Rockpools, sparkling sea and swirling clouds at Seahouses

I loved the drama of the swirling clouds and the sparkle of the sun on the water in this scene. I took the picture in August 2013 from the rock pools to the South of the harbour at Seahouses.

In Lightroom, I just increased contrast and exposure very slightly.

View across Malham Cove

Here's yet another view across the very picturesque Malham Cove, towards Pendle Hill! I wasn't sure this would be a 'useable' photo - I liked the curved framing of the foreground rocks, the dry stone wall and the array of fields and trees in the midsection of the photo, but there was too much sky and dull grass around the edges. I decided the only hope for it was to try a vignette.

Until now, I've only used very slight, not obvious, vignettes to draw your eye into the centre. This time I had to use a stronger one. I do think it does the job well though, supporting the natural frame of the rocks and drawing your eye away from the parts of the picture that don't add any interest.

Contrasting trees

These trees line a portion of the railway path between Keswick and Threlkeld, Cumbria. I took the photo in August this year because I was really struck by the strong shapes, tones and textures of the foreground trees (are they beech?) and the contrast against the lush greenery of the trees behind.

I made a few small tweaks in Lightroom to bring out these features - increased contrast, reduced highlights and increased vibrancy and saturation.

Mill pond in Autumn, Hardcastle Crags

I took this one at Hardcastle Crags in November 2013 because I loved the colours and reflections. Although the side lighting from the low sun was what made the colours and tree textures so lovely, it also made the photograph difficult to achieve, due to the big contrasts. I didn't have any filters so I exposed for the shadows and hoped for the best.

In Lightroom I used graduated filters (top down and bottom up) to reduce exposure and highlights in the sky and water. I also increased shadows to bring a bit more detail out.

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.

River flowing around moss-covered rocks at Hardcastle Crags

This is a crop of a photo I took whilst practicing with ND filters at Hardcastle Crags for my Btec course. I can't remember how many stops I used for this particular image, but this one was my favourite in terms of the effect of the creamy water flowing around the rough textured rocks. The composition of the original image as a whole wasn't great, as I chose the location purely for the water and rocks, but couldn't get close enough to exclude the surroundings, hence making a significant crop for this final image.

In Lightroom, as well as the crop, I also flipped the photo horizontally, as it didn't feel right flowing right to left.  I then increased contrast and added 2 angled graduated filters to reduce the glare top and bottom left.

Dandelion clock (2)

This is another photo from the group of images I took in my garden in May this year. The original image was a wider shot of the dandelion clock head with a blurred green background (similar to the one I posted on Sept 13th). I wanted to see whether a closer crop would work, and I really like the outcome.

In Lightroom, I increased contrast and vibrance to get a bit more 'zing' out of the colours and textures. Then I used a square crop to emphasise the symmetry and added a slight dark vignette to emphasise the spherical shape.