A Wonderful Days in Whitby. Day 1

As my brother, Peter, had found a really good deal at Whitby Youth Hostel, we decided to join him and Linda for a three night break in one of our favourite spots.  We were loaded up and breakfasted faily quickly and soon on our way, although narrowly avoiding a disaster.  We needed a fill of diesel so called in to our local filling station on the way.  I had just started to put fuel in when, to my horror, I realised it was petrol.  Fortunately I had only got £0.70 worth in so disaster was averted.  Other than that the journey went well with a stop for coffee at a favourite tea room on the Lincolnshire Wolds.  The further north we got the better was the weather until, when we arrived in Whitby, it was full sun.  The youth hostel is next door to the magnificent Whitby Abbey and provides free tickets.  Peter and Linda were already inside the abbey grounds so we grabbed our pack up and joined them.  The light was brilliant up on the headland above the harbour and we managed to get some good photographs.  Next it was time to potter down into the town for some more photographs as twilight approached.  Later on The Magpie called and after an aperitif we enjoyed the usual excellent fish and chips.  After a post prandial pint back at the hostel it was time for an early night and dreams of tomorrow.

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Autumn Colours in Derbyshire.

As Heather and her cousin Yvonne had a desire to go to Meadowhell in Sheffield for a shopping trip, son Thomas and myself arranged to drop them off and then carry on into Padley Gorge in Derbyshire to meet up with my brother for a day's landscape photography.  Sheffield successfully negotiated we were soon parked up at the top end of Padley and meeting up with my brother.  We observed that many of the trees had already lost their leaves here as opposed to the riot of colour we had left at home.  The light, however was superb, and with it being mid November was good for photography all day.  The river had plenty of water in so things were looking promising.  We wandered down the gorge for a while before following the path over to Bolehill quarry for some shots of the famous silver birches and millstones.  After a mug of tea and bacon bun in the cafe at Grindleford station it was time to make our way back up the gorge to the car.  The light was perfect for capturing long exposure shots of the river to produce attractive motion blur in the water.

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Back to the Seals.

I can never visit the Grey Seals at Donna Nook too often, it is such a wonderful spectacle.  Wednesday 13th November saw me there again with son Thomas who wanted to see and photograph them and I needed no persuading.  Numbers are continuing to build and a week later there were now over 300 pups.  I look forward to returning again in two or three weeks when the bulls beginning to fight among themselves as they vie for the attention of the females.  There should be loads of opportunity for dramatic photographs.

All the photographs below are taken with a canon 7D body and a canon 500m lens set at f7.1 to give a reasonable depth of field whilst allowing a fast enough shutter speed.  I varied the ISO between 400 and 800 depending on light levels.

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Early Morning Landscapes at Cleethorpes.

I am building a portfolio of images for an assignment for my photography degree and had a few shots in mind that I hoped to secure this morning; unfortunately the sunrise had other ideas and I didn't have the lighting that I could have wished for.  However, it was still a lovely morning and pleasure to be out.  It was still dark as I made my way across the marsh and out to the dunes frequented by the snow buntings.  The idea was to secure some traditional sunrise shots looking through the dune grasses and also some looking back towards Cleethorpes in the early morning light.  On looking back towards the town, the lights were still on and I decided to take a shot.  As the lens was focusing I noticed that just out of focus an interesting abstract could be obtained so I switched of to manual and just defocused slightly to see what it would look like.  The result is shown below.  In the dark I could hear curlews calling, one of my favourite bird sounds, evocative of wild places.  Geese could be heard calling as they made their way back out to the mudflats to feed.  As it began to get light I could see two other figures out on the Dunes and it was good to meet up with Don Davis and Dave Bradbeer out looking for and photographing the snow buntings.  Yesterday Dave had seen a superb male hen harrie ; only the second sighting here in 30 years.  The snow buntings were about again but very flighty and there was a large flock of linnets.  Little egrets were feeding in the marsh.  A wonderful morning and good to return home for breakfast.

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Experimental shot looking back to Cleethorpes with the lens slightly defocused

The same view slightly less defocused

Taken towards the sunrise.  I liked the way the mackerel sky was lit by the sun.
10mm 1/50 @ f16

As above.

Close up of rope.  59mm 1/100 @ f5.6.  I found that using a wider aperture isolated the central orange fibres from the background.

 The following shots are all taken looking back towards Cleethorpes in the early light.  I was hoping for better light.  Still, c'est la vie!!

Cleethorpes Pier. I used the 10-20mm lens 1/40 @f16 and used the vertical alignment tool in lightroom to correct the sloping uprights.

Cleethorpes Pier.  A conversion to B&W was made and the blue enhanced to make the most of the clouds.  I feel this makes a more dramatic image than the colour version.