Across the Harbour and out to Sea

 Ostensibly these photos are all of the same view, taken from the same spot on the pier at the bottom of Tate Hill in Whitby. All were taken within the space of one hour, probably less, but you can see how dramatically the sky has changed in that time. Ok, so the black and white images may give the appearance of a more stormy sky than it actually was but the cloud cover was certainly much thicker in the earlier shots.

At the same time the sunlight from behind me remained fairly constant lighting up the wall of the east pier, and the two lighthouses.

I like the way the sunlight also catches the seagulls in the first image as they flock around the lighthouse, I think the birds, the people on the pier and the brooding clouds add a sense of drama to that image. I think the song "The  Seabirds" by The Triffids goes well with this first picture.

From Friars Crag

 So here are the last two pictures from my recent visit to Keswick. These are views across Derwent Water from the promontory at Friars Crag, a short walk from the car park and well worth it for these views.

I shot these in black and white because as you can see the sky was very overcast and the colours had really flattened out so I thought that there would be better contrast in the images. I also used long exposures (4 secs for the first image and 3.2 secs for the second) to smooth out the choppy water and that has enhanced the light and shade from the sky as it is reflected on the surface. This has also given a bit of movement to the clouds, almost like billowing smoke. I did need to crop the first image to remove some branches that had initially framed the image quite well but in the end, given the long exposure and the strong wind they were too blurry and a horrible distraction.

I hope that you have enjoyed this series of pictures from around Keswick, I have been out and about a couple of times since then once to do some wildlife photography and once to do some astrophotography so I am looking forward to sharing some of the images I have created.

Smoke over Patterdale

This is such a lovely view, looking south from Glenridding Pier through Patterdale with Place Fell on the left hand side.

Although it was quite overcast there were brief moments when the sun broke through the clouds illuminating the fells contributing to this fantastic image.

Although this looks really tranquil just moments before I took this shot two RAF Hawk jets flew fast and low through the valley (and I mean low; they were below the height of Place Fell which has a prominence of 262m or 850ft so they were probably around 500ft above the surface of the lake).

I have some good memories of visiting here, a few years ago I camped on the fell just to the left, it was a cold, damp night and I needed the help of a group of young people to push my car as I got stuck on a slippery slope. Although that was slightly embarrassing I had a great time and waking up to a view like this was just perfect.

Storm Over Horseshoe Bay

I really like these shots of Horseshoe Bay just off Highway 61 along Lake Superior's North Shore in Minnesota.  

You can see that there is a storm brewing out over the lake with the sun breaking through, or trying to break through the low clouds.

I  have applied a "cool light" preset in Lightroom to emphasise the moody nature of these scenes and I think it looks really impressive. I like the way the surface of the lake sparkles in spite of the overcast sky and I like the trees standing straight on the edge of the lake.

For Ben and Cat

So yesterday's post was a bit on the serious side and I promised that today I would share something a little more upbeat. When I said that I had no idea what I would choose but as things turned out the perfect opportunity came up right at the start of my photo shoot today.

With the promise of clear skies and knowing that there would be plenty of snow on the lakeland fells I decided to head up to Castlerigg in the hope of capturing a beautiful sunrise. I nearly abandoned this plan on the journey up due to really hard driving rain but I was so keen to get some good pictures I carried on.

I arrived at Castlerigg shortly after sunrise but as you can see from these pictures it was grey and overcast with no sign of the sun so I chose to shoot in Black and White as it better captures the mood of this wonderful site.

When I arrived I was greeted by a young couple Ben and Cat who had travelled up from London to see some snow and they had gone to Castlerigg just as I had to experience the sunrise. They were clearly taken by the magical atmosphere of this 5,000 year old stone circle standing in the shadow of the majestic fells and in spite of the damp and cold, and  the lack of sun they were happy to sit within the stones and absorb the essence and the history that can be felt here especially when you have the place to yourself.

Ben and Cat were so open and friendly and chatting with them was the perfect start to my day. I promised them that I would dedicate my blog post to them and that is what I have done. Thank you both for such a friendly greeting.

I took a number of shots of the stones from different angles and I have picked two for today. With Ben and Cat in the circle I picked angles that would have them out of the frame but as I was finishing up I noticed that from a certain angle this lovely couple appeared to have become part of the circle and if you look at the second image closely you will see that one of the stones is not a stone but is in fact Ben and Cat.

Later in the day the sun did come out and after spending time elsewhere I returned to Castlerigg for a few more shots which I will share another day.

At Brimham Rocks

For most of the day at Brimham Rocks the sky was dull and colourless but as it got closer to time to leave dark clouds formed in the distance but the sun also came out and lit up the rock formations. I love the contrast of the dark grey in the sky and the bright colours of the rocks.