Looking across fields to Old Town from Mount Skip

This one's from a late afternoon in April this year, at the far end of a walk along the top of the Calder Valley from Luddenden. If you look closely you can also see the church at Hepstonstall in the shadows on the left of the photo.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/9, 1/125s, 18mm, hand held.

Upside-down chrysanthemum

A different view of a white chrysanthemum today - showing off the detail beneath its petals, for a change. I took this one in January this year at home. Taking the colour away and replacing it with a slight split tone for the shadows helped focus the eye more on the texture at the base of the flower head.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/100s, 90mm, ring light, tripod.

Metal loop on the edge of the mill pond, Hardcastle Crags

This is the edge of the pond on the opposite side of the river to Gibson Mill at Hardcastle Crags. This loop would have once held the handle for the sluice gate to let water out across the weir to the lower pond. I like the complementary mix of shapes, textures and colours in the picture, taken in November 2013.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/8s, 24mm, hand held.

Withens Clough reservoir above Cragg Vale

Another new walk for me today - from Cragg Vale to Withens Clough reservoir - on a lovely warm afternoon. There was a nice breeze on the tops to cool us down after climbing the valley side and a delicious meal at the Hinchliffe Arms when we got back!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 18mm, hand held.

Blue tit perched on a garden feeder

Up until the end of last year, the only birds that came near our house were usually in the mouths of one of our 3 cats! Now that we're down to only 1 cat, we decided to try to encourage some 'live' birds into the garden, so bought a bird feeder in January. It's been a slow process, but they've gradually learned that it's (fairly!) safe to visit and this week I started to photograph them.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/250s, 155mm, hand held.

Lock on the Rochdale canal near Mytholmroyd

I took this one on a short walk between Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge one tea time this week. Not a spectacular view, but a lovely picture because of the summer greens, blue sky and white clouds.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/200s, 22mm, hand held.

Low sunlight creating shadows on a wooded lane

This lane is near Jerusalem Farm in the Luddenden valley - I took the photo in February this year. The colours are really autumnal, even though it was winter.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/100s, 18mm, hand held.

Sunburst through woodland

This one's from November 2013 at Hardcastle Crags. I remember swaying about on the path, adjusting my position fractionally each time to capture a good sunburst - thankfully no-one else was around!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/2s, 29mm, hand held.

Lumb Hole waterfalls and Crimsworth Dean Beck

I took this one last week at Crimsworth Dean, near Hebden Bridge. There's a plaque on a stone near the top of the waterfall commemorating the poem that poet laureate Ted Hughes wrote,

based on a photograph taken there. The poem was called 'Six young men' and was about them all leaving to fight in the First World War and not returning.

Whilst clambering around on the rocks in the river I managed to lose my guide book (it fell out of my pocket) and had to work out my own way back to the car as it was my first time on this circular walk!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/11, 1/160s, 18mm, hand held.

Bright sunshine and dark clouds above the Calder valley

I took this one in April this year from the Mount Skip area between Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge, looking across to the opposite side of the valley. You can see the monument of Stoodley Pike at Todmorden on the far horizon, centre right of the photo.

It was a difficult photo to process, because of the extremes of light and dark in the sky - even though it still has some blown-out highlights I still like it, though, as it truly represents how the sky was at the time.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/125s, 18mm, hand held.

Rainwater caught in a hellebore plant

I haven't really identified this plant yet - 2 of them just grew up from nothing in my garden last year so I potted them and waited to see what they turned into. This year they producing impressive green flowers. They look like they may be part of the hellebore family, but I haven't found a picture of one that looks exactly like mine yet.

I took this photo in April this year - it shows rainfall caught between the buds and leaves.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/20, 1/60s, 90mm, tripod.

Weir in the River Hebden at Hardcastle Crags

Another Hardcastle Crags photo today - from November 2013. This one shows a section of the river with a small weir, in the upper end of the valley past the mill.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/60s, 18mm, hand held (and a fair bit of Lightroom manipulation to balance out exposure between the sky and shadows)

High rise office buildings at Canary Wharf

This one's from my trip to London in March this year - taken standing close to the tube station exit. I love how the buildings are all different shapes and sizes. Somehow this photo makes me think of them as all being miniature models though - like that sketch from The Goodies where the little kitten stomps over a city like a giant monster!!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 18mm, hand held (wish I'd had a tripod to catch the clouds moving across the sky, but never mind!)

Autumnal leaves on the ground beneath green branches in sunlit woodland

Another one from Hardcastle Crags in November 2013. I really like the contrasts in colour and light.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/5s, 20mm, hand held (this is before I realised you could use a higher ISO rather than trying to hold still for a long exposure!!)

Big tree at Hardcastle Crags

This one's from May 2013. Sorry for the lack of imaginative title to this post but I have no idea what kind of tree it is (really need to read up on trees!!). Its bark is a mixture of orange, yellow and green amongst the usual grey/brown bark colours, but I actually prefer how the black and white version shows these different tones.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/9, 1/15s, 24mm, hand held.

Water droplet on a CD surface

Apparently this is quite a common macro shot, but it's my first time doing it so I'm still excited by it! I set this up on my patio table last week, using natural light and just waving my hand about in front of the CD to create the different colours (I found this technique by accident when my son blocked the light with his hand whilst helping me position something!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/16, 1/40s, 90mm, tripod.

Lifebelt and ropes hanging on the harbour wall at Seahouses.

I took this one in August 2013. I really like the simple mixture of lines, colours and textures in every bit of the picture - the sky, wall, belt and ropes.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/80s, grad filter for sky, 28mm, hand held.

Buttercup-filled meadows at Crimsworth Dean

Yesterday I tried a new walk - one I'd found in a guide book I bought recently from the local Tourist Information Centre. The walk starts at Midgehole car park, at the foot of Hardcastle Crags, where I must have parked hundreds of times before when visiting the Crags. This time, I walked up a valley called Crimsworth Dean, perpendicular to the Crags. It was absolutely beautiful - a mixture of thick woodland, open fields and farm buildings surrounding Crimsworth Dean Beck, including a spectacular set of waterfalls at the far end of the walk.

This photo shows the buttercup-filled meadows at the top of the valley side about two-thirds of the way along - I love how the fields turn yellow at this time of year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/16, 1/125s, 42mm, hand held.

Peony in full bloom

I took this today in my garden. This peony plant has been strangled amongst other shrubs for the last few years, producing one or two flowers a year that we could hardly see. Last year, we renovated the garden and gave it space to flourish. It's covered in buds and this is one of the first to open - beautiful!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/160s, 26mm, hand held.

The edge of the mill pond, Hardcastle Crags

I took this one at Hardcastle Crags in November last year. This is a good example of one of my favourite types of photos to take - the less obvious 'hidden' beauties around us. Here, I was drawn to the colours, shapes and textures in the grasses, leaves and reflections.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/125s, 32mm, hand held.

Golden sunlight back-lighting the trees at Ogden

This one's from March this year, taken in the woods around Ogden Water, Halifax. I love the golden colour of the sunlight where it back-lights the trunks and branches.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/100s, 38mm, hand held.

Puddle-covered track along the side of the Luddenden valley

This one's from a walk along the Luddenden valley not far from where I live in February this year. Part of any walk around here usually involves a few muddy puddles - no matter what time of year!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/200s, 22mm, hand held.

Shadows from trees on the wall of an old canal-side mill

I took this photo of Denholme Mill in April this year. It was late afternoon so the sun was low, casting strong shadows from the trees on the other side of the canal onto the mill wall. I love the shapes and colours of our old mills anyway, but these shadows make this one even more intriguing.

The upper floors of this mill (at road level) are now home to a camping shop (Springfield Camping at Luddenden Foot) - the lower floors at canal level don't look to be used any more (from the outside at least). I haven't been able to find anything about the history of the mill.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5, 1/250s, 28mm, hand held.

Pollen-covered stamens and stigma inside a wilting tulip.

Another example of one of my favourite things to photograph - a wilting flower. This one was in one of the pots on my patio, but I cut it and put it in a vase so that I could move it to somewhere with a green background for a better photograph (it's also lasted a lot longer in the vase than it would have done on the windy patio!).  I love its delicate, frilly petal edges and touches of pink, but it looks even more fragile with a couple of petals about to fall, so you can see inside to the pollen-covered stamens and stigma.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/200s, 90mm, tripod.

Wild garlic flowers in the woods.

As promised yesterday, here's a picture of the wild garlic currently flowering under the trees at Hardcastle Crags. I really love these plants - there are great carpets of them, the flowers are really pretty and the smell is amazing.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/5.3, 1/320s, 45mm, hand held.

Bluebells and ferns surrounding a path through the trees, Hardcastle Crags.

Here's another one from yesterday - lovely bluebells mixed in with the bright new ferns in the woods at Hardcastle Crags. I only just made it there in time to catch the bluebells this year - they're past their best now. Perfect timing for the wild garlic though (that'll be tomorrow's photo!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/11, 1/250s, 22mm, hand held.

The river at Hardcastle Crags

I took this one this morning at Hardcastle Crags. I took my ND filters and tripod so that I could get some long exposure river shots. I actually found it really difficult - both in terms of getting a good composition (and being able to position the tripod in the right place to get it) and also physically (crouching on slippy rocks and bending over to compose and focus). And yet again I slipped on a wet rock and nearly ended up in the river with my camera and tripod on top of me - I really need to concentrate more on my footing!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/16, 5s, 18mm, ND filters & tripod.

Curved stone wall on a moorland slope

This is near the bottom of Stoodley Pike, Todmorden, taken in April this year. I've walked past this wall many times from further away and always wanted to photograph it but never seen a good angle. This time I walked around until I found this spot, which captures its curve really nicely.

Unfortunately the weather and time of day left me with an overly bright sky as background - I'll re-take the picture at some point on a 'more-interesting-sky' day!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/100s, 18mm, hand held.

Bright sunshine sparkling on the waves on Bamburgh beach

This is another one from a walk along Bamburgh beach in the middle of a sunny day in August 2013. These are the type of conditions that you get advised not to bother taking photographs in, but I really like the effect of the bright sunshine on the water and sand.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/160s, 55mm, hand held.

Tractor and log pile with a wind farm in the distance

I took this from the road next to a farm at Wainstalls, not far from where I live, a couple of months ago. The wind farm is at Ogden, a few miles away over the moors.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/125s, 32mm, hand held.