix of cloud cover and clear skies, shafts of light cut through the mist onto the church and it looks unreal) still, the cloud cover softened the light nicely

So, having finally got the shots I’ve been after for so long, am I pleased? Well, yes and no. You see, I think the position I really need to be at doesn’t exist naturally. I think to get the perfect location, I would need to hire a crane, park it in the south west bound fast lane of the M56, lift myself up about 30foot into the air; and stay there with the motorway shut whilst I watch the sun rise waiting for the perfect light cast.

That said, I have tried multiple times, from multiple occasions, some very risky, to be fair, in pursuit of this photograph, and that in itself had been a really enjoyable journey. At the end of it, I just wanted to try and share this gorgeous view I’m treated to most mornings.

Along the way, I wanted to push myself and my photographic skills, and I have certainly achieved that!

Learnings – so much from trying to capture this image, but most of all that the thrill of the photographic “chase” is awesome, I really enjoy it. It’s inspired me to try even bigger and bolder things, and I have some cool things I want to try next year after this challenge is complete.

Technically, like I’ve said if I I stood in the middle of the motorway, with a longer focal length, maybe something like a 70mm or 85mm the extra compression would have pulled the scene out more.

All that said, I’m really pleased I finally got the church placed between Frodsham Hill and Helsby Hill, in the morning light.

P.S. this is the first time I’ve used Flickr to host my photographs, to save some space on this blog site directly, hopefully it’s worked out ok for you, but if the images aren’t displaying correctly please do let me know! Thanks 🙏🏻