Burst of autumn colours at Hardcastle Crags.

Here's another one from the Crags this weekend - I love how the colours pop out of the shadowy woodland at this time of year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/2.2, 1/100s, -1 step exp bias, hand held.

Mating craneflies

My son spotted these 2 flies on these blades of grass at Hardcastle Crags today - he was initially drawn to the raindrops on the grass. We didn't realise at the time that they were actually mating!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/60s, -1 step exp bias (keep forgetting to turn it off!), hand held.

Southwark Cathedral and the Shard - London.

Another view of the Shard today. This is a great (and, no doubt, much-photographed) juxtaposition of architectural styles from London's South Bank. I took the photo in March last year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/80s, 24mm, hand held.

Seagull on a Thames launch passing the Shard.

I was photographing the buildings beside the Thames as we passed them on this tour boat in June this year, when I noticed the seagull land just above us. I realised how close we were to the Shard, so waited for the right moment to take the photo, hoping it didn't fly off before we passed it.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f.7.1, 1/200s, 35mm, hand held.

Spider beneath a dew-covered web.

Another one from around this time last year. This was a lucky find high up in the woods at Hardcastle Crags. I had my tripod and macro lens with me so set about taking photos of the lovely dew droplets on the web. It wasn't until I reviewed the pictures at home that I realised the spider was there. It's well camouflaged amongst the greens and browns of the foliage, so I desaturated the rest of the image to make it easier to spot.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/2s, 90mm, tripod & cable release.

River flowing around mossy rocks and autumn leaves.

This is at Hardcastle Crags, photographed about this time last year. I took 3 different exposures - one fast, one very long and this one, which I think captures the best of both - the darker water is smoothed out to simplify the scene, but there's still an element of movement in the white water.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/18, 5s, 38mm, tripod & cable release.

Sunlight catching a bridge in Whinlatter Forest.

This is from our holiday to Keswick in August this year. I liked the way the sun was catching the bridge and creating shadows on the lit-up patch of ground beneath it.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/60s, -0.7step exp bias, 35mm, hand held.

Multi-coloured ferns on a rock face.

This little rock face is just below the road next to Booth Wood reservoir at Rishworth. I spotted these lovely coloured ferns on a walk along the valley at the end of April this year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/80s, 35mm, hand held.

Autumn foliage.

I don't know what these plants are, but their delicate, feathery tops are lovely in autumn. I took this photo on Norland moor in November last year.

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

Trees reflected in the Rochdale canal.

This one's from a late afternoon in April this year, between Mytholmroyd and Luddenden Foot.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/250s, 35mm, hand held.

Autumn leaves on a wooden bridge at Hardcastle Crags.

Another one from my walk around the Crags this week. I've photographed this bridge before, but with a greater depth of field. I thought a shallow depth of field would work well this time with the colourful fallen leaves.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/60s, -1 step exp bias, 35mm, hand held.

Heron in the river at Hardcastle Crags.

I've seen the heron at Hardcastle Crags many times but never managed to photograph it. A few weeks ago, I followed it quite a long way upstream, seeing it in numerous places each time it stopped to fish, but I only had a wide lens on my camera and couldn't get close enough. So, today, I deliberately took my long lens in the hope that I'd see it. I couldn't believe my luck when I reached the river beside Gibson Mill and found it posing perfectly for me in the waterfall. Then it flew further upstream and I managed another shot of it perched on the river bank. I'd love to know if there's more than one heron - I've only ever seen one on its own.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/4.8, 1/125s, -1 step exp bias, 210mm, hand held

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/5, 1/200s, -1 step exp bias, 120mm, hand held

Pink and yellow mesembryanthemum flower

I photographed this lovely flower in my garden in July 2014.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/500s, 90mm, hand held.

Aerial photo of the Fleetwood to Blackpool coastline.

I took this one on my microlight flight in September this year. It's great to get such a different perspective on such a familiar place - Blackpool Tower looks tiny in the distance!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5, 1/640s, 35mm, hand held (in one hand, without use of the viewfinder!)

Cantering horse.

This is another one of the photos I recently took for a friend, of her gorgeous horse, Remo. At this point he was charging around me so that I could get a few action photos - I had to keep reminding myself to lower the camera and get out of his way when he was getting close!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/500s, 70mm, hand held.

Boats moored on Morecambe Bay at Walney Island.

This is the north-western point of Morecambe Bay, at Barrow-in-Furness, looking across to Walney Island. We stayed there overnight in June this year after my son ran a fell race at the nearby Duddon valley. I took this photo early Sunday morning, before anyone was really up and about - I like how peaceful and still the water and boats are.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/250s, 35mm, hand held.

Raindrops on a fallen oak leaf.

Here's another macro shot from last week's walk round Hardcastle Crags.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/100s, 90mm, hand held.

Up a London underground escalator.

This is from my trip to London in March last year. I love the lights and lines in the underground and always try to get a few pictures on each trip.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/60s, 24mm (and lots of exposure increase and noise reduction post-production - should've increased ISO!)

Overlapping valleys in Todmorden.

This one's from almost exactly a year ago, on a valley-top walk around Sourhall-Cornholme-Todmorden. This photo is taken from above Cornholme, looking past Todmorden (hidden to the left) towards Walsden (the sun-lit far horizon is above Littleborough).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8,1/80s, 36mm, hand held.

Autumn foliage in a disused quarry.

We were back at Penistone this weekend for the junior quarry races which my son takes part in. The colours in the foliage are lovely at this time of year so I took a few photos of my surroundings whilst waiting for the runners to return.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/1000s, 35mm, hand held.

Clouds and blue sky over moorland.

This is Hoof Stones Height - moorland between Todmorden and Burnley. I took the photo in February this year. The image feels to me like a landscape turned upside down - all the interest is in the sky, offset against the strip of flat, brown moorland below.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/125s, 35mm, hand held.

Autumn leaves.

Another one from yesterday's walk at Hardcastle Crags - a beautiful mixture of autumn colours.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/160s, 35mm, hand held.

Little feather covered in raindrops.

I spotted this feather on the path at Hardcastle Crags today. I'd gone up there this morning in drizzle and low cloud, hoping for some misty tree shots, but by the time I got out of the car, the mist had lifted. On the plus side, I got lots of macro shots of things covered in raindrops!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/7.1, 1/100s, 90mm, hand held.

Duck on the canal, surrounded by ripples and reflections.

This one from April 2015 is somewhere on the Rochdale canal, near Sowerby Bridge - I can't remember exactly where! I cropped the original image to remove the canal bank and foliage, giving the photo an abstract element.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/125s, 52mm, hand held.

Low clouds on the fells around Ullswater.

I took this one on a walk along the shores of Ullswater, from Howtown to Glenridding, in August this year. We'd been under the trees for quite a while, then reached this craggy clearing which opened this lovely view up to us.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/800s, -0.7 step exp bias, 35mm, hand held.

Sunshine and bluebells at Hardcastle Crags.

This is a section of the riverside path between Midgehole car park and Gibson Mill at Hardcastle Crags, photographed in early June last year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/125s, 28mm, hand held.

Sunburst through trees

This one's from November 2 years ago, at Hardcastle Crags. The leaves were in their autumnal colours, but I converted this image to black and white to focus on the sunburst.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/10, 1/125s, 20mm, hand held.