This is part of a large ongoing project to photograph the habitats I regularly visit in Yorkshire, and a few surrounding counties, to show the flora and fauna found in these ecosystems throughout the year. These include farmland, meadows, riverbanks, moorland, woodland, and coastal cliffs.
There are a small number of red squirrels living in the Yorkshire Dales in isolated pockets of woodland where the grey squirrels haven’t yet invaded. I spent a few days photographing them this autumn.
Some photos from a weekend watching wildlife. We went to Studley Royal for dawn to watch the deer there. This fallow stag silhouetted against the dawn sky was my favourite deer shot.
Fallow stag at dawn, Studley Royal
Early mornings in autumn often bring mists over the lake here and the swans are also beautiful to capture reflected in the lake, as well as the reflections of the autumn colours in the water.
Canada Goose in autumn reflections, Studley Royal
Swan reflections, Studley Royal
Swan reflections, Studley Royal
Another interesting place to visit at this time of year is Spurn point and the surrounding area for autumn migrants, and other birds. Late afternoon I spotted this barn owl hunting in the low sun, with the light shining through its feathers.
Barn owl hunting at dusk, East Yorkshire
This little egret flying across the low sun was my last photo of the day.
Little egret flying
We had great weather for the weekend of the 2018 York Balloon Fiesta, although it was a little too windy for the afternoon mass balloon launches on the Saturday and Sunday. The weather was clear and bright for the morning launches though, with a light mist rising off the Knavesmire at the start and bright blue skies to photograph the balloons against later on.
The hot air balloons landed out near Holtby, to the east of York.
Saturday afternoon was too windy for most of the balloons to take off, but one intrepid pilot did take off and landed on the Yorkshire Wolds, near Fridaythorpe.
In the evenings the Night-glow event was as popular as ever, with tethered balloons on the Knavesmire lighting their burners in time to the music.
All in all it was a treat for photographers, and seemed to be enjoyed by all, although the people in this balloon might have wished for a slightly less drunken angle on their landing!
I visited the Kelpies some time ago and took some daytime photos, but have wanted for a long time to return to see the Kelpies floodlit. I finally got the chance this weekend. These beautiful sculptures, by Andy Scott, are named after a mythical water horse, but are based on the heavy horses used to pull the canal barges on the Forth and Clyde canal. They are floodlit from dusk, with internal lighting that changes through a range of colours from turquoise to gold, to green and red. I captured the photos from a short while after sunset through until dark, catching the sky as it it changed through varying shades of blue to violet.
I’ve added some new pages to my website giving a bit of information about some of the places I visit for my photography. So far I’ve written about Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Bempton Cliffs, the Farne islands, Donna Nook, Forge Valley and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but I’ll be adding more about both local sites in Yorkshire, and some of the longer journeys we make to Northumberland or Scotland, and some of the sites we visit there.
Forge Valley woods, North Yorkshire
Studley Royal, North Yorkshire
Farne islands, Northumberland
Bempton cliffs, East Yorkshire
Donna Nook, Lincolnshire
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Some beautiful birds in Forge Valley, North Yorkshire. It was a dull snowy day, but I felt that made the lovely colours of their plumage even brighter.
We’ve had plenty of birds on the feeders and plants in our garden with the recent snow. The goldfinches are always very photogenic, but particularly so when perched on the snow covered teasels in our garden. We also had four fieldfares visiting for the rosehips we left on our roses, and it was lovely to see these beautiful winter visitors.
I saw some beautiful snowdrops, up on the Yorkshire Wolds, that were lit by the low winter sun, so I tried to get some different views of them – backlit by the sun, and from a very low viewpoint. I suspect some passing drivers must have thought I was mad lying in the leaf litter with my camera, but I think the results were worth it!
Some photos from the ‘Illuminated Abbey’ event at Whitby Abbey and ‘Fountains by Floodlight’ event at Fountains Abbey. I’ve been to Fountains by Floodlight before and they had their wandering ‘monk’ back again, posing inscrutably in the ruins (whilst always giving a friendly smile to the odd worried child!) – it did bring back memories of last year’s favourite moment when a small boy asked him which Jedi knight he was! Whitby had wandering bodysnatchers and Dracula characters (believe me, it was too cold to be wandering round in a habit!), and projected bats and cobwebs on the ruins, which I would have happily lived without, as the ruins are imposing and mysterious enough in their clifftop position with the clouds drifting over the moon. The ruins were floodlit in ever-changing shades of crimson, gold, violet, aqua, midnight blue, emerald and magenta, though the ducks on the tarn near the abbey seemed a little less than impressed by the colour display!
There was some beautiful light at Brimham Rocks last week – really beautiful golden lighting through the trees and on the rocks, raking across the landscape and picking out the texture and shapes in the rocks.
I love watching wildlife and capturing an animal or bird’s behaviour or character in my wildlife portraits, but some of my more recent projects have been aimed at capturing more of the spirit and beauty of nature in more creative ways. This is very much a work in progress, and rather than one particular style or technique, I’ve tried a variety of styles and techniques, as I think what is needed to bring out its essence and character is, to some extent, dependent upon the animal, bird or environment concerned.
For example, when photographing terns in the Farne islands, I wanted to convey something of the balletic elegance of their flight, and so aimed for a high key approach with the sun shining through the feathers to give a more ethereal quality, combined with a slower shutter speed to allow some movement blur.
When watching bullfinches feeding in a snowstorm in Scotland, the white background and bright colour palette of the bullfinch plumage reminded me of Chinese bird and flower brush paintings, and this concept certainly influenced how I approached the subject. With the snow helping to create a minimalistic background, I exposed the image to brighten this further, used a slower shutter speed to capture some movement blur, like rough brush strokes, in the bullfinch’s fluttering wing, and aimed to keep the image simple and painterly in my processing.
Sometimes the animal’s habitat is what makes the scene interesting, in which case I aim to use composition and processing to bring out interesting patterns or textures. An example is the long-eared owl in woodland, where I wanted to emphasise the patterns formed by the branches, against a subdued colour palette caused by an earlier snowfall, with the owl being merely a part of the beautiful woodland scene.
Equally I loved the amazing curves and shapes of the eroded cliffs on Noss, Shetland, where the texture and pattern of the cliffs make the picture, as much as the gannet perched on his ledge (see also at the top).
Sometimes the story is about the relationship of the animal to its environment. I photographed this stag roaring on a mountainside in Ardnamurchan. The roaring of stags carried for miles, and was the only sound other than the wind in the remote glen where we stood looking up at the mountainside to spot the source of the noise. When photographing him I wanted to show something of the size and space of his remote habitat, so I waited until he moved towards another stag and stepped out onto the crest of the ridge, so that I could silhouette him as a very small, but still recognisable shape against the colourful sky.
I have also worked on a series of photos of water birds where the colours reflected in the water are a key element of the picture. These great-crested grebes are probably my favourites of these images. I love the colours and patterns of the reflections and ripples on the water.
Most recently I managed to take a series of photos of swans in a style I had wanted to achieve for some time. I sometimes like to use a dramatic lighting style (chiaroscuro style lighting) in my monochrome photos, and had pre-visualised photographing swans in a very high contrast style, with the light shining through, and on, the swan’s white feathers, creating an ethereal effect, as with the tern.
Hopefully these photos capture more than just a record shot of wildlife, though they don’t always seem to go down well with judges, but, as we’re always being told, we should take the photos we want to take, and these are definitely the photos that I enjoy making the most, so it’s an area I want to keep developing and progressing – watch this space!
Every year the North Yorks Moors Railway hosts a ‘Railway in Wartime’ event at its stations. Grosmont had a Battle of Britain Mk2 Spitfire in the carpark and dancing on the platform; Goathland was protected by the Home Guard; Levisham became ‘Le Visham’ a French railway station occupied by German Wehrmacht and Feldgendarmarie, with radar and anti-aircraft battery next to the station, and Pickering hosted visits by Churchill, wartime vehicles etc, and had a number of dodgy characters selling stockings (and some rather dubious silk garments!) from suitcases on the main street. An amazing number of people dress up and join in, and the challenge for photographers is that there is just too much to photograph!
We visited Studley Royal, near Ripon, on Monday, and I got some photos that I’ve been pre-visualising for some time. I really wanted to get some close-up photos of the swans, picking out details of the their plumage against a dark background. Fortunately I got the light I wanted and some cooperative subjects and I was pleased with the results.
Some photos from the Autumn Steam Gala on the North Yorks Moors Railway.
Double headed train near Goathland.
The Repton, just outside Goathland
At the ‘New Bridge’ Level crossing
Photos from the Balloon fiesta ‘Night Glow’ event
In September I visited a couple of the beautiful gardens we have in Yorkshire – Newby Hall Gardens and Parceval Hall Gardens. There were so many beautiful subjects to photograph – some incredibly colourful autumn flowers and lots of insects – Peacock, Comma and Red admiral butterflies and dragonflies. Hard to know where to point my camera, but these are my efforts to capture the colour.
Some photos from a day trip to the Farne islands. I created some composite images of the terns flying – they are so graceful and almost balletic in their flight. I also loved the puffin who decided to look at me with his head upside down – not the best of photos, but it did make me laugh!
Some photos from the Highlands in some rather interesting weather! The photos of the bullfinches in the snow are images I visualized years ago, but was delighted to have the opportunity to make the shots I’d wanted on this holiday.