As a follow up to my previous post I trawled through my files and found some pictures from 2009 to illustrate how close you can get to these gliders being towed into the air just by walking along the Cleveland Way. We actually got eye contact with the pilot of the tow plane as he lifted off and shot over the footpath into the wild blue yonder.
Author Archives: athyfoto
Gliding off into the sunset
A glider from the Yorkshire Gliding Club drifts silently into view as the sun sets over the Cleveland Way at Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire. A few hundred yards further along the Cleveland Way is where you will find yourself at the end of the gliding club’s runway. The tow plane lifts off with glider attached and because this is so high up and the plane effectively flies straight over the edge of a cliff you have the slightly odd feeling of being only slightly below the aircraft while seeing it in fact hundreds of feet up in the air.
This glider seemed to be working the thermals well in the late afternoon as the sun headed towards the horizon. This area is a place we return to fairly regularly and enjoy the walks and the views and so I thought I would use this shot to mark my 100th post.
Sun setting over Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire
Sculptures
Here are three pictures I made on a visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park when work by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa was being exhibited. YSP is always good for a day out with the cameras. This particular day was a meet up of OU students on a photo walk.
Side view
Rear view
A view from within
Neptune outside the temple
Neptune watching the comings and goings at the temple at the reflecting ponds at Studley Royal Estate near Ripon, North Yorkshire. Mono conversion finished with a very light sepia tone in the highlights.
Neptune at Studley Royal
Hot foot it
See three trees freeze
Generally speaking I don’t like going out in inclement weather, I still do but I don’t like it. It’s something that has crept up on me over the years because when I was younger I used to love to be up on Helvellyn (950m) in the Lake District, scrambling along striding edge. Out on the Fells in any weather. Or going up Snowdon (1085m) and scrambling on Tryfan (915m) in the snow. While these peaks are all fairly diminutive they may as well have been Everest to me as a young boy. The foul weather, rain, snow and, on occasion, sunshine never seemed to enter into my mind and certainly not when taking in the views that came into view at various points.
These days I’m not so hardy as I was then and I have to be more aware of weather conditions. But sometimes you don’t have to venture too far to make pictures that represent winter and the images I have posted today were taken near Ripley in North Yorkshire on a cold misty morning and all I needed to do was step out of the car and set up! They are all of deciduous trees, one of my favourite subjects to shoot and so the pleasure of capturing them wasn’t diminished by the lack of exertion in finding them.
ChillyTrees-1
ChillyTrees-2
ChillyTrees-3
Season’s Greetings
One week left to do whatever you have left to do before Christmas. I think we are just about there now, no more shopping !!!
This month is the second anniversary of my blog and I just want to say a big thank you for following, reading or just dropping by my blog and also to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and hope you all have a happy, safe and prosperous new year.
Have a great Christmas everyone!
Gone Fishin’
I caught these two whales and the crab, and I wasn’t even fishing. They were just out flying around Nidderdale one afternoon.
Flying whales chased by a giant crab.
Dead Head
This twisted and distorted remains of a flower took my eye while out in the garden. It had given pleasure during the warmer weather and now it just lay amongst the decaying leaves from the trees and yet was still attractive enough (to me) to take inside and make this picture.
Still trying to impress.
Gouthwaite Reservoir in Autumn
A beautiful, still October afternoon walking north along the river Nidd brought me to the dam wall at the Gouthwaite reservoir. It is an easy walk and I just stood at this point, leaning against a dry stone wall and staring across the mill-pond flat water and getting twice the view I bargained for. I could hear the sheep bleating in the field on the other side . . and little else. Sometimes you just have to count your blessings. It is little moments like this that remind me why I love North Yorkshire so much.
Gouthwaite Reservoir on a still Autumn day.
athyfotographic 