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While driving through the outskirts of Scunthorpe, around Brigg, I saw the perfect scene to test my digital camera. There was a war memorial on a street corner lit perfectly by a light, casting really interesting shadows. Even better was the lamp post on the street corner that I could lean against.
Of the five photos I took, this was the best. Shot in RAW and post-processed in Photoshop to bring out the detail and change to black and white made the picture so much better than it originally was.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: poppy scunthorpe soldier war memorial
During my summer holiday I went to Chamonix in France for two weeks. While there me and my dad went walking on the mountains that make up the valley. From the large amount of photos I took while there, these three are some of my favourites.
The first image is a black and white shot looking towards the Mer du Glace glacier and I think the black and white helps pick out the detail in the scenery. The white cloud is actually snow blowing from the top of the mountain in a fierce gale.
The next image was taken at Lac Blanc and is looking in the same direction. The final image is looking towards Mont Blanc, with some handy pine trees being used to nicely frame the image. I wasn’t sure if the picture would work, but it seems to look quite good all the same.
All these images were taken using a Canon A85 digital camera with UV filter. The Lac Blanc photo also has a graduated grey filter, and the B&W photo was processed by my camera’s black and white mode.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: chamonix france hiking lac blanc mer du glace mont blanc mountain summer
taking a break from The Lake District for a moment, here’s a photo I took of the Emley Moor TV Tower. The photo was taken from a little crossroads just outside the compound the tower is in.
I used to drive past this every day going to my first teaching practice. You can see Emley Moor for miles around, it’s the tallest thing in a 50-odd mile radius which includes the surrounding hills!
Categories: Photograph
Tags: building
Of the thousands of photos in my collection there are a few that I haven’t correctly catalogued. I recall every walk I’ve done, and mostly the situations when I was taking the photo. This one though is part of a collection identified simply as “Patterdale, September 2006″.
I recall it being a hot, hazy midge-infested day - so a typical Lakes summer day then! The type of day where in ten minutes time there could be a thunderstorm, or it could continue being hot and sticky all day. Me and my dad and the dog went for a satisfying, if steep walk up the mountain you can see in the distance.
I can’t remember the name of that mountain, if you recognise it please comment!
Oh, I have altered the quality of the Jpegs on this site so they should look less chunky.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: dog lake district Patterdale summer
A few years ago I went for a walk around the Fairfield Horseshoe. A fine walk taking you over Fairfield, Hart Crag and Heron Crag. It gives excellent views over Ambleside and the surrounding hills on a clear day. On a manky day you’ll probably be able to see your feet 
The day I went for the walk was - as you can see - totally clear, apart from some fluffy clouds. The weather started to close in when we reached the top of Fairfield, but it wasn’t enough to make the view any worse. The clouds cast really interesting shadows onto the ground, making photography a constant theme for the walk. Sometimes the light is good, but the scenery just isn’t that inspiring. Not on this walk, I have many photos of mountains with nice contrasts of shadow and light.
This picture was taken just outside Rydal on the path that runs past Rydal House, outside Ambleside. While going along the path I managed to catch the sheep eating grass in just the right location. They neatly balance out all that grass, the bump in the ground and the tree shadows add more interest too.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: fairfield horseshoe lake district photo rydal
I started taking photos for fun, pointing my cheap 1.3 mega pixel camera at anything and everything. It began after going for walks in the countryside with my dad. You know that feeling of “ooo that’s nice” that happens somewhere in your middle when the sun comes up, or there’s a nice sunset? I wanted to capture that and put it on my PC or even my wall (this was before digital cameras became good enough to do A4 prints without costing the price of a small car).
My photos began kind of randomly, with not much of an understanding about what I was doing. I looked at the scenery, pointed my camera, pressed the button and hoped for the best. And that leads into my list…
- Keep all your photos, even the bad ones.
- Review your pictures. Which do you like, which do you hate?
- Sort them, categorise them, make it easy to find that really nice one you took last year in Scotland with the lake and the sun.
- Keep a photo album, you can use a commercial one or run your own
- Use a tripod. It doesn’t matter if your tripod is a beanbag balanced on a wall, still cameras take better pictures.
- Take hundreds of photos. You’re practising, and that means doing the same thing many times.
- No Photoshop! This is photography, not retouching or “bringing out the highlights”.
- Remember to charge your batteries!
- Press the shutter half way, wait, press it gently the rest of the way
- The Rule of Thirds is your friend
- Break the Rule of Thirds on purpose
- Buy a microfibre cloth and never touch the lens with your fingers
- Print the nice ones and put them on your walls
I deliberately made this list non technical. There’s too much photography prattle on the Internet about F-Stops, ISO ratings and things that are confusing to the beginner. The best thing I worked out was to understand my camera’s limitations - when is it too dark, too rainy or the scenery just… boring?
Categories: Announcement
Tags: tips
January 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Here’s a view you might recognise, it’s Wastwater in the Wasdale Valley in the Lake District. I took this photo on Friday before the snow melted, it was bitterly cold with significant windchill making it feel even colder.
Have a look at Britain’s Favourite Views for some ways of seeing this nice place for yourself. Alternately if webcams are your thing, you can look at the two attached to the side of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue post.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: cold lake district wasdale
December 24th, 2007 · 1 Comment
Here’s a photo everyone should recognise. At least I hope lots of people recognise it given the crowds that were on top of this the day I took the picture.
Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, it’s also one of the easiest to summit; the Victorians helpfully built a railway to the top and the National Trust maintain a very wide, very flat path up the side. This path is known as the Tourist Path and is an insanely boring trudge from its beginning at Llanberis. It’s much better to go up Snowdon from the car park at Pen-y-pas via the Miner’s or Pyg track as they’re steeper and much more interesting.
There’s also a third way over the ridge called Crib Goch. That’s the route me and my dad chose along with about forty other randoms. It’s a nice scramble and totter over broken rock, exposed ledges and some parts that wouldn’t look out of place in the Lord of the Rings. It’s not a good place to fall off though, as someone found out on that day. We’d just reached the summit cairn and noticed a yellow mountain rescue helecopter flying around the beginning of Crib Goch. If you’ve been into the mountains for a while these things become less interesting and most of the time are out for a practise. Not this time though, upon reaching the bottom again we learned that someone had fallen off the beginning of the ridge and needed the helecopter to collect him.
From our vantage point on the ridge Snowdon looked like an ant-hill, there were hundreds of small black shapes swarming all over it. I could easily see two hundred other people out for a walk. This photo was taken from about half way along Crib Goch looking towards the summit. If I recall this correctly I was precariously balanced on one leg, the other hooked behind a bit of rock to keep my balance in the strong gusts that tried their best to blow me into the lake at the bottom. It’s not the situation to get out a tripod, think about composition for too long and ponder camera settings. I simply turned my camera on, told it I wanted the “landscape” preset and lined up what I hoped was something interesting in the sun-dazzled LCD and pressed the shutter several times. As with most pictures done in this way I ended up with about six photos that were “almost” good, one totally fuzzy mess and this which I had printed and is now on the wall at the bottom of my stairs.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: crib goch snowdon wales
Continuing my walk around Dovestones I managed to capture one of those rare scenes. The weather was totally calm, making the water on the reservoir become like glass. I also like the way the contrails from planes approaching Manchester Airport mirror the trails of algae and silt on the surface of the water. Actually, come to think of it, the valley gives another line of symmetry to this image too.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: dovestones frost sun symmetry winter
Dovestones Reservoir is a man-made reservoir in the Chew Valley area outside Oldham, Lancashire. It is a popular place to go for a walk and is also used by a small watersports centre. I went for a walk around it one November afternoon with my dad. Naturally I took my camera and tripod on the hope of getting a good photo. The skies were clear, the weather icy and cold with a small glaze of frost covering the grass in the shadows.
There’s a large group of boulders, popular with climbers, just off the path near the water sports centre’s carpark. By hiding the sun behind the trees I was able to take this photo, with the trees and small rise in the ground preventing the frost from melting.
Categories: Photograph
Tags: dovestones frost sun winter