Author Archives: athyfoto

Malham Cove

Out and about in Malhamdale a couple of weeks ago and walked down to Malham Cove. It was a rainy day but that often makes for more atmospheric images. I was surprised to see so many people about really but there were scopes set up near the cove all trained on the Peregrine Falcons that inhabit the limestone cliffs. When we finally got back into the village around 4:30 or so we took advantage of the “muddy boots welcome” attitude of the café owners in Malham to warm up with a hot drink and food. Guess what happened next, the sky started clearing, the rain stopped and the light improved. We had a bit of a laugh at that, it just had to happen didn’t it?!

A view of Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales.

The well trodden path to Malham Cove.

Asleep amongst the Bamboo

This is an image of a piece of garden sculpture. We bought it purely for its looks, I know nothing of what it does or does not represent. It just looks right in amongst the Bamboo, to us, no analysis needed. I have said before that I sometimes like to make pictures because I like what I see, and for no other reason, just to please myself. Sometimes I will set myself a task to do, like going out with one body and one lens, or maybe to do something different.

I recently attended a Royal Photographic Society Distinction advisory day. I needed to put together 10 to 15 images to be shown to a hall full of people and have them critiqued. I fussed and sweated over choosing images for a month before deciding on the final choices. I have to say that I did not enjoy having to shoot and choose images based on someone else’s criteria. I don’t know if that’s me being lazy or not but it seemed much tougher to me. Anyway after having my images picked over and criticised or praised I was finally told that I had ten images that would, in their view, be up to the mark for a LRPS. So all felt well again with the world and I now need to think about a submission proper, maybe later this year.

Asleep amongst the Bamboo

Asleep amongst the Bamboo

Castlerigg

This megalithic structure is close to Keswick in the English Lake District. These stones were placed in this circle around 3200 BC and is one of the earliest in Europe. It’s not quite a circle since its widest point (107 feet) is about 10 feet more than its narrowest point, a bit of a squashed circle, you just can’t get the labour can you 🙂

This was late afternoon and when we arrived there were about ten other photographers all in a row setting up and waiting for the golden light. We were standing there for about an hour or so  because people kept wandering in and clambering about all over the stones. Still, I could think of worse places to relax and take in the scenery.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

Castlerigg Stone Circle

Heather and two ewes too.

This was a day when we were out walking on the heather moors above Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire one late August afternoon. You really need to be careful where you walk on these moors, for a variety of reasons 🙂 but at this point we walked into someone’s personal space! Boy did she let us know it too, her friend seemed very relaxed though.

There are no fences up there but the sheep have been hefted (some sort of homing instinct) and so while the moors are vast the sheep stay in their own area.

Two Ewes on heather moors

A ewe singing opera?

Bunker Door

I spotted this very unwelcoming door and was attracted by the gritty look of the dirty concrete wall that it sits in. I also liked the way that it is very monochromatic without having to do much of anything to it in post. It also has the feel and mood of a very dull, grey day in what had been a very poor start to the year in terms of weather. A poor start that is, if you believe that there is good weather and there is bad weather. Personally I would rather have the sun on my back while out walking, but, I don’t really think there is BAD weather, there is just . . . . well . . . . weather!

There are opportunities to make pictures in almost any conditions and staying home because the light is “not good enough” or because it is raining just means we could be missing out.

A heavily protected door in a concrete wall.

Thou shalt not pass!

Shade from the unrelenting sun!

A stroll around R.H.S. Harlow Carr gardens near Harrogate left us wilting in the heat! We took shelter on a bench under this wonderful wood structure where we prayed for a soft cooling breeze that wouldn’t come. OK – OK – OK so I’m fibbing, it was late Spring and the temperatures haven’t been up to much. I think we may have had a better chance of catching the sniffles than we had of suffering from sun-stroke 🙂

So I decided to turn the murky (ish) day into a scorcher in Photoshop. It hasn’t affected the subject of the picture in any way, which is wooden structures, but I feel it has enhanced the image into something more like I saw in my vivid imagination that day.

shelter

A stroll in the giant blue tree forest

I was looking around for something different to make a picture. You know how sometimes you struggle for inspiration, I often do, well I came across these flowers stood upright and strong-looking. I looked at them from here and from there and finally from down at ground level looking up, and suddenly the scale of everything seemed to change. They looked like tall trees from down there reaching up into the threatening sky. It’s not a viewpoint I go for very often, not these days, not with MY knees. It’s easy getting down but tougher getting back up 😦

Anyway, it’s always a good idea to have a good old look at your subject matter from all angles before dismissing anything.

The giant blue tree forest

The giant blue tree forest

Bods, Dogs and a Flock

I have just been looking back to some pictures I made of the beach at Southport looking south towards Merseyside. I posted one on March 9th. I have developed this one in Lightroom 4 in a very different way to the last one.

The arrangement of what seemed to be four pairs, one pair wandering off into the distance, one pair in the left of the foreground group, one pair of dogs and one erm . . . . . pair going off in opposite directions foreground right, is what attracted me to this little scene.

I decided to darken the top corners to try to stop the viewers eye from wandering straight out of frame. For me, I see the couple in the distance then my eye sweeps in an arc through the foreground group and on to the right to the flock of birds, then up and back round to the distant couple.

Southport sands

Southport sands

Weird and Wonderful Windows

The reflections in the windows of the beautiful office block in Salford look more weird than a surrealist’s nightmare interpretation in oil after a bad dream about Doctor Weird! Or when I look again sometimes I think I see something that the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi could have dreamed up. One thing that struck me was that it looks like a mass of twisted and distorted metal in a war zone. It only struck me in that way because this building stands adjacent to the Imperial War Museum where you can see devastated, twisted metal from the World Trade Centre in New York alongside an unbelievable lump of metal barely recognisable for what it is, the remains of  car bomb. The exhibits in the museum can leave you in a dark mood sometimes but this office block with its reflections certainly brightened up my day.

Salford, in colour!

In years gone by Salford was seen as a dirty, grey city, perfect for mono shots 🙂 More recently the city has been undergoing changes. Nowhere no more so than Salford Quays. Here are a few shots from a recent trip over there.