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Showing posts from May, 2018

Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's Farmhouse, Near Sawrey, Lake District

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" It is as nearly perfect a little place as I ever lived in, and such nice old-fashioned people in the village" ~ Beatrix Potter We don't go abroad for our holidays. We always go to the Lake District as we love it so much we don't feel a need to go anywhere else. And every time I am in the Lake District I always think of the acclaimed artists from the past who lived and work there and who inspire me in many ways, like the Wordsworths and Beatrix Potter. A visit to Beatrix's charming cottage is always a must, and last year I happened to be there on a glorious May afternoon. I was thrilled to find that photography was now allowed inside the house, and that subsequently I am able to create my first blog post on the house around the photos I had taken. Beatrix, a remarkable Victorian woman, who was not only the famous children's stories writer and illustrator, but also a landowner and a business woman, bought the house with the proceeds of the sales of her f

A Saunter Around Bingley St Ives Country Park, West Yorkshire

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Last Sunday G, I and a friend of ours went for our first walk around Bingley St Ives. It is somewhere I wanted to go to for a long time, so I was glad the time finally came about. I decided it was going to be just a gentle, carefree stroll without a map for a change and without any plans as to my photography. The main purpose was to relax and simply enjoy nature and lovely weather. Here is a dozen of unpretentious shots of the day the highlights of which were extensive views over valleys and villages, fields of delightful yellow buttercups, purple carpets of lovely bluebells in woodland areas and spotting deer towards the end of our walk. My buddies with a wood carving of a druid Druids' Altar Rock Bingley and River Aire We thoroughly enjoyed this walk and will be back soon. There is a lot more to St Ives than you can see in one day. I think next time we will follow a map route to make sure we see new things, especially the two ponds. Her

Return to Black & White Photography

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It's been a very long time since I worked in b&w photography. In fact, I haven't done it since I first took up photography back in 1987. At the time it was still a film only era, of course, and I was only interested in shooting b&w film. Colour had no appeal to me at all. I joined a photo club and had a makeshift darkroom in the spare room of my London flat where I developed my own b&w film and did my own enlarging and print processing. It was a very expensive hobby which I couldn't keep up for very long, so I was delighted when digital photography came about: now, all of a sudden, photography was free once you had your picture taking equipment and a computer; no more endless, hefty spending on film, chemicals and photo paper! However, shooting with a digital camera I quickly realised it was hard, if not impossible, to achieve the same quality b&w results as shooting on film.  On the other hand, digital photography saw a boom in colour photography; everyone

16 Random Haworth Images, Brontë Country

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I have been posting about Haworth quite a lot in recent times and I cannot apologise. For there is no such other place that draws me back to it, whether it be in person or in mind. There is no other place that inspires me in so many ways and for so many reasons. A while ago when I had no new photographs to process and no time to take any I looked in my archives and thought it was a perfect time to gather some of the odd photos of Haworth taken over the past few years and post them together.  Incidentally, most of them were taken around this time of year. Main Street, 4/2015 Old School, 4/2015 Bottom of Church Street, 9/2015 Bottom of Church Street, 4/2015 Arched Tunnel opposite Black Bull Inn, 1/2018 Lodge Street, 2/2017 Vintage Tractor, 10/2017 Outside Haworth Church, 10/2017 Sonia's Smile shop on Main Street, 4/2015 Linen shop on Main Street, now gone, 4/2015 Sweet Shop on Main Street, 4/2015 Street off Sun Street, 9/20