Roseberry Topping

We planned to have a day off on Friday and go somewhere to take to images, but as with most plans, the weather seemed to conspire against us.

We woke up to the rain lashing down, and a very unpromising forecast. We didn't want to waste the day, so a long overdue visit to Northallerton and the Joe Cornish gallery seemed the best idea.

After being inspired by Joe's images, and seeing a small break in the clouds, we headed for one of Joe's favourite places, and somewhere I've only driven past - Roseberry Topping.

We were rewarded with a fabulous sunset, and I took as more images facing away from Roseberry Topping than of the Topping itself! Shooting towards the sun with X Pro1 was no problem - the lack of flare, and the ability to pick out the detail amazes me!

High Force in Teesdale

High Force is an impressive waterfall on the Tees river, near Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham. I haven't been for nearly 20 years even though its only an hour or so from where I live!

Despite the great summer we have had, there still seemed to be plenty of water to thunder over the falls in spectacular fashion.

I am NOT a very sure-footed person, so clamboring on the rocks with my X Pro1 was not a very graceful experience!

I am finding that I am using manual focus with the peaking function a lot now. I find it really helps, and gives me confidence that I am focusing in the right place, and that I have the depth of field that I am after.

I think the images were worth it though. The people at the top in a couple of the images give a sense of scale.

All taken with the 18-55mm lens, edited in LR4.

Bamburgh in great light!

The family holiday this year saw us go to Beadnell in Northumberland, just down the coast from Bamburgh and the famous castle. This would be my first visit taking the X Pro1. All previous visits had ended with me trying to get shots of this iconic scene in the wind and the rain. I hoped that the weather would relent this time and I could try for the classic image, taken from the beach in great light ...

I got my wish! My biggest problem was trying to do justice to the light, and keeping other photographers out of the shot!!

London Revisited!

I am now the owner of Trey Ratcliff's presets for Lightroom. I also used the "STUCKINCUSTOMS" code to get a 15% discount off the Nik software plugins - Happy Days!!

Although I'm not a big fan of over done HDR effects (Trey goes a bit OTT for my taste sometimes, but generally I love his images!), I have really started to enjoy playing with effects. So much so, that I've actually bought a couple of Lomo cameras and I'm having fun experimenting. My favourite Trey preset so far,  is "Flatten then Jackit"

The obvious thing to do was to revisit my latest shots and have a play ...

A few days in London

During Easter, we spent a couple of days in London, being tourists and seeing a couple of shows. I decided to take the X Pro1 and just the 35/1.4 lens. The last couple of shots were taken at Shellness on the Isle of Sheppey - a bit of a detour on the way home!

Bluebells are out !

I try every year to get a decent Bluebell image - without much success. The chances of getting the bluebells out, with good light on a day when I'm able to take pictures are fairly slim!

However, you just have to use the light you have, so these are this years attempts. All taken with the X Pro1 and 18-55mm, in Lindley Wood in Yorkshire.

Finally a bit of sun !

Easter Monday - although it was still cold, at least the sun made an appearance. Most of the snow had gone, and a bit of colour had finally returned to the landscape. Decided to go to Lindley Reservoir for a stroll through the woods and along the bank. Saw a beautiful Red Kite out hunting, but couldnt get a picture.

Even though it was sunny, I couldnt help going back to black and white, also making a spooky image - it must be done to the 8 months of winter we seem to have just experienced!

Springtime in Harrogate

Took a day off to make my birthday part of a long weekend. I didnt think I would get out at all when I first saw the weather, but although it stayed cold, it did stop snowing eventually. At one point I had to go back to the car to warm my hands - they were so cold it was making me feel sick! a quarter of an hour later and I was good to go again. All images taken with the Fuji 18-55mm lense, and processed in Lightroom using Perfect Effects 4, or Silver Efex Pro  2.