Gliding…

Finally got to use up the voucher Kel’s parents gave me last year for a glider lesson up at Nympsfield (www.bggc.co.uk)

I was such a plank – when they gave it to me for my birthday last year I figured I’d wait until the spring and go then, and then promptly forgot all about it!

So, just before my birthday this year I figured I’d better book it up before the voucher expired, which I did. Trouble was then for the next 4/5 weeks we had a constant cycle of cancel/rebook due to the weather. Eventually we got a really nice clear day and I got a great flight. I’ve had a few glider flights before as I used to work with a guy who was an instructor and obviously I’m no stranger to small planes having been skydiving for a number of years too so I was really looking forward to it.

Some pics: (from my flickr set)

Our bird, basking in the sun and waiting to go play…


The tug


Snug for a big bloke like me :)


Any chance of a lift mate?



Ta!


- The water you can see is the the ‘S’ bend in the river Severn, here

Ooh look you can see my house from here! (Ashmead is the little village dead centre)


Cam from the NW.
The buildings in the middle at the bottom are Cam Mills then a bit further right that’s Tescos.

Looking back towards the Gliding club (the far left end of the hill)


Bristol & Gloucester Gliding Club is basically the whole top of the hill.

The valley to the right is Woodchester park, complete with the famous Mansion


Lovely day…


Slight change of plan..

Newnham Church

I’d been planning to go take some pics today but the flipping weather couldn’t make up it’s mind all afternoon and thick grey clouds weren’t exactly conducive to my plan. I wanted to revisit Arlingham Passage where I’d taken this pic last year. At the time it was just a quick handheld snap taken on a nasty grey day but I liked the look of the place and always meant to revisit there with a tripod and a bit more time.

Trouble was, by the time the clouds actually started to break it was already about 7pm and with sunset about 8:30 at the moment that meant the sun was way too low in the sky and behind the church. Cue a complete change of plan. I got myself a pint from the pub (orange juice of course!) and waited for the sun to drop some more so I could break every rule in the book and shoot directly into the sun for some silhouettes.

The results were several things that looked like this:

Sunset over Newnham Church

or this:

Sunset over Newnham Church

More Bridges…

Took a quick trip down to Severn Beach tonight to scope out some potential locations for some shots I wanted to take. Wasn’t really expecting to take anything decent as the weather wasn’t looking too good, but I’m really glad we went now as it turned out to be well worth the drive…

SSC 8414

Severn Bridge 8431

Click through to Flickr for the full size pics.

Listening to: A Load Up At Nannie Catch from the album “Blumenkraft” by Ott