Wandering thoughts and musings.

Again, dodging the rain showers I paid another early morning visit to the Ben Rydding Nature Reserve , which like the rest of the UK is still resembling a quagmire. Amazingly through all that mud we can see the first growth of spring. Encountering new growth under the trees when I first walked in I also found a delightful spread of snowdrops hiding between brambles and one of the water filled gravel pits. To top off the the feeling that spring is on its way were the daffodil

Keen to do some "serious" wildlife photography at Nidd Gorge this week I made sure I was there as early as possible to avoid the dog walkers. I succeeded, but was instead confronted by groups of cross country runners from 3 difference races. An aloof crow saved me from a total bust in terms of wildlife, but it was time to change to a shorter lens. After months of rain, and recently snow, the tracks were already something of a quagmire. Obviously loads of runners ploughing t

This weekend had several disappointments. These included not being able to get out in the mornings for photography, and the weather being overcast and wet yet again. However the most annoying was to find out that Yorkshire Water now charge for car parking at their reservoirs. Luckily trying new things in photography always cheers me up. As my trip out was late afternoon on a very dark and windy Sunday I tried some experiments with manually setting the ISO for different shots.

Starting in the Nidd Gorge this visit I decided to walk westward along the river Nidd to see what I had been missing. After the horrendous weather we have had over the last three months the gorge itself can feel like a bit if a death trap. Parts are very steep, rocky, and currently full of very slippery and slimy mud. Walking westward however you do get to a much more easy to negotiate river section which has been recently maintained using a lot of gravel. Despite being rel

A January weekend in North Yorkshire found me exploring part of Nidd Gorge that is new to me. The gorge is extremely popular with dog walkers which can make it problematic for wildlife photography. However the river Nidd is stunningly beautiful in its own right and the steep climbs are great exercise. A big thank you to all the volunteers who must work very hard to maintain it. The riverside vegetation supplies colour even in the depths of January, and of course the local E

Having bought my Canon 100-400mm lens almost a month ago this was the day that some wildlife came out to play! My return visit to Ben Rydding Nature Reserve was shocking as I had not been there since September. The undergrowth had completely disappeared and for a second I thought the place had been clear felled. Luckily I was very much mistaken. After more than two months of very wet weather this day started with a slight frost which made the mud much easier to walk over. R

A return to Nidd Gorge allowed me to explore parts of the river path which I had not seen before. It was very pleasant not to be dodging the rain, but it remains very muddy. So much so that at one point I almost took a 20 foot header into the river. I had been hoping to test out my "new to me" rf 100-400mm lens. Unfortunately I was slightly late and saw many more people than wildlife. In a first for me I changed lenses "in the field". Using the 18-150mm rf-s kit lens I atte

After many days of heavy rain new years eve morning had a very mystical feel at Lindley Wood reservoir. The early morning mist really changed the atmosphere of the walk, and you can easily imagine that J. R. R. Tolkiens Ents are standing all around you.

My third return to Nidd Gorge (there was too much rain on the second trip to even take the camera out) was greeted by a wonderful blue sky. Being relatively early I managed to get my first sunburst as the sun edged over the gorge and did not even mind that the exposure is a bit dark. Taking some pictures of the extremely rare blue sky I also tried some initial fungi shots with an obliging fallen log. You may have noticed that my practice pictures have been a bit light on wi

A very wet Christmas day in North Yorkshire but the rain did stop long enough to take a few photo's. After getting a good soaking I also met someone who looked strangely familiar … I also had the opportunity to play with the exposure settings under the cover of some trees.

Using my Christmas break to scout new locations I did a quick visit to the Woodland Trust's NIdd Gorge near Harrogate. Again wonderfully looked after by the volunteers it was too big to take in during one quick trip. Going down into the gorge was probably a mistake given all the recent rain as the paths were basically a bog. However I did run into some volunteers doing maintenance who asked me if I had seen any otters. I had not but I will be back to look. One big bonus was

At last some relatively good weather and good health provided a great morning outdoors with my new Canon R10. I must admit to missing the exceptional zoom of the Lumix FZ82 as the Canon "only" came with a 18 – 150mm kit lens. However it is obvious how much more data the crop sensor collects as the ISO settings for the Canon were orders of magnitudes lower than those required by the Lumix under similar conditions. Due to the lack of reach I did have to crop my images in GIMP,