Mallerstang – Hell Gill, Yorkshire Dales

12 August, 2016

This was our first adventure into the Yorkshire Dales. On this hike we would see sculpture, lunch by a waterfall, follow rivers, walk past barns in fields and, of course, be studied by sheep.

The GPS track of our (almost) 6.5 mile walk can be found on my ViewRanger account. We were meeting up with Mike and Karen just south of Outhgill to start our walk along a section of Lady Anne’s Way, following the Penine Bridleway.

 

We start on a gentle incline. The weather was wet – not because it was raining, no – I insisted, it’s just that the clouds happened to be laying quite low on this day.

At the top we reach the Water Cut sculpture, by Mary Bourne, one of the 10 Eden Benchmarks located along the length of the River Eden. Mike and I try to take pictures while keeping our camera equipment dry.

The Water Cut, by Mary Bourne

Saddell Bay

5th May 2016

We woke up early that morning. On the road by 5am heading to Scotland, to meet and spend a few days with some very good friends of ours. The road to Argyll & Bute passes through some lovely scenery and I regret not stopping to take pictures and absorb the landscape along the way, but we had almost 400 km to cover. We made mental notes along the way of all the places we need to come back to – I’m sure we won’t remember them all, but if we can return to half of them, I’ll be happy.

We got to Saddell Bay just after lunch time. Our friends were still out exploring, so we took a walk along the Bay, recalling memories from 21 years ago when these friends got married, in the cottages at the end of the bay.

There was a plastic bucket-cum-basket on the beach.

It was orange (…the bucket… not the beach…).

Stone collecting. The pile of stones shown below now adorns the windowshelf in our conservatory at home.

Walking up and down the beach you can appreciate different views of Saddell House and the cottages on Saddell Bay.

Looking sinister, and then pleased with herself.

We weren’t the only ones walking on the beach that day.At the southeastern end of the bay, stands the famous east-facing Land sculpture by Anthony Gormley.

It was a long drive from Cheshire, but certainly worth it.

desktop of the month – march 2012

This month’s desktop calendar image is on time! An image that I took in the Rocky Mountain National Park this summer, manipulated somewhat in Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Click on the image to download. Set your background color to pure white and when you set the background to your desktop, set it as a “Fit” (rather than a “stretch”, “center” or “fill”) and set your background color to pure white.

desktop of the month – january 2012

And so starts a new year. Happy New Year to you all.  Click the image to download.

desktop of the month – september 2011

This month’s desktop calendar is an HDR rendition of Sprague Lake, in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sizes available: 2560×1440

Lake Irene

As it’s name suggests, this is a very peaceful place, nestled into the Trail Ridge drive of the Rocky Mountains.

desktop of the month – august 2011

This month’s desktop image comes from our recent trip to the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado. This also explains why there has been a pause in activity on the blog and why the desktop calendar is late this month.

This scene was captured at Bear Lake. You can download the full sized image here. Let me know if you need another size.

desktop of the month – june 2011

For those of you who recognise and know the subject walking the beach on this month’s desktop calendar, will also know why June is a good month for this. Enjoy.

 

Sizes available: 2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1280×854

 

 

desktop of the month – march 2011

This month’s desktop calendar is of the Kipu Falls, on the island of Kauai. It was late afternoon when we got down there and the sunlight was streaming in low between the branches, spreading these shafts of light across the pool.

Sizes available : 1920×1200, 1600×1200, 1280×854

wash over

I don’t know what it is that attracts me to water, but attracted I am. And right now, I seem to always want to express that attraction with a long exposure.

I delayed over posting this image but went with it in the end. The reason is that there appear to be some bad halos above the rocks, as if I cranked the contrast slider up and kept my eyes shut. So here’s my disclaimer: in fact, what you see there are waves crashing and lapping over the rocks in a 10 second exposure. The surf is obviously white and so you naturally get a white halo around the rocks. There you go.