Steve Pellatt
The Birds
Osborne Fort, Holy Island, Northumberland, UK
It was getting close to sunset and the shadows were deepening as I walked down off the Heugh. The sky behind me was getting interesting and gulls were doing impressions of a cross between a WWII dogfight and bombing run.
My plan was to take a set of bracketed images and some specific bird shots and blend. As it turned out when I went through the images I didn't want to lighten the ground and castle as much as I thought I would so I just took one of the images where I thought the gulls were arranged the best and used that.
Osborne’s Fort (or Steel End Fort) standing on the Heugh was built during a period of uneasy peace in 1671 as a defence against Dutch raiders who seem to have been making a real nuisance of themselves since about 1652 and, wholly or in part, because of the impact of the Black death and Great Fire of London were getting the better of the fighting! The fort is in ruins but is one of just a few remaining fortifications of this period. Others built at the same time are at Plymouth, Hull, and Portsmouth. It was far larger than a cursory glance at the remaining ruins would indicate. Why it was called Osborne’s Fort is not known.
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
The Birds
Osborne Fort, Holy Island, Northumberland, UK
It was getting close to sunset and the shadows were deepening as I walked down off the Heugh. The sky behind me was getting interesting and gulls were doing impressions of a cross between a WWII dogfight and bombing run.
My plan was to take a set of bracketed images and some specific bird shots and blend. As it turned out when I went through the images I didn't want to lighten the ground and castle as much as I thought I would so I just took one of the images where I thought the gulls were arranged the best and used that.
Osborne’s Fort (or Steel End Fort) standing on the Heugh was built during a period of uneasy peace in 1671 as a defence against Dutch raiders who seem to have been making a real nuisance of themselves since about 1652 and, wholly or in part, because of the impact of the Black death and Great Fire of London were getting the better of the fighting! The fort is in ruins but is one of just a few remaining fortifications of this period. Others built at the same time are at Plymouth, Hull, and Portsmouth. It was far larger than a cursory glance at the remaining ruins would indicate. Why it was called Osborne’s Fort is not known.
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.