Picked up my camera again!

Dinefwr Park in the Mist

Washpool

Rosie's Stream at Howard's Way

Woods at Howard's Way

Dead Leaves

Steam Train Wheel

Cobwebs

Al Fresco

Not particularly nice surroundings for your mid-morning espresso!

Crab apples

I know I should be making crab apple jelly with all these windfalls which fall into our driveway from a neighbouring property, but it's such a fiddly job. Much easier to photograph them (or at least to play around and experiment with photographing them!)

Whitby, North Yorkshire

I loved this winding alleyway with the view of the houses on the far side of the river.

Whitby is a beautiful harbour town in North Yorkshire. The town rises either side of the River Esk which is spanned by a swing bridge. It is still a fishing port and home to one of the most famous fish and chips restaurants in the UK - The Magpie Restaurant.

It is where Captain James Cook, the 18th century seaman and explorer, learned his seamanship and is featured in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

There are many shops selling jet which was mined here by the Romans and the Victorians and became fashionable in the 19th century when Queen Victoria favoured it after the loss of her beloved Albert.

Train Driver

The last of my series of photographs taken at Pickering Station.

Working on the train

This was just crying out to be converted to black and white.  I'm pleased with the slight graininess of the image.

Three ladies and a dog!

I've been thinking a lot in the past few days about what sort of photographs I really want to be taking. This is partly due to a book I'm reading - Within the Frame by David duChemin - and partly because I want to up my game a bit a lot. It lead me to think about how I love taking candid shots of people (although I still feel very self-conscious about it) and about how much I love black and white photography and how the two things go so well together. I'm inspired by the photographs of people like Henri Cartier Bresson, Elliot Erwitt and Rui Palha. And I've been watching some video tutorials on the Scott Kelby site where he goes on a photo walk in Paris with Jay Maisel.

This is a photograph I took on holiday recently which comes nearest to what I want to do. Jay Maisel talks about the need for 'gesture' in photographs which is that moment when the person or people you're framing do something special or unusual that connects with the viewer. In the case of this photograph I think it's the dog and its appearance of boredom with the chatting women. I hope it goes in some small way to approach what he means.

Steam Engine

Another photo taken in North Yorkshire at Pickering Station. This beautiful steam engine caused such a huge welling up of nostalgia in me I almost burst into tears. Silly me...

War Bikes

I've just got back from a holiday spent in North Yorkshire. One of the few remaining steam train lines in the country runs between Pickering and Whitby and each year in Pickering they hold a War Weekend based around the railway station. These two WW2 bikes were parked outside and I thought they'd make a good entry for The Weekend in Black and White.

Raining again!

Rained Off

It rained yesterday...

...so I was stuck indoors...

... and had to find something to photograph!

tree lined lane

On one of my regular dog walks.

bleached leaf

seed launch

roof textures

Took this today and played with it using my new toy - Silver Efex Pro 2. Black and white heaven!!

from wood to field

One of my regular dog walks. The harvester was in the field today so I'm glad I got this shot with the wheat.

washing up!