Winter Sun Remembered

It's been a roller coaster of a year so far with some good times and some bad times.  I feel I've been far too caught up with things that have been happening to  find time to spend on my photography and blogging but maybe now we have turned a corner and I can get back to doing things I want to do.  The weather hasn't been brilliant recently so I decided to go back to the start of the year and review some of the photos I have made but not got around to posting.

So way back in the middle of January we had a spell of cold and sunny days so on the 15th we decided to just drop everything and march up Black Hill to the trig point at the top.  There are several ways to get there but we decided to take the direct route along the Pennine Way from the road above Wessenden where the sausage van is parked in the mornings.  As the signpost says it is about one and three quarter miles.  It's very up and down (but mainly up, very steeply in places) crossing a couple of streams and ending about half a mile from the Holme Moss television transmitter.  As you can see the sky was a beautiful azure blue with a few wispy clouds and a hint of other small clouds just on the horizon. 

This second photo was looking back to our car on the road at the start of this stretch of the Pennine Way.  The flagstones make it a much easier walk than it used to be as this is a stretch of the Pennine Way that goes through some very boggy peat moors.  At this point we've crossed both of the streams which have cut a couple of deep valleys into the moorland and we're heading up a fairly gentle slope before the main rise up onto Black Hill.

As we walk along the path there are a few of the red grouse sunbathing in the winter heather.  There are patches of frost where the heat of the sun hasn't been able to reach yet this morning.  Sometimes we don't see the grouse hiding until we are quite close to them when they will suddenly fly off, flapping their wings noisily and loudly calling their warning to the others.

At the top of the hill there are more frosty patches and the puddles of water have a frozen skin.  Although sunny, it's quite windy up here and it is bitterly cold.  Lynne is well wrapped up with her fleece under the heavy waterproof jacket.  The layer of clouds on the horizon are starting to increase and it's getting a bit misty when we look down into the valley from here.

We reach the trig point and the morning sun is making long shadows from the white post.  This point is a popular resting point for walkers coming from all directions including out journey from Wessenden on the A635 and from the other end of this stretch of the Pennine Way at Crowden on the A628.  It's quite a nice walk of around six miles and is very popular all year around.  We just tend to walk up to the trig point and back which is about three and a half miles but sometimes we'll take different routes making it around 5 miles.  Other times we have done a circular route going down to Wessenden Lodge (as on the signpost) across to Black Moss Reservoir, take the alternative Pennine Way route back to the A635 and then up to Black Hill before heading down the way we have just come, back to the signpost.

Here's Lynne getting into the alternative shot of the trig point, still cold and raring to get off on our journey back down the hill.  I didn't take many photos on the way back and none worth posting so that's it for today.  Next time, I went to Digley Reservoir the following morning with Evey dog when it was still very cold, but more cloudy and misty.  So I took a lot of scenic shots and did some post processing on them.  Hope you like them.

Bluebell Woods

My friend Jack and I went to see Nick Harper at the Picturedrome, Holmfirth on the Saturday afternoon of the Holmfirth Folk Festival.  Had a few pints at the afternoon concert, and a few more in the Elephant and Castle afterwards.  So when Jack's wife came to pick us up and take me home I was pretty merry.

Anyhow, when I got home I got changed and took Evey dog for a walk in the woods near our house.  I've been noticing as I've travelled around that there doesn't seem to be may bluebells this year.  I'm wondering if that's anything to do with it being a very dry spring this year, although it has been a bit wet recently.  I had my camera with me so I decided I'd try to get some images of the few bluebells that were in the woods.

So here they are.

As you can see there weren't many bluebells about.  Usually there's big areas with the bluebells jammed in tight.

However, I guess it does give the opportunity to get in close and isolate small groups of flowers.

I think with being a little bit less than sober I was more inclined to get down and lay on the ground to take some of the.shots

Also I did fall over once when I slipped in the mud.  It doesn't show too well in the photos but the ground is quite steep in places.

I used Evey in the background in this shot to provide more contrast to pick out the bluebell flowers.

It was fairly warm and sunny and by late afternoon the sun was streaming in through the trees.

It was good to get some of the flowers lit up in the patches of sunlight.

In this shot I used the dark shaded tree stump to bring the flowers into the picture.  I wasn't too sure about the twigs behind the flowers being a bit too much of a distraction.  Parts of the twig had crept into focus so I blurred them out so they were less distracting.  Maybe I should have removed the twigs and re-taken the shot.

For a bit of a change some wild garlic flowers with a couple of bluebells in the background.

Finally another wild garlic flower with lots of bluebells, but not as many as there usually would have been.

I don't usually talk much about post-processing my images but I've been using Topaz Adjust 5 plug-in for a couple of weeks so this and the previous Joan Miro post are my first experimentations, and I'm quite impressed.  The program has loads of options to use to enhance details, do things with the exposure, adjust saturation, add sharpening, make local changes etc.  It comes with hundreds of presets which demonstrate the versatility of the adjustments that can be made and you can take a preset, make your own adjustments to it and then save your bespoke adjustments to use later.  Some of the presets are weird and wonderful and theres also an "I feel lucky" button which will randomly apply a preset to you image.  Keep clicking the button until the result gives you inspiration.

In the last two posts I've been fairly conservative with the adjustments but I might make a post soon showing some of the more wacky things Adjust 5 can do.

Joan Miro at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

It was a wet Saturday afternoon and Lynne's sister and husband had come for lunch after visiting the father in law.  We had arranged to go to the sculpture park and even though it was a bit wet, it wasn't too bad so we kept to our plans.  We'd gone in separate cars as they were heading back to Ripon after the visit and the sculpture park is pretty close to the M1 to take them Northwards.  We hadn't arranged on which car park to meet at so as expected we went to completely different ends of the park.

When we met up we wandered around for a while in the rain and then headed to the visitors centre which is next to the underground gallery.  The temporary exhibitions are mostly in and around the gallery as with the Jaume Plensa exhibition last year.  There was also a selection of prints for sale in the gallery above the visitors centre.  It had started raining hard so we headed for the underground gallery to keep dry for a while.

On the way down the stairs to the gallery we looked over to one of the outdoor sculptures in the area below.  Lynne's sister, Stella, knew mainly of Miro's paintings and prints so she was pleased to sculptures for the first time.

It was quite busy inside the gallery because of the rain but I managed to take a few photos of this first piece which was near the gallery window.  Even next to the window it was quite dark so it took me a few attempts to to get the exposure acceptable.  I then found out that we weren't allowed to take photos inside the gallery so I put my camera away until we got back outside.

I must admit I didn't know anything much of Miro before I came to the exhibition and I was struck by how much similarity in style there was between most of the prints, paintings and sculptures.  The sculptures inside looked to me smaller versions of some of those outside and the paintings looked to be of the sculptures.  It could have been the other way round of course that the sculptures where representations of the paintings.  Anyhow, I liked most of the work, although not all of it appealed to me, such as the buffets and chairs with odd things attached to them.

When the rain eased of a little we went outside to look at the outdoor sculptures.  These first few photos were taken on the grassed area opposite the underground gallery.   I think this first one should be called "Does my bum look big in this?".

I guess this next one is a woman.   No further comment.

Well this chap looks pleased to see us!

Not too sure about these two.  All I can say is this one's close and the other is far away.

As you can see the sky is pretty grey and there's lots of moisture on the sculptures.  This one has a strange green glow with the reflection on the grass on the underside of the head.

Here's Lynne's sister Stella taking a photo of the far away sculpture, from a bit closer.

Here's the far away sculpture close up with a different one far away.

The next one looks to me like a soldier with a shield coming out of the trees.

Here's the soldier again from a bit closer.

This was the biggest sculpture which was located at the top end of this enclosed garden.  It's quite hard to get an idea of the scale but it was massive. I tried to get a shot with someone stood there but for a change everyone moved out of the way when I started to shoot.

Finally the last shot taken in the garden, I hope I haven't offended anyone who is a Miro aficionado with my comments on the work.  

It was a pit about the weather, but to be honest I think the sculptures look quite good with the rain on them.  This setting at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is wonderful and in other parts of the park are several works of Henry Moore and many other world renowned sculptors.  As I said in the James Plensa posting I have no association with the park but I urge everyone in the area to visit because it is an amazing setting and has had many improvements made in recent years.  The visitors centre has a wonderful range of goods to purchase from the current and previously featured artists.

Wedding Day Morning

On the morning of the wedding I was trying to keep out of the way because the house was full of women getting ready for the big day.  All the bridesmaids had stopped at the house overnight so were all just getting themselves up, showered and doing their hair and makeup etc.  I'd already been out to take Emma's dog to the dog minders as we didn't think it would be fair for her to be at the ceremony, reception or night do.

I'd also been to see the yurt (fancy marquee) as I'd been at work when it was being got ready so I hadn't seen it before.  Unfortunately I didn't take my camera otherwise I would have taken some photos because it looked really beautiful with all the tables set up and the bunting strung about the ceiling.  Fortunately thought Mark, the professional photographer, took some photos later (after the balloons had been delivered but before anyone else had arrived) so we have some good shots to remind us how it looked before the party.

  When I got back to the house Leanne (the hairdresser) had also arrived so I was even more outnumbered.  Mark was arriving later to take some photos of the bride and bridesmaids preparation but Emma asked me to take a few shots of the devastation before he arrived.

Ellen was definitely the poser of the group and so features prominently in the selection.  Here she is with the rollers and applying the blusher.

Next to Ellen we have Becca doing the eyes.

And up in the brides preparation bedroom I found Laura, not sure what she was doing, but looking very demure.

Mark arrived to take photos, so I put my camera away and retreated to my study for a while so I was out of the way.  He took some wonderful photos of the girls getting ready and other things like the flowers, Emma's shoes, the bridesmaids dresses hung up in the bedroom and some of the bride and bridesmaids dressed and ready for action.  I'd not seen the wedding dress so he also took some shots of my reaction to seeing Emma for the first time in her dress, so that was quite emotional and embarrassing for me.

After Mark left for the church and to catch up with the boys in the pub, I took over with the photography duties.  Here's Ellen again looking great, no surprise.

Then we have Ellen, Joanne and Becca with an old portrait of Emma and Ginny in the background.

Here Emma is making her way slowly down the stairs, they're quite steep and there was a lot of dress.

Yes, it's Ellen again having some bucks fizz before we go.

Emma is starting to look a bit nervous as we make final preparations to go.

Lynne looks to be making a toast to the bridesmaids.

Haven't seen much of Ginny this morning.  I think she's been taking her Maid of Honour duties seriously and making sure that Emma has had all the help she needed to get ready.

Finally the four bridesmaids all in a row.  Looks like the outside door is open in the background so we must be almost on our way.

Emma and I waited for about five minutes after the bridesmaids set off in their old fashioned Daimler limousine before we went to our vintage Bentley convertible.  We thought we'd give them plenty of time to get themselves in place for Emma to arrive and be greeted by them.  Unfortunately the driver of the limo took the long route to the church via Huddersfield town centre while we took a more direct route passing Castle Hill, so we arrived at the church almost ten minutes before the other car.

Anyway, we all got there in the end and had a wonderful service, reception and then partied through to the early hours.

One last thing, I promised a link to the blog post of the wedding from Mark Tierney Photography from where you can visit the rest of his site and see some more of his wonderful work.   If you're looking for a brilliant, contemporary wedding photographer I can wholeheartedly recommend Mark.  He was very friendly, unobtrusive, worked very hard on the day and produced some amazing photographs.  Last week we looked through the 700 plus proofing photos that he put in the client area of his site for Emma and Dan to choose from for their wedding album, and I don't know how they're going to narrow their selection down to 140.  Hopefully I will be able to post some of the photos in this blog at a later date, I'll check it's OK with Mark first of course.

Wedding Practice

OK, I know.  I've been very lazy and not posted for months.  It's my normal winter time lack of enthusiasm that seems to overtake me for longer every year.  I've no taken many photos in the past months and to be honest most of the photos on this post were taken by my wife as I was busy doing my part in the practice and are in some of them.

So my eldest daughter was married at the end of March and we went to a practice at the Church a couple of evenings before the big day.  The practice was at the All Hallows Church in Almondbury, Huddersfield.  It is a beautiful old church across the road from the Woolpack pub which is run by Dan Martin, my new son in law.

The practice went through the whole ceremony and enabled us to know what we were to do on the day and to make some decisions about the fine details.  In this first photo we are receiving final instructions from Rob the vicar who is a friend of Emma's from the school where she works. He was very laid back and humorous during the practice and the wedding for real.

Here we are about to start off down the aisle which involved splitting around the big old font and then getting back together again.  We had to make sure we didn't go too fast as Rob said that some people end up almost sprinting down to the front of the church.

The other Rob did the first reading which was all about the meaning of love and he was so nervous.  But he did a great job and had everyone in tears, at the practice and at the wedding.  I think maybe the "Spank the Monkey" t-shirt was a little inappropriate for the location but no-one seemed to mind.

Here are three of the bridesmaids and a substitute (Rob's (not the vicar) girlfriend) for the evening, stood in the aisle during the first part of the ceremony.  I am quite impressed with Lynne's (my wife) composition of the photo with the bible in the foreground.  Maybe she should be the photographer of the family rather than me.

Here's Rob and Owen (Dans half brother) intently watching the proceedings.  A bit like a couple of rather odd looking bookends with their arms folded.

Here's the happy couple exchanging rings with Will (the best man) looking on.  There's me again in the background and even though I'd finished my participation in the ceremony I couldn't get my camera back from Lynne.

This must be a serious part of the ceremony as they are knelt before the vicar.

Here's Ellen doing the second reading which was an extract from The Velveteen Rabbit where the Skin Horse explains to Rabbit about what it means to be real.  Another tear jerker which I'm glad that I heard at the practice otherwise I'd have been in pieces at the real wedding.

Finally managed to rescue my camera from Lynne and grab a quick candid of her with Emma and Laura.  She really doesn't like having her photo taken so I had to be a bit sneaky to get this one.

Finally we have Emma and Joanne leaving the church to pop over the road to the pub for a quick drink before heading off home.  Emma looks pretty excited about getting through the practice and looking forward to the real thing after two more sleeps.

Next time I have some photos that I took from the wedding day morning.  I didn't take my camera to the wedding as we had a professional photographer who took some amazing shots and I'll link to his site and blog in my next post.  We also are accumulating hundreds of photos taken by people at the wedding and the rest of the day so I might post some of those too at a later date.