Looking up at Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland.

I took this in August 2013 whilst on holiday in Northumberland. I love the shapes in the castle wall (including the 'face' in the section on the left - see my post on 6th Nov 2015) and how well the textures and tones fit with the grey skies. It would be great to have chance to take this shot again on a stormy day with darker clouds.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/50s, 32mm, hand held.

Gull Crag cliffs and Lilburn Tower at Dunstanburgh Castle

I took this whilst on holiday in Northumberland in August 2013. This is on the north-eastern edge of the 14th century castle's grounds. As the name suggests, these cliffs are full of gulls - perched, swooping around and making lots of noise.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/50s, 18mm, hand held.

Dunstanburgh Castle beyond rock pools north of Craster

We'd just been for a wander around Dunstanburgh Castle when I took this photo in August 2013. Instead of following the path back through the fields to Craster, we diverted down onto the rock pools to see what we could find. One of the things I found was a better view of the castle!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/80s, 22mm, hand held.

'Face' in Lindisfarne Castle wall

Whilst I was looking up at the castle wall, framing out a photo (on holiday in August 2013), one of my sons spotted this 'face' in the wall. There's a hat, eyes, nose and mouth and, to me, it looks just like Pinocchio, the puppet.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/20s, 55mm, 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.

Bamburgh beach and castle

This one's from August 2013, on a very bright, contrasty day at Bamburgh. I loved how the sea was sparkling in the sunlight. whilst dark clouds passed overhead.

I experimented a bit with colour whilst processing the image. It was almost black and white without even being converted, but converting it lost the dark blue hue in the clouds, which took away some of the mood from the image. So I left it in colour, but then added a yellowish hue to the highlights, which emphasised the effect of the sunshine, and gave an overall, almost sepia hue, which I think complemented the mood.

Sparkling sea below dark clouds

I took this from Holy Island, Northumberland, looking South from the beach towards Bamburgh Castle, in August 2013. The focus of the picture is the stretch of sea sparkling in a shaft of sunshine, whilst everywhere else is in the shade of the dark clouds. I also love the two very different silhouetted structures - the castle on the horizon and the little cairn of pebbles on the beach; each obviously very different in actual size, but both dwarfed by the vast sky.

In Lightroom, I cropped the image to remove some of the pebble beach in the foreground and increase the drama of the clouds dominating the sky. I also tweaked contrast and exposure to highlight the 'sparkles'.

The inner walls and ramparts of Dunstanburgh Castle

This is from our holiday to Northumberland in August 2013, on a visit to Dunstanburgh Castle, near Craster. I took this one straight into the sun without any filters as an experiment to see how it would turn out. The sun was partly hidden behind hazy cloud, which I hoped would work as a kind of natural filter!

I think I've just about rescued the image in Lightroom, by increasing exposure overall to make the detail in the ground and walls visible, then bringing exposure in the sky right down to minimum with a graduated filter.

I really like the simplicity and mood of the photo.

Lindisfarne Castle below stormy clouds, viewed from across the harbour

The lighting on the day I took this photo in August 2013 was quite poor - what makes this photo is the dramatic cloud formation above the castle and sea. The clouds look like they've deliberately left a space the same shape as the castle - like the clouds are jigsaw pieces that will fit down onto the horizon, fitting snuggly around the castle mound!

This shot is also unusual for me in that it is full of people, swarming around the castle. Usually I hate having people in my landscape photos - fortunately they are so far away in this one you can only see them by zooming in!

I made quite a few small tweaks in Lightroom, as well as cropping the photo to a panoramic shape and converting to monochrome (the colours were so washed out due to the flat light anyway). I played around with contrast, vibrance, saturation and exposure to get this final image.

Small yacht passing Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

I took this on our holiday to Seahouses in August 2013. We'd just been exploring Dunstanburgh Castle, further down the coast near Craster, and were just leaving. Just as we started walking away from the castle I saw the yacht passing out at sea. I thought there was potential for a photo - it looked so small and delicate on its own out there, contrasting with the big, strong, stone castle wall. It was actually moving quite fast so I only just managed to get my camera ready in time to get the castle wall and the yacht in the same shot.

The resulting picture wasn't great as I didn't have time to compose or expose it properly, but I got the content I needed and sorted the rest out in Lightroom. I cropped the picture to a panoramic size to frame the horizon, used a graduated filter to bring down highlights in the sky and increased overall contrast, saturation and shadows slightly.

Black clouds over Bamburgh Castle

This is a perfect example of the changeability of the British weather - black clouds replace sunny skies over Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland. I loved the drama in the sky and liked the way the path lead my eye up to the castle and beyond.

Due to the huge contrasts in the sky, the image I got at the time (without filters) wasn't great, but after many post production changes to the Raw file, I managed to retrieve what I actually saw.

In Lightroom, I first increased the overall exposure (I'd under-exposed the grass to bring the bright sky areas down a bit), then used a graduated filter to sort out the sky - reducing exposure and highlights and increasing shadows. A lot of 'fiddling' but I'm happy that the final image is realistic.

Spiral staircase in Dunstanburgh Castle

This is looking down the spiral staircase inside one of the towers at Dunstanburgh Castle, near Craster, Northumberland, from August 2013. It's a classic type of shot that I've seen lots in books and online, but it was still great to be able to take it myself. I love the patterns and textures made by the shafts of light on the steps and handrail.

I converted to monochrome and increased exposure slightly.

Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumberland

This is a side shot of Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, Northumberland, taken a year ago. It was a day of bright sun popping out every now and then from behind dark clouds. I didn't have any filters with me so opted for an 'in between' exposure. I then had to take the highlights right down and reduce exposure slightly in post-production to get the detail back into the sky.

What I love most about the picture are the little out-buildings - their shapes, angles, details and colours.

Surfer on Bamburgh beach, Northumberland, with the castle in the background

I took this in August 2013, during a week's holiday at Seahouses, Northumberland. I hadn't been to Bamburgh beach before so went on a mission to scope it out for photographic opportunities. I didn't really expect to get any great shots as the sun was high in the sky and quite dazzling as it reflected off the sand and sea. I think this shot works well within those conditions though - everything is almost silhouetted. I was just lucky that the surfer was in the position he was at the point that I turned for the shot.

The only post-production changes I made were to crop the image from a 3:2 ratio to this size and to convert it from colour to monochrome (there was hardly any colour in it anyway due to the bright sun).