Autumn Colour

I've been meaning to take images in the local wood for a while now, but never really got around to it. Hookstone Wood is only 5 minutes from my house, and was once part of the ancient Forest of Knaresborough. Now a Local Nature Reserve and designated ‘town green’, it has ponds (formed from old quarries) and plenty of wildlife.


I've never found it particularly photogenic, but also haven't spend any time exploring the possibilities. Given that the advice from the professionals is is "know your own patch" and be ready to take advantage of any conditions, I decided to begin what I expect to be an ongoing project to capture the woods throughout the year.
I've now spent 3 Saturday afternoons wandering about, and I'm very happy with the results so far!
All images taken with the XPro1, most with the 10-24mm lens and using a Manfrotto tripod.

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.

Still snowy !

The snow is still here so thought I'd try a couple more images.

I also wanted to try out the panoramic option. This proved more difficult than I thought it would. It might be something that I'm doing (or not doing!) but I couldn't seem to get both ends of the image sharp.

The left hand side of this image is fine, but the right hand side is terrible (I was sweeping left to right).

This was probably my most successful attempt. I think I need to put in a bit more practice!

The end of Autumn

I took these a few weeks ago on The Stray in Harrogate, but have only just got round to looking at them.

I realise that these posts are not in any particular order, but I'm new to this and didn't think it through properly before I started! I should start to sort it out soon ...

I wanted to try and show the autumn colours on The Stray in Harrogate, and I just love the way the X Pro1 captures colours. This camera is such fun to use, but I didn't realise quite how lazy I had got using my old Sony DSLR. I used to set it up in Aperture Priority, ISO100 and pretty much forget about everything else. That is NOT the way to use this camera (although you could, but whats the point of that!). Its making me think more about the exposure, depth of field and shutter speed - which is great. All these things are part of the creative process and should be thought about.

Remembrance Sunday - 11th November 2012

Every year my daughters school are asked to be involved with the service at the Commonwealth War Graves in Harrogate. Together with Army recruits from the local college they put roses on every grave.

Its always very moving, and hard to think that most of the graves are for servicemen in their late teens or early twenties, and they were the same age as the recruits who were on parade.

The sun was bright and low, but it was very cold. The X Pro1 didn't miss a thing. The image of the officer inspecting the graves was shot directly into the sun - I couldn't really see through the viewfinder but the X Pro1 could!

Late Afternoon

Latest image with this fantastic camera.

I went out last Sunday with low expectations as the weather wasn't great, and the spectacular sunsets of the past few days seemed very unlikely.

I ended up going to one of my favourite places along Penny Pot Lane, on the outskirts of Harrogate. I love the windfarm there (although its not popular with the locals!) and the view across to Menwith Hill. This location is better in the mornings, and I was determined to try and get a different image from what I have in the past.

I saw this tree silhouetted against the horizon, and as I wandered down the bridlepath, the tree suddenly lined up with the gate opening, and I could see my image. I only have the 35mm lens at the moment (18-55 is on order), so it was necessary to crop this image as I couldn't get any closer. I haven't changed any colours, the sun is just cropped out on the left hand side, and gave off the golden glow.