Icy puddles on a snowy path

This is the main path across our local moor in January this year. The path is dotted with deep puddles which were mostly iced over. Against the white snow, they provide nice perspective as the path disappears off into the trees.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/250s, 26mm, hand held.

The Derwent Fells at the head of the Newlands valley

I took this from the top of Catbells, Keswick, in August last year. The view is across the Derwent Fells (2 of them being Robinson and Hindscarth, I think) at the top of the Newlands valley.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/100s, 22mm, hand held.

Limestone cliffs at Gordale Scar

I took this picture standing in front of the waterfalls at Gordale Scar (near Malham, North Yorkshire) and looking straight up to the top of the limestone cliffs that surround them. I wonder whether this jagged shape made by the edges of the clifftops gave the Scar its name - can't find anything on the internet that verifies or contradicts this though.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/9, 1/400s, 18mm, hand held (overall exposure increased and sky darkened with brush in Lightroom)

Walls, fields, trees and mud in the Luddenden valley

I took this today on a 3 hour walk around the Luddenden valley, not far from where I live. My Dad told me I'd done this walk when I was little, but I don't remember it. Dad told me the views were wonderful, so today I got my map out and set off to rediscover it! He was right - a lovely walk and great photo opportunities (and I didn't get lost!). I think it'll become a regular trip.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/80s, 32mm, hand held.

Boats at Craster harbour, Northumberland

This one's from our Northumberland holiday in August 2013. We parked at Craster and walked up the coast to Dunstanburgh Castle, passing the small harbour on the way. I really liked the shapes and bright colours of these boats and the house in the background.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/60s, 24mm, hand held.

Chrysanthemum with water droplets

I took this one at home in January this year. It's a white chrysanthemum with a yellow centre. I made some changes in Lightroom - first increasing the contrast to define the petals and water droplets; then converting to black and white and adding a split tone to the shadows to soften the overall effect.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/10s, 90mm, ring light, tripod.

Moss-covered log surrounded by bluebells

I took this one at Hardcastle Crags in May last year - I like the mix of textures and colours between the moss and the bluebells, and how the straight edges of the log cut across them.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/40s, 22mm, hand held.

Looking towards Todmorden from Stoodley Pike

I've taken this view several times over the years with different cameras and in different weather conditions. This is the only one with my DSLR so far though and, despite poor late November afternoon light (resulting in a fair amount of processing!), I still love it.

I took the photo on the way down from Stoodley Pike, having walked up there from Hebden Bridge, further down the valley. The church you can see in the centre right of the picture is Lumbutts Methodist Church (built 1877). In the distance behind that, where the valleys merge, is the town of Todmorden, where I grew up.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/8, 1/80s, 32mm, hand held.

Sweets refracted in water droplets

This is another idea I got from my macro magazine. I like doing things like this - it reminds me of science experiments at school!

On my first attempt, the water droplets were bigger and you could only see one or two sweets in each one. Making them smaller increased the number of sweets refracted. Once I had the water droplets right and sharply in focus, I took several pictures with different apertures to get the different depth of field effects. This is the image with the greatest depth of field (so you can see the sweets themselves as well as the water droplets).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/40, 1/200s, 90mm, in-camera flash, tripod.

Path between shadowy trees

This is a section of the path around Derwentwater, Keswick, photographed in August last year. It looks like the path disappears into a dark, dense, wood, but it is, in fact, just a small group of trees that the path briefly passes between. I like how the image has formed its own natural, dark vignette out of the shadows.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/15s, 18mm, hand held.

Hazy sun on a winter morning

This one is from my trip to the local moor to catch the sunrise over the snow in January this year. When the sun rose, the sky was totally clear. After getting the initial sunrise photos, we walked round to the western side of the moor and, as we walked, the cloud slowly descended over the eastern side. When we turned round, I couldn't believe the unexpected opportunity I'd been given to get photos in the misty, hazy sunshine.

When taking these pictures, I really had to guess at camera settings and imagine the final picture, as I was taking them straight into the dazzling sun.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/250s, 32mm, hand held.

Dry stone wall, fence and sheep, Malham

This is taken from the path between Malham Cove and Gordale Scar, North Yorkshire. I love the tones and textures in dry stone walls - they work particularly well in black and white. The main reason for taking this particular picture was the overall shape and pattern made by the wall, fence and the rougher grass around the intersection. In Lightroom, I had to adjust the green and yellow sliders on the grey balance to make the rougher grass stand out.

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

Waves breaking over rocks off Bamburgh beach

One from Northumberland today, from August 2013. I was going through my photos deleting those that didn't come up to scratch and was just about to delete this one (the original is a 3:2 aspect ratio filled mostly with sea and sky, with the line of rocks along the middle). I thought I'd give it a panoramic crop to see whether it was worth saving, and am really pleased with the outcome. I can imagine this making a nice canvas.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/200s, 55mm, hand held.

Tree trunk, roots, foliage and bluebell, Hardcastle Crags.

This is another photo from my final Photography Btec course submission, taken in May 2013. My topic was the 'hidden' beauty of Hardcastle Crags (eg. not the obvious popular river/waterfall shots). It was mostly the lines and textures in the bark, roots and foliage that drew me to this shot - the bluebell was an added bonus - a lovely little splash of blue amongst the earthier tones.

I've learned a lot more about Lightroom since first processing the photo, so I went back to the raw file today and started again, creating a 'new and improved' version!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1.6s, 26mm, tripod.

Fallen maple leaf

This is one of the colourful leaves I collected and took home to photograph in October last year. I took the pictures in the conservatory near the windows using the available daylight. There wasn't quite enough light for the depth of field I wanted to achieve, so I increased ISO to compensate. (I wasn't using a tripod to allow me to easily experiment with different angles, so increasing exposure time wasn't an option.)

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/9, 1/250s, 90mm, hand held

Line of trees in snow

This is a photo of the golf course near my home, taken in January. It's next to the moor where we walk the dogs, separated by a high wall. I took this at one of the lowest points of the wall where you can just about see over it, resting my camera in the snow on top of it.

I was initially drawn to the line of tree trunks on the top third - how they contrast against the white of the snow and form a transition to the darker treetops. The shaded foreground adds a third, grey, tone and the 2 trees cut nicely through all 3 segments. The image has a graphic feel for me.

I think I'd be happier with the picture if the edge of the shaded foreground was parallel to the treeline - can't do anything about that though!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/40s, 32mm, hand held (balanced on a wall!)

Looking from Castlerigg stone circle towards Helvellyn

Here's another shot I took whilst waiting for the sun to set at Castlerigg stone circle, Keswick, in August last year. I love the ominous clouds hanging over the valley. You can see the Helvellyn range in the far distance.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/9, 1/15s, 26mm, hand held.

Spilt milk

I've been experimenting with macro techniques this week. I found this idea in a book - it looked really straightforward and fun. It was fun. Not so straightforward though!

I laid out a sheet of coloured felt under glass (borrowed from a photo frame) and put a couple of drops of milk on it, then suspended the syringe full of milk directly above, squeezed out another drop and tried to photograph it as it landed. It wasn't until I set everything up that I realised the book used a piece of kit I don't have - a separate flash unit. I thought I'd just manage with my ring light, but eventually realised I needed the flash to properly freeze the motion and get a sharp photo. Oh well...I got it as sharp as I could using other techniques (and taking hundreds of images on continuous release mode!).

I also experimented with different colours of background (felt) and milk (using food colouring). This image is actually light blue milk on bright yellow felt, but it looks so much better in black and white!

I'm going to try this again some time, now I've got past a few of the pitfalls. I'll be buying a dropper (the syringe was too hard to control) and probably a separate flash first though!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/8, 1/250s, 90mm, tripod, remote release & ring light

Gordale Beck and path disappearing into woodland

This is another one of Gordale Beck at Malham, North Yorkshire. When you turn away from Janet's Foss and look downstream, this is the view that meets you - I found it way more stunning than the waterfall itself (which was, admittedly, quite weak when we visited due to the dry weather). Both the path and the beck totally disappear into the thick foliage, drawing you in!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/15s, 18mm, hand held.

Looking across the rockpools to the Farne Islands, Seahouses.

One from August 2013 at Seahouses, Northumberland. I love the colours and textures in the rocks and pools on the beach, and the shapes carved out by the wind and water. In this picture you can just make out the nearest of the Farne Islands on the central horizon.

I noticed in the raw file that the horizon was slightly curved, due to the wide angle lens, so I had to alter the distortion in Lightroom - the first time I've used that tool.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/125s, 18mm, hand held.

Autumn colours in the woods at Hardcastle Crags

This one at Hardcastle Crags is from November 2013. It was the brilliant array of colours and tones between the trees and the ground that made me take it - just a snapshot of the overall scene around me at the time. It could be sharper (that's what you get for using a 1/4sec exposure hand-held!) but I still love it.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/4s, 28mm, hand held.

Walled line of trees in snow

Here's another one from the moor near where I live in Halifax, taken on a late afternoon in January this year. I really like this type of minimalist image - there was hardly any detail in the snow and sky anyway, but I reduced contrast right down just to make sure.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/50s, 55mm, hand held.

Abstract macro - water droplets on crumpled cellophane

I took this one in January this year when I was photographing flowers with my macro kit at home.  I was looking around for something else to photograph when I ran out of ideas with the flowers and saw this cellophane wrapper, which had come with my new ring light. I squirted it with saline water, sat it on a sheet of black felt and took a few shots at different angles.

In Lightroom this has been a lesson in meddling too much with an image! I made all kinds of changes, including a crop to exclude the highlights on the right of the image (turns out it looks better with them!), an increase in contrast and clarity, and addition of a green tone for the highlights. Although in itself it looked good, when I compared it back to the original (which I always do) it just wasn't as impressive. So I pretty much reverted back to the original - just a few small tweaks instead.

View from Catbells to Bassenthwaite Lake

I took this one whilst climbing up Catbells on our holiday to Keswick in August last year. It's looking down the Newlands valley towards the village of Braithwaite and, beyond it, Bassenthwaite Lake. I liked the little tree with red berries in the foreground, growing on the edge of a craggy outcrop - it gave the view some scale. With hindsight, I'd rather have had a slightly shallower depth of field (and better focusing!) to make the tree stand out a bit more against the background, but I was holding the climb up so just got a quick shot!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/640s, 40mm, 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.

Purple and yellow chrysanthemums

This is the last image I took in my macro session at home in January this year. It was a bit of a 'throw-away' shot - I'd run out of ideas - but I do really like it. I think the flowers are chrysanthemums - they were part of a larger arrangement of assorted cut flowers. I used a black felt sheet as background and a saline spray for the water droplets.

I thought the surrounding leaves and stems added nice context and colour, but they were a bit too dominating, so I used a dark vignette to obscure them a little.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5, 0.77s, 90mm, tripod & ring light.

Foliage, fallen tree trunks and rocks at Gordale Beck

I took this photo of a section of Gordale Beck between Janet's Foss (a waterfall) and Malham in August last year. I was drawn in by the lovely shades of green, textures and shapes provided by the foliage and fallen tree trunks. I wish I'd had my tripod to get a sharper image with more depth of field, though. It was quite dark under the shade of the trees and I ended up using a wider aperture and as long an exposure as I could get away with hand-held (didn't think to increase ISO at the time!). Even with the settings I used the image was really dark and I've had to correct that in Lightroom. Still like the photo, though!

Camera/lens settings: ISO100, f/7.1, 1/20s, 26mm, hand held.

Late afternoon snowy dog walk

This one's from a couple of weeks ago on the moor near our house. It's a really popular place for dog walkers - great for the dogs to run round off lead, meeting other dogs. Also great for their owners, who get to appreciate scenes like this one, taken as the sun was on its way down.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/60s, 40mm, hand held.