Sunday 20th November 2011

Today was a relaxed but unexpectedly awesome day. We first went to Scaleber Force and went wild swimming behind the waterfall and into the pool. Then drove to Malham and walked to Janet's Foss and on up to Goredale. Here the mist fell and we just got to the road before the sun set, and managed to get back to the car in the misty twilight, neither of us having brought a torch. This is a photo of the beautiful Janet's Foss, the plunge section of the waterfall apparently being a screen of deposited rock on a layer of moss. I'm really pleased with this photo, in fact all the ones I took of Janet's Foss - it's hard to choose between them.

27mm, 0.8s, f/10, ISO 200

Sunday 13th November 2011

The day dawned misty and the rock was damp which frustrated my climbing friends, but it was a bonus for me as it meant I got a stroll down Padley Gorge with a couple of mates, snapping away at the autumn colours and rushing cascades. I find HDR works really well with water, as does a polariser, so I stuck the tripod in the water and got this, showing the water flow and some of the lovely bright green vegetation.

21mm, 2.5s, f/20, ISO 200

Sunday 6th November 2011

Pink sky on my way home from Oswestry.

76mm, 0.4s, f/16, ISO 100

Saturday 15th October 2011

I had a lovely ride on the motorbike today to get a bit of work done at Chester, and on the way I passed a sign for the staircase locks at Bunbury. On the way back I stopped off to have a look. It was a really lovely autumn day and the colours on the trees and in the reflections on the water were just beautiful.

59mm, 1/80s, f/8, ISO 400

Saturday 8th October 2011

Wheeee, rockets!

18mm, 5s, f/8, ISO 400

Friday 30th September 2011

I really really wished I'd had an SLR with me this evening - coming home from a motorbike ride and there was mist lying on the fields and a moon in the red sky. Beautiful! Thankfully this field mist happens quite often in the Churnet Valley so I shall have to see it as an opportunity and head back.

14.7mm, 1s, f/5.6. (auto)

Saturday 10th September 2011

Fly agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria). You wouldn't want to eat this, but they're very pretty, Alice in Wonderland type stuff.

4.6mm, 1/50s, f/2.8. (auto)

Saturday 27th August 2011

I was completely spoiled for choice for photos today, it was a lovely day out in the hills with better weather than expected and I had my compact camera round my neck so I could snap away without it delaying our hike. This is the lochan below Sgurr an Iubhair with the attractive Stob Ban on the right-hand side.

4.6mm, 1/500s, f/2.8. (auto)

Sunday 21st August 2011

I really love this photo. I love the angle of the tree and I like the way the carpet of fallen green leaves reflect the leaves on the branches against the sky.

I gave this version a tweak with HDR/tone mapping and it really brought a nice balance to the scene - it took some of the contrast out of the leaves at the top so they're not too stark against the sky, and brought some warmth to the fallen leaves in the foreground so your eye is drawn to them more.

10mm, 1/6s, f/8, ISO 320

Here's the non-HDRed version for comparison:

Also here's a photo of the same tree the day before. On this occasion the sun had just come out powerfully after a downpour, and the tree was steaming in the damp heat. I needed more time and a tripod to get a good photo of it though, so this didn't make it as my photo-of-the-day for yesterday.

10mm, 1/8s, f/9, ISO 200

Saturday 13th August 2011

This Moroccan inspired conservatory (this is the outside) was made from scratch, by hand, by a friend of mine - haven't they made it lovely.

18mm, 1/160s (auto from aperture priority), f/3.5, ISO 800

Tuesday 12th July 2011

Today was a reassuringly rich photo day. It included some bugs as usual, but on the way to the reservoir I stopped by a patch of beautifully vivid flowers just by the side of the road, that I'd spotted on my way to work the day before. I don't know who planted these as it's an unextected clump on a grass verge but there is a vast array of vivid colours, striking enough from the car but even lovelier up close.

218mm, 1/125s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 400

Tuesday 5th July 2011

My crocosmia are coming into flower and they're an absolute pleasure to photograph, I took a few different shots and could barely choose a favourite.

129mm, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400

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

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

Sunday 29th May 2011

Osteospermum at Penzance station.

141mm, 1/400s (auto from aperture priority), f/5.6, ISO 200

Friday 29th April 2011

This (the peak) is Liathach, also featured on Thursday, and the day before it caught fire! Lochan an lasgair and the Ling hut are in the foreground. This photo was taken from the 'Achnasheen to Torridon Highway', a walkers' footpath, which we were following for the first part of our hike up Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor, where we were to camp to get photos of the dawn light firing up the Torridon trio (Beinn Alligin, Liathach and Beinn Eighe).

25mm, 1/100s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 200

Also worthy of inclusion is this shot of the sunset, I like the way that due to the wispy cloud the sun maintained colour without being blown out.

250mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 200

Monday 11th April 2011

I walked round the local lake this evening to look for blackcaps after possibly catching a glimpse of one on Friday. No luck with the birds (and I still haven't seen the elusive kingfishers there), but I did get a couple of nice photos of the low sun shining through the tufty edges of the bullrushes. Then suddenly there was this golden glow and the grass glowed green and the sky blue and I balanced on a railing to gain a little height to capture it on film (note - not *actual* film). I've done very little to this - a slight automatic tweak in camera raw, and a sharpening pass.

18mm, 1/80s (auto from aperture priority), f/8, ISO 200

Saturday 2nd April 2011

Today we endured various rain showers and snowy slopes, as well as more wet feet and strong winds (although not strong enough to blow us over today). We ticked off two Munros and on the descent from the second we were gifted with the sight of this beautiful rainbow, which made it all worthwhile!

18mm, 1/320s (auto from aperture priority), f/9, ISO 400

Saturday 26th February 2011

I spent the weekend in Wales for a friend's birthday and we all had a stonking time. There were two places I hoped to get to for pictures and I was fortuitous to get to both and to also have sun and blue skies for once. This photo was taken in the Dinorwig Slate quarries in Llanberis, one of my favourite places. The turquoise blue flooded quarry pit is called Dali's Hole because of the eerie dead trees that become visible when the water level is low (you can just see a submerged slate hut), and the photo was taken from 'The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol'.

18mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 400