Looking from Latrigg towards Whinlatter Forest, Keswick

Here's another lovely view from Keswick, taken in August last year. We'd just walked up Latrigg, the hill that sits below Skiddaw, overlooking Keswick, and were about to return down the path at the bottom right of the photo. You can see the edge of Skiddaw on the right, the Whinlatter Forest on the far left hillside and the edge of Bassenthwaite Lake in the distance.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/200s, 24mm, hand held.

Sunset over the Calder valley

I took this one last week. I was driving my husband and son to their boxing class in Mytholmroyd, 10 minutes down the valley (visible in the centre of this photo), when the sky started to change colour and the sun started to turn into an orange globe. I usually miss photographing the sunset (busy making tea or typing up this blog!) but was determined to catch this one.

I called back at home, grabbed my camera and drove to a nearby spot (near Warley) where I thought I'd get a good picture. I didn't have time to bother with a tripod, so had the freedom to wander around the hillside trying different viewpoints, including this one with the daffodils in the foreground.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/80s, 30mm, hand held (and a grad filter added in Lightroom)

Line of bare trees in snow

This is another one from Roils Head moor, 15 mins walk from my home, in January this year. I love the shapes and textures of the tree trunks and branches. I did convert the image to black and white but, to be honest, you can hardly tell the difference.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/50s, 26mm, hand held.

Ropes and a fishing boat at Seahouses harbour

Another one from Northumberland (August 2013) today. These ropes were piled on the harbour walls, next to the lobster pots. I crouched down to position the colourful fishing boat in the background, but chose an aperture that gave a shallow-ish depth of field to make sure the perspective remained.

When processing the photo I wondered whether I should have focused on the boat rather than the ropes. I suppose it depends which was my main subject - at the time I was more interested in the ropes than the boat. With hindsight, it would have been interesting to take 2 version of the photo and see which worked best. I think this version would win though - I think the ropes take up too high a percentage of the picture to be out of focus.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/60s, 38mm, hand held.

Shadows across the Rochdale Canal near Sowerby Bridge

This one's from the return stretch of my walk a week ago from Sowerby to Sowerby Bridge via Mytholmroyd. It was around tea time when we got to this point, hence the long shadows from the lowering sun. I had to be careful not to capture my own shadow in the picture.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/80s, 24mm, hand held.

Wild garlic at Hardcastle Crags

This one's from May 2013, but I was inspired to post it tonight because I saw lots of wild garlic on the walk I did today. You can just make out a few flower buds in this picture - it usually flowers just after the bluebells later in May and makes the woods smell wonderful.

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

Sun-lit wilting daffodils in a glass jug

I took this one a year ago when first trying out my new macro lens at home. These daffodils in a cut-glass jug were on my kitchen window sill, back-lit by the sunshine. They were past their best, which is a way I particularly like to photograph flowers. I liked the way the sun made their petals almost transparent and highlighted their ragged edges.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1250s, 90mm, hand held.

Stream, tree and walls at Widdop

Today, in the best weather we've had so far this year, I did a circular walk around Widdop, on the moors above Hebden Bridge. The walk took me past 3 reservoirs and some great rock formations (plenty of photos of them to follow!). The photo I've chosen for tonight, though, is the last one I took, just before I got back to the car. This lovely little stream runs under the road next to a lone house. I think the house owns the greener walled area - I love how different it is in colour to the scorched-looking moor grass.

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

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London

Another one from my London trip in March this year. The old Naval College buildings are spectacular, but I found most of it very hard to compose well on camera. I like this one, though - the lines of the steps and the texture in the sky really help the composition.

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

Cat looking out over fields above the Calder valley

I took this at Midgley 2 weeks ago, early in the evening on the way back from a walk along the valley top. This cat was sitting looking out at the fields, possibly looking for prey, or maybe just admiring the view! I crept up to the wall behind it, totally expecting it to hear me and run. I took 3 photos of it from different angles and the only movement it made was to turn round and glare at me for disturbing its peace every time the shutter clicked!

The view is of Luddenden Foot in the middle distance and Sowerby village and church on the far hillside.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/80s, 26mm, hand held.

1800's textiles mill and chimney on a cobbled lane in Halifax

Today I had to leave my car at the garage in Halifax to have some work done, so I decided to spend the morning walking around town with my camera (for 'locals' the route was up Beacon Hill Rd to Southowram, over the top and down behind Siddal, past the Shears pub, then back behind the Nestle factory to the town centre again).

This photo is looking up Boys Lane at Shaw Lodge Mill and its chimney. They were built in the 1800's for woollen/worsted textile weaving by John Holdsworth & Co and remained in their ownership until 2005. (I think they're rented out as separate units now).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/14, 1/80s, 18mm, hand held.

Shaft of sunlight on stones on a stream bed

I spotted this shaft of sunlight hitting the stream when I was on my way back on the path through the woods at Ogden a few weeks ago. It made it look as though there were nuggets of gold on the stream bed and I was determined to photograph it. This involved clambering down over some wet rocks to stand right by the stream. Unfortunately I was a bit too keen and lost my footing on the first rock. My camera (on a strap round my neck) flew up in the air, my arms and legs went everywhere and I had one of those slow motion moments where I was convinced I was about to break a bone or my camera and get very wet!! Amazingly, I landed on my feet, right by the water with everything intact. I think I laughed out loud to myself, then took the picture!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/50s, 55mm, hand held.

Sun-lit spider web under a garden table

I took this in my garden this evening. The web is underneath my patio table - I spotted it from my front room because the sun was catching it. I had 2 dogs trying to lick my face as I crouched under the table so it's a miracle it's in focus! The spider was absent...wonder where it is?

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.3, 1/125s, 46mm, hand held.

Fishing/tourist boat at Seahouses harbour

This one's from our last Northumberland holiday in August 2013. This is one of the boats that takes visitors out to the Farne Islands. I assume they were all previously fishing boats that have now been converted to carry people instead. We've been on the same trip out to Longstone Island twice now and all loved it - I would quite happily go again on future holidays too.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/160s, 70mm, hand held.

Walking the dog along a snowy walled path

This one's from January this year, on Roils Head Moor near my home in Halifax. This wall is the border between the moor and the golf course. I like how the snow sticks to bits of the wall and the tree trunks, emphasising their textures. I waited for the man with his dog to reach the end of the wall, just before the path turns away to the left, to give scale to the picture.

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

The Luddenden valley side below Wainstalls village

I took this one about 2 months ago on my walk around the Luddenden valley. This was on my way up to the head of the valley - my return route took me back along the opposite side behind the houses in the centre of this photo. I cropped the photo to a panoramic style to enhance the sweeping feel of the fields and the valley top.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 28mm, hand held.

View across Keswick towards the Newlands valley

I took this one in August 2014 from the top of Latrigg, the hill overlooking Keswick. The mountain running alongside the lake (Derwentwater) on the left is Catbells; Causey Pike is centre right and the rest of the Newlands Fells are in the background.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/200s, 30mm, hand held.

Dandelion clock (3)

I took this photo just under a year ago in my garden. I've posted 2 previous photos of dandelion clocks - this one differs in that it's not quite as close-up. You can see its stalk and there's some nice negative space around it, which I emphasised by de-saturating the greens. I left the yellows and orange in, though, as they draw your eye into the dandelion clock.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4, 1/640s, 90mm, hand held.

Gnarled old tree in Greenwich Park

I spotted this lovely old tree whilst walking through Greenwich Park, London, in March this year (typical me - everyone else is looking at the Cutty Sark, the view of Canary Wharf or the Observatory, and I'm tree-spotting!).

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

Blue sky and clouds reflected in Lighthazzles reservoir, Littleborough.

This is one of a string of reservoirs on the moors at Blackstone Edge, above Littleborough, Lancashire (photographed a couple of weeks ago). I love how they act as natural mirrors for the blue sky and white fluffy clouds, framed with their stone edges.

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

Toad in wet grass

Here's another one from our walk up Stoodley Pike, Todmorden, yesterday. There's a sign on the road at the bottom of the hill, where we parked the car, warning about frogs crossing. Usually when we see a warning sign for any kind of animals we don't see any of them around; this time the sign was spot on - there were hundreds of frogs and toads in the dam and on the lower parts of the path up the hill. The edges of the dam were also crowded with big balls of frog spawn.

This toad (frogs hop; toads walk!) was sitting on the side of the path when we came down, so I could get close enough for a good photo.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/40s, 55mm, hand held.

Stoodley Pike, Todmorden.

This is Stoodley Pike, the hill that stands over Todmorden, the town where I grew up. I took this photo today on a family walk. It was lovely weather, albeit a bit hazy. We had a great time jumping from rock to rock along the mountain top (if you stand on something that isn't a rock you're 'out' - a childhood game I played that I still enjoy with my husband and kids!).

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

Silhouetted tree on a hillside

I took this one a couple of weeks ago on a walk around my local area - from Warley to Luddenden. I'd never spotted this tree before, even though it's next to a path I've been down a few times with the dogs - maybe it had leaves on previous occasions and wasn't as noticeable, or maybe I was just too busy watching the dogs!

It was a bright, hazy, sunny day, so I had to use a really fast shutter speed. I then brought exposure down a bit further to remove any detail from the ground and ensure the tree was fully silhouetted. I think the resulting effect makes it look like it was taken on a rainy evening rather than in the middle of a sunny day as it actually was.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/1000s, 45mm, hand held.

Moss-covered tree trunk surrounded by Autumn leaves

I took this one at Hardcastle Crags in November last year. I really like the shapes of the base of tree trunks where the roots start to spread - this one also had the lovely coating of green moss to contrast with the brown of the leaves on the ground.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/10, 1/125s, 40mm, hand held.

Looking across the Calder Valley above Mytholmroyd

I took this yesterday on a walk from Luddenden, up the valley side to Midgley and along the valley top to Mount Skip. It was the first really warm day of the year - a lovely walk with great views.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/160s, 44mm, hand held.

Kizzy the Easter bunny!

This is Kizzy, our cockerpoo, in our garden today, doing a pretty good impression of a bouncing bunny. My husband was throwing a ball into the air for her to jump up and catch - she was having a great time. Happy Easter everyone!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4.8, 1/250s, 32mm, hand held.

3 little old Yorkshire trees in a field

These trees are set back in a field behind Jerusalem Farm, Luddenden. I think they have symmetry and non-symmetry at the same time (if you see what I mean!?). I just like trees!...

I converted to monochrome to remove the distraction of the colour in the field behind.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/80s, 26mm, hand held.

Path along Catbells ridge looking towards Skiddaw and Bassenthwaite Lake

This is another view from the top of Catbells - this time looking back over the path along the lower ridge (if you zoom in you can see people on their uphill climb). Bassenthwaite Lake is visible on the left of the horizon with Skiddaw and Keswick on the right. The lovely green Newlands valley is in the fore- and mid-ground.

I love Catbells - it's only a small mountain, but has all the character and views of the bigger ones. It was a great introduction to Lake District climbing for my sons - this year we'll move on to something bigger!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/200s, 26mm, hand held.

Park bench in heavy snow

I took this one in the middle of a heavy snowstorm in January this year, on the moor near my home in Halifax. I love how you can only just see the trees in the background and the few wisps of grass in the foreground. Another one for my collection of minimalist snow scenes!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/40s, 45mm, hand held.

Chrysanthemum close-up

This one's from my macro session at home in January this year. This chrysanthemum was white with a yellow centre. I converted it to black and white, then added a split tone of olive green to the shadows. I like the subtle definition this gives to the petals.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/125s, 90mm, tripod, ring light.