Sunny Spring morning at Widdop Reservoir

I love this view - the shapes of the trees, the barn and the stone walls combined with the colours of the water and the moorland just work together so well. I stood and looked at it for ages on this walk (in April this year), taking the same photo many times as the different clouds passed overhead, creating different patterns with their shadows.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 38mm, hand held.

Dark clouds over Catbells and Derwentwater, Cumbria.

I took this on a walk around Derwentwater in August last year, on a dark, cloudy afternoon. You can just see a distant break in the clouds beyond the mountains where the sun was seeping through, with the resulting light reflecting off the lake.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/60s, 26mm, hand held.

Butterfly perched on a dandelion flower

I took this a year ago at Hardcastle Crags, when I first got my macro lens. The only down side to the original image was how distracting the woodland floor was around the butterfly, although I really liked the lines and context it provided. Desaturating the background solved this problem.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1000s, 90mm, hand held.

Sloping, walled fields viewed through bare tree branches

I took this photo at Easter this year, walking between Midgley and Mount Skip. The fields you can see through the trees are above Mytholmroyd.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/100s, 55mm, hand held.

Sunset over the Calder Valley (2)

Another sunset shot from a month ago, taken from the Newlands end of Warley, looking along the Calder Valley, over Luddenden Foot and Mytholmroyd.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/80s, 55mm, tripod.

Colourful, textured log in sunlit woodland

I saw this log lying in the woods around Ogden reservoir earlier this year. Even from a distance I could see the different colours on its bark, lit up by the sunshine - really striking!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/250s, 26mm, hand held.

Reflections of the River Thames

I took this one on my visit to London in March this year. I don't know what this grand looking building is (can't find any reference to it online) but it's at the North end of Southwark Bridge. I was particularly drawn to it because of the sparkling reflections of the River Thames on its wall and in the windows along the top of the photo.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11/1/80s, 55mm, hand held.

Lower Gorple reservoir in bright sunshine

I took this a few weeks ago at Widdop on the hottest day we've had so far this year (ie. warm enough to not take a coat!!). Although it was lovely weather for walking, it made photography a bit tricky as it was so bright and a bit hazy. I like the effect on this shot though - the sunlight adds sparkle and brings out the colour and texture of the stonework around the reservoir outlet.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 22mm, hand held.

Multi-coloured layered rocks on Seahouses beach

More interesting rocks on Seahouses beach - it's full of them!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/400s, 22mm, hand held.

Autumn woodland scene at Hardcastle Crags

I took this in November last year, on the main road through the Crags. Beautiful Autumn colours and shadows!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/10, 1/125s, 24mm, hand held.

Wilted tulip in the sunshine.

I took this one last week on my patio. It's a yellow tulip, with only two drooping petals left - still looking elegant in the sunshine though!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/1000s, 90mm, tripod.

Interesting rock on Seahouses beach

An interesting rock that I found on the beach at Seahouses, Northumberland, on holiday in August 2013. It looks like a little planet!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.3, 1/160s, 46mm, hand held.

Wall 'floating' in reflected clouds

This is a section of Lighthazzles reservoir at Blackstone Edge, above Littleborough. I loved how the wall, which runs across the middle of the reservoir, looked like it was floating, particularly in this image, where your eyes are tricked by not being able to see the rest of the reservoir.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 55mm, hand held.

View of Skiddaw from Derwentwater shore

Here's another one from our last holiday to Keswick in August 2014. It was a dark, late afternoon - we'd been on a boat ride along the lake and were walking back to Keswick along the shore, in and out of the trees. This photo had a real purply/blue hue to it after I processed it, so I thought I'd try being a lot more obvious with the colour, using the split tone application in Lightroom. It's a moody photo anyway, so I think it really suits it.

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

Light, shadows and reflections under a canal bridge

This is underneath a stone bridge over the Rochdale canal, near Sowerby Bridge, taken a few weeks ago. The lowering sun was creating great patterns and highlighting the colours of the moss on the stone.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/250s, 18mm, hand held.

Blue Campanula flowers (Bellflowers).

This one's from July 2013, taken in my garden. These Campanula flowers (also known as Bellflowers) are really lovely but very delicate - it's a miracle they (well, most of them!) manage to survive the dogs charging around them each year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/250s, 34mm, hand held.

North Bridge, the Burdock Way flyover and Dean Clough mills, Halifax

I've been wanting to photograph these bridges for some time now, getting my chance on a walk around Halifax a few weeks ago, whilst my car was in the garage. My vantage point is the car park of the local sports centre, where my son attends classes a couple of times a week.

The lower bridge is the Victorian Gothic style North Bridge, opened in 1871 and made of iron and stone. It cost £21,000 to build (17 shillings & sixpence per square foot) and was apparently the cheapest bridge in England at the time (and is still in use today for local traffic). On the day it opened the whole town was given a half day off work and the crowds surged across the bridge before it had been officially opened, needing to be held back by 20 mounted soldiers!

In 1973, the (much less photogenic!) Burdock Way flyover (above it on this photo) was built to carry heavier and through traffic.

In the background, under North Bridge, you can see some of the Dean Clough mills complex. These mills were built in the mid-1800's for carpet manufacturing. They now house many different businesses, including art galleries, restaurants and a radio station.

History lesson over...!

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

Cobbled lane in the Luddenden valley

This cobbled lane runs down from the road between Luddenden and Booth; the hillside in the background is below Wainstalls. I took the photo on a walk around the valley in February this year. The original raw file was very contrasty - bright sunlight and dark shadows. Converting to black and white enabled me to better balance the light in different areas without confusing any colours.

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

Daffodils at Widdop reservoir

This is the last of 3 reservoirs I passed on a morning walk a couple of weeks ago - definitely the most photogenic of the 3. I absolutely loved the barn and trees on the far bank - they'll feature in quite a few more photos to follow! The light on the far hillside (the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire) was also really beautiful.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 32mm, hand held.

Morning run along a moorland track, Blackstone Edge

This one's from the track that runs past the reservoirs from the top of Blackstone Edge, above Littleborough, taken a few weeks ago. I had already taken a few photos of this view because I liked the curve of the track, the blue line of the water and the sunlit hillside in the background. The photos were still lacking something, though, due to too much blank foreground (the track) and no real focal point. Then this man jogged past me and I decided to make him the focal point, waiting for him to reach the end of the water line.

I still don't like the area of blank track, but I think everything else draws your eye away from it sufficiently now.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/80s, 18mm, hand held.

Bluebells in the woods, Hardcastle Crags.

I took this one almost exactly a year ago at Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge. I'm hoping to get back there with my camera this week, weather permitting, to see how the bluebells are doing this year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/80s, 30mm, hand held.

Reflections of trees in the Rochdale canal

This one's from somewhere between Mytholmroyd and Sowerby Bridge, taken from the canal bank a couple of weeks ago. As usual, it was quite windy so there were lots of ripples on the water, distorting the reflections and making great abstract patterns.

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

Night-time shot of the Thames path passing beneath Blackfriars rail bridge, London.

I took this one in London in March this year. I love the undersides of the Thames bridges, especially when they're lit up at night. This particular shot is one of my favourites because of the mixture of lines and curves from the 2 bridges (I think that's Waterloo Bridge in the background) and the wall and railings on the path.

I haven't done much night-time photography and have always had poor results whenever I've tried (usually with Auto settings on a compact camera). Some of my London attempts (such as this one) have come out ok, but they're extremely grainy as I had to use a really high ISO to pick up enough detail. I think the only thing I'm doing 'wrong' now is not using a tripod (conscious decision not to be carrying one round London!), but if anyone has any other tips for me I'd be grateful.

Update! - Thanks to my friend Leanne for tipping me off about the Noise Reduction section in Lightroom - I now have a much less grainy version (the one at the bottom - not sure you can actually tell the difference on here, though!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 1600, f/4.5, 1/60s, 20mm, hand held.

 

 

Red admiral butterfly with its wings folded up

I took this one in my garden late last summer. I think the underside of the red admiral's wings is just as pretty as the top - the colours are really rich and the patterns less well defined.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/640s, 90mm, hand held.

Daffodils beside Lee Dam, Todmorden

I took this one just before climbing Stoodley Pike in Todmorden a few weeks ago. It's the top section of Lee Dam, just opposite the chapel at Lumbutts. I'd been hoping to get a photo of the line of trees in the background, with reflections in the water. The sky was quite bright and cloudless though, making that picture a bit dull (one for another day), so I went for a different view with a colourful foreground instead.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/14, 1/60s, 18mm, hand held.

Gerbera with water droplets

This is from a shoot I did at home in February. I used a syringe and saline solution to make the water droplets and an LED ring light, which I held in my hand and moved around to get different effects. The flower is a vivid orange gerbera, but I converted to monochrome as it made the water droplets and petal definition more obvious.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/60s, 90mm macro lens, tripod, ring light.

Bright sunshine and clouds over Mytholmroyd and Cragg Vale

Today, one from my walk from Midgley to Mount Skip along the top of the Calder valley a few weeks ago. This photo is looking across Mytholmroyd towards Cragg Vale (in the valley leading off centre-left). My eldest son's school, Calder High is just visible in the middle right, just behind the big patch of trees.

Some local trivia....The road from Mytholmroyd through Cragg Vale, up to the moor at Blackstone Edge, is the longest continuous gradient in England. Last year it formed part of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France; yesterday it was part of the first ever Tour de Yorkshire bike race.

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

Patch of sunlight in a dark group of conifers

I took this one a week ago on Widdop moor, between Lower Gorple and Upper Gorple reservoirs. The path runs right past this densely packed group of conifers and I just loved how the sun had found a way through to light up one of them and a patch of ground. It looks like it's inviting you in, but you'd have to clamber through a lot of branches to get there.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/100s, 32mm, hand held.

Silhouetted figure on top of a hill at Hardcastle Crags

This one shows my youngest son, Kai, standing on top of a small hill in the middle of Hardcastle Crags. It's a great little rocky outcrop in the middle of the woods that I also used to climb up as a kid. This time I stood at the bottom with my husband, though, and just watched the kids and dogs as they climbed it!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/25, 1/80s, 20mm, hand held.

Blossom and daffodils around Halifax Minster

This is Halifax Minster (previously Halifax Parish Church) - a building over 900 years old. I took this photo a week ago after walking around Halifax whilst my car was in the garage. The church looks lovely at this time of year, surrounded by blossom-covered trees and spring bulbs.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/160s, 22mm, hand held.