Author Archives: athyfoto

Upper Wharfedale

Out walking in Upper Wharfedale last autumn and found ourselves a picnic spot with a fantastic view into Wharfedale. We set out from Buckden over the hill then down into Cray, then from there up and across towards Yockenthwaite. We went back down into the valley and into Hubberholme to see the Church graveyard there where J.B. Priestly, author, novelist, broadcaster and man of words is buried. From there then back to Buckden along the river footpath. Its a beautiful part of our country to get away from it all . . for a while.

Upper Wharfedale

Wharfedale from above Cray.

Take a seat.

While wandering around the Abbeys of North Yorkshire I happened across a sea of chairs all laid out within Jervaulx. I don’t know wether I just missed something or I had arrived to early for something but there wasn’t a soul about. Either way I took the opportunity to record the scene in a way that, while its location would be unknown to anyone else, reminds me of the moment.

Chairs laid out.

Take a seat

Comtemplative mood.

This picture was taken while on a visit to RHS Harlow Carr. It’s a little boy sat on a box next to a pond and holding a duckling. It has a very contemplative mood that drew me in. Harlow Carr is a really nice place to visit just to slow down and unwind while having a gentle stroll through beautiful gardens and woodland. It also has a book shop, gift shop and, on your way out, Betty’s Tea Room!

Boy and Duckling

Boy and Duckling

Photographing the North East

Some of the pictures posted on this blog were shot up in Northumberland. I really like the North East and its coast, it is really quite spectacular at times and there are lots of interesting places to visit. When I first started photographing North Yorkshire I thought it was a really scenic and very peaceful place to be, and it is. But going up to the north east I found it even quieter. Obviously there are hot spots like Lindisfarne for instance but depending on when you visit even there is not too bad either. We stayed in a hotel in a small coastal village called Beadnell with a beautiful little harbour and it was a good base to explore from too.

I don’t know about you but I often visit an area, find some interesting places to shoot, and its only after returning home that I find out that ” … oh you really should have gone to this place or that pace while you were all the way up there”. I always seem to miss locations, which is easy when you’re not familiar with a place.

I have seen loads of adverts on the web for photographic workshops in all corners of the UK and find the sheer numbers of courses/workshops on offer a bit overwhelming. Well earlier this year I got an opportunity decided to give it a go and go up there and take a photo workshop with a photographer based in Beadnell! It meant that not only was I out there with someone with all the local knowledge of locations but with a proffesional photographer. Its not something I had ever done before but I really enjoyed it.

Has anyone been on any of these workshops in other areas of the UK ? I have often thought about the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands but I don’t know if my old legs could cope with the hills. If you have been on any workshops in those areas how did you find them, hard work, or not? The one I went on was with www.northumbrianphotographicworkshops.co.uk  and had a great time. It was only a small group and we had input on where we wanted to go from a list of choices offered.

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

Focused on red.

I was sitting at the dining room table the other day giving some of my photo gear a bit of a clean. I got round to cleaning a macro lens and thought I would have a little play with it. This picture is of four marker pens, black, red, green and blue. I was using a 105mm prime macro lens and focused on the red pen top. I wanted the focus to fall off quickly (and if there is one type of lens that can almost guarantee that its a macro lens) so I used f8 / 160th. Even at f8 the DoF is REALLY shallow.

Macro lenses can be a source of frustration when you want to capture a close up and you want a deeper DoF, and if you’re eyes are as bad as mine and your hands are as steady as mine you can quickly become frustrated. I have in the past used multiple exposures gradually moving the point of focus ‘through’ the subject from front to back and then using focus stacking to assemble the final image. I find the process to be as tedious as it sounds and practically useless if your subject moves at all, like a flower in the breeze. But they can also give you good results when you want to use the shallow DoF as I did in this shot.

I have also found the lens to be pretty good for taking head and shoulder type portraits. I’m not really into taking people pictures much but I do like most people do and take portraits of family members on occasions when asked. It can involve a fair amount of  ‘foot zoom’ though 🙂

Pen tops.

Pen tops.

Ripon Cathedral

I like to wander around buildings like Ripon Cathedral because there is so much to take in. The light, the shapes, the textures and details. I am always impressed by the amount of work that the craftsmen of old put into the construction of these kinds of buildings. I think it unlikely that the detail in these carved pillars and arches could be improved upon even by todays high-tech machinery. The stones are dressed to an unsurpassable level of precision, and all by the use of hand tools wielded by the highly skilled stone masons of the day.

According to Cathedral’s web site  . .

The present church was founded by Saint Wilfrid and dedicated in 672 …

Ripon Cathedral Detail