On the day that had, we hoped, the best weather forecast for our short trip to Yorkshire, we headed off to Fountains Abbey to see the ruins and hopefully, a deer or two.
Using a combination of long exposures and patience, I was able to exclude most other tourists from my images but I guess that if we had visited in the summer or during tourist season proper, this would have proved very difficult. It would appear that I was also under the influence of a ‘light’ jinx as every time we walked through a wooded area with no real view of the abbey, the weather became perfect and as soon as I emerged with my camera, the sun hid. So it seemed that another day of moody skies with occasional blue patches was to unfold.
Once we had toured the abbey a few times, we headed off into the gardens and then, after a coffee, off into the grounds in search of deer.
We initially headed off in, obviously, completely the wrong direction but eventually, we worked our way around to the part of the grounds that all of the deer seemed to favour on that particular day. There wasn’t the chance to get particularly close to the deer as they seemed quite skittish but maybe a visit during the rutt might resolve that. However, there were still plenty of deer to be found, so I took some shots – more to justify carrying the 500mm around all day, rather than because the deer were looking particularly resplendent.
All in all, Fountain’s Abbey was a beautiful day out and is the kind of place I wish I lived closer to, so that I could visit on a more regular basis throughout the seasons. There are plenty of shots to be had when weather and light align!
