Wednesday 22nd June 2011

The 'Fairy Pools', a very picturesque series of cascades where the water runs down from the Cuillin Ridge to Glen Brittle.

18mm, 0.6s, f/16, ISO 100

Tuesday 21st June 2011

The unique Lookout bothy. A converted coastguard lookout, it's tiny, sweet, out of the way, and has an amazing view out the glass fronted loungue down over Hunish point.

18mm, 1/15s, f/8, ISO 200

Monday 20th June 2011

At the Kilt Rock viewpoint on Skye, looking South. The high ISO was a mistake, I forgot to change it back after snapping a quick picture of a twite.

35mm, 1/60s (auto from aperture priority), f/11, ISO 1600

Sunday 19th June 2011

Cascades on the descent from Ben More and Stob Binnein near Crianlarich. This was hand held but it just about worked. I like that the people are in it for perspective, but it isn't a particularly great shot, just one of the few I snapped on an enjoyable day out in the hills.

18mm, 1/10s (auto from aperture priority), f/20, ISO 400

Saturday 18th June 2011

Water of Tulla on Rannoch Moor, I only took two photos today because it then rained non stop so the camera stayed in the bag!

18mm, 1/160s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 400

Friday 17th June 2011

Penrith Castle.

109mm, 1/80s, f/5.6, ISO 400

Thursday 16th June 2011

Hen Cloud in the evening light.

77mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 100

<Interlude>

I'm heading to Scotland this evening for 9 days, and will still be taking a photo a day but will update the blog on my return!

Wednesday 15th June 2011

Another close up of an equine nose! This one has a moustache.

250mm, 1/200s (auto from aperture priority), f/6.3, ISO 400

Tuesday 14th June 2011

These plants were backlit by the golden light this evening, as I enjoyed a stroll round Consall woods. As a bit of a poll to satisfy an editing pondering I've been having of late, I'd be interested whether people prefer the one with less contrast, or the second one with greater contrast (I won't say at present which was more representative).
























168mm, 1/100s, f/5.6, ISO 200

Monday 13th June 2011

A viaduct I spotted a couple of years ago on the way to the climbing wall - at the time it was catching the glow from the sunset on each of the arches. Despite arriving in the 'golden hour', this isn't the photo I went for (it's taken from the side that the sun was hitting for a start, the opposite side to the one seen from the road), but I forgot my tripod so I was restricted to where I could balance the camera!

141mm, 1/6s, f/16, ISO 100

Sunday 12th June 2011

Copied from an idea seen elsewhere, just to play with cameras and macro when a friend came round with her new camera.

5s, f/16 (approx), ISO 800

Saturday 11th June 2011

I needed to get a couple of things from the supermarket and went on foot with my camera to see what I could find for a photo. The sun was setting and was shining through the clear panels of this block of flats, adding a dash of colour to the stairs inside.

27mm, 1.3s, f/8, ISO 100

Friday 10th June 2011

I've found a wonderful haven of grasshoppers on the wasteland near my office (unfortunately a development site), so I went down after work to entertain passers by with my head and lens to the ground and bum in the air. I'm eager to upgrade my equipment as now I have the subjects I'd really like to improve the quality of the shots. I was trying to get a landscape head shot to submit to the countryfile calendar competition, but this ended up being my favourite one of the set (240 taken, 100 deleted on camera for being blurred, another 100 deleted on computer for being blurred, of those 40 there were 6 I considered good by my current standards).

1/40s, f/10 (approx), ISO 800

Thursday 9th June 2011

An insect that landed on my car window.

1/40s, f/11 (approx), ISO 800

Wednesday 8th June 2011

This photo doesn't have spades of technical appeal but I just couldn't resist. My two darlings have both gone broody (meaning they're trying to hatch eggs, even though the eggs aren't fertilised and I remove them anyway), and while it's not good for me as it means no eggs, it's quite sweet watching them try to be mummies, and funny to watch them attempt it in the same nest box. Pepper, the darker one, has been broody for 2 months and took to it quite naturally, she readily goes for her daily feed and defecate when I lift her off the nest and throw her down the stairs. Coriander has just started and looks like she doesn't quite understand what's going on, bless her. If I lift her off the nest and put her somewhere else, she just squats down again and resumes her broody pose. The first day I pushed her down the stairs like I do Pepper to make sure she went for some food, and she fell down in surprise as she was still trying to squat, what a little sweetie!

29mm, 1/15s, f/4, ISO 800

Tuesday 7th June 2011

A spot of light-painting at home.

46mm, 15s, f/8, ISO 100

Monday 6th June 2011

This is a yellow dung-fly. I'm fascinated that every time I go out on a bug hunt I see something new, and most of them (the flies at least) are quite easy to identify in the book. It's not perfectly crisp but they don't exactly stay still!

1/40s, f/11 (approx), ISO 800

Sunday 5th June 2011

Just a little urban shot today, a couple of ramshackle buildings tinkered with in post-processing to bring out the muted tones.

27mm, 1/60s, f/7.1, ISO 400

Saturday 4th June 2011

This is Hardraw Force, claimed to be the tallest single drop waterfall in the country (discounting underground falls). It's also the location used for Kevin Costner's bath in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. I had a quick browse online before I went to see if there were any good photos of it I could use as inspiration, but I didn't really find any. I'm not 100% happy with this one but it's good enough.

18mm, 0.8s, f/13, ISO 200

Friday 3rd June 2011

What a joy to spend the hottest day of the year so far, in my favourite part of the country, finally managing the whole of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks walk in under 12 hours (actually under 11). There were some great photos to be had too, I like this one a lot.

25mm, 1/250s, f/7.1, ISO 400

Thursday 2nd June 2011

I was meant to be driving up to Yorkshire after a running race this evening, but there was an amazing light soaking the landscape and I kept having to jump out in various laybys to satisfy my urge to capture it on camera. Here the sun is setting by Bosley Cloud.

55mm, 1/60s, f/10, ISO 400

Wednesday 1st June 2011

This fellow is a leafhopper nymph (at least I think it is!), and it's weensy! If you crouch down and run your hand over a patch of wild grass, and see tiny little flecks jumping about from one blade to another, that's what this is. The image is a bit grainy as I bumped the ISO up to 1600 in my desperation to capture the wealth of insects despite the inadequacy of light, I won't be doing that again!

18mm (approx), 1/60s, f/9 (approx), ISO 1600

Tuesday 31st May 2011

I arrived at my blood doning appointment a little early so took a short stroll to the adjacent canal. I was drawn by the graffiti spanning each wall of the bridge that carries the A53 flyover, never seen to the car drivers. Despite the artwork being quite colourful, I thought it was more striking in black and white.

25mm, 0.8s (auto from aperture priority), f/11, ISO 400

Monday 30th May 2011

This is George, a photographer friend who has his skills honed to an enviable level (see his website , and his adorable charge Pippa.

39mm, 1/200s (auto from aperture priority), f/4, ISO 800